Broken Frontier

Here comes the news, directly from DC:

It’s go time, folks.

Starting in July with SUPERMAN #701 and WONDER WOMAN #601, superstar writer J. Michael Straczynski — a man who’s created layered and compelling characters and worlds on the big screen, on television and across the comic book spectrum — dives head-first into the DC Universe by taking the ongoing writing reins for two-thirds of the fabled DCU trinity.

We’ll have more details about who’ll be teaming with JMS on both titles — not to mention the exciting new directions he’ll be pointing our heroes toward — in the coming months. But today is about JMS and how he sees these great characters and what they stand for.

Later today we’ll be posting an essay from the writer, nailing in a few paragraphs what makes the Man of Steel and Wonder Woman such important parts of our cultural mythology. In my day-to-day here at DC, I see a lot of amazing things cross my desk. Images, new titles, plot directions, you name it. But this essay is something special. It had me rooting for these characters in a whole new way. It’s that good.

But before we get there, let’s touch base with JMS about this news. Take it away, sir:

“For as long as I’ve been doing conventions (starting in the early Cretaceous period, when it was just me and a handful of pterosaurs on a panel debating whether or not mammals with opposable thumbs were really necessary to the writing of quality comics, a point still hotly debated today), there has always been the same question from folks in the audience: “Is there any one character who is your dream character to write for?” The answer has always been the same: Superman. When I first came over to DC, that dream was realized in part by Dan DiDio’s gracious invitation to write the first of potentially many Superman original graphic novels. Now the dream has come fully true with the opportunity to write for the mainstream title, in a story that returns Superman to his roots in a way that will have the whole country talking about him in ways that we haven’t seen in a long time.

Similarly, the chance to write Wonder Woman — the nearest analogue to Superman in the DCU — is massively exciting. She’s a vital, powerful character, and we hope to bring a more contemporary sensibility to her character will retaining everything that makes her unique.

That DC is willing to jump-start these two runs in the pages of their respective anniversary issues is a great opportunity and a vote of confidence in what we have planned for these characters. I’m looking forward to this with more excitement than words can convey.

It’s gonna be a blast.”