Summary
Warning: contains spoilers forWonder Woman#10!
DC has forever alteredWonder Woman’slore by streamlining a crucial part of her history. Over the past 80 years, Wonder Woman’s mythos has changed and evolved with the times, and her villains are no exception. Fearsome foes such as the Cheetah and Doctor Psycho have menaced Wonder Woman numerous times, and inWonder Woman#10, one of them gets a new backstory simplifying various elements of their past.
Wonder Woman#10 is written by Tom King and drawn by Daniel Sampere. Wonder Woman is on the Cheetah’s island, leading to an altercation between the two adversaries. Later, cooler heads prevail and the two talk. An unseen narrator recounts the various women who have held the mantle of the Cheetah, starting with Priscilla Rich, the Golden Age incarnation. Deborah Domaine, the second, tragic Cheetah, gets a shout-out as well.
However, the narrator then reveals that Barbara Minevera’s predecessors were “mere projections of Cheetah’s true personality” and that her madness knows no limits.
Wonder Woman and Her Villains Have Changed a Great Deal In 80 Years
The Cheetah Has Consistently Been One of Wonder Woman’s Most Terrifying Villains
Wonder Woman’s lore has been subjected to numerous retcons and changes, perhaps more than any other DC hero. After theCrisis on Infinite Earths, Wonder Woman’s mythos was overhauled considerably by George Perez, who breathed new life intoclassic villains such as Cheetahand Circe. The Cheetah, who first appeared in 1943’sWonder Woman#6, has become one of her most prominent, even appearing in the live action DCEU filmWonder Woman 1984. Perez unleashed a terrifying new version of the Cheetah. This new incarnation had once been scientist Barbara Minerva, but was transformed into a feline monster.
There were two other Cheetahs prior to Minerva. The Golden Age Cheetah, Priscilla Rich, was a socialite who, in the words of this issue’s narrator, “listened too often to the voice in the mirror.” Rich’s mental health issues would later consume her. Deborah Domaine is maybe the most tragic of them all. The narrator inWonder Woman#10 is right: Domaine was captured and transformed into the Cheetah against her will. Domaine was a good person who only wanted to do right, but was turned into a killing machine.
DC Writer Reveals the Radical Way Wonder Woman Differs from Batman and Superman
In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, Wonder Woman writer Tom King discussed his approach to writing the character, & what makes her unique.
There Are Layers to the Cheetah No One Knows–Not Even Wonder Woman
The Cheetah’s Mystique Has Changed Considerably
Now, DC has revealed that these seemingly disparate incarnations of the Cheetah are in fact part of a giant legacy. The issue does not go into depth on what “projections of the Cheetah’s true personality” means, but Perez’s reboot of the character was grounded in mysticism and the supernatural. This gave the Cheetah an otherworldly aura. Now, with the revelation that previous versions of the character may in fact be one, it only enhances her mystique further. It also helps establish her as one ofWonder Woman’smost powerful villains.
