Excited for this week’s release of Wonder Woman Evolution? Same here! Join us on 2021-11-22T22:00:00Z → 2021-11-22T23:00:00Z to celebrate its release with a live AMA! We’ll be joined by writer Stephanie Phillips and artist Mike Hawthorne, and they’ll be tackling all of your burning questions. Want to know what a day in the life of a comic books writer is like? Curious about how a comics artist starts the process of creating art for a new book? Ask all your questions in the thread below, then join us next Monday at 2pm PT/5pm ET for the live AMA!
Please limit to just 1 question, so everyone has a chance to get a response in the limited time we have. Thanks, and see you next week!
AHH, YES! DCUI AMAS ARE BACK!!! I am SO excited for this. Thank you for arranging this, Jitsu, and thank you for coming, Stephanie and Mike!
I’ve got a question for each of you (if that’s allowed), based on Stephanie’s most established DC work to date, Harley Quinn. For many years now, Harley has become something of a bisexual icon in the comics community, a status magnified recently by her romantic turn with Ivy in Harley Quinn: The Animated Series.
Stephanie: Now, you’re writing another of DC’s bisexual lead characters (albeit one whose bisexuality is too rarely acknowledged), Wonder Woman. How much do Harley and Diana’s sexualities figure into your visions of the characters?
Mike: You’re coming over to DC now after having previously worked on Marvel projects such as Deadpool (welcome!). On the subject of Harley, Harley Quinn has sometimes been labeled by fans and critics alike as “The Deadpool of the DC Universe.” How true do you think that is? What’s the difference between them as characters, and in their humor?
Stephanie and Mike, this question is for both of you. Is there a particular comic you have worked on that you think would be great to see adapted into an animated film?
It seems like this story will be putting Diana in more of a sci-fi environment, something we don’t normally associate with the character. What was the inspiration for taking Diana to this different world? Also, will we see more of the DC cosmic side within this series?
This is so exciting!!! I love this access to creators and artists!
I’ve got a general question about work ethic and how you stay on task or prevent procrastination. I’ve spent the last 2 years adapting to working at home and have found many benefits but also new struggles in particular with staying on task and keeping all the plates spinning. Do you just have a deadline to meet and then you’re on your own for managing your time or is there more day to day collaboration to keep you on task? I’m curious what your day to day work schedule looks like and what tips or tricks you have for managing your time and keeping pace with a deadline.
Hi Stephanie and Mike! I just finished reading the first issue. I really enjoyed it, and look forward to seeing what comes next! Diana is my favorite character, and the thing I especially love about her is her empathy - something it seems like all of humanity may be depending on in this series!
My question for both of you is this: as a character that has been around for 80 years and seen many evolutions, what was the most important aspect of Diana to portray when you approached writing and drawing her?
Hello! I wanted to ask about the proposed Jesse Quick book in the DC Round Robin. What plans did you have in mind if that book had made it further in the competition? Thanks!
Stephanie, now that you are writing Wonder Woman, a character who has been portrayed for 80 years what new aspect or old aspect of her character do you plan to bring to life in your stories?
Mike, what is the hardest part of drawing a character that has been around 80 years, and is there one particular artist that you plan to use for inspiration on your portrayal of Wonder Woman?
I want to thank both of you for coming to DCUI to answer our questions.
When you sit down to work on a book for a legacy character like Wonder Woman, or any other character, how much research is completed for both writing and drawing?
Hello Stephanie and Mike,
Happy Thanksgiving to you guys. My question is how do you guys come up a story for a comic and does the writer tell the artist what to draw? Thankyou for your time.
Stephanie, Don-el from Western NY here. Thanks for stopping by DC Community today. Did the idea for Wonder Woman: Evolution come from you or did DC editorial come to you with the idea? Who pitched who here?
And I have to ask, as you are raising the bar with Harley Quinn, how is it working with unuque artist Riley Rossmo? I feel like his emotional style really fits into what you’re doing with the story.
Hi Stephanie and Mike! Thank you for taking your time out of your day to answer fan questions!
My question is: Wonder Woman has been portrayed in a variety of formats, such as movies, TV, comics, in animated and live-action formats, and in video games. Are there aspects of Wonder Woman from those other formats that you drew inspiration from for your iteration of this character?
Mike:I can see how people would compare Wade to Harley, especially with the way writers approach their sense of humor and over-the-top violence. But I think it’s definitely an over simplification to just say one is a stand-in for the other. Especially since Harley’s origin comes from this sad and abusive connection to the Joker. Wade is a tragic character too, but not in the same way as Harley and I think that’s where she ends up feeling so different from Wade to me. Both are trying to pick up the pieces of their fractured lives, but the origin starts at different place. Wade is the product of this Weapon X program, so his tragedy is kind of vague in that “it’s the government’s fault” kind of way… but with Harley, her abuser has a face and it’s the kind of abuse we’ve all seen or experienced. It feels more specific, so in that way more tragic. Not sure that makes sense…
Stephanie:Bisexuality is a part of who Diana and Harley are. Whether we are explicitly talking about that or showing that does not change that that is a part of their identities, and that’s really important for me. I absolutely love the media representation we have about characters coming to terms with sexual identity and preference, and a lot of that helped me on my journey coming out as well, but I also want media where bisexual characters get to just exist and do the things we do. From page 1 of Harley (and the prequel to the ongoing series) we have been very clear that this is a character in love with Ivy, but we have intentionally not spent a lot of time having Harley discussing her sexuality because I want a character who is very comfortable with that part of herself, and the characters around her, like Kevin, accept that and don’t ever question it. I’m excited that that choice has been supported and that we’re in the midst of a Harley/Ivy storyline at the moment.
For Diana, this is a miniseries and not something with a longer runway, and the themes we are looking at aren’t as much about her personal life. We are really looking at one moment in Diana’s timeline compared to getting to look at Harley’s life extensively in an ongoing. That being said, humanity is on trial in this story and I’d say a lot of the backwards things humanity has done (this HAS to include homophobia) are absolutely on trial by the cosmic entities.
Stephanie: If we adapt Wonder Woman: Evolution, I have some specific casting choices in mind for characters that have not yet appeared… so we’ll save that talk for another day, haha.
I’d be happy to see anything I’ve worked on adapted, but my goal is always to make a good comic first and not get too far ahead by thinking about other media. I like comic books and am totally content for the work I do in comics to remain comics. That being said… of course seeing something like We Only Kill Each Other or Butcher of Paris utilized on screen would be pretty rad. I love historical fiction in any form as a fan!
Mike:So, I’m going to go with something of my own first. I’ve long wanted to make an animated version of my old comic series Hysteria: On Man Gang. Figures crossed I’ll get a chance some day. It’s about this Latin Bruce Lee type who has to fight a gang war against 3 separate gangs on this fictional Caribbean island. It’s set a little in the future, so visually think cyber-punk with palm trees with a little Warriors sprinkled in.
Outside of that, I’m with Steph in that I think WW:E would be perfect animated! (so long as they let me do the character designs I’d love to see this war-ready version of Diana kicking the dookie out of people in a big aniamted film!
That makes great sense! Wade’s tragedy is more systematic, whereas Harley’s is more personal. Thank you for drawing that contrast!
Oh, man. Well, I’m definitely looking forward to this series now! I’m reminded a little bit of those Star Trek: TNG episodes where humanity is put on trial.
Stephanie:I was definitely interested in the sci-fi direction because we haven’t seen it as much. That’s also why Mike designed an amazing sci-fi version of armor for Diana. We’ve seen her in a lot of Greco-Roman inspired looks, but I wanted to do something new and show just how much you can push the limits of this character. In terms of seeing more of the cosmic side of the DCU, this is very focused on Diana and her supporting cast. This is an exploration of where Diana fits into the universe and what her role is as a hero on Earth in the 21st century. I think about it a little like how many creators were looking to respond to WW2 - does Superman go fight Hitler? Should we send these heroes to war? Now, compare that to the things we are looking at today - climate change, disease, economic crisis, socio-cultural change - and I think we need to discuss where our heroes fit into those current discussions. So, while the story has a cosmic setting, it’s actually a very grounded character approach to Diana.
Jitsu
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I’d love to see this war-ready version of Diana kicking the dookie out of people in a big aniamted film!
[snap finger to visit the Amazon island.]