War of the Gods 16 years later

[lovefist911]

I guess this series has been reconned out? I ask because what we've recently seen in the early issues of the new Wonder Woman series and curently in the Trails of Shazam series.

What did anyone think of it back in 91, and what are your thoughts today?

[Kid Kyoto]

Even in 91 I was really disappointed. Memories Perez's amazing run on Wonder Woman were still fresh and this looked pretty epic. But once it came out it just seemed a mess of nonsense.

Plus it was the first time I really noticed a book being late. It was the civil war of its time, throwing off every other book out at the time.

Then we had Perez on Infinity Guantlet which he didn't finish. Did he have some issues during the early 90s? We really didn't hear from him steadily until 99 with the Avengers relaunch.

[lovefist911]

I remember some delays as well. The story in theory sounded good, but it was a bit all over the place. I do appriciate the series a bit more today than when i was 11 though.

I guess Zero Hour took it out of countinuity. I really don't know, I've never read it. Perez's art in the series is great, unlike JLA/Avengers.

[Sean Walsh]

Only thing I really remember is John Ostrander killing off Grant Morrison in his SUICIDE SQUAD crossover ish. :p

That and Javelin, the old GL villain, getting some face time in the main series only to get skewered to death with his own (shock of shocks!) javelin.

[marshal99]

Only thing I really remember is John Ostrander killing off Grant Morrison in his SUICIDE SQUAD crossover ish. :p

That and Javelin, the old GL villain, getting some face time in the main series only to get skewered to death with his own (shock of shocks!) javelin.

Ah yes , but that issue highlight for me was Black Adam basically demanding a suicide squad from Amanda Waller to face Circe and if she doesn't do what he wants , he'll kill every single one of them. :D

[AllisterH]

*SIGH*

This was supposed to be a WW-focused celebration and boy did it suck.

Wonder Woman is now batting 0 for 2 when the company wide crossover focuses on her corner of the DCU. Not good at all....:(

[Kid Kyoto]

Ah yes , but that issue highlight for me was Black Adam basically demanding a suicide squad from Amanda Waller to face Circe and if she doesn't do what he wants , he'll kill every single one of them. :D

I remember that issue, it was the one highlight of the whole crossover.

I didn't even remember it as a crossover issue, it was so much better :D

A lot of Black Adam's current characterization came from that single issue. I should dig it out tonight.

[lovefist911]

me too. That's when I first started liking Black Adam.

[lovefist911]

me too. That's when I first started liking Black Adam.

[dupersuper]

*SIGH*

This was supposed to be a WW-focused celebration and boy did it suck.

Wonder Woman is now batting 0 for 2 when the company wide crossover focuses on her corner of the DCU. Not good at all....:(

To be fair, it was still WAY better than Amazons Attack

[Heraclevs]

George may have been trying to do too many things at once. Cyntia Martin was the artist for most of WOTG, by the way. I didn't like it all that much.

- Romans 9

[J. Robb]

I liked the Chris Sprouse pin-up pages.


...That's about it.

[lovefist911]

I just read it all again. Man there's way too much going on in that mini. There's a ton of good art I think. I'll give it 6 out of 10.

[hangmanjury]

Wasted opportunity.

That's all I can say about it, really. Wasted opportunity. Here they are, with the ability to have a big epic crossover that for once doesn't rely on Superman or Batman, and they blow it.

[RowdyRodimus]

I saw this series in the quarter bins the other day, I think I'll pick them up ater today and see what it was about. I know I used to have it, but I'll be damned if I can remember it.

[Buried Alien]

I felt that Perez was a bit off his game in the illustration work in this series. It wasn't quite up to his usual high standards.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[hangmanjury]

Even in 91 I was really disappointed. Memories Perez's amazing run on Wonder Woman were still fresh and this looked pretty epic. But once it came out it just seemed a mess of nonsense.

Plus it was the first time I really noticed a book being late. It was the civil war of its time, throwing off every other book out at the time.

Then we had Perez on Infinity Guantlet which he didn't finish. Did he have some issues during the early 90s? We really didn't hear from him steadily until 99 with the Avengers relaunch.

Perez generally had a lack of motivation at the time. It didn't help that he wasn't getting much internal support for Wonder Woman, and that War of the Gods wasn't really being marketed as the crossover it should have been, in favor of Armageddon 2001. He quit midway through issue 4 of Infinity Gauntlet because of creative differences over the story: he thought it was too long, that once the heroes got into space, the plot wouldn't be able to satisfy his thirst to draw even more characters, that he was under the impression that it would have the impact of being the last Thanos story and then he found out not one, but two sequels were underway, and that Ron Lim should have been drawing the book from the beginning anyway. He did stay on to ink the covers, though, to show support.

[Kid Kyoto]

Perez generally had a lack of motivation at the time. It didn't help that he wasn't getting much internal support for Wonder Woman, and that War of the Gods wasn't really being marketed as the crossover it should have been, in favor of Armageddon 2001. He quit midway through issue 4 of Infinity Gauntlet because of creative differences over the story: he thought it was too long, that once the heroes got into space, the plot wouldn't be able to satisfy his thirst to draw even more characters, that he was under the impression that it would have the impact of being the last Thanos story and then he found out not one, but two sequels were underway, and that Ron Lim should have been drawing the book from the beginning anyway. He did stay on to ink the covers, though, to show support.

Thanks man. Interesting stuff.

[marshal99]

I felt that Perez was a bit off his game in the illustration work in this series. It wasn't quite up to his usual high standards.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Perez only provided the very basic layouts of the art pages , cynthia martin was the one who provided the bulk work of the interior art because Perez was working on infinity gauntlet at the same time and he had to juggle between the two crossover and as a result , he only provided covers and very crude layouts which martin had to finish up.

[COMIC GEEK]

the covers were cool looking

[Cardinal!]

It was about six years before my time as a comic reader, and so I didn't read it until I tracked down the entirety of George Perez's run on Wonder Woman, a lot of which was spent laying the groundwork for War of the Gods (another downfall of the story; without having read prior Wonder Woman backissues, this crossover wouldn't have been very inviting to your typical reader... unfortunately, it didn't even end up serving justice to the 60 plus/minus issues of WW that preceded it, which were mostly amazing). I went into it not expecting the best, so I wasn't exactly disappointed, but man, was that a chore to read anyway. "All over the place" is a good way of putting it. There were even panels that were mistakenly arranged out of sequence, making certain issues even more confusing to follow.

More importantly, even more skillful execution might not have made much difference, as the plot itself wasn't all that enticing. Circe wasn't even that interesting of a villain back then, and the scheme of creating conflict between different pantheons just didn't do anything for me otherwise.

[icctrombone]

That mini was terrible.

He quit I. Gauntlet for that ?

[lovefist911]

Was War of the Gods retconned out or not?

[Kid Kyoto]

Hey was WoG the crossover that had the Roman Gods fighting the Greek Gods?

I don't know why I suddenly remembered that, I think it was the moment I walked away from it.

Zeus vs Jupiter is even duller than Earth 1 Superman vs Earth 2 Superman.

[Phoney Bone]

Perez originally intended for War of the Gods to be THE big 50th anniversary Wonder Woman story, not a crossover at all. That's why it was so steeped in the history of his run on Wonder Woman. DC editorial decided it should be a crossover. Unfortunately...

1.) DC scheduled it to be published the same summer as the "Armageddon: 2001" story running through the annuals.

2.) DC neglected to inform the editors and writers of many titles that they were to be a part of War of the Gods.

It was the lack of respect for what was to be Wonder Woman's solo big event that lead Perez to not re-up his exclusive contract with DC and accept Infinity Gauntlet from Marvel. However, Perez committed himself to trying to salvage the WotG project. Marvel then decided to publish Infinity Gauntlet to compete with "Armageddon:2001".

With angry writers and editors trying to restructure their monthlies around the WotG and the fan's attentions being drawn to Armageddon AND Perez's first work for Marvel in two decades, WotG already faced an uphill climb.




Perez was only committed to writing and doing thumbnails on War of the Gods with Cynthia Martin doing finished art from the beginning.





The only reason he didn't finish Infinity Gauntlet was because of bad scheduling by DC, Marvel, and himself... not because of the "Infinity" sequels or where the story was going.


credit: "Comics Interview Super Special: Cosmic Crossovers" trade paperback... reprinting every interview the magazine had conducted with Perez to date
http://vu.morrissey-solo.com/moz/perez/cv/ci-cc1.jpg

[lovefist911]

I love that cover. Perez got it when he did JLA/Avengers. Great story, it would 've been even better if I came out in the early 90's.