And Wonder Woman fans collectively breathe a sigh of relief

It's official, Gail's in:

Newsarama: First off Gail, how long has this been in the works? Has this been something that was out there along with the relaunch, or was this all kind of sudden?

Gail Simone: To my knowledge, it was pretty sudden, for my part. Dan Didio called me into his office when I visited New York City (and the DC offices) for the first time during the New York Comic Con. So it was, stay in the beautiful Parker Meridien hotel overlooking Central Park, see three Broadway shows, attend a really fun convention, get VIP seats for David Letterman (thanks, Mike Carlin!) and get offered Wonder Woman all in the same week.

It’s gonna take a lot to top that week, for me, actually.

So to answer your question, it might’ve been in Dan’s head for some time, but it was pretty recent stuff on this end, which is great, because if I’d had to wait months before starting writing on it, I think I would have burst at the seams from excitement.

It’s just a book I want to write. I’m dying to do it. When I first started in comics, it was the one book I really made it clear I didn’t think I should take, partly because of fear of typecasting, but also because it’s just such a huge, important character. The superheroine, not just in comics, but in all media, period.

But I got over the stage fright, and got to write her a few times, in Birds of Prey and JLA: Classified, and I realized, DAMMIT, I love this character! I mean, it was just an amazing feeling. That feeling some writers get when they write Batman or whomever, that’s me with Diana, except times ten and covered with sprinkles.

She'll be in starting issue #13 and "for the foreseeable future."

Now, this is a huge relief after the last couple issues, but I've still got a lingering worry. That's because I'm a neurotic person. My naturally high-strung state was just amplified by my day at work. It started out very nice, I was thinking about an old boyfriend. Nice memories, actually. But then I walked into work today and got word that Alpha Boss wanted to hold a huge meeting a half-hour after my shift ended, very late at night. Because he was worried about how the night shift missed all the meetings. And that, since all the people who normally do such things work on days, they wanted me to do the presentation coordination of this last-minute meeting. Oh, and Mark wasn't there, and neither was Latasha, and Rebecca's fucking useless, so I had to run the shift even though I missed turnover while I was talking to the beta bosses about how to do the presentation the Alpha Boss wanted to do. And then, soon as I thought I was situated, every jet on the airfield (and a few in the air) seemed to simultaneously break. And not just with my system! With systems that needed my system running to fix them! Oh, and at lunch (which had to wait until after the LCS closed, because I needed to wait for Latasha to get to work) I had a traffic accident. And got a traffic ticket on the way home from the super-late meeting, the one after which all of middle management got yelled at by Ranking Beta Boss. I'm suspicious of anything right now, especially something that sounds so good.

Anyway, I like Simone, I like Simone's writing, I'm happy for her, but I can't shake the worry she's getting pegged as the "chick writer." It underscores that we really need more women to break into the business.

Okay, now that that's voiced...

YAY!!!

Finally, an action writer on Wonder Woman!!!