InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Je t'aime."

mosellegreen (mosellegreen) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-06-03 20:29:00

Entry tags:

char: cheetah/priscilla rich, char: etta candy, char: wonder woman/diana of themyscira, creator: william moulton marston, era: golden age, publisher: dc comics

Golden Age Wonder Woman and the Cheetah
These are from Sensation #22, published in October 1943. A Cheetah story!

I told you the colorist would get the Cheetah's zebra minions right later.

It is, of course, a trap.

http://pics.livejournal.com/mosellegreen/pic/001dybez
http://pics.livejournal.com/mosellegreen/pic/001dzggs
http://pics.livejournal.com/mosellegreen/pic/001e04hy
http://pics.livejournal.com/mosellegreen/pic/001e1g35
http://pics.livejournal.com/mosellegreen/pic/001e2pez
http://pics.livejournal.com/mosellegreen/pic/001e3z5k
http://pics.livejournal.com/mosellegreen/pic/001e4krh
http://pics.livejournal.com/mosellegreen/pic/001e56cy
http://pics.livejournal.com/mosellegreen/pic/001e6t65

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	fungo_squiggly 2009-06-03 08:12 pm UTC (link)
	Barbara Minerva should trade in the cheetah-skin pants for a harem of zebra-themed slaves like Priscilla has here. Sure, the zebra-girl harem wouldn't make any more sense than the pants. But it would be approximately 1000 times as awesome. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	bluefall 2009-06-04 12:10 pm UTC (link)
	I am in agreement with this post. (Reply to this) (Parent)

psychop_rex
2009-06-04 03:52 am UTC (link)

You know, I know that it makes sense for the Cheetah to be superpowered if she's to be a difficult adversary for Wonder Woman. And I know that Barbara Minerva is an interesting character in her own right (although I haven't read much of her), and that by now her story is an integral part of the WW mythos. And I know that the role of female villain in a cat costume has already been filled by Selina Kyle. And I know that looking to the past too much is not good for comics, and that I should sit back and accept it.
I know all that. But you know what? I DON'T CARE! I LOVE the Priscilla Rich Cheetah, and I wish they'd bring her back.
Why do I love her? Well, to start with, she's psychologically fascinating. This Cheetah is not some power-mad adventuress dabbling in black magic, she's one half of a split personality, an inner demon waiting to get out. Priscilla is genuinely SCARED of turning into the Cheetah again - that's a rich source of inspiration for a good writer.
Secondly, she may NOT be much of a threat in battle, but really, who cares? The current version of WW has an awfully one-note rogue's gallery, by and large - they're all either mythological bogeymen or superpowered lunatics like Dr. Psycho. This makes for some good battles, but not much variety. The original Cheetah could hold her own in a fight well enough, but that wasn't her forte - she largely operated through wits and trickery and the clever application of her alter ego's enormous fortune. It would do Wondy good to have a foe like that - she needs a few plotters and schemers amongst all the monsters and pummelers. She may be a kickass Amazon warrior, but that's not ALL she is - she has a brain, and going up against a vicious mastermind like Priscilla would force her to use it.
Thirdly, the resemblance to Catwoman is really fairly superficial - they both dress in cat costumes; that's all. The Cheetah does not live up to her namesake through a cat theme - she lives up to it by being a huntress, obsessed with stalking down her prey - i.e, Wonder Woman - by any means necessary. Anyway, now that Selina's basically been turned into an antihero instead of a villain, the role of 'villainess in a cat costume' is waiting to be filled, and Priscilla could do so quite nicely.
Fourth - and perhaps most importantly to this board - the PR Cheetah is just so PERVERSE! I mean, look at these scans - this is Marston at his finest here. She's got a GROUP OF SLAVE GIRLS DRESSED IN ZEBRA COSTUMES! Furthermore, her hatred of Wonder Woman seems to come not just from a jealousy of her in particular, but a hatred of 'pretty girls'. Looked at through modern eyes, this would seem, to me, to indicate a deeply buried lesbianism and love of sadomasochism - her bevy of themed slave girls is basically a more elaborate version of the sort of stuff you can find all over the internet, usually under such headings as 'Mistress Blackleather knows that you've been a NAUGHTY GIRL! Come buy her new video so she can SPANK YOU!' In short, she's basically a supervillain lesbian dominatrix clothed in a cheetah-skin sheathe, a persona shaped into evil through years of repression and denial, and brought to light by a lust for a certain shapely Amazon that can be expressed no other way. You're telling me that a good writer couldn't take advantage of this? The comics would sell like hotcakes!
Anyway, I know that Barbara Minerva is unlikely to be replaced by ol' Prissy anytime soon, but it's a crying shame, is all I can say. At the very least, we should see more of her on here.

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bluefall
2009-06-04 12:35 pm UTC (link)

It would do Wondy good to have a foe like that - she needs a few plotters and schemers amongst all the monsters and pummelers.

This is so backwards. Minerva is actually the only member of Diana's rogues' gallery who's remotely a physical threat. Giganta is a joke - she's not even in Cassie's league. The only reason Silver Swan ever puts up an effective fight is that she's inevitably a victim and Diana never wants to hurt whoever's in the costume; the true battle there is always psychological, always a matter of finding the guy pulling the strings. Ares is way out of her league physically; they've never meleed, he'd flatten her. Dr. Poison? Mundane human who creates toxins. Dr. Psycho? If she ever actually punched him, his head would cave in. Circe? She's a sadistic version of Mxy, as is the Queen of Fables. Devastation? A manipulator who created cults and brainwashed Cassie to set her against Diana. Angle Man? Again, mundane human, one who has a distaste for violence and is basically about the chase scene rather than the fight scene. Of Gail's new rogues, Achilles went down in two pages and Wacky Alkyone constitutes zero real physical threat, leaving only Genocide. Veronica Cale pretty clearly doesn't bring any brawn to the table. Chang Tzu, Cyborgirl, and Clea are all mastermind types with no physical capability. The White Magician was the man behind the curtain of a gang war.

Diana's got two meaningful bruiser rogues, which is something like ten percent of the pile, and one of them is a Hot New Foe who twenty bucks says will get forgotten the moment Gail's off the title, and the other jobs to Catwoman. The absolute last thing she needs is yet another villain who threatens Diana on a non-physical level. She is way, way, way overloaded on plotters and schemers. Of which, it should be noted, a properly-written Barbara Minerva is also one - she is, like Diana, as smart as she is strong, and like Diana, both willing and able to use every one of her many, many resources to achieve her goals, including her wealth, her reputation and good name, her charisma, and her tactical cunning.

... sorry. The state of Diana's rogues gallery is something of a sore spot.

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psychop_rex
2009-06-04 03:56 pm UTC (link)

Well, like I said, I don't know much about Barbara Minerva - I know there have been lots of posts on here about her, but I've had to pass them by, as they tend to be gigantic, and I'm on dial-up. The plotters and schemers thing aside, however, it seems to me that most of Wondy's rogues gallery is much alike in terms of general tone. Of the examples you cited, ten of them (including Barbara) are either mythological or magical in nature. (This includes the current Dr. Poison, who may not be mythological herself, but who specializes in the science of mythology.) Then we have Giganta and Silver Swan, both physical threats (you may be right that they are not EFFECTIVE physical threats, but they are both primarily physical in nature, which means that they could BE physical threats if written properly), Dr. Psycho and Chang Tzu, who create physical threats (Psycho is mental in nature, of course, but he does manipulate people into doing his bidding, which often results in dangerous situations for WW to deal with), Angle Man, who's more of a Donna Troy villain from what I've seen of him, so I'll leave him out of this, if you don't mind; Veronica Cale, who's a rich civilian with a grudge, and... the other two, who I don't know anything about, so I won't factor them in.
That makes ten mystic/mythological villains to two physical threats and two threat-creators, along with one rich civilian manipulator. Of the other Wondy rogues I can think of, there's Ares' two sons, Decay, Queen Clea of Atlantis - OK, she was an old-timey villain, but still - and, uh, I'm kind of drawing a blank, so I'll stop there. Still, with those additions, that makes FIFTEEN mystic/mythological villains (well, fourteen and a possible - I'm pretty certain Queen Clea had some sort of mystic thing going on, but I couldn't tell you precisely what). And there are plenty of demons and whatnot that she's gone up against which I haven't factored in because I can't remember their names. The scale is tipped WAY over on the side of mystic/mythological, which is understandable, of course, but it tends to make things awfully one-sided.
And while you may be right about plotters and schemers, it seems to me - and I am only a casual reader of WW, so I may be wrong - that most of these plots and schemes tend to wind up in the creation or unleashing of some new monster or something for Diana to fight. Anyway, to me plotters and schemers are some of the most fascinating type of villains, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. Look at Batman - most of his best villains are plotters and schemers; the only difference is that they tend to show up in person to further along their schemes.
ANYWAY anyway, all that aside, you can hardly deny that a psychotic split-personality repressed lesbian dominatrix type would be an interesting addition (re-addition?) to Wondy's rogues. If nothing else, it might make for an interesting Vertigo treatment...

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