Hi all - I wanted to give fans of American Goddess a heads up about some changes in the character.

As a reader of comics, I don't like it at all when big changes are made in an established character that contradict the essense of the character. For that reason, I want to reassure any diehard fans of American Goddess that that's not what I'm planning here.

I'll first tell you what the intended changes are, then after that I'll explain why I'm making the changes.

The biggest change is that American Goddess will start using "Ishtar" as her superhero name. She's still committed to being America's ally, and she'll be known as "The American Goddess", just like Superman is known as "The Man of Steel."

Another big change is that her powers will be somewhat different and greater than before. As far as the "feel" of her powers goes, the biggest change will be that Ishtar can fly without using a vehicle. American Goddess was more like the television Wonder Woman, who definitely could not fly without her jet, but could leap long distances. I’ve always intended Ishtar to be the “Superman” of my comic universe. She can do most things better than any other hero, but also has great vulnerabilities.

Ishtar's costume will be very similar to American Goddess'. The colors will be different, and she will have a cloak/cape (the cloak is sheer like lingerie, so the costume will still be very revealing).

I want people to know that I’m not replacing American Goddess with a knockoff. American Goddess is actually a knockoff of Ishtar. American Goddess is basically what I got when I took Ishtar and added some Wonder Woman-like elements to her. Within my comic universe, American Goddess has lived for many millenia and had many names and titles. Ishtar/Inanna is a major mythological deity, while Nanaja is a much more obscure deity. In the comic, it will be revealed that Nanaja is just one alias of Ishtar.

Around the time Ring of Domination finishes, you’ll see her deciding to go back to the title of “Ishtar,” which is obviously a much older title than “American Goddess.” She’ll have a straight forward reason for making the change when she does, but I won’t spoil that here.

There are two main reasons for this change. One reason is to avoid having a character too much like another established character. The other reason is that I was having trouble as a writer finding room in my plot for Ishtar and American Goddess. I couldn’t figure out how to introduce Ishtar, and then give her interesting things to do without taking those things away from American Goddess. So, basically I decided to cut the introduction of Ishtar as a new character, and instead have American Goddess take on the title and power of Ishtar.

I have more things planned, but I don’t want to spoil them here.