Allan Heinberg Takes On Wonder Woman

This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on June 6, 2006 Sign up now!

by Douglas Wolk, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 6/6/2006

Allan Heinberg made his name as a television writer and producer, on shows like The O.C. and Grey's Anatomy, and now he's becoming a marquee name in the superhero comics world, too. His Young Avengers series at Marvel is a surprise hit, and tomorrow his newest project debuts: the first issue of the relaunched Wonder Woman series, from DC, with artists Terry and Rachel Dodson. PW Comics Week interviewed him via e-mail about the newest direction for one of DC's most famed characters.

PW Comics Week: What was your pitch for Wonder Woman—what's your angle on the character?

Allan Heinberg: My main objective was to find a way to make Wonder Woman relevant to both new and longtime readers. Over the years she's been a politician, a teacher and a goddess—as well as a full-time superhero—so we wanted to strip away as many of those elements as possible to tell a more personal story and find out who Wonder Woman really is. What sort of person is she? What does she want? How does she feel?

PWCW: How much of the direction of the series did you work out on your own, and how much of its look –and feel was planned out in collaboration with Terry and Rachel Dodson? And, given how tightly the first storyline seems to be tied in to DC continuity, how much of it was editorially mandated?

AH: Actually, none of it was editorially mandated. Executive editor Dan DiDio and Wonder Woman editor Matt Idelson gave us free rein to tell the story we wanted to tell. I came up with the initial premise, but every detail of its execution has been in loving collaboration with the Dodsons. Terry and I work together on every single element of the book.

PWCW: Are there elements of Wonder Woman as a character that you think need to change to make her compelling in 2006 and beyond?

AH: I don't think the character needs any tweaking, to be honest. I think at her core she's every bit as compelling today as she was when she debuted in 1941. Over the years, however, her backstory and mythology have become increasingly dense and complicated—and she's acquired a rather vast supporting cast of Greek gods, Amazons and staff—all of which threaten to overwhelm the character, making it difficult for readers to get a clear sense of who she is.

PWCW: Your first issue touches, at least briefly, on a lot of ways Wonder Woman has been approached in the past: there's the Greek-mythology angle, the ambassador-from-Paradise angle, the Emma Peel white-jumpsuit kung-fu angle, the straight-up heroes-vs.-villains superhero-action thing.... There hasn't been the same kind of tonal consistency to Wonder Woman's stories as other major superheroes'. Does that help or hinder you as her newest writer?

AH: I think it's exciting that Wonder Woman can be interpreted in so many varied ways and still remain essentially Wonder Woman. And though she isn't as clear-cut an archetype as Batman or Superman, that allows her writers and artists an enormous amount of storytelling flexibility and creative freedom.

PWCW: A question your story addresses head-on: Do you think of any particular character as being (or not being) the "real Wonder Woman"?

AH: I think most readers tend to favor the Wonder Woman they grew up with. I know I'm partial to the pre-Crisis "Diana Prince" Wonder Woman, myself. But as of 1987, George Perez's reimagined, post-Crisis "Diana of Themyscira" has been the definitive one... until now.

PWCW: There's a line on the first page of your first issue about Wonder Woman being "chosen to impart [the Greek gods'] will to a world that does not believe in them." She's the only superhero who's an advocate for a specific ideology: she wants to convince people that the Themysciran way is the right way to live. Are there ways in which her ideology isn't the same as your own? "My mission is an impossible one," she says on the same page; do you think it's at all misguided?

AH: In the simplest terms, Wonder Woman's ideology is about the power of love and truth to bring peace and end suffering—an ideology I wholeheartedly endorse, in theory if not always in practice. Her mission, however, is a confusing (if not impossible) one. Is she a political ambassador? Is she a teacher? (And how do you teach others how to live without being condescending on some level?) Is she a religious figure? Or is she a superhero? And is it possible to be all these things at once and not lose sight of who you are in the process? Questions like these, while important ones, tend to weigh a character down, especially when she's expected to fight super-villains every issue. In my personal opinion, simpler is usually better, especially when it comes to storytelling. And if Wonder Woman is, in fact, here to instruct, she should probably do so by example, rather than by lecturing. It's less condescending and makes more dramatic sense, as well. Comics are a visual medium and, as a fan, I prefer to watch characters actually doing things than talking about them.

PWCW: One final question: What was your first exposure to Wonder Woman, and what struck you about her then?

AH: The first comic I ever bought with my own money was Wonder Woman (Volume 1) #212, June/July 1974, written by Len Wein and drawn by Curt Swan and Tex Blaisdell. It featured the Justice League on the cover and was the first of Wonder Woman's 12 labors to rejoin the JLA after she'd regained her memory and her powers. Even as a kid, I was struck by how pronounced Wonder Woman's emotional life was in the book—and how vulnerable she was in spite of all her power. Which is an aspect of her character that Terry and I are eager to explore in our time on the book, as well.