Tom King will stop writing Wonder Woman after issue #40, releasing December 16, 2026, ending a run that turned the character into a vehicle for one political jab after another. King had originally planned to write 100 issues. “I wanted to, when I first started, do 100 issues, so I’m disappointed in myself for not getting that,” he said. His schedule, including work on Lanterns, made continuing past issue #40 impossible.
The run leaves behind a track record fans won’t miss. Wonder Woman #4 put a dying boy in a scene where the child asked Diana, “Is it because I’m sick? Inside, like. And…and is that why I am…Why…Is that why God made me sick?” The subtext is here because the boy is very effeminate and really into girls’ toys and Wonder Woman paraphernalia, implying he’s “born” homosexual or transgender.
Wonder Woman #5 followed with an image of the villain Cheetah appearing to masturbate with her animal companion. Wonder Woman #8 had King’s stand-in for Donald Trump, a villain called the Sovereign, quote Ephesians 5 through a “lasso of untruth” meant to frame Scripture as a lie, then have the character ask Wonder Woman, “Why do you think God sent his only son to save us? And not his only daughter?” Diana’s response: “I… do not… I do not believe in your… your… God.”
The Sovereign never let up after that. The character has been described as an “old, white, straight, misogynist who sits as the ‘King’ of America,” built around “xenophobia” toward Amazons framed as unwanted immigrants. King had the Sovereign take a shot at Ronald Reagan too, referencing the Iran-Contra scandal with the line, “What was it we had that old actor fellow say when he got himself into all that Nicaraguan trouble? Mistakes were made.” Wonder Woman #17 put the Sovereign in the White House the same week Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president, a timing Bleeding Cool called out in a piece on the matter.
Wonder Woman #14 killed off Steve Trevor at the Sovereign’s hands, then gave readers a panel of Diana sobbing while wrapped in his service flag, a scene critics tied to accusations that King had turned Wonder Woman into what ComicBook.com called “an American propaganda tool.” Fans called the issue the most hated of the entire run.
King’s final arc, “Wonder War,” introduces the Matriarch, the Sovereign’s daughter, as the last villain of his tenure. King and artist Daniel Sampere describe her as an evolved threat who no longer hides what the Sovereign concealed, choosing to display dominance openly rather than operate through subtlety. Even on the way out the door, King built his ending around a metaphor for power that refuses to hide itself.
It’s a good thing King is finally off the book. What’s worrying is that DC hasn’t named a permanent successor for issue #41 onward. The last time King and Sampere stepped away, even briefly, DC handed Wonder Woman #29 and #30 to writer Stephanie Williams and artist Jeff Spokes, the same Jeff Spokes who had just come off the single-issue-and-cancelled Red Hood run with writer Gretchen Felker-Martin. That’s the bench DC reached for on short notice. Whoever gets the assignment permanently in December will be picking up a character DC has spent years turning into a soapbox, and there’s no reason yet to think the next writer will do anything but keep pushing.
Who do you think DC hands Wonder Woman to next, and does anyone expect the book to actually get better?
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