Quote Originally Posted by LifeIsILL View Post
Never felt her villains were weak. She has a really diverse cast of villains, which DC seems to forget.
Quote Originally Posted by king81992 View Post
Disagree that Wonder Woman's villains are weak. Her rogue gallery is deep and varied, with several world level or higher threats, buts writers want to shill the Greek gods, Cheetah or Grail.
We can agree to disagree. I've been reading comics for decades and I can name two Wonder Woman villains. And I think Circe's sort of bland for a sorceress type character, and a were-cheetah (whatever her strengths/powers are depending on the writer) doesn't seem like she ought to be in the same league as Wonder Woman. It's like taking Spider-Man and making his main villain Scorpion or the Tarantula. Fine to show up and get a whupping every 10-15 issues, but arguably your archenemy? Dang.

That said, any character can be great in the hands of a good writer. Warren Ellis made me give a s##t about Jack Flagg in his Thunderbolts run:

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He even got to be on the Guardians of the Galaxy for a cup of coffee because of Ellis' handling of him, though they weren't the Disney mega-franchise they are now at that time. Alan Moore took Rob Liefeld's "Edgy", teeth-gritting Superman knock-off Supreme and made some of my favorite Superman stories ever.

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But that doesn't mean that they stand on their own. Doctor Doom. Thanos. Darkseid. the Joker. Lex Luthor. Green Goblin. Loki. Those are names that earn respect. I'd argue Cheetah is included in group villain shots only because she's Wonder Woman's main villain and they feel they need to, but I'd say she's not even on par with your Two-Faces, Black Adams, Captain Colds, or Baron Zemos. Wonder Woman deserves better. As to power levels, that means nothing if the readers don't care. Any writer can create a new character that can rewrite reality or lift a galaxy (and many do, as it's something you can do right away rather than taking the time to establish character/motivation/story) but they don't have staying power unless fans connect with them in some way. How many new "smartest man/woman in the universe" characters have we seen pop up in the last 20 years, only to fade into the background or cede panel time to the next version of them because fans just don't care?

If she has world-beaters in her rogue's gallery that aren't on Mount Olympus that's great, but again I've been reading (mostly superhero) comics since I was a wee lad and can name only two of her villains. And gun to your head, if you had to poll 100 random comic fans how many do you think would be able to do better without throwing out names from Greek myth and hoping they stuck?