Cunning & Ferocious!! The CHEETAH Appreciation

[SiegePerilous02]

She looks pretty silly with that full cheetah face.

She looks too...cute. Like some anime cat girl.

But I guess intimidation isn't really a goal for any character on this show, they're all kind of adorable.

[SiegePerilous02]

I've never really been that fond of the "abused bride" interpretation of the Cheetah. It makes it seem like Urzkartaga is the real WW rogue, and not Barbara Minerva, who comes across disempowered and unimpressive by comparison. I really liked the flashback issue showing her search for the Amazons, and I've enjoyed her interactions with Diana and the gang through the rest of Year One...but there is a part of me that wishes she was the one filling Veronica Cale's role right now as the unscrupulous, cunning mastermind behind everything. I've always had a vision of Barbara Minerva in my mind as a sort of Dan Brown villain, almost an evil Indiana Jones who seeks out ancient secrets and uses them for personal gain, and dropping her civilized veneer to transform into the Cheetah when she needs to throw down. Ah well, let's see how this goes.

I do miss the ruthless, creepy edge that Perez's Barbara had, that seems to be lacking so far in this one. I think it's a necessary change due to the premise of making them friends though, which is a damn good premise. Diana and Perez's Barbara would never have been friends even before the transformation. We do have the hints that she got turned into the Cheetah due to her own hubris after she became envious of Diana's link to the Gods, and maybe being publicly associated with Wonder Woman overshadowed a lot of her own accomplishments. Like Priscilla, Barbara's envy got the better of her. Her actions as Cheetah are still undocumented in this canon, though hopefully Rucka and other writers remember her intellect when it comes to deadly relics she could have used in her madness. We also haven't gotten much reaction towards her from Steve. I think a great source of tension between Diana and Steve would be Steve not being as eager to trust or forgive Barbara.

Rucka said he wants to make her Diana's Harvey Dent. Maybe that's not the ideal a lot of us wanted (like cementing her as Diana's Joker), but it is considerably better than having a writer on board who thinks Cheetah has nothing in common with Diana besides being a woman. Like what the actual hell.

[Thirteen]

Stumbled upon some unpublished WW pages featuring Cheetah on Drew Johnson's DeviantArt page. WORTH checking out if you haven't seen them. Some of his BEST work teamed with inker and colorist. My one minor complaint is that Cheetah has tiger stripes on her face instead of the appropriate cat markings.

Johnson's description:
"From an unpublished stand alone Wonder Woman story that I drew a couple of years ago.
It's an exciting story by Michael Jelenic---One of the most exciting scripts I've ever drawn. Inks are by Ray Snyder, and colors are by Lizzy John. They both did the best work over my pencils I've ever seen."

Start of the gallery of pages here:
http://drewedwardjohnson.deviantart....pg-4-320323476

Same team on a commission featuring Diana and Minerva (?)
http://cursethatmonkey.blogspot.com

[Nyssane]

Rucka said he wants to make her Diana's Harvey Dent. Maybe that's not the ideal a lot of us wanted (like cementing her as Diana's Joker), but it is considerably better than having a writer on board who thinks Cheetah has nothing in common with Diana besides being a woman. Like what the actual hell.

I think if Rucka had it his way, Veronica Cale would be her Joker. And we all know that's not happening.

Stumbled upon some unpublished WW pages featuring Cheetah on Drew Johnson's DeviantArt page. WORTH checking out if you haven't seen them. Some of his BEST work teamed with inker and colorist. My one minor complaint is that Cheetah has tiger stripes on her face instead of the appropriate cat markings.

Those were published in Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman a couple years ago. It's a great story.

[El_Gato]

According to a recent rumored roster leak, Cheetah will be a playable character in Injustice 2. Although it's unknown if she'll be a skin with her own voice and traits (ala John Stewart, Zoom and Powergirl) or if she'll be a launch character/DLC. Can't wait to see what she looks like though

[El_Gato]

Injustice 2 Cheetah!!

[Dr. Poison]

Creepy cool!

[El_Gato]

Cheetah looks sick!! She's super fast and her claws do some damage! She reminds of a Mileena/Wolverine hybrid! So glad NRS/DC added her! Fingers crossed for an Ares return as well!

[marhawkman]

You guys think that Cheetah should wears some cloths when she's out and about as it seems that she's technically running around in the buff . . .

While many dislike that... I LOVE it, for exactly the reason you said.

[Mel Dyer]

We're not going to see Cheetah fully realized, as Wonder Woman's organic arch-nemesis, until the threat of her is fully realized - until we see Cheetah conquer the world, shape it to her grotesque purposes, ..and Diana confronted with the bloody, apocalyptic horror of that.

We've seen what happens, when Ares, Circe or the First Born are allowed to win the world, ..and it was pretty dull. Something tells me the horror promised us, if Cheetah conquered the Earth, would be one of the most unsettling displays of villainy in comics. Just imagine ..a predator's world, littered with blooddead, mutilated, rotting and half-eaten corpses, the cripplingly grotesque stillness of which ..would be punctuated with the occasional, primal roar, followed by soul-chilling screams! Imagine the rivers of blood. Imagine the people fleeing for their lives. Imagine the carnage and destruction in the streets! Imagine the rotting corpses and piles of excrement, everywhere - and Cheetah, enthroned, at the center of it all!

When this happens, Wonder Woman will be totally defined for us. We need that.

Wonder Woman and we, her fans, must be confronted with all of that, before this comic gets its Dark Knight Returns moment.

[marhawkman]

but... That's not the sort of thing Barbara Minerva has as a goal. It's both a good thing and a bad thing. Her unorthodox(for a supervillain) goals make her stick out as a person, and not just a caricature of one. But people don't realize how powerful she is because she isn't diabolically evil. Like you said, it's easy for people to not see the villain as a threat when all they do is annoy the hero.

[sakuyamons]

but... That's not the sort of thing Barbara Minerva has as a goal. It's both a good thing and a bad thing. Her unorthodox(for a supervillain) goals make her stick out as a person, and not just a caricature of one. But people don't realize how powerful she is because she isn't diabolically evil. Like you said, it's easy for people to not see the villain as a threat when all they do is annoy the hero.

Perhaps in an alternate universe? Or in a dark future idk.

[Agent Z]

We're not going to see Cheetah fully realized, as Wonder Woman's organic arch-nemesis, until the threat of her is fully realized - until we see Cheetah conquer the world, shape it to her grotesque purposes, ..and Diana confronted with the bloody, apocalyptic horror of that.

We've seen what happens, when Ares, Circe or the First Born are allowed to win the world, ..and it was pretty dull. Something tells me the horror promised us, if Cheetah conquered the Earth, would be one of the most unsettling displays of villainy in comics. Just imagine ..a predator's world, littered with blooddead, mutilated, rotting and half-eaten corpses, the cripplingly grotesque stillness of which ..would be punctuated with the occasional, primal roar, followed by soul-chilling screams! Imagine the rivers of blood. Imagine the people fleeing for their lives. Imagine the carnage and destruction in the streets! Imagine the rotting corpses and piles of excrement, everywhere - and Cheetah, enthroned, at the center of it all!

When this happens, Wonder Woman will be totally defined for us. We need that.

Wonder Woman and we, her fans, must be confronted with all of that, before this comic gets its Dark Knight Returns moment.

Um, no we haven't. They've never won the world.

[Mel Dyer]

Um, no we haven't. They've never won the world.

U-uuhhh...YES, we did, ..way back in the Perez run! Wonder Woman bound Ares in the lasso, and showed him what the Earth would be like, if he won - everyone was dead, and there was no one to worship him, and he backed off, for a very long time. It was the whole point of...like, um, where were you? What comic were you reading

Circe conquered the world or part of it, back in the Jimenez run, when she brainwashed the male Cheetah and Silver Swan into being her servants. She turned all of the men into were-animals, ..even Batman and Superman. Superman-beast went crazy and attacked Wonder Woman and smashed up a lot of stuff, before she got the lasso on him and changed him back, and they cried, and...like, um, ..wher-rrre were you? Did you miss all of that, too?

Honestly, the whole apocalyptic scenario wasn't that epic, with either one of them - Ares and Circe are mostly hot air. Neither were the game-changing stories that we all hoped they would be. Neither, the DKR that changed how we looked at Wonder Woman, but, they were pretty good reads, and I highly recommend them! Even though you'll be reading them in trade, you are seriously in for a ride.

So, why shouldn't Circe get a chance to conquer everything and mess up the world, for awhile? I think it'd be fabulous.

Anyway...check out those stories, I mentioned. You-uurr're welcome...

[Agent Z]

U-uuhhh...YES, we did, ..way back in the Perez run! Wonder Woman bound Ares in the lasso, and showed him what the Earth would be like, if he won - everyone was dead, and there was no one to worship him, and he backed off, for a very long time. It was the whole point of...like, um, where were you? What comic were you reading

Circe conquered the world or part of it, back in the Jimenez run, when she brainwashed the male Cheetah and Silver Swan into being her servants. She turned all of the men into were-animals, ..even Batman and Superman. Superman-beast went crazy and attacked Wonder Woman and smashed up a lot of stuff, before she got the lasso on him and changed him back, and they cried, and...like, um, ..wher-rrre were you? Did you miss all of that, too?

Honestly, the whole apocalyptic scenario wasn't that epic, with either one of them - Ares and Circe are mostly hot air. Neither were the game-changing stories that we all hoped they would be. Neither, the DKR that changed how we looked at Wonder Woman, but, they were pretty good reads, and I highly recommend them! Even though you'll be reading them in trade, you are seriously in for a ride.

So, why shouldn't Circe get a chance to conquer everything and mess up the world, for awhile? I think it'd be fabulous.

Anyway...check out those stories, I mentioned. You-uurr're welcome...

I said Ares never won the world. ANd Circe didn't either. She never ruled anything just got a bigger army. Darkseid took over the world in Final Crisis. That was evil winning. Not what Ares and Circe did.

And what makes you think what Cheetah does will be any better? Especially when she's shown no interest in wanting to take over the world?