Why haven't they done more stuff with Giganta?

[Totalwar1402]

I recently read the Beach Blanket villains comic where they had a load of short stories and one of them was a short character piece with Giganta called "Giganta Strong". It was really good, but it made me wonder why they haven't done more with the character and specifically more with her and WW?

My impression is that she's been a bit in the wilderness for while. In the New 52 she was a minor character in the Pandora series, then had a handful of appearances in which WW knocks her out in one punch. They seem to push her as the willing minion of every supervillain group and the most developed arcs with her have been redemption stories where she joins the heroes. I did read one comic panel where Steve Trevor has a little chat with her whilst shes in prison, but that's about it.


Which is a bit odd considering shes meant to be one of WW main villains? Plus she has been quite prominent in some of the cartoons like the old Justice League one. You would think that's more than enough incentive to work the character into a story with WW. I say that because, both the Steve bit and the Beach Blanket story do look at how Giganta feels about WW. But that's a moot point if she isn't in a WW comic and the Amazon doesn't have anything to do with this villain. To take an extreme example, the story with Mr Freeze isn't something in isolation, how the hero deals with and interacts with this morally grey villain is relevant to the story and arguably more important.


If I had to speculate I think the main issue they have is that they want to focus on the fact that WW is this Olympian Goddess who is a top tier superhero who can go toe to toe with the likes of Darkseid. Cheetah is possessed by a deity, Circe has magic, Ares is literally a God; then you have a 50 foot woman. Bit of a power imbalance. All the others fit snugly in Wonder Womans league. You imply WW isn't that powerful if Giganta is a threat to her. The likes of Dr psycho get around this because they are using subversive powers and abilities; but with Giganta its a question of outright strength. Hence getting one punched all the time.

As I said, I quite liked the light hearted depiction of Giganta they had in the "Giganta Strong" short story. I am not saying they should make her grimdark or anything like that. But I do think it would be nice if the character had a solo outing in a WW comic, if she did something beyond a supervillain teamup and if they established some kind of character dynamic or conflict between Giganta and WW.

[AmiMizuno]

I always wondered should Giganta be large than 50ft. I mean she does fit since they are bringing back her mad scientist villains. I mean what other powers has Giganta have in the past 76 years?

[Totalwar1402]

I always wondered should Giganta be large than 50ft. I mean she does fit since they are bringing back her mad scientist villains. I mean what other powers has Giganta have in the past 76 years?

Well the scale tends to be whatever the artist wants it to be. Theres one image in the Pandora comic where she shouts at a villain where shes clearly bigger than 50 feet tall and shouts so loud she shatters all the glass in a city street; then in the next panel shes a fifth as big as she was. Plus theres that panel where she has the bus in one hand. But she seems to be in that 50 -100 foot tall range.

It'd be neat if they went with something like that. Maybe she realises she keeps getting owned by WW and decides she needs to do something about this. So either she tries to mess around with the thing which makes her big or she just practices fighting and gets better. Its strongly implied that shes just plain clumsy and slow. Maybe she just, has that Eye of the Tiger and just goes out to finally beat WW.

[Agent 86]

I'm guessing it's because no-one has really settled on Giganta's origins, powers / abilities and motivations.

Sometimes she just seems to be the "muscle" for a smarter, less physical villain. Sometimes they remember her one-time origin as a brilliant scientist and she's an intelligent foe. I'm not sure her character motivations beyond "being bad" have ever really been addressed, with the exception of her very first origin story where I think she wanted to steal Diana's strength or something?

As noted, there seems to be a lot of inconsistency as to how big she can actually grow and her strength and invulnerability levels at bigger sizes.

I'd certainly like to see Giganta treated as a recurring and genuine "threat" to Wonder Woman. I think the character is visually interesting (human vs. giant), but she really needs a personal motivation for being Diana's villain and some kind of long-term goal beyond simply being bad and doing bad things.

[Totalwar1402]

I'm guessing it's because no-one has really settled on Giganta's origins, powers / abilities and motivations.

Sometimes she just seems to be the "muscle" for a smarter, less physical villain. Sometimes they remember her one-time origin as a brilliant scientist and she's an intelligent foe. I'm not sure her character motivations beyond "being bad" have ever really been addressed, with the exception of her very first origin story where I think she wanted to steal Diana's strength or something?

As noted, there seems to be a lot of inconsistency as to how big she can actually grow and her strength and invulnerability levels at bigger sizes.

I'd certainly like to see Giganta treated as a recurring and genuine "threat" to Wonder Woman. I think the character is visually interesting (human vs. giant), but she really needs a personal motivation for being Diana's villain and some kind of long-term goal beyond simply being bad and doing bad things.

Yeah I mean they have talked about why she has an issue with Wonder Woman. She thinks that she was a normal person who had a hard life whereas Wonder Woman was a Goddess and everything was perfect for her; so what gives Diana the right to lecture her? That is a neat contrast. Having somebody who is, to all intents and purposes just a normal person be quite cynical about Diana is a fairly neat idea.

The problem as you say is that its only used to justify her being a mercenary character who is a narcissist and doesn't care about anything. Even the Joker or Riddler have goals and things to want besides just being other peoples minions. Despite just being bad and doing bad things. The Riddler in the Arkham games for example has a completely trite motivation of wanting to prove he is the worlds smartest man and unmask batman; but it doesn't prevent him being an interesting or at least entertaining character. With Giganta shes doing things of no consequence or tagging along with other people.


I mean any character is as powerful as the writers want them to be. But yeah, if the writers themselves put her up as a punching bag it doesn't sell the character. If anything I actually think they've been pretty consistent lately that she isn't a physical challenge to WW. In fact as I mentioned before with WW joking about it this seems to be getting a bit meta. Like, in that "Giganta strong" story it plays on how nobody recognises her in her own home town (despite being a supervillain).

[AmiMizuno]

I think the best way to go is a simple origin. In one of her origins, she wanted to find a cure for a disease. I would keep that as her origins. She should be able to keep her intelligent no matter how tall she can go. Why does she go after Diana it can easily just be a cross encounter.

[Totalwar1402]

I think the best way to go is a simple origin. In one of her origins, she wanted to find a cure for a disease. I would keep that as her origins. She should be able to keep her intelligent no matter how tall she can go. Why does she go after Diana it can easily just be a cross encounter.

I am pretty happy with the origin itself. I am a little confused as to how exactly she went from sickly abused girl to narcissist super villain. In the Pandora story they seemed to imply the cure made her more violent and altered her mind. Whereas the more recent stuff implies its a result of her being bullied.
Maybe its both but I get mixed messages from that.


The problem with her being sick and looking for a cure is that you have to ask "Why doesn't Diana just help her get the cure?" I mean, yes, you could ask the exact same question about Mr Freezeand Batman. But theres also the issue that Giganta's power isn't a really a hindrance since she can control it and she wouldn't need to seek a cure.
I mean that's one reason I think making her story quite insular is a problem. If she really is this narcissist who, isn't a total monster since she saved that kid in the story and hasn't really done anything totally beyond the pale, why hasn't Diana tried to get through to this person? Funnily enough, they have Pandora do pretty much this in that comic run. The problem there is, that seems to be what they're doing with Cheetah so that road is closed off.

Come think about it, does Catwoman have a long term goal? Basically she just wants to get rich and get all the shiny. But that character works because you have this ongoing relationship with Batman, toying with her going good but not quite being good and falling back to her old ways. That's probably the direction they should fully go for. Maybe not to the extent where shes a hero in all but name, but make that the angle. So she can still, rob banks or whatever, but theres more going on.

[Koriand'r]

Some bad guys are villains not because they're Evil, but because they're selfish nonconformists who find themselves with superpowers and it's fun. That's a good enough motivation for me. Power upgrades aren't really necessary, Giganta works best as an antihero. The story in Beach Blanket Bad Guys proves it, personally I was rooting for her. She could have easily destroyed the high school with kids inside and been a mass murderer, but that's not her bag. She's just probably out to have an adventurous lifestyle and make a few bucks along the way.

[Koriand'r]

Doris needing a cure for her disease, becoming a scientist and inventing one is a great way to tie her to Veronica Cale. Cale made her fortune with her pharmaceutical company and she enjoys creating villains to vex Wonder Woman. I could see her somehow stealing the cure's patent and extorting Doris as she makes herself rich.

[Totalwar1402]

Some bad guys are villains not because they're Evil, but because they're selfish nonconformists who find themselves with superpowers and it's fun. That's a good enough motivation for me. Power upgrades aren't really necessary, Giganta works best as an antihero. The story in Beach Blanket Bad Guys proves it, personally I was rooting for her. She could have easily destroyed the high school with kids inside and been a mass murderer, but that's not her bag. She's just probably out to have an adventurous lifestyle and make a few bucks along the way.

Which would be fine if she had her own comic run where she could just be an anti hero and her perspective became the story. But ostensibly she is a Wonder Woman villain and Iam sceptical that they would give her a comic run. Beach Blanket was a good story but to me that suggests they aren’t doing as much as they could with her in the WW comics.

Yeah I mean it does set the tone immediately when she’s just flooring it in the Mustang in the beginning just not giving a care. I did enjoy the overall tone of that story. So you think they should roll with the idea that her “adventuring” is a little bit on the destructive side and the Princess with the Rules doesn’t like that? Yeah I could see that working.

Well I think there was a story around Infinite Crisis where Giganta wrecks WW and is about to crush her until the Flash distracts her so that WW can take her down. Plus on the cartoon she was the heavy hitter. So in a sense they’ve implied the character is a lot weaker in more recent years. I don’t see the appeal of her being one punched or knocked out in the first panel.

[AmiMizuno]

Why not just have her be yea she did it for the cure but also say what if the cure also unreleased angry that she’s just been buying for years? It terms of goals why not have none. Let’s have it she lost everything and so she just wants to be reckless. If society destroyed her goals and dreams why not wreak society

[Fuzzy Mittens]

Personally I feel like the thing holding Giganta back is a combination of her role and how to utilize her.
Like, yes some takes treat her as a genius (while others treat her as a literal gorilla) but she is generally viewed as the muscle of any team. Honestly power isn't an issue when you can establish her to be strong as heck which is really easy to do given her build.

But its similar to why Rhino doesn't come up much in Spiderman stuff. Her whole thing is shes big and strong which is impressive, but what does she offer to a story beyond being an opponent whose potentially stronger than Wonder Woman physically? I mean sure if you pair her with Cheetah whose potentially faster than Wonder Woman it might mean something but as a solo act she lacks a large scale goal to lend itself to stories.

The best way to work with her would probably be to establish a connection to some other major Wonder Woman villain (like Veronica Cale) and make her the muscle or jobgirl of whoever shes working for.

[Agent 86]

I think the best way to go is a simple origin. In one of her origins, she wanted to find a cure for a disease. I would keep that as her origins. She should be able to keep her intelligent no matter how tall she can go. Why does she go after Diana it can easily just be a cross encounter.

Sounds good to me. Doris is unwell. Doris wants Diana to help Doris get better, presumably by allowing Doris access to Themysciran technology since Diana is no longer a brilliant scientist herself (that's IF the Amazons even have advanced technology these days - I can't keep up). For "reasons", Diana can't help Doris. Perhaps Diana genuinely tries to help, but is unsuccessful. Or perhaps Hippolyta doesn't want Themysciran technology to be disclosed to man's world. So, Doris resents Diana and when Doris manages to cure herself with the unexpected side-effect or being able to grow super-tall and super-strong, Doris seeks her revenge.

At least it gives her a clear axe to grind with Diana. If Giganta then chooses to basically be "muscle for hire" because she simply enjoys being formidable after a life spent being overlooked and unwell, that's all well and good. But, if she's one of Diana's villains, then she still needs some kind of personal beef with Diana.

[Carabas]

I just feel Giganta is inherently a very limited character.

She's tall. Whoop-dee-doo.
And she's a mad scientist in a universe where those are a dime a dozen, many of them madder and more interesting.

At least they finally got her out of that ridiculous bikini.

[jump]

Have her be a kaiju cosplayer or wear a cutesy monster pj onesie then grow a 150 feet, throw her in a city and start a rampage!