Chapter Ten: ...Make the Axis Fold—Part Three: Cheetah...
Place: Offices of DC Comics, New York City
Year: 1986
While Giganta ultimately reformed, the Cheetah was somewhat different. Here, readers saw a savage brute, an animal that saw to it that would never be a friendship between Diana and herself. Sympathetic or not, the Cheetahs were widely regarded as having had one of the most successful revamps in comics. In fact, fans booed Perez (albeit jokingly) at one comicon when he said that, if he had had the chance, he would have abandoned the earlier Cheetahs in favor of some nobody he would have made from scratch, Barbie Athena, or Minerva, or whatever.
In revamping Priscilla Rich, and Debbie Domaine, Perez knew Rich's origin as a debutante jealous of Wonder Woman worked in the Golden Age but by the 1980s, it didn't work anymore. That was because, when viewed critically, all a debutante is, is a woman saying that her only value in life is being someone's trophy wife. Perez would have none of it but the idea of the number one girl being upstaged and left jealous intrigued him.
"Rich was born into a slum amidst whores, crack heads, and thieves," said Perez. "Her only source of comfort was her mother who conceived her in a one night stand with a high school dropout whose name she forgot the next day. Priscilla almost never saw her mother, though, with how she worked two dead end jobs to keep food on the table; she herself was a second mom to her little sister due to their mom's working so much. Not surprisingly, Rich grew up very fast.
"Life was hard, make no mistake about that, but she was buoyed by her mother's faith in the American Dream, that if you worked hard and played by the rules, you could do anything. Mother Rich accepted her fate; like her own estranged mother said, she'd had her chance and she'd blown it. But Priscilla still had hers! At her mother's insistence, Priscilla studied diligently in school and, more by sheer grit than anything else, routinely got straight As. She took part time jobs and joined clubs to form contacts. She started school newspapers, anything to get ahead. She graduated high school three years early as the valedictorian and was accepted into Yale at fifteen. Mom was so proud!
"Priscilla Rich interned at various corporations before finally getting enough money to start her own. For the sake of storyline, it doesn't really what kind of business she started but it was this newly minted multi-millionaire's lifelong dream. It was all shattered, however, because the day of the grand unveiling was the day Wonder Woman made her supervillain smashing debut right across the street. The reporters left in droves to see this new superhero leaving Rich all alone." Perez saw a few sympathetic glances going his way. Good!
"There she was," he continued, "choking out the rest of her speech that if you just believe in yourself you can do anything, that dreams really do come true… She herself is living proof of that ideal. After all, she whimpers, 'I'm Wonder Woman.'
"Rich destroyed a hundred thousand dollars worth of fine china when she got home that night. She couldn't believe it! She's the one who went from rags to riches, without super powers mind you! She made it! She's every little girl's role model! And now all of a sudden this bimbo from la-la land comes and takes everything she worked for! Just believe in yourself… Wonder Woman's very existence proves that a lie. No matter how much you believe in yourself you will never fly, you will never talk to Bambi, and you will never be a princess.
"It all came to a head when she looks into the mirror and sees an anthropomorphic cheetah woman claiming that she will give her power to destroy Wonder Woman in exchange for blood. Did the monster mean kill someone? Sweet Priscilla was horrified; she could never do that! The Cheetah said she already has. Rich has a split personality. The surface is the one we know, the sweet all American girl but the second is all the shame of her past, all the disgust felt towards her drop out teen mother. Why was it that every potential rival that could have threatened her died under mysterious circumstances?"
"Why indeed," mused Maggin.
"This Cheetah," continued Perez, "claims to be the real Rich and breaks out of the mirror to attack Priscilla. On taking over, she does indeed do her own costumed dirty work against Wonder Woman but also uses her money and connections to stay above the law. At this early stage in her career, Diana had no knowledge of the laws of man's world and was shocked to see her escape time and again. It's not one sided though as good Priscilla struggles mightily against her evil counterpart; in fact, by the events of #274 it looks like good Priscilla has finally won; she's dying and taking Cheetah down with her.
"As recorded in that issue, Kobra terrorists wanted her power for themselves and on realizing they're too late, they settle on kidnapping her granola girl niece, Debbie. As I plan on revealing, they think maybe she has the power too and they brainwash the eco-activist into an eco-terrorist who will strike the targets given her by Kobra. When I restart the series we will see that after learning about all this, the dying Priscilla Rich had sworn to save her niece even if it meant working with her worst enemy: herself.
"In her mind, Rich meets with Cheetah and asks for her help. Only she, Cheetah, is strong enough to save Debbie. She asks Rich why should she and Rich promises to go away forever leaving her in sole control. On hearing that, Cheetah mockingly asks what's to stop her from just leaving Debbie to die later once Rich evaporates. She smiles. 'Because Cheetah, I know that you love our niece more than you hate me.'
"Cheetah looks away in anger and sheds a tear; she tells Rich she wins. They merge and it begins. 'Priscilla Rich' calls in every favor she has and extorts tips on pain of death until she finds exactly where Kobra is holding Debbie. She storms Kobra base, killing guards left and right, until she finds the cell where they've been keeping her niece between missions. The two Cheetahs escape together but not before turning around to see the base conveniently explode and not before Rich tells her niece that she has something far worse in store for Kobra and its minions: lawyers."
Laughs were shared.
"Rich," continued Perez, "takes off her costume (made from a cheetah she killed herself) for the last time and tells Debbie everything. She tells her about the split personality and that despite gaining strange powers that night, that no Cheetah spirit ever controlled her, that her 'dark side' took control of it. Rich also knows that, barring the rare exceptions, she's through with costumes. That might not be the case with the now eco-terrorist Debbie whose eyes grow wide on hearing about the animal power." Years later when he was invited back to guest write an issue, Perez revealed that Rich claimed the power thanks to mercenary treasure hunter Barbara Minerva—a tip of the hat to what could have been. "If her aunt won't have the power, then she wants it. Priscilla won't tell her to stop wearing the costume but if she does want to do it, she wants her to do it right. Debbie says she's in.
"Thus we see an unholy union of an elder mentor and the young apprentice. Under earlier writers, maybe Priscilla Rich had no real superpowers but Diana had been weaker and our villainess had been wily enough to work around it. Maybe with how much stronger I'm making Wonder Woman, this Cheetah had no realistic chance of facing her old foe on the battlefield but who said she's have to?
"Rich by this point is a self made billionaire whose RichCorps (pun not intended) runs banking and brewing, aviation and automobiles. She's also ruthless creep who'd destroy the Girl Scouts to corner the market on cookies!" Perez stopped for a moment but the look on both Schwartz' and Kahn's faces killed his idea for such a joke issue. "Just imagine a female Gordon Gecko…." who eats RichCorps brand cookies whilst Girl Scout's are in the trashcan... "She has some redeeming qualities, though; she loves at least her niece and believes in meritocracy. She'll give anyone a fair chance and will reward their success—as long as they're working for her of course. By the same token, however, her experience has left her contemptuous of those not strong enough to make it."
Roy Thomas asked, "George, I once thought of bringing in a closeted gay into my Infinity Inc. stories. If Rich will give 'anyone' a chance will something like this happen?"
"Closeted?"
"Hey!" retorted Thomas, "Maybe ten years from now in 1996 we can say it openly but right now, closeted is what works!"
"Oh." He furrowed his eyebrows. "I don't know. She probably would give that man a chance and defend him from critics. The second he fails to earn his keep, however, she'd throw him to the dogs. But in the most media friendly way possible, however!" Perez quickly added. "That leads me to the next part.
"While Priscilla Rich is openly critical of Wonder Woman and publishes hate books against her, her philanthropy, anti-discriminatory practices, and rags-to-riches story actually get people to believe her. I mean yes, everyone in the DCU knows she is a ruthless corporate shark but most people see her as tough but fair. For example, one young woman who went to college on a RichCorps scholarship wrote a Pulitzer Prize nominated op-ed piece about people like Priscilla being the real heroes. The idea was that Rich is more relatable than Wonder Woman and nobler with how she accomplished her goals without the help of superpowers. All of which would be true if not for the woman's skullduggery."
Perez sighed. "Key word. Would.
"The fact that CEO Priscilla Rich has a statue of the Devil in her office that's been 'blessed' by an actual Satanist priest shows something." He saw some raised eyebrows and waved down raised hands. "No, I'm not going to have her conjure evil spirits but the fact is that she openly admires Satan. And before anyone starts quoting Milton, she admires Old Scratch not for being some kind of freedom fighter, just the opposite. She admires him for being evil. If the stories about him are true then he really is the ultimate evil and fools just keep throwing themselves at his feet either because they are that stupid and shortsighted or worse. The fools follow Lucifer because they think he's good. When Priscilla Rich read the op-ed piece about her being a hero, she burst out laughing; she holds humanity in contempt and the cattle stupidly come to her to be slaughtered. She framed it and put it up next to her Satan statue."
Wolfman was intrigued. He had worked with Perez for years on DC's bestseller, Teen Titans and was pleased to see his old friend had what it took to be a writer as well as an artist. "Like the saying goes, the best slave is the one who doesn't know it isn't free. George what you said reminds me of the plans I had for Lex Luthor, an evil business man who had been Metropolis' #1 until Superman showed up and put him in second place. That won't happen with Luthor staying a mad scientist, but how about when we get the chance, we compare notes on this?"
"That'll be great Marv!" responded Perez.
Elliot S! Maggin said, "I don't know. I already said that Luthor's going to be driven by jealousy, not unlike Cheetah there."
Wolfman stepped to the defense of his friend. "You worry too much Maggin; jealousy is a common motivation. Besides, Rich is less 'noble' than your Luthor. He thinks he's fighting for humanity against superpowered interlopers; Rich just wants to be top dog."
O'Neil raised his hand and added his two cents. "Yeah but the idea of a chick with a cat motif losing her marbles and being possessed by her dark side sounds like what I said for Catwoman."
Wolfman was going to say something when his friend was waved down and told that he'd handle this. "Denny, the 'Rich sees bad Rich in the mirror' thing was part of the story since the 40s. If anything doesn't this mean that you're ripping my little fiefdom? Hmmm?"
There would be bad blood between the Batman and Wonder Woman offices until Perez and Miller & O'Neil retired from their posts. Things were silent until Schwartz broke the silence. "What about Debbie George? You said something about her wanting the power. She's going to be the main Cheetah now that her aunt retired right?"
"Pretty much boss. When she needs someone she can trust to carry out industrial espionage, she has Debbie." He saw eyes rolled from the Bat-camp direction and added, "Yes, it might seem strange that Debbie do this after what Kobra did but Aunt Priscilla is the person Debbie trusts the most. She funded her education from day one and arguably did more to raise her than her own mother. She uses magic to transfer the Cheetah power to Debbie and at the now crazy Debbie's insistence, genetically alters her to more perfectly harness it.
"Domaine is now an anthropomorphic cheetah woman, a were-cheetah for lack of a better term. More often than not, she runs around naked with spotted fur covering her athletic body. Athletic like a ballet dancer or a runner Mr. Schwartz!" he quickly added. "She has a tail and pawed feet but a human face albeit with cheetah ears, a snout, and a cheetah's colors—white face with black tears. If she grows angry her face becomes noticeably more bestial.
"In terms of powers, she has low level super strength; for example, she can lift and throw a small car easily and pick up a locomotive with serious effort. The largest weigh three hundred tons so that's impressive. When it comes to talking to animals she surpasses Diana even to the point of over ruling anything and everything she tells them. (It gets to outright control.) Her claws can also cut diamond and ensure that Diana will have to keep her bracelets. If not for them, she'd be cut to literal shreds.
"Her main power, however, and chief advantage over Wonder Woman is her blinding speed. Imagine two marathon runners; one might be slightly faster than the other if she pushes herself, but said other is able to sprint the entire twenty six miles of the marathon without breaking so much as a sweat. Now who do you think is going to win? Not only does Cheetah have instant zero to light speed acceleration and the ability to run that fast indefinitely, her speed also extends into superior reflexes. As for what that means on the battlefield, what would happen if Jesse Owens got into a fist fight with Bruce Lee? Owens can run faster, true, but in terms of who can dodge punches and throw them back faster, Lee wins that without a doubt. Whenever these two fight, I don't plan on Diana ever leaving without a wound."
"Now that's how a good challenge is made!" Schwartz laughed. "Question however. Priscilla Rich is in it for the money but where are Domaine's motivations? Is she still a crazed eco-terrorist?"
"Yes and no. A villain defined by insanity can get so boring." The Bat-camp stared daggers at Perez' remarks. "Cheetah might not target civilians, but she attaches no intrinsic value to human life. I might show her coming across a burning building and let the people inside die on the logic that there are too many humans as it is. On the side, when her niece tells her about this, the misanthropic Priscilla Rich bursts out laughing in approval. Similarly, for the same reason that she won't deny a tiger its right to hunt, she defends the actions of thieves and murderers on the grounds that, as predators, it is their duty to cull the weak. As a Maltusian, Debbie Domaine approves of abortion, contraception, and euthanasia.
"On the same note, she defends animals zealously. After all, they're the ones in danger, aren't they? She appreciates the sincerity of nonviolent protesters but sees their work, even the Animal Liberation Front's direct action, as nowhere near enough. Debbie knows she can't fight all polluters so she relies on Aunt Priscilla to give her lists of the worst offenders, those whom legal/non-violent means have failed to stop. With Aunt Priscilla's resources and brains backing her up, Debbie's targets usually won't even know it was her that killed them. When she is found out, Debbie can count on her aunt to keep her out of jail by covering her tracks or by covertly helping her break out."
He saw someone raise his hand. "Yeah Gerry?"
"That's something I don't get George. I made the Debbie Domaine Cheetah and I want to know, why would she work like that after I had Kobra capture her? I know I'd just have her run for the hills or something. And why is Rich so worried about the environment?"
Perez shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I guess that's where we part ways Gerry. Rich chooses her niece's target's selectively; as a rule, they are also her biggest business rivals. I said the same earlier. Debbie knows this and doesn't begrudge her aunt. Debbie has to do her job somehow and, like I said, she is genuinely grateful for all her aunt's done for her so she kills her aunt's enemies gladly. For Rich's part is worth saying that she's been running the world's most eco-friendly major business for years, firstly because she needs the good PR and secondly because, well, she actually does want a clean environment. She doesn't like her employees dirtying up her office building and she doesn't like people polluting her planet."
Gerry Conway chuckled. "Oh, she wants her planet spic and span! Okay, I'll buy it."
"Enough patting him on the back already," growled the grand old man. "Get back to the story Perez."
"Of course, Mr. Schwartz," he muttered. "A strong example of Domaine's eco-terrorism would be her kicking the door down and threatening to kill a poacher in front of his family. He begs her to spare his wife and daughter and she agrees on one condition; he has to tell his little daughter where her fur coat came from: every detail. Crying, he tells her that daddy clubbed a baby seal to death in front of its mommy. He got a baseball bat and hit the baby over and over. He killed the baby seal himself for fun and he laughed as the mommy seal tried to the rescue her baby. He then turned around and shot the mommy seal in front of the baby. The baby was still alive when he cut off its skin. Seeing his daughter throw her coat to the ground and recoil in horror from him arguably hurt worse that what would happen next. Domaine keeps her word and lets the wife and daughter leave unharmed. 'Unlike you,' she says, 'I would never make a child see her parent die.' You can all guess what happens next."
Groans of disgust filled the room and one man said that he was now officially anti-animal rights. When Grant Morrison revived Animal Man, similar things were said when he had the environmental protagonist Buddy Baker cheat on his wife with partner in crime Cheetah. Other writers furthered this making her both an environmental terrorist to some and a savior to others. In one famous 1996 story by John Bryne, she teamed up with the citizens of Gorilla City to stop poachers from killing their silent counterparts. When Cheetah summarily executed her targets, however, they couldn't bring themselves to condemn her. In the eyes of Gorilla City's primate citizens, the poachers had been murdering their mentally disabled little brothers and selling pieces of the mutilated bodies to the highest bidder. It's under that logic that King Solovar allowed her to escape when Wonder Woman demanded that he turn her over.
For now however, Roy Thomas kept thinking of Ares. He was the first villain that Perez reintroduced and those just after were myth based like Eris. After that, however, he seemingly forgot one last villainess. Roy Thomas had mostly been quiet but he couldn't let it stand any longer. "Hey George," he interrupted the Wonder Woman writer, "you forgot about Circe!"
Author's Notes: Hi everyone! Here to say that Wonder Woman is wrapping up despite a few delays. (Those villains really are evil! They kept hogging the spotlight. ;-) The next chapter should wraps up the Amazing Amazon and I can assure you that it will be the last come hell or highwater. After that an addendum chapter for Superman and Batman and then... only God knows. For now however, let's dip into the mail bag shall we?
Sir Thames: Thank you for your kind words as always!
"Anonymous": ...There's general levity and then there's trolling. If you disagree with x-plot point I'd be glad discuss this in a calm and reasonable manner. Your views on the role a superhero should play have a significant degree of merit and they inspired my view of the concluding notes to this story. Yet while I've tried to humor your whimsy, if I see another piece of high strangeness I'll have to disable anonymous reviews.
Wolvmbm: I don't know really know where Catwoman would be by the 90s... In the wake of Crisis, her earlier reformation into a mere adventurer was ignored and she went back to being a villain. The easy way out is to keep portraying her as Batman's forbidden fruit but seeing her reform completely and get into a serious long term romantic relationship (marriage/children) that would be an interesting challenge! (Yes, you'd be right to think of Huntress. :-)
As for Two-Face and Poison Ivy, like I said when I wrote Batman, he was largely unaffected by the Crisis and most of the minor changes were for the better. I see no reason to change the post 1986 versions of the characters and other Bat-villains
BTW, hope you like Cheetah. ;-)
That's all everyone. Hope you all have a nice day!