Expanding upon Cheetah's powers

[Marik Swift]

A problem with Cheetah has always been that it's a bit difficult to explain how she's a threat to Wonder Woman who herself is a demigod who fights gods. So I was thinking of a way to make her threatening and came up with this:

We all know the myth about cats having multiple lives, so what if every time Cheetah dies she resurrects twice as strong as she was before. Not only does this make her difficult to deal with as she's virtual impossible to permanently kill, but also better explains how she's somehow as strong as someone as powerful as Diana and is somehow a thread to Diana.

As an added bonus, it would also explain her speed. Cause, see, speed stacks up much higher than strength and durability the higher it goes. For instance, if you were to say she starts of only able to lift 100 lbs and run at 15 MPH, which is average for a human, but then you double that up ten times, in the end, strength is only going to too out at around 60 tons (which in comics is pretty weak), but speed is going to too out at over Mach 10.

Would this be an expansion of Cheetah's powers that can help boost her standing?

[Primal Slayer]

I think her current speed, strength, abilities is enough. Cheetah should be created by a God which grants her the power to go up against WW.

[I'm a Fish]

What Primal Slayer said, it's more so about keeping it consistent that's the issue with her. Writers in the DC Universe seem to forget she's a demi-godess herself. If you remind people of that, it makes a lot more sense how she can be a threat to WW.

A rundown of her powers are:

Super speed: has been stated to be close to, if not as fast as The Flash. Can easily speed around WW herself and tag her.

Claws: Can cut through almost anything (think Wolverine's claws), including Kryptonian skin.

Strength: Can knock around and wrestle sturdy heroes like WW.

Durability: Can take hits from WW and Kryptonians.

Combat: (This ones kind of weird with her because she's not like, proficient in a martial art like most people think when you mention combat as a feat) she's able to fight and out maneuver WW, who's considered the best combat fighter (bare handed or with a weapon)in the DCU.


But I always though a cool ability to add would be if her claws could cut through magic as well.

[Perseus]

What Primal Slayer said, it's more so about keeping it consistent that's the issue with her. Writers in the DC Universe seem to forget she's a demi-godess herself. If you remind people of that, it makes a lot more sense how she can be a threat to WW.

A rundown of her powers are:

Super speed: has been stated to be close to, if not as fast as The Flash. Can easily speed around WW herself and tag her.

Claws: Can cut through almost anything (think Wolverine's claws), including Kryptonian skin.

Strength: Can knock around and wrestle sturdy heroes like WW.

Durability: Can take hits from WW and Kryptonians.

Combat: (This ones kind of weird with her because she's not like, proficient in a martial art like most people think when you mention combat as a feat) she's able to fight and out maneuver WW, who's considered the best combat fighter (bare handed or with a weapon)in the DCU.


But I always though a cool ability to add would be if her claws could cut through magic as well.

This but, also....

Healing Factor: Can heal from fatal injuries very quickly.

Super senses: All her senses have been elevated to godlike.

Night vision: self explanatory

Intelligence: Barbara has 2 Phds (in archeology and ancient cultures) and a doctorate (in education), I hate that she's not as smart as she's suppose to be most of the time.

Godwave connection: Cheetah has a unique connection to the wave of Creation/Destruction that Old Gods use. This would be after her killing Urzcartaga and absorbing his power without the curse.

Cheetah can as change at will now, no?

It would be cool to add a blitz attack unique to Cheetah, the way cheetahs hunt. Barbara could build energy to deliver a stupidly fast rush attack, like Flash wouldn't see it even right in front of him. Its a last resort move as just like real cheetahs, it leaves Barbara very tired afterwards.

[I'm a Fish]

Cheetah can as change at will now, no?

You'd think she's be able to after stealing the power back from Urzkartaga. Honestly, maybe she can and just hasn't tried.

She was very much like, "this is who I am now" about it.

It would be cool to add a blitz attack unique to Cheetah, the way cheetahs hunt. Barbara could build energy to deliver a stupidly fast rush attack, like Flash wouldn't see it even right in front of him. Its a last resort move as just like real cheetahs, it leaves Barbara very tired afterwards.

Yeah, some real world zoology, cheetahs are the the only cat to hunt by outruning their prey. All other cats are ambushed predators who rely on stealth to close the gap, while cheetahs initiate the hunt from a much further distance use pure speed to close the gap. (0-60 mph in 3 strides, that's crazy).

(Their insane speed is also how they get away from other predators as well. They can honestly out run lions and hyenas by jogging, it's kinda funny.)

So it would make a lot of sense to give Cheetah a blitz move, where she could just close the gap on any hero. I remember in an issue of Justice League (2018) when Cheetah told Poseidon "you cannot outpace The Cheetah", it should be a thing where once she's got you in her sights, that's it.

[I'm a Fish]

.Godwave connection: Cheetah has a unique connection to the wave of Creation/Destruction that Old Gods use. This would be after her killing Urzcartaga and absorbing his power without the curse.

Actually, Barbara still has the curse. The curse is that she has a craving for human flesh, and she will experience physical pain if she goes to long without eating someone. But Urzkartaga lied and told her she needs to eat human flesh to live. (Cuz he's a jerk like that)

So she still has the curse, that's why she says "it hurts, it gnaws, like before" (WW vol.5 #19) when Kale turned her back into Cheetah. So she just chooses not to eat people now (or maybe she does and they just don't show it).

I wish that's something they would expand with her character. She's basically in physical pain 24/7 and no one really touches upon that. So many interesting elements to Cheetah that writers just leave dangling...

[Alpha]

I'm not a fan of the Barbara Minerva version of Cheetah. One of the reasons why is because I don't think it's very visually interesting in fights. My idea is to revamp Priscilla Rich into someone that hunts mythical creatures and creares magical suits out of their skins. These suits have this drug like effect that inject a wave of delicious viciousness into her.

Beyond the usual powers, she can wesr multiple layers of various suits and as she is fighting she sheds these layers but they become self animated. So Diana is fighting Cheetah herself on one side and is surrounded on the othersides by animated suits that act like her.

[Gaius]

Hmm, like others said it’s more about portraying her consistently than adding stuff on.

But I guess to throw in my own suggestion the WW ’77 of Barbara had the ability to turn others into Cheetah-slaves and also the ability to control over big cats and animals. I think she’s had that before but not really consistent enough, think it’d make a decent part of her standard power set.

[I'm a Fish]

Hmm, like others said it’s more about portraying her consistently than adding stuff on.

But I guess to throw in my own suggestion the WW ’77 of Barbara had the ability to turn others into Cheetah-slaves and also the ability to control over big cats and animals. I think she’s had that before but not really consistent enough, think it’d make a decent part of her standard power set.

She showed the ability to turn people into were-cheetahs in Justice League (2011) #13 & #14 by biting them. But it was weird because apparently it's actually more of an instant-death move, since people who are bitten by her usually die from the transformation.

And I have the vaguest memories of it being mentioned again in some holiday issue, where some girl asks Cheetah if she can share her power or something along those lines.

(But then it has never shown up or was mentioned again )

[WonderScott]

Everything Primal Slayer, I’m A Fish, and masterwitcher88 said.

[SiegePerilous02]

Everything Primal Slayer, I’m A Fish, and masterwitcher88 said.

This. Her current base power set is enough, they just need to be consistent with it.

Also don't rely on having her ONLY for physical fights. One of the big issues is that writers don't emphasize her scheming capabilities nearly enough

[I'm a Fish]

This. Her current base power set is enough, they just need to be consistent with it.

Also don't rely on having her ONLY for physical fights. One of the big issues is that writers don't emphasize her scheming capabilities nearly enough

Yeah... her joining the Legion of Doom in Justice League 2018 didn't help with that as much as I was hoping it would.

She had a few impressive physical feats here and there...but the whole team was just reduced to glorified goons for Luthor.

[Gaius]

Yeah... her joining the Legion of Doom in Justice League 2018 didn't help with that as much as I was hoping it would.

She had a few impressive physical feats here and there...but the whole team was just reduced to glorified goons for Luthor.

That's always been the problem with villain teams composed of the arches. There's Cheetah but why would Sinestro take orders from a CEO from Earth or anyone would willingly let Joker on your team.

[Agent Z]

You could add her turning into a cheetah to increase her speed further at the cost of strength and durability.

[SiegePerilous02]

That's always been the problem with villain teams composed of the arches. There's Cheetah but why would Sinestro take orders from a CEO from Earth or anyone would willingly let Joker on your team.

I can see Lex inviting the Joker because he knows the Joker will have a hissy fit if he's not invited. Plus, they are genuinely the closest thing to "super villainous BFFs" that we might get. Lex has said he finds the Joker's company strangely compelling, and I think the Joker respects Lex in his own warped way. It was kind of ruined by the reveal the Joker was Plas in disguise, but i loved that little bit in Rock of Ages where Lex called Joker over with "OMG dude, come look at this, I think i just killed Superman!"

I can picture Cheetah working with Lex, but it would be a dark reflection of the Trinity friendship: Superman is the glue that holds that partnership together (at least at first, Bruce and Diana would get platonically closer as time goes on), and Lex would be needed to control any Lex/Cheetah/Joker team up. If written well, Bruce and Diana would come to respect and like each other fairly quickly despite a rocky start; no way is Cheetah ever going to move past "barely tolerating him out of a grudging respect for Lex" in her feelings for the Joker. And I think the Joker would be a little bit afraid of Cheetah. She's the only one out of the three who is innately powerful, and she doesn't have much of a sense of humor. Lex can laugh along with the Joker at least on some things, Cheetah wouldn't. Being who he is, he wouldn't be able to resist trolling her, but also hoping Lex could prevent her from snapping and mauling him.

Every team up between the three would end in disaster, and Lex would be like "never again," but then drunk dial them both a few weeks later saying "I got a new idea, it's totally gonna work this time, swear to God."