Over the last 20 years, I have been hearing people complaining that Superman is not cool because he is too perfect and too nice. The people who have been making these comments are those who don’t read enough Superman books and do not like the character at all. If Superman was truly perfect, then there would be no series at all. It’s not the character’s fault, but rather the writer’s fault because they’re the ones who have to come up with Superman stories from their imagination and experiences while the artists have to execute them on page. It’s bad writing that makes Superman uncool to the fans, but Superman can be cool when he’s written very well and consistently. This kind of problem also extends to Wonder Woman, but she can also be cool if she’s written very well. Thanks to great writers like Kurt Busiek, Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, Grant Morrison, Darwyn Cooke, and Mark Verheiden, the Superman books have undergone a resurgence last year thanks to Superman Returns, Infinite Crisis, and One Year Later. Wonder Woman has also gotten the same treatment even though the schedule delays are hurting her momentum. True comic books fans, especially Superman fans like myself, would take the time to read classic stories from the 30’s to the 70’s because it’s almost 70 years worth of stories to read long before John Byrne revamped it in the 80’s. I have become a bigger Superman fan than ever before.
People have also complained that Superman is too powerful to the point of being a God and that he’s difficult to write in that mindset. That’s amusing to me because there are other characters who are ‘too powerful’ but have written extremely well like Thor, Captain Marvel, Silver Surfer, Galactus, Darkseid, etc. But the problem is that the writers have focused too much on Superman’s powers and not on his character. Even though Superman is "too powerful", he does have limits as the first movie showed. One of his limits is that he can’t be everywhere at once and he can’t save everybody. That’s good character drama to write as the movie showed. This can also apply to Wonder Woman.
Both Superman and Batman have classic stories that defined them, Wonder Woman does not but that’s going to change this year when the mini-series Amazons Attack puts Wonder Woman on the forefront the way she should be. Amazons Attack was supposed to be one of the mini series leading up to Infinite Crisis, but was botched. However, it was revived again to become the mini-series after Infinite Crisis and One Year Later. The Amazons attack Man’s World, particularly Washington DC, because of how Wonder Woman was treated. This would put Wonder Woman in conflict between the Man’s World she’s protecting and her Amazonian sisters. Both Donna Troy and Wonder Girl will be involved in this story.
With the new leadership in DC taking the company to new heights, Superman and Wonder Woman are not perfect or else there would be no series for either one of them. It all comes down to great writing and art that can put two iconic characters on the map in the 21st
Century. As one of the writers would say – Who wants to read about perfection? Definitely not me.
Van's Inner Universe 
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