Wonder Woman 1984 is set to hit HBO Max and viewers may want to know some things about Kristen Wiig's Cheetah before watching.
The release of Wonder Woman 1984 has delighted fans due to the long wait it has been for the movie to premiere. While celebrating this release has taken many forms, one of the better ways to do so is to familiarize oneself with the original storylines and characters from the comics.
Cheetah is the primary antagonist of Wonder Woman 1984 and this one has been adapted to fit the thematic qualities of the DC Extended Universe. However, comic book readers are aware that the character has a storied history in the source material. These fans will love to refresh their memory and movie fans should also check out the things about Cheetah from the comics.
It’s a key point from the comics that the Cheetah moniker has been shared by multiple characters. For almost four decades, Priscilla Rich was the only Cheetah, before she was joined by the likes of Deborah Domaine, Barbara Ann Minerva, and Sebastian Ballestreros.
The first two ended up as ultimately lesser in significance, as they got redemption arcs and didn’t antagonize Wonder Woman as much. Barbara is most commonly associated as the main Cheetah, while Sebastian is the only male version of the character.
It’s a common question about Wonder Woman among casual fans as to who her archenemy is supposed to be. Cheetah is the one worthy of this tag, with her main characterization being that of the embodiment of a person who becomes the worst due to her insecurities -- this contrasts with Wonder Woman’s empowered persona.
Cheetah is considered as such due to her relentless pursuit of Wonder Woman, being the only villain who constantly pursues her despite not having any familial connections as Ares has with her.
The Barbara Ann Minerva version isn’t supposed to be physically grotesque, as her mutation is a form of a curse gone wrong. Her powers were bestowed to her by the plant god Urzkartaga by way of ingesting a potion with questionable ingredients.
However, the side effect of receiving superhuman abilities is the deformed appearance due to the fact that Minerva wasn’t a virgin while the potion is intended for a person that is one. As such, Minerva had to experience bloodthirsty tendencies and painful transformations.
The only reason why Sebastian was able to become the Cheetah was because Barbara was cut off from Urzkartaga’s influence. The plant god sought to punish Barbara for her many failures, and after punishing Barbara didn’t reap better results, decided to get a new Cheetah instead.
Due to this, Sebastian became endowed with the powers and Minerva had to resort to stealing the power of the Furies to challenge him. It was only after she killed Sebastian that she won Urzkartaga’s favor back and was able to become the Cheetah again.
It sounds like a pretty dumb decision to purposefully become a horrible-looking creature, but Barbara not only took this on, she had to contend with waiting for the full moon to turn. The need for this was changed in One Year Later, where a spell by Circe stops the reliance on the moon.
Following this, Barbara could change her forms at will and was gifted actual cheetahs to command. The spell also improved her skills as she became much faster and agile, while her fangs became so sharp she could pierce Superman’s skin.
It’s one of the DCEU’s mistakes to introduce villains that don’t have much of a connection with the protagonist. Well, the comics weren’t all that great with Cheetah, as the Barbara Minerva version’s beef with the superhero began because she was fascinated by the Lasso of Truth.
The origin of this interest had to do with Barbara being an archeologist and the idea of such a powerful item was alluring to her. To this end, she manipulated Wonder Woman into trusting so she could steal the lasso, although her truth was found eventually.
What better to establish a new villain than by having them dispose of the older one? That’s the case with the two Cheetahs in question, as Barbara was responsible for taking Priscilla’s life, which was supposed to set up how dangerous the new Cheetah was.
In-universe, the reasoning for this was Zoom’s argument that Barbara would never reach her full potential if the original Cheetah was still alive. Agreeing with this logic, Barbara went ahead and killed Priscilla to be the only Cheetah remaining.
There’s a chance that recapping the most important plot points of the DCEU might have the story of Cheetah and Zoom’s romance. This is the case in the comics, where Zoom took notice of Cheetah’s impressive skills in speed and decided to mentor her.
This reaped great results for Cheetah, as she was able to reach super-speed levels. The partnership also began an intimate relationship between Zoom and Cheetah, although there didn’t seem to be any interest on his part to make it an emotional connection.
All the prior facts don’t really matter in present-day DC Comics, as the universes were rebooted as part of The New 52 angle. Under this, the previous continuity didn’t exist and Barbara Ann Minerva was placed as the only Cheetah by now.
The previous Cheetah identities were reduced to being aliases Barbara used in her criminal activities and her background was changed. In the new story, Cheetah got her powers by cutting herself on a dagger of a lost tribe of Amazons, causing her to be possessed by a being called the Goddess of the Hunt.
It remains to be seen where Cheetah will rank among the villains of the DCEU, although she’s reached a good standing in the DC Comics. To be fair, her association with other villains has been spread out between the multiple women who took on the Cheetah identity.
Still, it’s pretty impressive how many teams the Cheetah has found herself in, with Priscilla Rich being part of Villainy Inc., followed by Deborah and Barbara being in Injustice League, Secret Society of Super Villains, and Super Foes. Finally, Barbara was also in the Legion of Doom and the Suicide Squad.
