Genocide: can she be salvaged or properly revamped?

[daBronzeBomma]

DC's Trinity tend to have villains that can be lumped together under a common label.

The Arch-Enemies: Cheetah, Luthor, Joker

The Past Connections: Circe, Brainiac, Two-Face

The Overlords: Ares, Darkseid, Ra's al Ghul

The Distorted Reflections: Artemis, Bizarro, Red Hood

The Destroyers: Genocide, Doomsday, Bane

On that last label, Doomsday and Bane have both made through multiple storylines in the comics and animation and movies.

But Genocide remains almost forgotten.



Clearly she doesn't have the staying (if one-trick) powers of her brethren, but can this be changed?

What about Genocide, as she was presented, kept her from being used again by other writers?

If she was to be brought back, what would you change about her? Let's say everything but her name is up for grabs and on the table for this revamp.

How would you bring back a Genocide that would be as successful in the Wonderverse as Doomsday and Bane have been to their respective franchises?

[Super-Wonder]

I love Genocide! One of my favorite contributions from Simone's run and something that I think is completely viable for a return without having to change a thing. As I recall . . . and I could be wrong . . . Genocide was created from the corpse of a Wonder Woman from an alternate reality and seeded with the soil of site where mass graves or where genocide occurred (a corruption of Diana's Clay Origin). http://comicvine.gamespot.com/genocide/4005-58061/ . . . looks like I remember it differently. Given this model the alternate reality can be used as a vehicle for her return . . . we don't know where she disappeared to after her final battle with Diana. Perhaps Ares, who was behind the orchestration of Genocide's creation teleported her to another realm and she can emerge from that place just as easily. I would make some minor changes to her look a little to make her more menacing, but Simone stated that she wanted some of that 90's appeal in her aesthetic so the image to the left is in that vein.

Just reread the story and Ares was the orchestral mind behind it all, using Diana's corps from the future not an alternate reality. Genocide can teleport so that's probably how she disappeared at the end.

[Lex Luthor]

I get where Simone was going with her but I just don't think she was a necessary character for Diana. She was way too single minded imo to have worked and the backstory she was apart of didn't work well enough for that sort of plot device doomsday-esque type of character to be memorable and not to mention Diana didn't die or anything for Genocide to be as memorable as Bane or Doomsday

[Carabas]

I get where Simone was going with her but I just don't think she was a necessary character for Diana. She was way too single minded imo to have worked and the backstory she was apart of didn't work well enough for that sort of plot device doomsday-esque type of character to be memorable and not to mention Diana didn't die or anything for Genocide to be as memorable as Bane or Doomsday

It's hard to tell where Simone was going with it given that so much of the story was mangled by editorial rewrites, starting with who Genocide was supposed to be: a dead New God (Knockout, formerly of the Secret Six).

[Super-Wonder]

I think what came to fruition, editorial intervention or not, came together pretty well.
The use of Diana's corpse from the future and the inclusion of soil from places of genocide created a very counter character to that of Wonder Woman, and irredeemable perversion of her character.
Granted that this character may not be to everyone's taste but the comparison to Doomsday and Bane is very clear for me. She actually has elements of both Bane and Doomsday as she was starting to exhibit cunning towards the end of that story arc.
All of the power and threat of a Doomsday with the ability to project anger into the peripheral life forms around her, and teleportation, grants Genocide a great deal of potential worth exploring.

[username_]

No, Genocide is a cheap Doomsday ripoff and Wonder Woman deserves better than cheap knockoffs of iconic Superman villains such as Veronica Cale and Genocide. Plus the character looks really bad design-wise.

As far as I'm concerned, the First Born supplanted Genocide, First Born embodies male unbridled aggression, I'd rather keep him.

[Super-Wonder]

What kept her from being used by other writers is that Wonder Woman went through a lot of changes shortly after the story arc.
It was obvious that Simone wanted to establish a relationship with the Achilles and develop other subplots with the death of her patron god of the Hawaiian islands and the introduction of Men to Themyscira, but the title was renumbered and overhauled for the Odyssey makeover which reinvented her whole character. Then immediately after that she was Rebooted into the New 52 and made over again for the next 5 years.

With Azzarello steeped in mythology, Finch's meandering, and the bottle neck constraints of only having one title juxtaposed to Batman's and Superman's multiple titles, there wasn't enough room to wedge in development of Wonder Woman's expanded universe especially when so much time had been used in just trying to establish her character.

A small portion of remedying this is to publish multiple Wonder Woman titles per month to explore her world more regularly, including classic villains and new foes. If Wonder Woman had 2 or three titles I'm certain that we would have seen Genocide by now.

[Super-Wonder]

No, Genocide is a cheap Doomsday ripoff and Wonder Woman deserves better than cheap knockoffs of iconic Superman villains such as Veronica Cale and Genocide. Plus the character looks really bad design-wise.

As far as I'm concerned, the First Born supplanted Genocide, First Born embodies male unbridled aggression, I'd rather keep him.

First Born was pretty great and creepy too, but there's no reason why we can't have both.

[Carabas]

No, Genocide is a cheap Doomsday ripoff and Wonder Woman deserves better than cheap knockoffs of iconic Superman villains such as Veronica Cale and Genocide. Plus the character looks really bad design-wise.

Now, now.

Let's not pretend that "unstopple juggernaut of brute violence" and "evil magnate" are somehow unique villain concepts that Superman writers came up with first.

[Dr. Poison]

No, Genocide is a cheap Doomsday ripoff and Wonder Woman deserves better than cheap knockoffs of iconic Superman villains such as Veronica Cale and Genocide. Plus the character looks really bad design-wise.

As far as I'm concerned, the First Born supplanted Genocide, First Born embodies male unbridled aggression, I'd rather keep him.

I'd rather forget about both Genocide and the First Born. They were both near mindless killing machines with little development for either character beyond them wanting to destroy. Plus both of them have really horrible designs. Let them rest in Limbo.

[numberthirty]

I'd rather forget about both Genocide and the First Born. They were both near mindless killing machines with little development for either character beyond them wanting to destroy. Plus both of them have really horrible designs. Let them rest in Limbo.

"Can?" is a different question than "What would be the point?"

If there is a reason to do it, the question of "Can it be done?" is worth addressing. As of right now, I'm not seeing a reason.

[Super-Wonder]

Can it be done? Yes!
What would be the point? To add another epic adventure to the history of Wonder Woman's library of awesome tales and build on the character of a viable villain that can return again and again.

[Koriand'r]

If she had remained Knockout she may have possibly worked, but her horrible design mixed with her improbable origin makes her unusable. Of all the major new villains invented by a writer and no longer seen Devastation was the best. She should be about 4 places ahead of Genocide in the revamp and return line.

[Pinsir]

Destruction should get a shot before her. Genocide was just kind of there.

[Carabas]

If we ever get a writer who really dug Simone's run, Genocide will be back, possibly with a not quite as ugly a costume.