Superman Through the Ages! Forum

I realise this is a Superman site so the Superman perspective is the strong one. Still, maybe someone can give me some insight.
         Byrne's MOS really gets alot of hatred but I never hear anyting about Perez' Wonder Woman reboot. Didn't they both do the same thing? They threw away all the previous history and Reformed the character with the writer's vision of a "best parts" version. I liked alot of things about them both myself but think modern writer have misused both legacies
         Anyway. Did Perez do something really right that Byrne missed. Did nobody care about  old Wonder Woman. Did Perez get a pass  because he's not Byrne. What's the difference? :?:  :?:  :?:

I've never been a fan of Wonder Woman (except for Lynda Carter!) but I loved Perez' run.  I grew up a fan of Superman and I disliked Byrne's run.  That may be the difference right there.

I never read Wonder Woman (well, maybe once or twice in 15 years) before Perez, and as soon as he left (or shortly before) I dropped the book.  I suspect the Byrne Superman worked the same way; those of us who'd been around before him disliked the changes, but those readers who'd never liked Superman before -- or never bothered to read him -- were okay with and/or excited about Byrne's changes.  

Utimately I think there are just more of us who miss the old Superman (who didn't really need fixing) than there are who miss the old Wonder Woman (who hadn't been working for decades before Perez).  Plus I think there's tinkering and then there's tinkering.  Perez altered some details of the Wonder Woman mythos, but at her core she's the same person.  Byrne took away our Superman and gave us a stranger.

Yeah, I guess that's true I picked up WW pre Perez every once in a while but wasn't impressed but I picked up the reboot for Perez. I actually like both versions of Supes in their own way but don't much care for the present mutation seen in for instance the "for tomorrow" arc.
      I'm looking forward to the new all star Superman. Right now I'm afraid I prefer the JLA cartoon version to the present comics one.
       It's not his power level, It's his personality and character and the unsuperman actions he takes that are the problem. I feel great Superman stories could be written just as well with the leaping 1/8 of a mile guy if they got the essence of the character.

The difference between Byrne and Perez was that Perez went in after and did his best to fix a character that would be affected by the reboot: Donna Troy.  Donna's later problems came when others started revamping Wonder Woman(Byrne sending Hippolayta back in time to become the JSA Wonder Woman being the biggest)

Byrne rebooted Supes and demanded that Superman be the only Kryptonian no mattter WHEN(bye-bye Laurel Kent) and didn't care that his reboot would cause problems to other titles(JLA, Legion of Superheroes, etc.)  He also came up with the unrealistic way to keep Superman the ONLY surivior of Krypton.

Perez doesn't set up walls.

Byrne puts up walls that have to be torn down.

One of the reasons that I loved Perez' reboot of Wonder Woman was the fact that he added much more elements of Greek mythology into it. I'm a huge fan of Greek mythology so this was something that I really enjoyed.

I agree the Greek mythology was fun.  I liked Simonson's Thor for the same reason...lots of cool Norse myths worked in there.

I think Perez and Simonson both realized "hey these characters are tied into some of the greatest legends in human history and nobody's done anything with 'em!"

The only downer to Perez' Wonder Woman was that, by editorial edict, she entered the DCU some ten years into the careers of Superman, Batman and the like.  Thus forcing the retconning of many old JLA stories, etc.  But that seems to have been a decision from higher up and not the fault of George.

John Byrne needed a strong editor on Man of Steel, and a lot of his work was just sloppy/lazy and wrong-headed.  Some was modern and enjoyable.  All of his major changes were unnecessary.  Maybe Superman needed a boost sales-wise, but Byrne's FF was better handled and was a better example of a reboot that honoured the original concept (Marvel was particular about continuity at that point and would never have considered a Crisis-type event).

I like Wonder Woman now that I am an adult male with a sense of humour.  The 40s WW is great.  The character has received a raw deal over the years since then, with some highlights (including Linda Carter's and the Superfriends incarnations) before Perez, who had many good ideas but is a poor plotter/storyteller in need of a strong editor/writer.  I passed on most of his run, after reading the initial reboot, mainly because I stopped reading superhero comics around then.