Does Wonder Woman Need Cheesecake?
“Why did DC put Cliff Chiang on Wonder Woman? He is a horrible choice and I know sales are gonna drop!”
Word for word this is what my boss said when Chiang was announced on the new Wonder Woman book for September. My first response was why? Why was Cliff Chiang, a wonderful artist who I feel is underrated, a horrible choice for one of DC’s trinity? Doesn’t an A-List character deserve and A-list team? What was it in his art that made him a bad choice? His style? Colors? Type of stories he had told in the past?
It seems it all came down cheesecake. By the simple fact that he draws realistic women who do not fit the cheesecake style, Chiang doesn’t fit the book in my boss’ eyes. Wonder Woman needs that “Bad Girl” style many readers want to associate with female heroes. They need to be strong and sexy, and sexy usually means showing a fair amount of skin.
Wonder Woman was always known for being a warrior amazon, she fought and won the right to become Wonder Woman, at no time did that contest involve a swimsuit competition, so why did she get stuck wearing a one piece when fighting crime? Even Black Canary got a jacket and fishnet leggings, Supergirl got a skirt and a shirt. Maybe it plays into the bondage aspect that ties into her creator’s runs back in the day, but somehow the main female hero in the DCU gets to fight crime in a swimsuit. No matter what costume we see her adopt over the years she always tends to revert to the “wonderthong” because that is what the fans want. They want their female heroes with a generous helping of cheesecake.
Cheesecake sells, we all know this, look at Image in the 90’s, Aspen Comics when they started, Lady Death, Vampirella and any Grimm Fairytales book. People love the “Wonderthong” costume, they complained when it changed with issue #600, when it was thought to be excluded in the recent TV pilot and they had issues when pants appeared on WW for the cover of the DCnU relaunch. It was a change to how they had always known the character, and we all know how comic fans accept change. Now a week or so later we know that she will be losing the pants in her own book, Geoff Johns and Jim Lee’s JLA still has her in pants, but some people are upset to lose the costume that they knew and loved for years. It was a part of the mythos of Wonder Woman. Cheesecake had become a part of the strong female superhero that could stand up to Superman and Batman.
When they announced Wonder Woman would be dropping her pants for Brian Azzarello’s Wonder Woman book I went back to my boss and asked again, is Cliff Chiang still a horrible choice for the book. And again he replied yes, he expected sales to drop by about 20%. Even with all the hype of the DCnU relaunch, even with a great writer, who honestly few would ever imagine tackling the character, because the artist wasn’t an Ed Benes or Greg Land he expects sales to actually drop by almost a quarter. This is after Phil Hester and Don Kramer’s run (started by JMS) on the book, Odyssey, increased sales of Wonder Woman by 62% and settled around a 42% increase in month to month sales for my shop.
In fact looking at the data from Diamond Comics for some issue of Wonder Woman’s past we can see a similar trend, when a more “savory” artist comes to the book with a cheesecake friendly style sales go up. When Don Kramer took over the book with Wonder Woman #601 it sold 39,672, down from 53,090 for Wonder Woman #14 when Terry and Rachel Dodson returned to the book. Some artists such as Nicola Scott were able to maintain steady sales while balancing the line between cheesecake and strong warrior. Wonder Woman #42 started at 25,240 when she joined the book and ended with 25,443 for issue #44 when she left the book. But then we look at Alex Ross who has always depicted Wonder Woman as a strong, realistic woman with muscle. Ross’ Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth sold less than the 33,064 Shazam: The Power of Hope did, was this all because of his style? Is an artists style really that important and will it hurt the Wonder Woman relaunch?
Does the fact that many think Wonder Woman needs a cheesecake artist rob us of some great artist on the book?
When I asked my boss if he had ever read Doctor 13: Architecture and Morality he responded with an emphatic “Yes!”. He loved the backups when they ran in the monthly, the writing, the art, the pace and everything. But in his mind no matter how great an artist is, there is a type or artist that fits every book, there is a style that needs to be present for a book to sell and when it fails to meet that style people will move on. But what about all the people who joined the book for Odyssey? DC introduced a very similar costume for this storyline and people interested responded by buying the book, yet Don Kramer has a style that can showcase Wonder Woman as both strong and sexy, the warrior amazonian princess few can resist. The thing is, Chiang can do that as well, look at Traci 13 in Architecture and Morality she has that look to her that is pure sex appeal. Look at Chiang’s run on Green Arrow & Black Canary. He showed a strong powerful female hero and she still looked amazing. Yet for Wonder Woman some think he can’t do the character justice.
Basically this is the old argument of “if you don’t like it don’t read it”, but this is more like a “if you don’t like the art, then move on” mentality. People buy a Batman book and they will expect a certain style of art, dark colors and shadows, David Finch and Greg Capullo are prime examples. They are not expecting a Skottie Young or Stuart Immonen type artist on the book who use light to showcase characters and who have a style not associated with a certain mood readers think characters need to fit into. Can someone like Alex Maleev have a great run on Teen Titans? What about Steve Dillon on Superman or Spider-Man? We all know certain artists are known for their style, it’s the same with characters, so this idea isn’t that far-fetched. Take the above example of Alex Maleev on Teen Titans, Maleev uses shadows and photo references to make his art unique, usually coloring his own work to get the tone he wants. It’s a very cinematic style and one I would argue doesn’t fit the Teen Titans style book. We usually associate a more smooth Mike McKone or Eddie Barrows style artists with the book. Someone playful with vibrant colors who can show the youthful aspect of the book.
If this is true, if we generalize that some artists just don’t fit some books, would we miss out on some amazing runs? Does the fact that many think Wonder Woman needs a cheesecake artist rob us of some great artist on the book? Did many think Frank Quitely could showcase Superman with such strength and wonder? Could Brian Bendis and Michael Gaydos take the magic they did on Alias and apply it to Wonder Woman? Or would this never happen because of Gaydos’ style not meshing well with the character? Who would ever imagine a Doctor 13 book looking as great as Chiang made it look, many could have argued you needed a darker style for the book. The backups ran in Tales of the Unexpected which had Mike Mignola covers and a main feature on the Spectre, it was a darker book with bright vibrant art from Chiang. Some of these books took real chances on the art, they cast aside what we expected and the stories were better for it.
This issue is something that fascinates me and that I started thinking about it when looking at the DCnU New 52. If DC was taking a chance on Wonder Woman with an artist who is a bit more tame and know for books like Human Target and Green Arrow & Black Canary, then what other chances where they taking?