Cheetah might be the next female Supervillain to be de-villified

[mathew101281]

It’s been pretty clear for a while now, that any female villain that gets over with the fans gets reformed or at least becomes less villainous. Male villains can gain popularity but remain villains. It doesn’t seem to be the case with female villains. It’s why most people’s top ten villains list is pretty low on females. I see the way that they are marketing Cheetah prior to the new movie and it has me concerned.

[king81992]

The strange part is that the villains(female or otherwise) who should be reformed never get reformed or the reformation never stick

[Digifiend]

Uh, isn't Cheetah currently in the Legion of Doom? She's not turning good any time soon.

[Jody Garland]

She had a period of pseudo-anti-villainny around Final Crisis. It didn't take then and i don't think it'll take now, especially with the long shadow of Superfriends.

[Noodle]

Male villains get the same treatment. There was just an entire movie humanizing Joker. They've done it a ton with Deathstroke in his various series over the years. They never outright reform them but then they don't really do that with the female ones either. The only one I can think of that they did that with was Harley.

Besides, how Cheetah is portrayed going forward is entirely dependent on how she ends up get portrayed in the new Wonder Woman film. People rip on Marvel for movie synergy (and rightfully so) but DC does it just as much.

She had a period of pseudo-anti-villainny around Final Crisis. It didn't take then and i don't think it'll take now, especially with the long shadow of Superfriends.

The Super Friends stigma will fade when WW84 comes out. The same way the Aquaman movie mostly washed the SF stigma from him. The show isn't really played that often on TV anymore and the current generation is too young to remember it, so they base their opinions on the movies.

[Adekis]

I'm in favor of making villains more sympathetic, or even reforming them, a lot of the time.

My "Sympathize But Don't Reform" Pile Includes:

• Cheetah
  
• Sinestro
  
• Poison Ivy
  
• Black Manta
  
• Dr Poison

My "Sympathize and Reform" Pile Includes:

• Lex Luthor
  
• Live Wire
  
• New 52 Metallo
  
• Harley Quinn
  
• Harvey "Two-Face" Dent

My "Neither Sympathize nor Reform" Pile Includes:

• Brainiac
  
• Darkseid
  
• Joker

So I hope they don't reform Cheetah, but I'm not worried if they make her sympathetic.

[Tzigone]

I hate "sympathetic" villains, as general rule. As I've said before, my sympathy dies after two or three horrific acts. Sympathetic villains, to me, are only able to work in the short-term. After that, I just feel like they are whining excuse-makers who don't take responsibility for their own actions.

Also loathe reformed Lex Luthor. Never liked it in the first place, but watching Smallville and whole bunch of fans blaming everyone else and making excuses for every bad thing he did killed that dead for me. Also, the actual show did, too, because while he seemed sympathetic at first, by time the third season ended it was plain he wanted to feel like he was good more than actually be good, since kept making the expedient immoral choice over and over.

[Ulysses]

It’s been pretty clear for a while now, that any female villain that gets over with the fans gets reformed or at least becomes less villainous. Male villains can gain popularity but remain villains. It doesn’t seem to be the case with female villains. It’s why most people’s top ten villains list is pretty low on females. I see the way that they are marketing Cheetah prior to the new movie and it has me concerned.

The thought had not occurred to me, but it does seem like she is not a villain in the Dead Earth book. I would hope she stays a villain.

I want Harley and Ivy to stay straight Villains too. I have no interest in Harley as an anti-hero.

[Ulysses]

I hate "sympathetic" villains, as general rule. As I've said before, my sympathy dies after two or three horrific acts. Sympathetic villains, to me, are only able to work in the short-term. After that, I just feel like they are whining excuse-makers who don't take responsibility for their own actions.

That's a good point.

[K. Jones]

This is sort of persistent with Wonder Woman, right? She's all about, and her writers are all about, redeeming those villains who are kind of sisterly to her. Rucka's run really did good work keeping Veronica Cale, Cyber, and Circe all pretty relatable and sympathetic even while being villainous. Even Poison, actually.

Cheetah tends to be pretty savage. But I can really see them doing, well, basically a "Nebula" with her.

[KangMiRae]

I hope not. I hate when villains turn good, because we know it almost never sticks. They'll turn back when the next writer or editor wants to use them as a villain again.

[Koriand'r]

While Diana is known for reforming her villains with Cheetah I don't think so, mainly because she started out as a friend and was already reformed once but it didn't stick. She's also too high on Wonder Woman's list of adversaries. What can be done with someone like Mayfly doesn't really work for her because Cheetah recurs too often.

[titanfan]

While Diana is known for reforming her villains with Cheetah I don't think so, mainly because she started out as a friend and was already reformed once but it didn't stick. She's also too high on Wonder Woman's list of adversaries. What can be done with someone like Mayfly doesn't really work for her because Cheetah recurs too often.

For this reason, I'd be ok with a Cheetah reformation, just because it's WW's thing to reform her villains.

Cheetah's character is such that it wouldn't be impossible for her to temporarily work with "good guys" to accomplish her agenda.

[Koriand'r]

For this reason, I'd be ok with a Cheetah reformation, just because it's WW's thing to reform her villains.

Cheetah's character is such that it wouldn't be impossible for her to temporarily work with "good guys" to accomplish her agenda.

I don't know, I think there are other avenues to explore. The reason she took the Cheetah powers back in the first place was to save Etta, but she hasn't mentioned her since. If any of Diana's big bads were to be reformed I'd rather it be Ares or Circe. Ares works best as an antagonist and Circe has been inching closer to anti-hero ever since she became Diana's friend as Donna Milton.

[Agent Z]

It’s been pretty clear for a while now, that any female villain that gets over with the fans gets reformed or at least becomes less villainous. Male villains can gain popularity but remain villains. It doesn’t seem to be the case with female villains. It’s why most people’s top ten villains list is pretty low on females. I see the way that they are marketing Cheetah prior to the new movie and it has me concerned.

How many of these villainesses stayed reformed? Hell, between Cassandra Cain, Donna Troy, the Amazons, Raven, Jean Loring, Vanessa Kapatelis, Linda Danvers and others, DC has probably turned more female heroes evil than they've turned female villains good. I hardly saw any complaints when Luthor and Lobo were Justice League members and those two are far worse than any version of Cheetah.

And the reason why top ten lists are so low on female villains is because the majority of them are terrible. They're either femme fatales, women scorned, misandrists or lackeys to a male villain.

I don't know, I think there are other avenues to explore. The reason she took the Cheetah powers back in the first place was to save Etta, but she hasn't mentioned her since. If any of Diana's big bads were to be reformed I'd rather it be Ares or Circe. Ares works best as an antagonist and Circe has been inching closer to anti-hero ever since she became Diana's friend as Donna Milton.

Circe being anti-hero was very shortlived and was undone by the writer who introduced it. She hasn't been an anti-hero since and certainly isn't one now.