Wonder Woman villains: how would you fix him/ her : Giganta

To me Giganta has always been a cool visual, looking for story. She’s one of those characters that stick around primarily because artist like to draw her, not so much because she has a history of riveting stories. I think her issues stem from relatively weak origin stories. Their really isn’t anything about her that links her specifically to Wonder Woman’s world and it’s themes, but yet she is one of WW’s most popular and consistently used rogues both inside and outside of her book.

Though not all WW rogues need to be myth based, I feel she is one of the characters in the gallery that would benifit from such a reimagining. None of her previous origins and motivations really work for me. I’d make her an actual mythical giant, perhaps even go the swamp thing route where she discovers, what she thought was her past was wrong (she’s a giant that can shrink not a human that can grow). Ultimately I’d like the character to be in a place where she is the queen of giants. Imagine Giganta as the ruler of an army of giants that are made up of every type of giant you can think of from mythology. This reworking of the character amplifies what we like about the character (her visual) while getting rid of the elements that really hold her back( weak origin story, and tenuous thematic connection to the hero). Giants are a classic archetypal antagonists for mythic demigod heroes like Wonder Woman, right up their with sorcerers/sorceresses (Circe) and Rogue gods (Ares). This to me would be infinately better then an evolved ape, or a random crook who got growing powers, and hates Diana for some reason.

The only thing is what about her power to grow? Unless that’s a power she gets due to her royalty. The only thing I could say why not have her still keep her scientist background, that way she interacts with humans. I do think Gateway is where she should be. The reason if you make Gateway a gatewjwre where all kind of mystical creatures and beings go to it would be a way to see how Gigantes interacts with would be interesting. Unless her powers comes from a mythical items she finds. I wind since she has the power to grow should she also shrink ?

I am really surprised that no one has ever connected Giganta to the Giants of Greek mythology something that is heavily used in Wonder Woman's world.

Anyway I say a long time ago a cursed was put on a couple of Giants that made them human size. A few centuries later Circe finds the descendant of those Giants and lifts or rearranges the curse and manipulates the descendant (don't know if I'm using Doris or a new character) into believing that Wonder Wonder caused this mess and tries to kill Wonder Woman.

Why can't Doris be the same character that due to the curse more and more giants assimilated with humans. The giant DNA for all the centuries was asleep until either Circe finds one or maybe Doris finds it herself and looks for an ancient mythic object that will lift the curse. Not only that but maybe the reason she is able to grow so tall is simple because of the artificial enchants their height. With Giganta being human too she is able to always return to her regular height. I do think she should be a tall woman. She should still be a scientist. That she is researching mythical creatures in Gateway

[QUOTE=AmiMizuno;3276574]Why can't Doris be the same character that due to the curse more and more giants assimilated with humans. The giant DNA for all the centuries was asleep until either Circe finds one or maybe Doris finds it herself and looks for an ancient mythic object that will lift the curse. Not only that but maybe the reason she is able to grow so tall is simple because of the artificial enchants their height. With Giganta being human too she is able to always return to her regular height. I do think she should be a tall woman. She should still be a scientist. That she is researching mythical creatures in Gateway[/QUOTE]

Well I thought Doris could be the human scientist Giganta who can change size while the 2nd Giganta is a normal but not very bright woman who has the Giant DNA and is comically stuck in her new normal form and needs a unique prison but your view of it sounds really cool.

How tall can Giganta grow in the comics?

I have always like Giganta as a villainess.

It should be easy for Giganta to be a villain for Diana. It shouldn't be anything overall complex. I can't think of anything.

For starters, pick an origin and stick with it. I also think bringing back her iconic jungle-themed costume is essential. Sure it could use a few tweaks to modernize it but the track suit and the wrestling outfit both look generic IMO. She could also use a clear motivation for being at odds with Diana.

[QUOTE=AmiMizuno;3277233]It should be easy for Giganta to be a villain for Diana. It shouldn't be anything overall complex. I can't think of anything.[/QUOTE]

The Giants and gods were ancient enemies. During the war with the titans( a previous race of gods) the giants sided with the Titans. They lost solidifying the the eminity between the gods and the giants. Giants became the boogie men of myth that we know and revile. The living embodiment of primeval forces both benevolent and manevolent. That is until individuals, ( Diana’s mother, and some ancient sorcerers among them,) decided that giants and similiar horrors were to dangerous to allow to roam the earth freely. They used magic to banish the giants from earth. But several giants were able to avoid being banished. This is where Giganta comes in. An ancient giant princess who had her memory erased and her size muted allowing her to hide amongst men till the day that giants could rise up and reclaim the earth. In my story the scientific experementation Giganta went through didn’t give her the ability to grow but rather unleashed the inner giant she already had.

[QUOTE=mathew101281;3277340]The Giants and gods were ancient enemies. During the war with the titans( a previous race of gods) the giants sided with the Titans. They lost solidifying the the eminity between the gods and the giants. Giants became the boogie men of myth that we know and revile. The living embodiment of primeval forces both benevolent and manevolent. That is until individuals, ( Diana’s mother, and some ancient sorcerers among them,) decided that giants and similiar horrors were to dangerous to allow to roam the earth freely. They used magic to banish the giants from earth. But several giants were able to avoid being banished. This is where Giganta comes in. An ancient giant princess who had her memory erased and her size muted allowing her to hide amongst men till the day that giants could rise up and reclaim the earth. In my story the scientific experementation Giganta went through didn’t give her the ability to grow but rather unleashed the inner giant she already had.[/QUOTE]

what if she just cursed them to just be normal people not longer having their magic. the few that wanted to survive just assimilated and married to humans. What if Giganta wasn't that old?I mean it would depend on if Diana is also young when she came.
What if it's her mother who is ancient?

[QUOTE=Dr. Poison;3277334]For starters, pick an origin and stick with it. I also think bringing back her iconic jungle-themed costume is essential. Sure it could use a few tweaks to modernize it but the track suit and the wrestling outfit both look generic IMO. She could also use a clear motivation for being at odds with Diana.[/QUOTE]

Classic Giganta, jungle-print and all, is perfect. Her origin is perfect, and her motivation is simple 'mad scientist' ambition. Writers should put the focus on Doris Zeul's personality and KEEP it, there.

[QUOTE=Mel Dyer;3277545]Classic Giganta, jungle-print and all, is perfect. Her origin is perfect, and her motivation is simple 'mad scientist' ambition. Writers should put the focus on Doris Zeul's personality and KEEP it, there.[/QUOTE]

^^^This, thank you you.

Doris Zeul should be a fascinating, brilliant biologist/meta-biologost, zoologist/cryptozoologist, biochemist, and geneticist in the DCU. Giganta is frightening, but Doris is menacing.

Should she be a giant princess? That she has this cursed(it's nothing painful but she can't go to her giant size) and so she studies other mystical creatures to feature out what happened to her kind.

A good improvement would be to make her actually show up in a Wonder Woman comic (The character has no Silver or Bronze Age appearances in the title!) and then have her not immediately job to someone (I'm looking at you Robinson!)