The Cheetah

As we gear up for Wonder Woman 1984 I think we should dive into the background of The Cheetah for those who might not know too much about the origins of the character and her relation to Wonder Woman so here we go...

Cheetah! One of the most well known ongoing enemies of our warrior princess Wonder Woman. Initially introduced by Wonder Woman creator William Marston in Wonder Woman #6 in 1943. Marston created her to be a counterpart for Wonder Woman as a less “developed” kind of woman. Which really just means emotionally misaligned, in Marston’s mind Cheetah needed emotional reform in order to be a leader in love as Wonder Woman is.

As with almost any hero and some villains there have been multiple people that have held the mantle of Cheetah (We refer to these heroes as legacy heroes) and as such there has been 4 incarnations of Cheetah since her inception; Golden and Silver Age Cheetah was Pricilla Rich, Deborah Domaine was the Bronze Age Cheetah, Barbara Ann Minivera took up Cheetah post-Crisis and is the current version of the character, and finally Sebastian Bellsteros who in 2001 briefly assumed the role and was the only male to do so.

In the original pre-crisis versions of Cheetah was more of a vigilante, nothing but a woman in a suit trying to kill, or capture Wonder Woman. Pricilla Rich was the aunt of Deborah Domaine, Pricilla started the identity of Cheetah to fight Wonder Woman specifically as she felt overshadowed by the Amazonian Princess and made it her mission to get the best of her, Deborah was actually a friendly acquaintance of Wonder Woman until she was captured and brainwashed into assuming the identity her aunt created. Both women’s time as the Cheetah were retconned out of existence post-crisis (which is so beyond ridiculous but alright).

The post-crisis version of the Cheetah took the character in a very different direction. Barbara Ann Minerva’s Cheetah was actually magical, having the ability to transform partially into the animal she represented, imbuing her with super strength, speed and agility. However originally with this power there were drawbacks, in her fully human form she suffered through severe pain and physical disability and she was completely bloodthirsty in her cat form. Minerva’s origin of power has changed several times, changes came with the New 52 reboot, and the Rebirth reboot because apparently slightly variating stories in how she got her powers as the Cheetah was super necessary. Though they were ongoing adversaries, Wonder Woman has saved the Cheetah on multiple occasions. Cheetah has also been a part of villain organizations such as Villainy Inc. and the Secret Society of Supervillains and was ranked as the 69th Greatest Comic Book Villain of all time by IGN in 2009.

I for one am super excited to see exactly which version of Cheetah they are going to go with, if it were me, I would blend them all together. Go with one of the pre-crisis characterizations in how she developed this animosity towards Wonder Woman and go with a post-crisis version of her powers. I’m hoping we get something like this just because I think it will give non comic book reading audiences a more complete overview of the character and a chance to see her history. My biggest hope for this movie is that it sets Cheetah up as an ongoing villain for Wonder Woman, The Cheetah has always been one of her biggest enemies and I don’t think it would serve Wonder Woman as a character to treat Cheetah as a one off, but we will just have to wait and see on Christmas Day!