Chapter Eleven: …Change their Minds and Change the World!—Part One...
Place: Offices of DC Comics, New York City
Year: 1986
"Circe?"
"Yeah George," said Roy Thomas. "I know she's the new kid compared to Cheetah and Doc Psycho but she could work. What are your plans for the wicked witch?"
The writer just shook his head mischievously. "Roy, Roy, Roy, why do you think I've been saving the best for last? Guys, it's true that I haven't mentioned Circe but that's because of my master plan in which she will begin the Twilight of the Gods." People looked intrigued. Good.
"When Marston first introduced Wonder Woman in 1941, he used a strange mix of Greco-Roman myth and Buck Rogers, like Hades living on planet Pluto, but it was there. In the intro to his first story, Marston reminded the readers of the World War raging around them and that the Greeks cursed Ares for the strife of violence. Bobby Kanigher changed that. Aside from retroactively saying that Diana's strength was a gift from the gods… nothing. It got to the point that kids wrote in asking, who are these people whom Wonder Woman mentions in her exclamations?" George Perez scowled. "Well you better believe that as long as I'm head writer on this book that that is not going to happen!
"Marvel's Thor shows what I mean. It showed the eponymous Norse god so we see things like Odin and Tyr and see him fight villains like Fafnir and Surter the dragon. Yes he had a secret identity in Donald Blake, an ordinary man who finds a hammer that grants him 'the power of Thor.' In the end, however, he learns that he is not a mortal who would transform into the thunder god, but the actual thunder god who had merely thought he'd been a mortal.
"Wonder Woman has so much potential in that respect. The barriers against myth have been eased up recently with Ares, Aphrodite, and Athena retaking center stage in the comics. We've seen mythical conceits such as Bellerophon and Pegasus, the underworld of Hades, and, yes, Circe. We got to be careful, though. I don't want to imitate Marvel's mistakes by overexposing the gods to the point that they come across as jumped up mortals instead of as the strange far off cosmic beings they should be.
Editor Nelson Bridwell smiled. "What if I told you that there's an issue of Justice League of America where the heroes capture Ares and send him to space jail?"
Face palm. "Mr. Bridwell, please don't ruin my sanity by saying you're serious," he grumbled.
The old man puckishly grinned even further. "OK, I won't say I'm serious."
"Like I was saying," Perez said gloomily, "Ares and Aphrdoite are the prime contenders in this respect with how their mythical counterparts were lovers. We've even called them on very separate occasions Hippolyta's parents. That in turns begs the question on why? Mythic Aphrodite would sleep with every man she could find when she was already married so why then have we consistently shown as an exemplar of purity and goodness?
"The easiest thing would be to just start retconning but even aside from our policy, that would be too easy. The main reason I won't retcon and demote her… The reason I won't," Perez sighed, "is that it would be wrong."
Roy Thomas went to the edge of his seat and listened closely.
"Yes, I do have my own ideas but Aphrodite was given star status Marston himself and I am not going to throw out someone who's been a central part of the Wonder Woman mythos for forty five years just because I feel like it. As is, she is the single most important deity in Wonder Woman because she alone of all the gods is truly and genuinely good. If you look at the original myths you find gods that are all too human. Yes they're bigger than we are but aside from that, so what? Is asking this hubris and will they strike us down for it? Then so be it because if their might is all that makes right then that just proves us right!
"But Aphrodite… with how Marston and every writer since cast her as embodying altruistic love, our Aphrodite is the female version of Jesus!"
"More like the Virgin Mary," interrupted John Ostrander. "Jesus sometimes got angry; Aphrodite never did."
Perez smiled. "So I stand corrected." He paused. "Watch out for John, he'll be useful in what's coming up. Where it concerns Wonder Woman, she might be the most important goddess of all because she gave a newborn Diana a loving heart. Hippolyta did nurture the compassion therein but it was there from the start and so if not for the goddess, Diana might have no inclination to be good beyond what she was trained to believe. Even there, it's the goddess's Law of Love that our heroine was instructed in. It's Aphrodite's gift that made her a hero.
"So imagine that, once upon a time, Aphrodite was the selfish, petty, nymphomaniacal slut of the gods. She was Ares' concubine, perpetually cheating on her poor long suffering husband, Hephaestus. Eventually, Aphrodite has a moral awakening; the heartbroken goddess realizes her entire life had been a waste and so becomes the goddess of compassionate love thus striving to make the world a better place. As to what it was, I'll probably tie this into Hephaestus, maybe the myth where he caught her and Ares in a net whilst having sex. The fact that he stayed loyal to her no matter what shows more love than mythic Aphrodite ever did.
"Thus we see DC Aphrodite, a warm, gentle, maternal goddess who wishes to make amends for previous misdeeds and that puts her in conflict with Ares her former lover. Their children are divided with Eris, Phobos, and Deimos siding with Ares and Harmonia the harmony goddess, Eros/Cupid and Hipployta going with Aphrodite. You might remember, in the actual myth, Ares is Hippolyta's father and therefore Wonder Woman's grandfather. O'Neil again made a point of saying that. In fact, one letter column of the time asked who is the queen's mother and they surmised it was Aphrodite… The story is there we just have to use it!
"Now, I've talked with John Ostrander, he was training to be a Catholic priest before he started writing comics." The man waved his hand. "I've talked to him and he's given me some ideas. I want to take myth seriously but that means I'll have to take religion seriously. That's because that's what the myths were to the ancient Greeks, their religion. Christians of the time knew that perfectly and so would Christians of our time if something like this were to happen today.
"So then imagine a scene on Mt. Olympus and see the assembled gods troubled by Apollo's oracle. Their final fate, he reveals, is one far worse to a god than death; they will be forgotten. At the moment, the god who will replace them confines himself to a few tribes on the eastern Mediterranean but the visiting Egyptian gods tell that that will change, oh yes it will. They remember when Israel's god wreaked his 'judgment' on them; whether it was blotting out Ra's sun or turning Heqt's frogs against her or turning a screaming Hapi's body, the Nile River, into blood, they were helpless. The gods of Egypt admit they should have known they were doomed when Isis used her magic to turn her priests' staffs into snakes; they were eaten alive by snake staffs Israel's god created. They weren't even able to save their earthly vicar's son when Israel's god killed him in the last plague. Damnation, it wasn't even Israel's god who killed Pharaoh's and everyone else's firstborn; it was one of his minions!"
Roy Thomas shook his head. "This is heavy stuff George…" he said. "I should have known that you had something up your sleeve!" He then paused. "I want to ask something, however. I'll be working on Captain Marvel. Since Shazam is supposed to be Egyptian could he be the one saying all this? You know, he's there on behalf of the Egyptian gods. From there it would be easy to link to the Greek gods to the wizard Shazam."
"That's actually very clever," said Perez. "I'd be glad to throw that in!"
"Enough with the mutual admiration society!" growled Schwartz. "Back to the story already."
"Yes sir. Back in the council of the gods, Ares thinks to fight this rival deity and so does Zeus; outmatched or not, they have no desire to die. Athena however, begs her father to look for a third option. Gods need the faith of their worshippers to survive and since they can't just worship themselves the solution is simple. Her plan is to create a tribe of mortals inextricably tied to Olympus but it's her half sister Aphrodite who figures out exactly who these mortals will be: the Amazons.
"Athena, despite all her wisdom, fails to understand. Why would they want a gang of self mutilating, baby killing, she-males that go around looking for men to rape as the chosen people? Aphrodite knows why she wants them. She also knows why they followed Ares; old Greece wasn't just patriarchal, it was outright misogynistic. Unlike goddesses who by their very nature have the power to stand up for themselves, mortal women all too often found themselves at the mercy of men who were bigger than they were. In a world where a woman is a man's slave, if the only way to become strong, if the only path to freedom means turning into a homicidal savage, there will be those who'd take it. Aphrodite chooses the Amazons to show the world what a woman can be and to redeem the idea of feminine strength. She wants to show everyone that every woman should be big and strong but at the same time that that doesn't mean that they'll be any less a woman for it." Peres paused for a moment and smiled. "Ostrander introduced me to an old Catholic saying. 'The redemption of the worst is the best'."
Kahn smirked. "'Not even girls want to be girls when all this happens.' You're channeling Marston aren't you?"
"I most certainly am!" replied Perez. "As for the Amazons, they accept Aphrodite as their father's ex-girlfriend but civilizing them gives even a goddess gray hair. She's grateful for Athena's help and slightly jealous to how much more easily the Amazons can relate to her. Among them is Princess Hippolyta, daughter of Ares and of the previous queen, Otrera. Aphrodite knows he'd been sleeping with the royal house long enough for his daughter/granddaughter to be a goddess in her own right and takes her under her wing. Young Hippolyta proves a faithful student when, as per tradition, the teenage Amazon has to cut off her developing breasts and shocks everyone be saying no. Why should a woman have to reject her femininity in order to be powerful? Can't a woman be strong and gentle?
"At this point there are two possible choices. We can see Hippolyta as the creation of generations of incest on Ares part, like I said. We can see Aphrodite physically pregnant by Ares and learn that Hippolyta was thus born in the normal way, even if she was raised amongst the Amazons. Either way, as she grew up and spread the worship of her mother/foster mother; some writers have implied this in the past. Or we might stay with the better known version, Hippolyta, along with all the others, was simply created by Aphrodite who proclaimed the first woman she created to be the ruler of the rest. I'll probably stick with the first. In either case, I imagine that Hippolyta continues to look at Aphrodite as her mother. Whether or not she considers Ares her father, biology aside, I'll leave that to when I get there.
"Then of course we get to the affair with Hercules though now Ares will have a personal stake in hating the Amazons in general and Hippolyta in particular. I see no reason to change anything else though. Goaded by his half-brother Ares, Hercules, determined to put the Amazons in their place, seduces, betrays, and rapes Hippolyta. Humiliated, she's stripped of her clothes and cast into the dungeons. Aphrodite is there and waits for days, perhaps weeks, until her daughter finally swallows her pride and admits that she had been wrong to ignore mother's warnings. With a bit of divine intervention, the Amazons in the end thrash Hercules and escape. After that they gain their bracelets and, after the sea god Poseidon led the way, arrived at what is now Paradise Island.
"They live there in their well named home where love is the answer to every problem, where nothing bad ever happens and nobody ever dies. In the outside world, however, what Apollo prophesied has come to pass as mortals throw the gods aside. They are forgotten and their temples left in ruins. Some of them, however, still stand but only because they have been consecrated to the new god. In an Ephesian temple that had once been the house of Artemis, a lowly beggar enters and weeps as she sees the image of a crucified god born to virgin far holier than the huntress ever was. The beggar is Aphrodite and she asks why it had to be like this. Why did he have to take her people away from her?!
"A stranger then comes, presumably one of the god's priests and comforts her; the love goddess is confused by the stranger's presence. He is a god… but not a god. She asked why the crucified one took away her worshippers. The stranger looks her in the eye and asks point blank were they taken away or did they leave? They speak and we learn that yes, Zeus kept mortals in line and punished rule breakers but what did he ever sacrifice of himself for their sakes? Even ignoring Zeus' moral failings and rank hypocrisy in holding mortals to a higher moral standard than to which he held himself, did he ever really love the mortals? What did Zeus ever do for the human race, not to get something in return, but just out of the goodness of his heart?
"Aphrodite dries her tears and says that if Iesous loved the mortals so much as to buy them godhood at the cost of his life, then it was no wonder the mortals turned away from deities who never loved anyone but themselves. Aphrodite asked the stranger if Iesous really would accept a prayer from anyone, as his priests say. The stranger, clearly an angel by this point, says that the crucified god would. Aphrodite then kneels before his image and begins crying. She asks him to love the mortals for her."
Cary Bates raised an eyebrow at that. "Hey George, why so heavy on the Christianity? Isn't that going to make it a little… y'know controversial?"
Before Perez answered the most unlikely of sources spoke up. "Bates," sighed Miller, "if a man hates religion so much that he can't even stand a picture about it, he's got a problem."
"Amen to that brother Frank!"
Miller jokingly cast an evil eye at Perez. "Don't push it."
The old man looked at the new Wonder Woman writer. "What do you say Perez?"
"Well Mr. Schwartz, I say why not. Are we going to say that Greek myths that nobody believes in are real and the Christianity that seventy five percent of America believes in false? Maybe Greek myths are safer because nobody believes in them but if I'm going to take it seriously, I've gotta be fair to both sides. Equal coverage, isn't that all tolerant liberals ask for?"
He smiled when he saw Bates squirm. The Grand Poobah of DC had different ideas. "Perros, that ain't good enough cuz that was then I want now! You've told me about Etta Candy, and stepmom Julia Kapetalis. What about the rest of your characters and the world they live in? Lay down the final countdown!"
First there was "Magoon" over there and now I'm "perro." Maldicion, I'm not a dog! However, he knew that orders were orders and swallowed his pride. "Well sir, I do have some starting thoughts on Hercules." He checked the relevant notes before continuing. "Ever since Marston brought him in for the Golden Age origin we haven't really been kind to the man who supposed to be the greatest hero of all mythology. We've mostly had him as a villain in Wonder Woman comics and as a dimwit rival in Superman. Kanigher again was the exception; he never mentioned Hercules deceiving Hippolyta and showed that he ultimately had a good heart with how he gave baby Diana his strength." Perez chuckled. "He was still a chauvinistic buffoon, though.
"My plan on resolving all this is to say that he suffered bouts of insanity like the myths said he did. For most of his career in ancient Greece, he was the big hero but there were times when he turned in a deranged lunatic… such as when he deceived Hippolyta. When he snapped out of it he was horrified; the only reason that he had asked for her girdle was as part of the Twelve Labors meant to atone for murdering his wife and children in yet another spell of madness. When he heard of Hippolyta he thought he had found a woman to take the place of his wife and fill the hole in his heart. And then he woke up to realize that he's burned down her house and raped her!
"Regardless of his personal guilt, Zeus ordered him to continue the Labors and his other adventures; mortals need him as their protector from all the monsters that threatened them. After his seeming death in the incident with Nessus the centaur, Zeus healed him and made him a god but Hercules refused to go to Olympus. He asked to be sent to Tartarus; until there was a way to cure him of his madness he had to stay down there for the sake of every living thing.
"Thus it stays for centuries until Hippolyta goes down with a magic spell that Zeus had created to save his son. She would have to as the price for his granting her daughters. Though at first outraged at the thought of saving Hercules, even in order to become a mother, she takes pity on the emaciated and tortured demigod when she sees him and he frees him from his chains. She brings him to Paradise Island and thus the first man to set foot on the island is the same man who raped and humiliated them centuries earlier. He won't ask for their forgiveness because he doesn't deserve it. Even if he was temporarily insane, he was still a misogynistic thug who would have probably done it anyways. Sobbing, Hercules says he won't ask for forgiveness but that he will say he's sorry.
"Moved by his tears, Hippolyta adds her own before shouting, Long live Hercules! The rest of the Amazons all join in, Long live Hercules! He earns that praise when he tries to protect the daughters Zeus granted Hippolyta as per their bargain. Still recovering from his imprisonment, he is too weak to save Nubia from Ares' clutches and is beaten to within an inch of his life protecting Diana. In order to make up for this, he offers to give little Diana his strength and in fact he's the one who cajoles the other gods to give him their various gifts. Thus, despite the occasional backsliding in old issues and the times he was duped by Lex Luthor into fighting Superman, etc. he turns out to be a real hero and a staunch ally to Wonder Woman.
"As for the other baby Hippolyta sculpted from black clay, Ares kidnapped her, named her Nubia, and raised her to be an anti-Wonder Woman on his otherwise all-male Slaughter Island. Again, she has since reformed but in my stories she's still armed with his magic sword. Some of Ares' aggression wore off on her as well as the ability to channel rage into strength; she might also be more willing to fight dirty than her sister. According to my notes she was last aiding native women in Africa so she might get on Diana's case for spending more time fighting thugs than speaking with heads of state and trying to change the world. I also plan on seeing her having a tough time fitting in on Paradise Island with how much rougher around the proverbial edges she is.
"As for the other Amazons, Atalanta was a loyal Amazon before she came to see Hippolyta as a tyrant and left to form a new city in the Amazon. We're going to see glimpses of her and her rainforest city-state as both rivals and allies. They'll be much more integrated into the modern world that the Paradise Island Amazons and will aid their sisters when they too meet Man's World. Among other things we will see their men, love being one of the reasons Atalanta left. I already had the idea of a band of rival Amazons founded by Hippolyta's sister but if I'm going to have to use the old continuity, this is a good way to do it.
"There's Paula von Gunther. Now, she has potential, a former Nazi who reformed for the sake of her daughter, Gerta. I imagine she was genuinely evil and in charge of Hitler ubermensch operatives in the war—Captain Nazi, Baron Blitzkrieg, etc. Whether she'll be our version of Marvel's Warrior Woman or she'll be wearing power armor or leading from behind a desk, I'll leave for later. After reforming, she turned herself over to the Golden Age Wonder Woman and has since lived among the Amazons as their greatest scientist. The Invisible Jet is her creation.
"Thanks to 'Amazon training,' however, she and her daughter have both grown that much more powerful, as befits Amazons. Alas, they imbued little Gerta with super strength too soon. Back in the early 1940s, she was a member of the League of German Maids—girl version of the Hitler Youth—where she was taught by the then sociopath Baroness Paula von Gunther, among others, that the strong must rule the weak. As such, while she grew up respecting her now gigantic mother, the adult Gerta looks down at men (literally, as she's grown so much taller than they are) as cripples fit only for slavery. The new Baroness von Gunther thus can't understand why her mother begs her to stop her criminal deeds. 'But mother, I just want to be like you.'"
Schwartz grumbled. "Fine and dandy Perez but what about this 'Golden Age Wonder Woman?' The Diana of that time period was sent off to Earth-Two but without an Earth-Two she's gone! You've been doing well so don't tell me you're going Magoon's route." By this point nobody even bothered paying attention to the scream. "You said something about Golden Age Wonder Woman being Hippolyta so explain it."
"Right boss. Queen Hippolyta," said Perez, "was indeed the 'Wonder Woman' of World War II. Ares and his minions were partly responsible for the war and on seeing this Aphrodite dispatched an Amazon champion to stop him. Queen Hippolyta won the contest and went to America to aid the war effort. Her costume had the tiara, lasso, the bracelets and I plan for the colors to foreshadow her daughter's suit. The press saw her and jokingly called her an Amazon come from the land of myth, not knowing that that was exactly what she was."
"Why?"
"Because we can Mr. Schwartz! She won't ever actually be called Wonder Woman in order to keep that title for Diana, even if she might be called a wonder woman, the champion. It would be a shame to get rid of Diana's past entirely; we've had a lot of fun with the TV show and our own WWII era stories. She can't be there since 40s since Superman has to be the first of his generation but who says another Amazon couldn't have been with the JSA? Why not kee—?"
"Does it have to be Hippy?" blurted out Thomas.
"What?" asked Perez.
"You heard me. George. Does the Golden Age Wonder Woman have to be Hippolyta?"
He sighed. "No, why do you ask?"
"It should be Mala." Thomas raised his hands when he saw raised eyebrows and quickly added, "Hear me out first, hear me out! Your idea is good but it can be better and Fury is why. I made her back in #300 and have been using her since in my Infinity Inc. She's the daughter of the Earth-Two wonder Woman and her Steve, pretty much Wonder Girl's counterpart. Obviously if Earth Two is gone, she can't be that Wonder Woman's daughter and I doubt you'll have her Diana's big sister, right? So let's do it like this.
"If Diana wasn't there back in WWII who saved the pilot when he crashed off the coast of Themyscira? Mala! Just because Diana wasn't there doesn't mean she couldn't have been overlooking the sea. She sees the man, rescues him, and enters the tournament to determine the champion that will go to Man's World. After hearing the pilot's story the Amazons fear that Ares has returned after a millennia long absence; something the gods confirm. Thus after a history of existing solely to place second after Diana, Mala finally wins the tournament and becomes Wonder Woman.
"We give Mala all of Diana's World War II adventures, Justice Society membership and Earth-Two stories. Thus clad in the red, white, and blue, Mala steals America's heart becoming every soldier's girlfriend, every father's daughter, every gal next door. After she deals Ares the final blow and helps mop up his Axis cronies, the forces of love are dubbed victorious. She decides to stay behind, however, adopting America as her country as she marries her American boyfriend and starts a family. After the JSA disbanded in the fifties, Mala stayed quiet but came out of semi-retirement when Superman started a new age of heroes.
"When the new tournament is held she loses the title to Diana but the two become good friends, despite their age difference. She's been aging ever since giving herself to a man, though even now with streaks of white in her hair and crow's feet she still a looker and still able to bench press a tank. She's raising Lyta, 'Fury,' Trevor to be a new hero and looks out for Diana. C'mon George, what do you say?"
Perez sat in silence and narrowed his eyes at Thomas. He got up, a grim look on his face, and then said, "Good." He flipped into smile mode. "Very… very good." Since I can't reboot Diana from scratch, I can't divorce her from the US like I wanted to but with Mala I can give her the flag waving ra-ra-ra. Seeing Mala married and pregnant—miscarriage to keep Diana oldest—is what made her want a child herself… And since I already said Diana's early career was like a fairy tale, Mala's the fairy tale young Diana wanted to… "Roy you got to promise that I can use this!"
"Sure that's why we're here." A puzzled look came over Roy Thomas' face. "I want to ask about Donna. What are your plans for—?"
Insane cackling interrupted the man. Everyone at the conference looked at Perez who couldn't stop laughing. Kahn slammed her fist to the table to get his attention. "Knock at off George, we already got two Jokers over there!" she barked, pointing to Miller and O'Neil.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he whispered. "It's just…" He wiped away a tear. "It's just… thank God you and Schwartz got this meeting." Composing himself he added, "It's just that I wanted to reboot Wonder Woman from scratch to get everything right the first time. But like I said at the start, getting rid of Diana means that little sister Donna can have no origin. 'Nearly went crazy figuring out alternate history universes trying to give Donna Diana-free origins…
"As is the original origin I gave her still works, a young girl rescued from a burning building by Diana. Needs tweaking with how she was supposed to have been a baby when it happened. Even if Wonder Woman rescued her on her first day in Man's World, there's no way Donna can be twenty-something like I'm having her in Teen Titans. With Roy's idea however, maybe it wasn't Diana at all.
"Mala rescued the baby from the fire and when she saw the child had no living family, she took her to Paradise Island. Hippolyta named the baby Donna and raised her personally, thus giving her little Diana a baby sister. Seven years age difference at the most. Donna grows up happily toddling behind her big sister and getting into all sorts of adventures together. Nothing changes when big sister becomes Wonder Woman; she follows, still her sidekick. Hearing Mala's stories of Man's World and the United States in particular, Donna wanted to go and see it for herself. Hippolyta let her go; she wanted her daughter to get in touch with her heritage, so to say.
"With Mala, I can even say where she was when she wasn't saving the day with the Titans!" He snorted. "…Sure wasn't with Diana, that's for sure. Back in the present, I plan on making Donna a regular cast member and actually treat her like the family she's supposed to be. Good God but the TV show did a better job of using Donna as Wonder Woman's baby sister than we did!"
Schwartz cast a stern glance across the table at his nervous victims. "Perez's got a point. Conway, Thomas, and yeah you O'Neil, why didn't you ever mention Donna in any of your stories? According, to this sheet, the only times she popped up in the regular series was in Teen Titan crossovers!" A slight exaggeration, but not by much. "Perez, you gave me your characters now give me endgame."
"Gladly sir."
Author's Notes: I promised Wonder Woman would end here. I lied. -_-;
That wasn't deliberate and I originally meant for this chapter and the next one to be a single chapter. It got so long, however, that I decided to split it. The next chapter will end this I promise. (I hope!) I also cleaned up some grammar mistakes in the previous chapter.
For now however, let's dip into the mail bag!
"Anon" 1: I see that you are sticking close to topic and I appreciate that. I did write this knowing that the Cheetahs would be more well rounded than perhaps other villains. I, however, do not know of these people whom you refer to. I would appreciate it if you would register so that we could continue this conversation in an appropriate place.
Michael Weyer: Glad to have you onboard! Thank you for your kind words and yes, (this is for everyone) despite initial thoughts against it I have decided that I will bring in Flash in a full chapter. Don't worry about Kyle Rayner, though. DC history won't unfold in the same way but there is enough room for more than one Green Lantern. ;-) As for the JLA, yes I do have plans and its going to much bigger than the Detroit League.
Sir Thames: Thank you for your kind words. Always appreciated!
"Anon" 2: :-D You're very welcome. :-D Something worth ruling over is the reason Priscilla Rich protects the environment. Its also the logic behind the idea that capitalism is Mother Nature's best friend... "How dare you pollute my property!"
Wolvmbm: ...I actually did say that there was magic. Perhaps I should have been more clear. Simply said, the Cheetah spirit saw Priscilla Rich and tried to control her but she (or at least "bad" Rich) took control of it and stole its power. As for Debbie Domaine, as an animal rights activist gone off the deep end, she was much more receptive to the Cheetah spirit and more able to use its magic.
As for cannon Debbie, she went stark raving loony after Kobra took her prisoner and honestly, with how writers wrote her, I don't think she ever bothered asking. With how she was erased in Crisis, that's rendered moot I suppose. For this Debbie, however, yes Aunt Priscilla explained everything and even though she is no longer the good girl she once was, she is in full control of her mind.
In a race, the Debbie Domaine Cheetah would lose to the Flash (he runs faster than light speed) but in a fight... he better keep on running. ;-)
As for being a philosophical rival to Diana... I honestly didn't think of that! Diana has been shown to speak with animals and loving the environment but Debbie would attack for doing far too little when she has the power to do so much more. "You just talk whilst Mother Earth is dying!" I can indeed imagine hardcore environmentalists calling her a hero and saying the same thing to WW's fans. Heck with Aunt Priscilla as a role model, she probably would treat her minions right.
As for Priscilla Rich fighting Luthor... Luthor as a skinny Kingpin might be out but read Wikipedia's "Lexcorp" article. wiki/LexCorp See the part where pre-Crisis Luthor (AKA the one I'm using) created a major corporation to front and fund his criminal plans? It can still work-though he'd have to hide behind his alias Lucius Tommytown. ;-)
Whew! That's all. Thanks for your kind words and I hope to see you soon. Remember, any questions or comments, feel free to Private Message. Until next time!