Woman villains

Etymology [ edit ]

French villeins in the 15th century before going to work, receiving their Lord's Orders.

Villain comes from the Anglo-French and Old French vilain . which itself descends from the Late Latin word villanus . meaning "farmhand", [ 2 ] in the sense of someone who is bound to the soil of a villa . which is to say, worked on the equivalent of a plantation in Late Antiquity. in Italy or Gaul. [ 3 ] The same etymology produced villein. [ 4 ] It referred to a person of less than knightly status and so came to mean a person who was not chivalrous. As a result of many unchivalrous acts, such as treachery or rape, being considered villainous in the modern sense of the word, it became used as a term of abuse and eventually took on its modern meaning. [ 5 ]

Folk and fairy tales [ edit ]

Vladimir Propp. in his analysis of the Russian fairy tales, concluded that a fairy tale had only eight dramatis personae . of which one was the villain, [ 6 ] and his analysis has been widely applied to non-Russian tales. The actions that fell into a villain's sphere were:

a story-initiating villainy, where the villain caused harm to the hero or his family

a conflict between the hero and the villain, either a fight or other competition

pursuing the hero after he has succeeded in winning the fight or obtaining something from the villain

None of these acts necessarily occurs in a fairy tale, but when any of them do, the character that performs the act is the villain. The villain therefore could appear twice: once in the opening of the story, and a second time as the person sought out by the hero. [ 7 ]

When a character performed only these acts, the character was a pure villain. Various villains also perform other functions in a fairy tale; a witch who fought the hero and ran away, and who lets the hero follow her, is also performing the task of "guidance" and thus acting as a helper. [ 8 ]

The functions could also be spread out among several characters. If a dragon acted as the villain, but was killed by the hero, another character (such as the dragon's sisters) might take on the role of the villain and pursue the hero. [ 8 ]

Two other characters could appear in roles that are villainous in the more general sense. One is the false hero. this character is always villainous, presenting a false claim to be the hero that must be rebutted for the happy ending. [ 9 ] Among these characters are Cinderella 's stepsisters, chopping off parts of their feet to fit on the shoe. [ 10 ] Another character, the dispatcher, sends a hero on his quest. This might be an innocent request, to fulfil a legitimate need, but the dispatcher might also, villainously, lie to send a character on a quest in hopes of being rid of him. [ 11 ]

Villainous foil [ edit ]

In fiction, villains commonly function in the dual role of adversary and foil to the story's heroes. In their role as adversary, the villain serves as an obstacle the hero must struggle to overcome. In their role as foil, the villain exemplifies characteristics that are diametrically opposed to those of the hero, creating a contrast distinguishing heroic traits from villainous ones. [ citation needed ] Others [ who? ] point out that many acts of villains have a hint of wish-fulfillment, [ 12 ] which makes some people identify with them as characters more strongly than with the heroes. Because of this, a convincing villain must be given a characterization that provides a motive for doing wrong, as well as being a worthy adversary to the hero. As put by film critic Roger Ebert :

"Each film is only as good as its villain. Since the heroes and the gimmicks tend to repeat from film to film, only a great villain can transform a good try into a triumph." [ 13 ]

Portraying and employing villains in fiction [ edit ]

Tod Slaughter always portrayed villainous characters on both stage and screen in a melodramatic manner, with mustache-twirling, eye-rolling, leering, cackling. and hand-rubbing (however, this often failed to translate well from stage to screen). [ 14 ] [ 15 ] Brad Warner states that "only cartoon villains cackle with glee while rubbing their hands together and dream of ruling the world in the name of all that is wicked and bad". [ 16 ] Ben Bova recommends to authors that their works not contain villains. He states, in his Tips for writers :

"In the real world there are no villains. No one actually sets out to do evil. Fiction mirrors life. Or, more accurately, fiction serves as a lens to focus of what they know in life and bring its realities into sharper, clearer understanding for us. There are no villains cackling and rubbing their hands in glee as they contemplate their evil deeds. There are only people with problems, struggling to solve them." [ 17 ]

"This is a brilliant observation that has served me well in all my writing. (The bad guy isn't doing bad stuff so he can rub his hands together and snarl.) He may be driven by greed, neuroses, or the conviction that his cause is just, but he's driven by something not unlike the things that drive a hero." [ 18 ]

Sympathetic villain [ edit ]

List of Wonder Woman enemies

Contents

Central rogues' gallery [ edit ]

Wonder Woman vol. 2, #171 (August 2001)

A third Silver Swan, Vanessa Kapatelis, was actually a longtime friend of Wonder Woman, kidnapped by Circe. Doctor Psycho. and others, brainwashed into hating her former idol, and turned into a murderous cyborg .

Foes of lesser renown [ edit ]

Multiple appearances [ edit ]

The Crow Children

"War Killer" Wonder Woman v3 #37-41 (Vol. 3)

The sons of Ares; Brother Goat, Brother Spider, Brother Rat, Brother Scorpion and Brother Adder, are the result of a plan of revenge by Ares against Wonder Woman after she slew him in battle. As a result of magic that Ares used in the underworld, five Amazons became inexplicably pregnant. While this normally would have been a momentous event, the times were greatly troubled on Themyscira, with the Amazon Alkyone having displaced Queen Hippolyte and Zeus having imposed Achilles as the first King of Themyscira.?Men had also come to live on the island the Gargareans and though none of the Amazons apparently had sex with them, their presence was enough that immaculate conception was not the only possibility.

A civil war situation arose on Themyscira, overshadowing the pregnancies, the mothers reached term abnormally quickly and were mystically summoned to a forgotten court by the ghost of Ares. This long abandoned place had been built millennia before just in case children were ever born on Themyscira. Ares further summoned animals infused by his essence. After the five Amazons gave birth against their will, they were magically forced into an eternal sleep. The infants were raised by the magically corrupted animals, and grew up at an accelerated rate. Thus mere months later the five brothers, looking to be about seven years old and having about thrice the maturity, were sent out in the world to turn it against Wonder Woman and the Amazons.

The boys have a supernatural ability to influence those around them, overriding their mind with thoughts of violence, hatred, war and guilt. They can easily trigger riots and incite large crowds to deadly violence. By focusing this ability on a single person they can take direct control, even against persons with a strong personality such as Etta Candy, Steve Trevor or Power Girl. The Crow Children act by talking, though it’s clearly not normal social interaction - their words have an impossibly convincing effect when it comes to seeding hatred, resentment, envy, defiance and the like.?Victims will even experience mild hallucination as a result of dissonance, for instance perceiving a trusted ally as demonically deformed to try to reconcile the words of the Crow Children about that person with reality.

The five brothers, wearing a sort of school uniform with cap emblazoned with a crow symbol, strolled through Washington D. C.. where Wonder Woman then lived.?Using supernatural influence they fanned the flames of intolerance, envy, petty hatred and bloodlust.?They both attacked Wonder Woman’s reputation and the civil peace in the capital, triggering murders, arson and eventually riot.?When the mighty heroine Power Girl responded, the Crow Children were delighted, taking over her mind and turning her against Wonder Woman.

The five half-brothers affected a style and speech patterns well beyond their apparent years. They act more like preps highly educated, mannered and articulate with an emphasis on what is proper and how society should behave. They constantly use sarcasm, denouncing violence and improper behavior around them and the lack of morality of modern society while fully knowing that they are the direct cause for the chaos and hatred that surround them.?Part of their schtick is to sound very sheltered, like an irate old man writing strongly-worded letters to a newspaper editor about the world of today and all of its perceived shortcomings. Their schtick about how the world is terrible and brutal and exposes youths to the most unseemly sights and behaviors is not constant. They are also good actors, particularly when it comes to manipulating everyone around them and playing on their apparent status as innocent and very proper children.

The boys ended up being defeated by Wonder Woman who used her Lasso Of Truth to see through their illusions. Instead of the planned conclusion to the story, in which the boys turned into demonic versions of their animal spirits, causing further havoc in the streets, the issue ended anticlimactically with Wonder Woman giving them a spanking. However the original planned ending alludes to them having powers to transform into large animal demons.

The Dark Man

Wonder Woman #601 (September 2010)

Top 10 Wonder Woman Villains

By Daffodil May 5, 2011 1 Comments

A lot of superheroes are known for their vastly interesting rogues' galleries. However, Wonder Woman often gets the short end of the stick, despite having great villains of her own. Here's a look at my own personal top 10 Wonder Woman villains and enemies:

10.) Baroness von Gunther

The Baroness

Wonder Woman's first recurring enemy was none other than female Nazi spy, Baroness Paula von Gunther . A crafty individual with an array of gadgets and gizmos that enabled her to escape Wonder Woman's clutches on numerous occasions, the Baroness is a perfect example of what Wonder Woman sets out to do: redeem her enemies. The Baroness was a seemingly heartless Nazi agent, but everybody has reasons for their actions, and Wonder Woman discovered the Baroness': her daughter, Gerta, was held captive by the Nazis and she was ordered to do their bidding. Wonder Woman, the noble heroine that she is, immediately went to the aid of Gerta von Gunther, rescuing her from the Nazis and convincing The Baroness to turn over a new leaf. She joined the Amazons on Paradise Island, becoming their chief scientist and being known simply as "Paula." Baroness von Gunther proves that Wonder Woman has the ability to inspire even the vilest and most evil criminals to become better people.

9.) The Duke of Deception

The Duke of Deception One of Wonder Woman's earliest and most persistent enemies, the Duke of Deception was one of Ares's chief lieutenants on the planet Mars. The embodiment of deceit and trickery, Deception was a key figure in World War II, spreading his lies throughout the countries and inciting war between nations. Once Wonder Woman interfered, the Duke found himself defeated, and not even his phantasms could stop her. Ares (then called Mars), disappointed in Deception, imprisoned him with a bunch of female slaves. Deception, clever as he was, manipulated the women into siding with him, overthrowing Mars and his allies and taking over the planet. The Duke of Deception later deceived his own daughter, Lya, when she tried to overthrow him, proving Deception to be one of Wonder Woman's cleverest villains. Deception appeared throughout the Silver Age in various incarnations, such as an alien and a handsome God (though he was usually depicted as a shriveled old man, he used his powers to make himself look much more attractive than he truly was), and was recently modernized as a member of Circe's army of supervillains.

8.) Medousa

Medousa A figure straight out of Greek Mythology, Medousa (or Medusa) proved that Wonder Woman's villains can be truly epic. First appearing to battle Wonder Woman briefly in the 90's, Medousa skyrocketed to the top ten during Greg Rucka's run of Wonder Woman, where Medousa's sisters, Euryale and Stheno, joined forces with Poseidon and Circe to resurrect Medousa after she had been slain by Perseus. The Gorgon, once revived, sought out to kill Wonder Woman for revenge against Athena, who had turned Medousa and her sisters into the monsters they had become. Medousa stormed through the Themysciran Embassy, turning one of Wonder Woman's friends' sons to stone in the process. An enraged Wonder Woman later fought Medousa in a baseball stadium on live television. Her motivation was grand: turn everyone who watches the television broadcast to stone. Wonder Woman blinded herself with one of Medousa's snakes, but even blind, continued on to decapitate the Gorgon in a similar manner to Perseus. Medousa later came back to haunt Wonder Woman and her allies as they traveled through the Underworld.

7.) Doctor Cyber

Doctor Cyber

Prominently featured in the Silver Age, Doctor Cyber is essentially Wonder Woman's token insanely intelligent (or intelligently insane?) super-villain. Her Lex Luthor, if you will. During an encounter with a depowered Diana Prince, Doctor Cyber suffered injuries that scarred and deformed her face. She vowed to get revenge on Wonder Woman for taking her beauty away with a scheme: to switch bodies with Wonder Woman. Then, she'd have the perfect body to go with her perfect mind. Her claim to fame and the reason for her placing number seven on the top ten is simple: she murdered Steve Trevor.

6.) Giganta

Giganta Despite not being used for the majority of DC Comics' history, Giganta made a splash when she first appeared in the animated series, Superfriends. Sure, she had been used before then as a recurring Golden Age foe of Wonder Woman, but Superfriends marked the most prominent appearances of Giganta until the 2000's. In the 40's, Giganta was an evolved ape who had joined the Holliday Girls and later caused a ruckus for Wonder Woman. In the Silver Age, Giganta was brought back and rebooted as an evolved ape in love with Steve Trevor. The modern Giganta is Doris Zuel, a mad scientist who, like Doctor Cyber, wanted to switch her handicapped body with someone more useful. Although Diana wasn't available, Doris used a circus strongwoman named Olga, who for some reason had the magical ability to grow in size up to fifty feet. In Olga's body, Doris took on the name Giganta, and was first seen among an army of female criminals banded together by Circe. She later joined Villainy, Inc. (like the Golden Age version did before her), and battled Wonder Woman for control of Skartaris. After a while, Giganta fell in love with superhero Ryan Choi, the new Atom. She thought Choi could be the one to turn her over to a new leaf, but he was killed by one of his enemies. Giganta later joined the Secret Six, working with Ryan Choi's murderer and later getting revenge. Giganta places number six on this list because, besides Cheetah, she's the most visually recognizable villain that Wonder Woman has to offer.

5.) Silver Swan

Silver Swan A legacy villainess who has had three incarnations: the bitter ballet dancer Helen Alexandros, the disfigured mutant Valerie Beaudry, and the scorned best friend Vanessa Kapatelis. Helen Alexandros was the Silver Age Silver Swan. a homely young dancer who had wanted the lead in her troupe's Swan Lake. However, she was passed over because of her acne-ridden face in favor for a woman more conventionally beautiful. Helen, named after Helen of Troy, begged to the Gods for help. Only one God answered her: Ares. Ares offered Helen the ability to become a beautiful maiden called the Silver Swan, named after the form Zeus had taken to impregnate Leda with Helen of Troy. Helen Alexandros used her dual identity to find out Wonder Woman's very own dual identity as Diana Prince. She became Diana and Etta's roommate, all the while plotting to kill Wonder Woman so that she could stay the Silver Swan forever. Unfortunately, the Silver Swan lost her battle against Wonder Woman, and was forced to return to her mousy appearance. The second Silver Swan, Valerie Beaudry, was mutated from radiation. She had somehow found herself married to an abusive man who used his wealth and technology to turn her into a living weapon. Wonder Woman eventually convinced Valerie to break free from her husband and the Silver Swan persona. The third SIlver Swan, Vanessa Kapatelis, was Wonder Woman's trusted friend who was manipulated by Doctor Psycho and Circe into becoming the Swan. Resenting Wonder Woman for choosing Cassandra Sandsmark as Wonder Girl and not Vanessa, she messed with Diana's head until her inevitable recovery. Each of the Silver Swans possessed formidable abilities: a massive sonic scream able to level cities, superhuman strength, and a degree of durability.

4.) Doctor Psycho

Doctor Psycho A misogynistic little man who is against everything Wonder Woman stands for. Doctor Psycho is the only villain who can truly get inside Wonder Woman's head and discover her vulnerabilities. He has consistently fought against Wonder Woman since the 1940's, using his illusions and manipulations to make life for Wonder Woman a living Hell. Wonder Woman eventually overcame Doctor Psycho's illusions, using her lasso of truth, but that didn't stop Psycho from seeking out Wonder Woman's loved ones and causing them harm. He also often allies himself with other major Wonder Woman villains, such as Circe, Cheetah, and Giganta. In the current Wonder Woman comics, it's revealed that the reason Psycho does these horrendous things to Wonder Woman is out of love for her. He feels it is the only way to be in her life. He definitely takes the cake for being the most depraved, deranged villain in Wonder Woman's rogues gallery, making him the number four best villain.

3.) Circe

Circe Another of many mythological enemies that Wonder Woman has faced, Circe is perhaps the most powerful, though also the most confusing. Circe originally started out as a villain who despised Wonder Woman because she thought she'd steal Hecate's powers for herself. Being a greedy Goddess that she was, Circe of course did not want that to happen. Her hatred led to the War of the Gods, one of the biggest crossovers that focused on Wonder Woman. She later died on numerous occasions and came back on numerous occasions. Why is she number three on the list, you might ask? Well, certainly due to prominence. Although her history is riddled with confusion, she has been a major adversary of Wonder Woman's since her first appearance. She was given a huge push in the 90's to make her Wonder Woman's Joker or Lex Luthor, but it didn't stick. She still plays a major role in Wonder Woman, but not enough to make her the top Wonder Woman villain of all time.

2.) Ares

Ares Wonder Woman's primary foe in the Golden Age and the reason for Wonder Woman even existing, Ares is the second best Wonder Woman villain of all time. In the Golden and Silver Ages, Ares was known as Mars, the God of War who resided on, yep, you guessed it, the planet Mars. The modern Ares (vastly more interesting) hasn't been used as frequently as Circe, leaving some mystery to the powerful villain. He is best represented as a behind-the-scenes villain, one who uses his minions like the Duke of Deception, Silver Swan, Deimos, Phobos, the Crimson Centipede, etc. for his bidding. His power level, possibly higher or possibly lower than Circe's, is vague, but one thing is certain: Wonder Woman usually has to talk her way out of a confrontation with Ares. Power isn't everything, though, and Ares doesn't have the best track record, such as his last encounter with Wonder Woman which left him with an axe in his head.

1.) Cheetah

Cheetah Three women and one man have taken the name of Cheetah. and each one has been vicious, relentless, and dangerous to Wonder Woman. The first Cheetah was schizophrenic socialite Priscilla Rich, who had suffered from an inferiority complex that left her conjuring up "The Cheetah," a huntress who had her sights on her prey: Wonder Woman. She couldn't stand the attention that Wonder Woman received while her own accomplishments during World War II went unnoticed, and it drove her insane. She had several opportunities to kill the Amazon Princess, but didn't, obviously, as that would've ended the series. Instead, Cheetah opted to toy with her, framing her for theft. Priscilla, crafty and quick, even managed to steal Hippolyte's magic girdle, enabling her to combat Wonder Woman physically. Wonder Woman attempted to redeem Cheetah after several defeats, but Priscilla Rich escaped each time. Her niece, activist Deborah Domaine, became the second Cheetah, after she was mind-wiped by Kobra. The modern version of Cheetah is Barbara Minerva, a famous archaeologist who despises Wonder Woman. She became the Cheetah after a cannibalistic ritual in which she devoured her close friend Tom Leavens. It gave her the power of the cat God, Urzkartaga, and made her Wonder Woman's most formidable enemy. Recently, Cheetah has been given a power increase after killing the original, Priscilla Rich. Her speed is almost on par with the Flash, making her a huge threat. Briefly, a fourth Cheetah surfaced, a man named Sebastian Ballesteros. He was later killed by Barbara Minerva. Some may argue that Cheetah is not Wonder Woman's number one villain, but four dangerous incarnations, an appearance in the pop-culture series Superfriends, and several appearances outside of the Wonder Woman book makes her the top Wonder Woman villain of all time.

Honorable mentions should go to: Angle Man, Doctor Poison, Queen Clea, Blue Snowman, Hercules, White Magician, Veronica Cale, Hades, Maxwell Lord, Genocide, and The Morrigan. 1 Comments

Wonder Woman's Villains

Wonder Woman has no villains.

It's something i hear all the time, and often from talented people that i otherwise respect enormously.

I find the statement to be really annoying. It's a lazy thing to say, and people keep saying it to the point where the myth is being perpetuated and people are starting to think of it as truth.

I think the first time it really bothered me was when it was said by Joss Whedon. I mean i love Joss and think he is an incredible writer, so it frustrated me that he either couldn't be bothered to do his research, or wasn't willing to use a bit of imagination to see the potential in Wonder Woman's rogues gallery.

In fairness as i said before he isn't alone in this. everyone from Gail Simone to Nicolas Winding Refn has said the same thing.

It was the comments from Refn that made me want to write about the issue.

A Wonder Woman movie at some point is inevitable, and i would like to think that whomever ends up directing the thing will make an effort to do it right.

Wonder Woman has some of the most fun and inventive and memorable villains in comics. Of course she has her share of ridiculous villains too, but even those have the potential for greatness with a little thought and effort. I mean for instance look at how deeply silly most of the Flash's villains appear to be, and yet his rogue's gallery is rated right up there with Batman's or Spider-Man's by your average comicbook fanboy.

Remember there are no bad characters, only bad writers.

I wanted to do something like an open letter or something. I wanted to write something that people might stumble across and find informative, and that somehow might go a little way towards redressing the balance of ignorance.

At least that is the idea.

So here are Wonder Woman's best villains, along with some of my thoughts on them.

Ares is Wonder Woman's most important enemy. In the roman form of Mars he was the character's first real villain in the comics, and has been a major part of every version of her origin story. He represents everything Wonder Woman opposes. violence, anger, hate, bullying. I find it frustrating when people say Wonder Woman has no arch enemy like the Joker or Lex Luthor, when clearly it is this guy. You can't ask for a more fitting or compelling arch enemy than the god of war really.

And he has to be one of the finest villains a writer could ask for.

Ignoring for a moment how powerful and scary this guy is, there is the fact that he can serve as a metaphor for exploring a whole bunch of issues. the nature of violence and aggression, the war of the sexes, fate and free will. A half decent writer should be able to find plenty to say through this character.

Also there are a number of fascinating mythological/historical connections that are begging to be explored further. Ares is the father of Hippolyta in mythology for instance, which if carried over into the comics would make him Wonder Woman's grandfather. Ares is also the main deity worshipped by the "real" Amazons historically. I think there's a lot of mileage in those ideas.

A pet peeve of mine is when deities are shown as pretty much just regular people wearing white robes and sandals and squabbling amongst themselves. I don't see anything mysterious or interesting about that. It's old and boring. Worse still is the deities-living-amongst-us approach where they wear jeans and have tattoos and work in Burger King. It was a novel idea when Gaiman was doing it in Sandman, and it was even still kinda novel when Whedon was doing it in Buffy, but now it appears everywhere and it is old and boring trying too hard to be edgy and interesting.

I don't wanna see Ares in an Armani suit.

I think Ares needs to be taken the other way. We need to see less of the guy. Make him sort-of like Sauron from the LotR movies. a menacing presence that is felt rather than seen. And when we do see him we see a huge armoured monster of a man with a sword of flame and a voice like thunder. More mysterious, primal, threatening.

I see him as old and angry and fucked off that the world is moving on without him, and i see him becoming wilder and more primal the angrier he becomes. like a wounded bull or something.

And finally there is the bonus that Ares can be linked to a number of other Wonder Woman villains and characters, such as the Silver Swan and Nubia, in ways that i think would make those characters more interesting. I think for instance a Silver Swan who is corrupted and given powers by Ares is a little more credible than one who has cybernetic implants and a huge pair of completely impractical mechanical wings.

In the comics Ares is never allowed to be as cool as he could/should be. In the comics Wonder Woman will always play second fiddle to the more popular characters like Superman or Green Lantern, and so her villains will never be allowed to be more powerful or more threatening than theirs. Which is a shame, as Ares should be able to swallow Darkseid or Sinestro with one bite.

In a movie you wouldn't have to worry about such restrictions tho.

Paula Von Gunther

I feel bad for Paula Von Gunther.

Ares might have been vital to Wonder Woman's origin, but throughout most of the 1940s/1950s he tended to work through henchmen, and it took him a while to really come into his own and be a threat in his own right. I think it is safe to say that throughout the early comics Baroness Von Gunther was Wonder Woman's "true" arch enemy.

And that sucks, as she is almost completely ignored today.

Of course it is difficult to work nazis into modern stories convincingly, so i can see why most writers leave her on the shelf. On the other hand characters such as Captain Nazi and the Red Skull still pop up regularly in comics, and Mike Mignola used the nazis very effectively in Hellboy. Cryogenics, time travel, bitter old wrinklies hiding out in South America, neo-nazis. i'm not sure how best to approach the issue, but it can be done.

And i think it should be done, as Paula was a fun character. A deliciously nasty and slightly kinky spy, she was a brilliant inventor and a ruthless mastermind.

Paula is also a perversion of everything Wonder Woman stands for. I mean she is strong, confident, independent, and technically the embodiment of the feminist ideal, but she channels all that into hate and violence. In that sense she makes for an ideal "evil Wonder Woman" character.

Another idea that might have some mileage is the fact that modern Germans want nothing to do with nazism. the nazis had their time and the world has moved on without them. there is no place for them today. Which is something they have in common with the Amazons.

A smart move would be to bring in some of the conspiracy theory nonsense that surrounds the nazis. about how some of them fled to South America, or were absorded into NASA and various major industries, or went on to control some of the most powerful and influential businesses and institutions in the world. and then there is all the secret experiment and supernatural/mythology stuff to work with too. A lot of potential there.

You can also link the character to various other Wonder Woman characters, such as the nazi Red Panzer and Gundra the valkyrie, to create even more opportunities.

Wonder Woman needs more "intellectual" and science-based villains to balance out all the mythology. I think Paula fits the bill perfectly.

Red Panzer

A lot of what i said about Paula Von Gunther also applies to the Red Panzer, so there's no sense in repeating.

Basically this character is a nazi version of Iron Man. A guy in a robotic suit of armour tricked out with all sorts of nasty weaponry. I think what makes this character worth dusting off is that, in additon to being a genius mechanic/inventor and therefore intellectually threatening, he is also one of the few Wonder Woman villains that is powerful enough to be credibly physically threatening. And of course the robot armour offers a cool visual opportunity.

I think a neat idea with this character would be for him to be a shrivelled little old dude kept alive inside this suit artificially. As if the only thing keeping him going is literally his hate and his intelligence/technology.

Cheetah is a mess to be honest.

In one form or other the Cheetah has been around in the comics since the 1940s, and is Wonder Woman's most well-known villain arguably. Some fans even think of her as Wonder Woman's arch enemy.

Basically there are two versions of the Cheetah.

Originally the Cheetah was a mentally unstable socialite called Priscilla Rich who had a breakdown and fixated on killing Wonder Woman when she upstaged her at some charity event or something. Priscilla had no powers and dressed in a silly Cheetah outfit for some reason. When non-comicbook-reading peeps think of the Cheetah they are thinking usually of this version of the character, as this is the version that appeared in the Superfriends cartoon and was exposed to a wider audience outside of comics. Priscilla was briefly succeeded by her niece Debbie Domain, but that was short-lived thankfully.

In the 1980s Wonder Woman and her villains were all revamped extensively. A new Cheetah called Barbara Minerva was introduced, and this one was a vain archaeologist with the ability to change into a were-cheetah. an ability given to her by an African plant deity. Seriously. Barbara was succeeded by a guy with no penis, but that was short-lived thankfully.

I think with this villain the first thing you have to do is consolidate and simplify. Priscilla is a fascinating character with lots of mental issues and neuroses and stuff for writers to work with, but as a villain her abilities and look are weak. Barbara on the other hand is a dull character with fantastic abilities and a look that is really creepy. It isn't hard to see where i'm going.

I would choose Priscilla as the Cheetah, as she is the original and i think she is entitled frankly. Give her Barbara's abilities and background in archaeology and she would be extremely interesting and full of possibilities.

Of course this new take on the character would need a new origin, as the plant deity thing is just ridiculous. Googling i came across a North African cheetah deity called Mafdet. Apparently Mafdet was the first feline deity, being much earlier than even Bastet and Sekhmet. She was an avenger and goddess of execution, ripping the hearts out of wrong-doers. Now not only is that far cooler than some plant thing, but it makes a lot more sense and creates more opportunities by opening up North African and Egyptian mythology for future stories.

Incorporating Mafdet the Cheetah could now become a vain and arrogant archaeologist who is unstable mentally. Maybe she suffers some slight from Wonder Woman for whatever reason, either real or imaginary. And then while robbing a tomb in North Africa she is somehow turned into a were-cheetah avatar or champion of Mafdet or something. Cheetah then uses her new abilities to become some sort of monstrous vigilante and enter into a psychotic rivalry with Wonder Woman.

I have no clue how TPTB would set about introducing any of this stuff into the comics, but there are always ways y'know? And i do think this or something similar needs to happen with this villain, because as i said before she is a total mess and kinda silly.

It would be easier to do this in the movies of course.

Also i think it would be ideal for Wonder Woman to have a villain that is motivated almost entirely by the sort of hatred that comes from envy and vanity.

Dr Psycho

I love Dr Psycho cos the guy is so damn vile and creepy.

Another one of Wonder Woman oldest enemies, he has been appearing in the comics since the 1940s and has changed surprisingly little over the decades.

Psycho is a psychic medium and occultist who hates women passionately. He can influence people psychically and force them to do or think or see whatever he chooses. He kidnaps women and tortures them pschologically and physically for long periods of time, often forcing them to do humiliating and degradging things until he breaks them. He kept his fiancee slave in this manner for many years. As a medium he is also capable of manifesting physical forms using the ectoplasm of his victims, which is both cool and creepy.

What could be more perfect for Wonder Woman than a villain that is all about lies and misogyny right?

Psycho has a lot to offer in terms of threat. I mean he can screw with Wonder Woman's head and he can turn almost anyone into a henchman or an assassin, and those are situations she can't just punch her way out of the way she might normally. Also his ability to create ectoplasmic forms means he can be a threat physically. Imagine Wonder Woman fighting off a half dozen massive ectoplasmic brutes the size of the Hulk for instance.

So much stuff to work with there.

Giganta is ridiculous but fun.

In a lot of ways she is the perfect example of everything that is wrong with the Wonder Woman comics. I mean she started out with a silly but serviceable origin: she was an ape artifically evolved into a big brute of a woman by some nutty scientist and his nutty invention. Giganta was big and strong and aggressive, but she couldn't become an actual giant and she had no actual powers or anything.

And then the character appears in the Superfriends cartoon, and the folks behind that decide she needs to be more powerful, so they give her the ability to grow to giant size and make up a really lame origin about magic dust or something. It catches on with the viewers and now people expect Giganta to actually be giant y'know?

So TPTB decide to make the comicbook version more in line with the cartoon version, but the comicbook origin doesn't account for any powers and the cartoon origin is just crappy. A new origin is cobbled together that tries to tie everything together, and fails miserably. Now Giganta is a scientist suffering from some blood disease. Instead of putting her energy into trying to find a cure or something she decides to transfer her consciousness into Wonder Woman's body. It inevitably doesn't work, and she ends up transferring herself first into a gorilla, and then into a circus strongwoman with the totally unexplained ability to grow to giant proportions.

And someone at editorial thought all this was a Good Idea.

I suppose what i'm saying is that Giganta needs a new origin badly. I have no idea what that origin might be, but maybe whoever is tasked with the gig could try looking into adrenal gland experimentation, which is suggested in The Science Of Superheroes as an alternate method for the creation of the Hulk. Or something.

Anyway once you get past the origin this character is a lot of fun. Maybe not much of a challenge intellectually, and i'm not sure she would be able to carry an entire movie or comicbook arc as the sole villain, but who doesn't want to see a 100ft woman knocking over buildings and stomping tanks and all that? Giganta has size and brute power going for her, which makes her a major threat in ways many of Wonder Woman's other villains are unable to be.

Giganta is Godzilla with boobies.

Also there's no saying the character has to become dumber the bigger she is. At the end of the day in some versions of her origin she is a scientist, and smart enough to invent whatever the heck caused her condition, so a decent writer could come up with more developed motivations and ambitions and schemes for the character.

And her condition does suggest opportunities for tragic storylines and themes that might be a little more dramatic than just smashing and stomping.

Another character that is a total mess. I feel like i'm repeating myself, but this is how it is with Wonder Woman villains.

Originally the Silver Swan was a ballerina called Helen Alexandros, and she was an ugly duckling. Angry and bitter she struck a deal with Ares: for as long as she served the war deity she would be made beautiful and strong and able to fly, and if she was able to kill Wonder Woman she would be allowed to stay that way permanently.

I tend to omit the "silver" when referring to this version of the character, to distinguish between her and the later cybernetic versions.

In the 1980s a new version of the character was introduced called Valerie Beaudry. Valerie was horribly deformed and was manipulated into taking part in an experiment which made her beautiful, but which also turned her into a living weapon with hypersonic abilities and a big clumsy pair of artificial wings. After a while Valerie sorted her head out and turned her back on villainy.

Vanessa Kapatelis was the most recent version of the character. Vanessa was a supporting character in the comics since the 1980s and was like a little sister to Wonder Woman. It would take forever to explain how she became a villain, so lemme just say that she was secretly subjected to mental conditioning and numerous surgeries over a long period of time by a bunch of villains working together, eventually becoming a sort-of psychotic cyborg with a big clumsy pair of artificial wings.

Now all three versions of the character are promising, but two of them are saddled with big clumsy pairs of artificial wings. I think the wings are ridiculous. and furthermore the origins of the later versions of the Silver Swan don't really explain how the characters are able to fly.

I think the Helen Alexandros version is the most elegant and cohesive take on the character, and that this is the version the movies and comics should be following. All of her powers are plausible if you claim they work magically. Also Helen is the only version of this villain that is actually a genuine villain. the other two were manipulated into it and went on to reform and be decent people. Currently this means there is no active Silver Swan in the comics, which is absurd as this is one of Wonder Woman's most popular and well-known villains. In order to bring back Valerie or Vanessa the writers would need to keep coming up with increasingly unlikely excuses. Much simpler to just use the original y'know?

Also Wonder Woman is often referred to as the champion of Athena, so with Helen as the champion of Ares i feel there is a nice symmetry.

Of course all three versions are all about bitterness and resentment and loneliness and (moreso with the first two) the shallowness of modern culture and the pressures that women feel to be thin and pretty, so there is a lot there for a writer to sink his teeth into dramatically.

Dr Poison

Poison was Wonder Woman's first actual costumed villain.

Originally the character appeared to be a creepy grinning guy dressed as a surgeon, but it turned out that was just a "clever" disguise and the doctor was in fact the beautiful Princess Maru, an axis saboteur and spy.

Much later in the comics a new version of the character was introduced half-heartedly. Apparently she was the granddaughter of the original. but TPTB didn't bother giving her a proper origin or anything and she was just there to make up the numbers in the new incarnation of the supervillain team Villainy Inc.

Recently Ben Caldwell reinvented the character for his run on Wednesday Comics. Princess Maru was now an ultra-nationalist right-wing terrorist who, in a nod to the disguise-wearing gender-bending antics of the 1940s version, was rocking a tattooed androgynous heroine-chic look and disguising her face with a gas mask. It was an inspired design with a lot of thought and research behind it, and unsurprisingly i think this would be the best version of the character to move forward with.

In all incarnations Dr Poison has no unusual abilities other than being an expert in poisons and toxins, which doesn't make her much of a threat on her own physically. I see her as more of a thinker and schemer, and most writers should be able to conjure up some pretty major threats involving poisoning water supplies or causing viral outbreaks or creating hordes of zombies or something.

And of course with Ben Caldwell's version the character does have an entire paramilitary organisation to call on, in the form of the Black Dragon Society, which does make her somewhat more physically threatening.

In terms of drama and themes Poison is all about corruption and impurity, which again is the opposite of Wonder Woman.

Also pretty sure she is racist, or else why join an ultra-nationalist organisation?

Poison is one of my favourite characters cos she is so odd and creepy. It's a real shame that she isn't treated with due respect in the comics, but hopefully that will change some day.

Circe frustrates me as she has so much potential but is rubbish in the comics and appears far too often. One could be forgiven for thinking she is Wonder Woman's only enemy.

Originally the character was based on the Circe from Greek mythology. In mythology she was a witch living on the island of Aeaea who turned men into animals using potions and incantations. In the comics the character was much the same, except that at some point in history Hippolyta somehow banished Circe to a distant planet called Sorca. It was the 1940s and that shit happened all the time in the comics back then.

In the 1980s the character was rebooted and the stuff about Sorca was dropped in favour of sticking closer to the Greek mythology. Circe was now also a worshipper of Hecate the witch deity. I suppose TPTB decided she should be more powerful or something, as for some reason Hecate decided to transfer her soul to Circe and make her some sort of demi-goddess-thingy. Oh and there was some prophecy that made her think Wonder Woman was destined to kill her, unnecessarily explaining why the two became enemies.

Circe in either version is a sadistic man-hating witch basically.

I think what i find most annoying about this character is that all this fantastic mythology is there for the writers to play with, but they don't seem to research anything, so all of the character's schemes and enchantments are generic and boring and often silly.

I mean for instance the character isn't even Greek.

Circe was a princess from Colchis, which was an ancient kingdom near the Black Sea. It's like saying the Celts were Romans just because the Romans wrote about them sometimes. It might seem like nitpicking, but the two cultures are very different and this affects everything from what the character wears to which deities she worships.

Colchis was considered to be a wild and pagan place by the ancient Greeks, full of magic and mystery. It was where Prometheus was chained to a mountain for eternity. Circe's brother was the keeper of the Golden Fleece, which hung in Colchis in the sacred grove of Ares. It was also the area some of the Amazons were said to have come from.

And then there is Hecate, the witch deity. Also not Greek. Much older and more interesting. Apparently the Greek deities were afraid of Hecate and took care to show her respect and not offend her in any way. Circe's association with her could lead to some fascinating opportunities and allow the writers to work with magic and mythology that is a little more colourful and mysterious and exciting than the familiar and often boring ancient Greek stuff we see normally.

I see Circe as being a bit like an evil Kate Bush, or Helena Bonham Carter's Bellatrix Lestrange or something. Absolutely nutty after all that time alone on her island, and really bloody creepy.

In a lot of ways the character is like a twisted and bitter version of Wonder Woman. they both come from ancient cultures that the world has moved on and left behind, both come from the same region near the Black Sea originally, both live on mysterious islands hidden away from the rest of the world, both are princesses, both are "feminists" in their own way. It is logical to assume Circe might be angry that the new world embraces Wonder Woman while she is forgotten and alone on her little island, which has to be humiliating for a princess right?

So Circe has a lot of potential to be a much more powerful and interesting enemy.

Okay technically this character isn't a villain.

Again this is going to get very messy.

Originally Fury was Hippolyta Trevor, daughter of Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor, who inherited all of her mom's abilities and became a superhero. And then in the 1980s TPTB decided to scrap everything and start over with a new continuity. As you've probably noticed already this is where a lot of the problems surrounding Wonder Woman's villains stem from, because they didn't put a lot of thought into the new continuity.

Anyway for some reason they decided to keep the character around after the reboot, but they were starting over from the beginning with Wonder Woman so it was impossible for her and Steve to be the parents of this character that was in her twenties already. And so the writers created Helena Kosmatos, her new mommy.

Apparently Helena was a Greek woman whose brother collaborated with the Italian Fascists and was responisble for the deaths of their parents or something. Helena swore revenge and somehow struck a deal with one of the Furies, the spirits of vengeance from Greek mythology. And to cut a long story short, she ended up becoming possessed by this spirit, which would transform her into a blood-crazed monster whenever she became angry.

It's this version that i think would work well as a sort-of villain. A decent woman with a monster trapped inside her. it's tragic and full of possibility.

And the visuals could be amazing.

Just modernise the origin a little and ditch the daughter.

Interestingly tho, and speaking of the daughter, the original Hippolyta Trevor went on to become a central and fascinating character in Neil Gaiman's Sandman. She sets in motion the events that lead to the death of Dream, and is the mother of the child that becomes his successor. It's a frustrating truth that Wonder Woman villains are often some of the most compelling and popular characters in comics. just not in Wonder Woman comics unfortunately.

And that's all for now.

I didn't realise this thing was going to turn out to be so long.

I had to split the list in half, so there's another ten coming in the next day or so hopefully.

Wonder Woman Villains - Giganta (It's a big one!)

batcookies. insanejournal. com posting in scans_daily

Been a while since I did one of these. Here's the old ones:

We start back in the Golden Age (I rescued two images of this from the old site, but none from the more complete telling of her origin)

Basically there's an ape running amock at the zoo, and Wonder Woman steps in.

And thus was born Giganta. She was a little on the tall side but far from the giant we know now, and she was created by Prof. Zool.

She re-appeared once in the Golden Age.

In the Silver Age we got a slightly different origin. This time around, Dr. Psycho was involved a little bit and had Prof. Zool turn Giganta into a person at gunpoint.

She re-appeared once in the Silver Age.

So, wrap your head around this one: prior to Superfriends, Giganta had appeared in only four comics. In fact, I think she had only 4 in total, pre-Crisis.

And now for Superfriends.

Well, it was very different from the character in the comics, for a start.

And it's where we first saw her ability to grow into a giant. I'll let wiki explain.

"it was revealed that Giganta was a normal woman who was horseriding when she witnessed Apache Chief using magic dust. The latter used it to grow larger so he could fight off a grizzly bear. Giganta stole the dust and used it on herself, gaining the ability to transform into a powerful, 50 foot tall giantess.

This origin becomes important later.

(As for her other well-known animated appearance. Justice League made her the sidekick of Gorilla Grodd, a Flash villain. Can't say I'm thrilled with that.)

Post-Crisis, Wonder Woman got really sick in Byrne's run (understandable), and ended up in a hospital.

Oh, and there was a silly DC Event going on, where everyone was having the will to live sucked right out of them (yup, a pretty typical comic book event).

Skip ahead a bit.

Zeul and her assistant apparently get away, and Diana ends up with other worries for a while.

Then.

Saved by a cop friend of Diana's (and that's all you need to know). So far everything makes sense, right? You're clear on her goals? Well hold on to your hats.

Zeul/Giganta vanishes for a while, then reappears in Phil Jimenez's run looking. really damn different, helping a bunch of female villains go on a rampage for no particularly good reason.

Oh, well, at least there's a little box saying things will all be explained, right? Yeeeeeah.

Diana (and Trevor Barnes) and up falling into another dimension, where they run into Giganta and some other villains. Giganta's basically the muscle.

The villains are calling themselves "Villainy, Inc" which is apparently the name of a Golden Age collection of Wonder Woman villains.

It's a name they supposedly chose for themselves, despite the fact that none of the villains seems like the sort to come up with a name like that.

Plus it's a really lame name.

For once I kinda agree with Trevor Barnes.

You know, when even the characters in the story are saying "that sounds stupid", your subconcious might be trying to tell you something.

Anyway, remember this?

Well here's what we were waiting for!

Yes, it's only one page long.

Yes, it's very very rushed and forced.

Yes, it did try to shoehorn in a reference to the Superfriends' origin of Giganta (told you it'd be important).

No, it really doesn't explain why Giganta, a brilliant scientist just looking for a way to survive a deadly illness, has decided to go around being an evil thug working for other villains. We never DO get an explanation, out of any writer. Jimenez dropped the ball, motivation-wise, and nobody ever picked it up.

The bad guys lose, of course.

And remember: that was the first time that a concious Diana has met Giganta.

After that, Giganta appeared as a mercenary villain in a (bad) Loeb-penned Superman/Batman story, where we learned that if you put together all of Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman's villains, it won't even slow down Batman and Superman.

Then we got this, by Johns/Rucka. Keep in mind, this is the second time Giganta ever met WW.

A JLA appearance.

Some Villains United stuff.

Then, OYL, she showed up in Wonder Woman again. It wasn't very flattering, IMHO, but then again Heinberg was writing it.

Man, that happens to her a LOT.

Later she gets taken out by Hercules, with relative ease.

And she fights Blue Beetle, as a mercenary working for Intergang, trying to kill one of their rivals.

skip ahead

And that's basically the state of Giganta when Gail Simone got her hands on the big girl. which is a subject for another time

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strong feelings: wonder woman

like a lot of folks, i dig superhero comics. and although i don’t know why, i’ve been fascinated by wonder woman for a few years now. i think what’s so interesting to me is that she…doesn’t work. she doesn’t and she hasn’t for decades.

it isn’t that she’s unlikable or unmarketable or uninspiring, but that she doesn’t really have a clear identity. to use a boring literary term, wonder woman lacks aboutness. she’s identifiable - lasso, bracelets, stars, colors, hair, etc. but wonder woman isn’t consistently about anything.

batman is about loss, fear of death, family and mental duress. superman is about identity, the future, hope and oppression. but based on the various characterizations of wonder woman over the past few decades, her aboutness seems more like a bad twitter bio - superhero. warrior. matron. woman.

despite there being so few truly great wonder woman stories, i think i’ve found a few hooks to hang her aboutness on.

multiculturalism - her understanding of the world around her is always in comparison to a home that is alien to every reader.

compassion - the first thing she does after being unhomed is dedicating herself to a world of strangers.

feminism - in the broadest, most inclusive sense.

power - she lives between cultures at war with each other and mediates through sheer force of will and god-like grace.

good comic villains play off of these things i’ve called defining features. the joker is a walking reminder of the deaths batman is still trying to negotiate. lex luthor is the ultimate nightmare capitalist symbolic of superman’s inability to force positive change. wonder woman’s villains doesn’t really have the same resonance, although i believe some could based on how i see her defining features! i’m gonna go ahead and grade a handful just for the heck of it. honestly, writing about comics is almost as much fun as reading comics.

the absolute best. her joker. her lex luthor. the absolute inversion of what wonder woman represents. if only, you know, you’ve heard of him.

dr. psycho is a professor x type psychic and an absolute vile misogynist. a therapist that preys on his patients. he makes people see bad things or feel bad things, but takes special joy in inserting himself into a woman’s life in order to take apart her sense of self. whether its taking advantage of an emotionally vulnerable single mother in order to traumatize her during childbirth or a hypnotizing a college student into eating radium, he has routinely taken apart women just to put them in their place.

of course, nobody can budge wonder woman. and that bugs him. and titillates him. wonder woman can’t just punch him away either. his true awful power exists in broken relationships, ruined trust and self-doubt. he’s the living walking patriarchy given a physical but shapeless form.

yup, the one from the odyssey that turns men into pigs by seducing them and getting them magic drunk. the witch that owns an island of slaves. she punches wonder woman sometimes. you can probably see where this is going.

circe is a symbol of bad feminism. and before you start accusing me of owning a fedora or anything, google ‘white feminism’. it’s worth your time. now google ‘TERF’. not pretty, right? finally, google ‘karen decrow’. starting to come into picture?

one of the reasons wonder woman is about highly inclusive feminism is precisely because of these things. there isn’t just one type of feminism. there are folks out there that use their belief in feminism to exclude and marginalize other people. it ain’t what feminism is about to me, but those communities tend to let the f-word fly freely.

wonder woman comes from an idealized world where women don’t live in fear of men. when she comes to our world, she has no reason to struggle with her belief in the power of women. circe exists to cause doubts. she reminds us that it is possible for women to undercut other women. to want to fight the patriarchy to the point when men are viewed as subhuman. to be a bad actor. to teach wonder woman that women can’t simply wish for everything to be alright. they have to fight day after day after day.

wonder woman makes friends. like, all the time. who wouldn’t want to hang out with a strong, compassionate person that has a ton of cool stories about fucking up cyclopes? unfortunately, wonder woman fights supervillains and supervillains hurt people. usually in triple digit body counts told to the reader in speech bubbles.

remember in that bad superman movie where superman ignores buildings of people in order to fight the bad guy? that’s a dumb thing. it’s dumb when superhero stories do things like that, but it’s especially dumb with superman. superman spends every free moment of his life helping strangers from a distance. his entire thing is meeting new people everyday just because there’s a chance he can make their lives better.

wonder woman has a lot in common with superman, but there’s one big difference. superman sees himself as being apart from other people. he knows his superpowers can make people scared or intimidated, so he guards himself by putting on the glasses and being clark kent in order to be close others. when he’s wearing the blue and red goof suit, he doesn’t have to be deeply involved in other folks lives because he knows you think he’s never challenged or boring or corny. talk to anybody you know in real life and they’ll the tell you those exact things. so he’s isolated and that’s probably okay to him because he fights cancer monsters and things that kill gods. i respect folks in the military, but i don’t want to hang out with them if there’s gonna be bullets flying around me.

wonder woman on the other hand? she doesn’t give a shit about all that. she doesn’t doubt herself or the perceptions of others. she’s gonna be deeply invested in the lives of others and consequences be damned. the problem is that the consequences still exist. they look like silver swan.

silver swan was a close friend of wonder woman’s until she got involved with a supervillain. and every time you see silver swan, she’s worse. missing parts of her body. delusional and hallucinating. a former ballerina pruned away in order to be jammed into a shrapnel suit. an anonymous bodycount has never meant anything in comics. silver swan isn’t anonymous but whoever the silver swan was is gone now - there’s just a husk left with her face. and every time she shows up, wonder woman is reminded that there’s more to being a heroic than looking powerful or putting the badguys in jail. silver swan is a walking reminder of the danger and trauma that exists in the high-drama world of superheroes.

going so deep here we might not come back, but hear me out. blue snowman is just straight-up amazin. she really only exists in really old wonder woman comics, but she’s ridiculously compelling. why? because she’s queer as hell .

as you might have noticed, blue snowman looks like otter pop robot w. c. fields at the horsetrack. a lot of early wonder woman villains are basically mirror distortions of femininity. gigantic is a pretty woman but also an ape. baroness von gunther is a pretty woman but also a nazi. blue snowman is a pretty woman that prefers to be seen as a man.

if you’ve read up on wonder woman creator William Moulton Marston, you’ll know that it’s probably safe to assume that this wasn’t some progressive portrayal of gender identity issues in wonder woman comics. Marston had some very off perceptions of gender and most of them fit into a strong binary. additionally, blue snowman’s image is often played for laughs. ‘ha ha look at the dumb crossdressing robot girl.’

but this character means a lot more in the age of tumblr. public discussion of gender identity isn’t relegated to college campuses and therapist’s offices anymore. we look up to wonder woman because she’s so confident in herself and her image. there’s no way you can look at wonder woman’s costume and tell me she isn’t comfortable in her own skin. but…a lot of folks aren’t. most of us live in a world where gender exists as codified social cues, often prescribing behavior. people that step outside those cues are simply being comfortable with themselves, but culture as a whole struggles with them.

blue snowman is supergenius inventor that specializes in robotics and extreme temperature control. like captain cold, but smart. like killer frost, but measured. like mr. freeze, but without the longing and loss. she’s just better than they are. but - and this is huge - she’s a joke because she’s nonbinary. she’s the other. i’m not sure what’s going on with her - if she’s genderqueer or genderfluid or trans or what. she hasn’t exactly gotten enough screen time in the past 40 years for it to be explicit.

is wonder woman gay? don’t know, don’t really care. until romantic relationships become a thematic focal point of her storytelling, it really doesn’t matter. superheroes are about ideas - about testing those ideas and how those ideas make us feel. wonder woman could be gay - she could also be straight. or something else. sexual relationships just aren’t an important aspect of her character.

wonder woman’s gender identity though? that’s pretty damn important to her aboutness. she is a woman. her last name is woman. she represents the struggles and hopes and dreams of women. and blue snowman asks her, and the reader, to question their belief in a gender binary. queer people exist. and they make folks think about their own relationship to gender. and the story of ‘reasoned feminism’ vs. ‘troubling queers’ is one that is playing out in our media and our politics every day. you want to make wonder woman compelling? start by making her relevant to the world around us. and the struggles of feminism and multiculturalism and compassion and power structures are a lot more complicated than ‘bad men vs. good women’.

anyway, i’m done for the day. lots of wordvomit all around us. i might come back though. i love wonder woman and hate her comics. it’s a fun struggle to write about.