I blame it on lack of creativity. Phil Jimenez and Geoff Johns have done right by Giganta. Others should follow suit.
Currently(or soon to be) Reading: Alan Scott: Green Lantern, Batman/Superman: World's Finest, Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Jay Garrick: The Flash, Justice Society of America, Power Girl, Superman, Shazam, Titans, Wesley Dodds: Sandman, Wonder Woman, & World's Finest: Teen Titans.
Characters with size changing powers have had their own comics and films. Given that they have a habit of putting her on the front cover of the comics and she’s been in a reasonable amount of other media that would imply the opposite. Her being tall is such a strong selling point they don’t feel required to do much else with the character. There is an appeal to having WW fight a 50 foot woman.
Her being a Doctor isn’t really given too much focus. It’s a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy to say she’s an under developed character so shouldn’t have any development. I mean Mr Freeze is basically a doctor with an ice gun. It’s what they did with his story that sold the concept.
Yeah I wasn’t a fan of the bikini. I’d have said her best look was when she had the full body suit, although I liked the artists take of her current look in Beach Blanket Bad Guys with the orange and steel coloration. Generally speaking I prefer when shes closer to as she was in the JL animated show where she’s tall but not a body builder.
I prefer a buff, bodybuilder-esque Giganta. There aren't many muscular women in comic books, so it sets Giganta apart from the others. Plus, the more intimidating and formidable she looks, the more serious I think fans (and writers) will take her.
If it were up to me, though, I'd scrap the scientist background and go for something a bit simpler. Her origins have always been super convoluted when they don't need to be; her selling point is that she can grow huge.
Putting aside the giant puns, there are lots of characters in Diana's rogues gallery that can be brought back. Among her opponents, I believe Doctor Psycho and Doctor Poison are the two with the best potential to become real A-list opponents, and Silver Swan has strong connections with Diana already.
However, if a writer has a good idea for a story with Giganta, DC shouldn't stop it. Or even more if a well-written Giganta-focused arc comes up. But I feel that Giganta has a decent position as a physically oriented B-list villain that can be used for one-offs or as muscle for more potent villains. Let her grow organically from there, rather than trying to force her into a specific mold.
Giganta is usually utilized for the visual - height contrast, giant hands, crashing down, wearing Donna Troy around her neck (which I loved), etc. Little work has gone into making her an interesting character. It's also never clear why she's an actual threat to Diana, even pre-crisis Diana. Her size makes her an easy target, and while she may be strong, Diana's stronger, faster, and has an infinitely elastic lasso.
And the only reason we really know who she is today is because of her role in The Super Friends TV show. That's what brought her out of the Golden Age and into the public eye, and she just remains on the fringes: in the corner of the eye, under-developed, and almost always used only as a beat in a story instead of a real part of a storyline.
Honestly, the only time I've ever enjoyed reading her, I think, is her brief appearance during Gail Simone's run, when Diana erroneously assumes Giganta wants to fight, and they end up having a conversation on the beach. That scene, I think, was a precursor to the aborted team book that Gail was going to write for DC in which Diana would have been leading an oddball team and Giganta would have been one of the team members.
Yeah I saw some of the panels for that story, it was really good. But to me that’s proof that everything is better if you add story and characterisation. That one is good in particular because you have WW involved in this back and forth.
Well, why is a Titan a threat to Kratos in God of War? Objectively it’s just a big monster but we cloak this in mysticism so accept that it’s a threat to Kratos. The issue is that Giganta isn’t a Titan (BTW Iam surprised they weren’t tempted to do that) and so she doesn’t have that aura of myth the same way Cheetah does for example. I mean Gigantas power level is inconsistent, in that panel you mentioned she is able to physically restrain WW, meaning she has to be stronger. Plus it mustn’t be overlooked that it’s meant to insinuate how powerful WW is that she can knock someone like that out cold. But yeah, to quote Varys “power is an illusion”. ��
Last edited by Totalwar1402; 08-21-2018 at 10:04 AM.
Currently(or soon to be) Reading: Alan Scott: Green Lantern, Batman/Superman: World's Finest, Fire & Ice: Welcome to Smallville, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Jay Garrick: The Flash, Justice Society of America, Power Girl, Superman, Shazam, Titans, Wesley Dodds: Sandman, Wonder Woman, & World's Finest: Teen Titans.
I feel she would be used more if she fit in with Diana’s world more thematically. Not all Diana’s villians need to be myth based, but I feel Giganta would really work better if she was. What does being a mad scientist or an evolved gorilla really ad to the character? Her being a mythological giant instantly makes her conflict with Diana more legit, interesting, and logical. It might also give her a power up to. In Myth giants weren’t just the enemies of humanity, they were essentially primordial forces of nature powerful enough to take on the gods. The main problem with Giganta right now is that she she seems disconnected from Wonderwoman’s world.
Why can’t she be both a mad scientist and a giant? That she was half a giant. When she learns this she wants to mess around with her giant dna . To see how far she can push her dna. She is able to grow tall but loses her intellectual. She tries to figure out how to keep her intelligence. Diana tries to stop her before she goes to far . But it’s far to late. Doris keeps her intelligence but does have every now and then can’t keep her intelligence or angry in check. I do wonder why not have her get to the point of using a giants as a army. And also help them become intelligence. I don’t want Doris to be too much myths and too much mad scientist. Somewhere