Foes of the Superwomen of EVA #11: Giganta
"The ancient sorceress known as Circe, in the years following Second Impact, mostly kept to herself on her island home, which she managed to protect from the meteorological chaos that engulfed the world. Even so, she kept up with current events thanks to her scrying crystal and her occasional incognito ventures out into the world. Her curiosity was piqued when she learned of the Gods of Olympus choosing a new champion, trained by the Amazons to save the world from an even greater disaster than Second Impact. Her intrigue increased after seeing just who the champion was, revealed to be Rei Ayanami, a genetically-engineered girl who also was pilot for Evangelion Unit-00, one of the superweapons utilized by the U.N. special agency NERV to fight back against the otherworldly menaces codenamed 'Angels'. Circe continued to watch with interest as the Wonder Girl (Rei's new alter-ego, bestowed upon her by the Amazons and the goddesses Athena and Aphrodite) squared off against foes such as the Dark Centurion (the demigod son of Hades, ruler of the Underworld) and the Cheetah (a former archaeologist transformed into an animalistic hybrid by an ancient ritual), opening the door to Tokyo-3 being visited by beings and creatures most would say were straight out of myth.
The Cheetah, in particular, interested Circe because of her managing to acquire a vial containing a sample of a potion she herself had devised nearly a millennia ago. Cheetah, under Dark Centurion's direction, used the potion on an unsuspecting girl-Rei's classmate Hikari Horaki (well before she would become the alien-powered heroine Ms. Martian). Hikari, as a result, grew into a building-sized, near-mindless brute who was sent after Wonder Girl, only for her and fellow hero Power Girl (secretly Rei's fellow EVA pilot Asuka Langley Sohryu) to stop the transformed Hikari's rampage and restore her to normal. It was then Circe knew that she would have to bring the Cheetah to her side as soon as an opportunity presented itself. That opportunity came when Leiliel the 12th Angel struck, nearly swallowing the city of Tokyo-3 and Evangelion Unit-01 whole. Rei was unexpectedly forced to battle the Cheetah as Leiliel attacked, and was unfortunately too late to save the woman after she found herself falling towards the 12th Angel's 'maw'.
Circe, at the last possible minute, used her magic to open a portal above the Angel and pull the Cheetah from an unknown fate, depositing her into the sorceress's room. Circe then declared that the Cheetah would now serve her as repayment for saving her life, pointing out the cat-woman's resourcefulness and cunning as coming in very handy for her future plans. For the time being, she would let the Cheetah rest and recover, and join her in observing the further events of the war with the Angels.
Eventually, following the defeat of the Angels and the thwarting of the SEELE conspiracy, Circe decided to put her plan of 'testing' the now battle-hardened Wonder Girl into action. With Cheetah as her agent, Circe began recruiting a number of female super-criminals into a team she would dub "Villainy, Inc.". In addition to Cheetah herself, these recruits included the renegade biological warfare specialist Dr. Poison; the former stage magician-turned-mental manipulator Hypnota; the cybernetically-enhanced flier Silver Swan; and the exiled Atlantean noblewoman Queen Clea. In searching for the sixth and final member of the group (who would act as their 'muscle'), Circe gave Cheetah another vial of the same potion she used on Hikari Horaki and sent her to Japan to find their 'willing volunteer'.
Said 'volunteer' would be a medical researcher named Dr. Douru Zoda, who had been helping to find a cure for certain blood diseases. Taking the unsuspecting doctor by surprise, Cheetah abducted her and forcefully applied the potion. Soon, Villainy, Inc. had its sixth member in the transformed and brainwashed Dr. Zoda, who Circe gave the name "Giganta". Circe then sent Villainy, Inc. out to wreak havoc on Tokyo-3, drawing the attention of Wonder Girl, who grew surprised by the reappearance of the Cheetah. At first being outnumbered and cornered by the group, Wonder Girl soon fought back with renewed vigor thanks to the arrival of some of her fellow members of the team of superheroes she helped found, the Justice League. While Wonder Girl took care of her 'unfinished business' with the Cheetah, Ms. Martian got into a battle of wills with Hypnota, Supergirl (Asuka after going through a name and costume change) got into a dogfight with Silver Swan, Blue Beetle (Ritsuko Akagi) took on Dr. Poison, and Zatanna (Maya Ibuki) traded magical blows with Queen Clea, leaving Green Lantern (Misato Katsuragi) and the Flash (Mari Makinami) to deal with Giganta. Green Lantern and Flash were able to use Giganta's slow-wittedness and enormous size to their advantage, eventually tripping her and knocking her out as she struggled to hit them, causing her to return to her normal size.
Circe, seeing the outcome of the battle, used her magic to whisk away all of Villainy, Inc. but Giganta, who was held back due to a spell from Zatanna after she'd sensed the sorceress's magic at play. (Circe then vowed to face Wonder Girl herself at a later date...) Hikari, upon reading the unconscious Giganta's mind, found out about her true identity and got the others to help Dr. Zoda out. On recovering in a nearby hospital, Dr. Zoda awoke to find the Leaguers in her room, where they explained the situation to her. Zatanna then informed her that, much to Dr. Zoda's relief, she was able to undo most of the effects of the potion, though with the catch that she still retains her size-changing powers. Wonder Girl then suggested that Dr. Zoda could put her newfound abilities to good use as a researcher at the recently-opened Japan branch of S.T.A.R.-Labs, an idea she took them up on. Occasionally, Dr. Zoda would assist the League against skyscraper-sized threats, such as when planet Earth found itself visited by the alien beings known as the Promethean Giants."
*Author's Note(s)*
Today I start off a new wave of villains (reluctant or not, and oddly, both redheads) with a classic Wonder Woman foe for the Amazon-trained Rei Ayanami to face, and Giganta was a natural way to spin out of a plot point from Mike313's "Amazing Amazon" story. How the spinning out worked was inspired by, of all things, a plot point from 1987's Firestorm (vol. 2) #58 by John Ostrander and Joe Brozowski. In that (post-Crisis on Infinite Earths) issue, Darkseid of Apokolips, remembering the Raymond Maxwell Jensen version of the Superman foe known as the Parasite, manipulates Rudy Jones, a janitor at the Pittsburgh facility of S.T.A.R.-Labs, into becoming the new Parasite. In this case, I just gave this method a mystical bent and swapped out Darkseid for Circe, along with throwing in the formation of a version of a classic Wonder Woman villain team in Villainy, Inc.
As for the anime character to serve as the visual basis for a 'proper' SWOE Giganta (seen with my Deviation), I was lucky enough to stumble upon Matrona, the warrior chief of the Giant Clan from the fan-favorite fantasy manga/anime The Seven Deadly Sins. Among other things, it certainly helped that, like Giganta, she seems to favor wearing animal print garb, which came in handy for my Photoshopping purposes.
