Central Rogues' Gallery
In alphabetical order (with issue and date of first appearance, and when or if they were involved in Villainy Incorporated, a league of Wonder Woman rivals founded by Eviless that at one time or another most major WW villains were involved in).
| Villain | First appearance | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Angle Man | Wonder Woman #62 (November/December 1953) | Originally a clever schemer who 'knew all the angles', the updated Angle Man possesses an object known as an Angler which can alter objects and locations according to the holder's wishes, sometimes defying gravity or through teleportation. The Angle Man was created as a recurring foil for Wonder Woman during the period in which Robert Kanigher took over as writer of the comic book. In the late 1940s, as the backlog of Marston scripts dried up and his family stopped writing stories, and into the 1950s, Kanigher phased out most of the supporting cast, even, briefly, the Amazons of Paradise Island, presenting Wonder Woman in three short, disconnected stories per issue rather than three chapters of one full-length script. The short form left little room for characterization or elaborate plots and, for a while, typically featured Wonder Woman as a full-time crime fighter frequently targeted by the criminal underworld for elimination.
The Angle Man emerged after a series of tales in which Kanigher presented a desperate underworld turning to experts in designing elaborate schemes to defeat Wonder Woman. After one-shot tales featuring the Plotter and the Brain, Kanigher settled on the Angle Man, a character whose gimmick is designing schemes based on an angle. Wonder Woman #62 featured "Angle" Andrews, and beginning in Wonder Woman #70 she was pitted against someone known simply as the Angle Man. The Silver Age adventures of Wonder Woman came to feature one-off villains and predicaments, and the Angle Man and the Duke of Deception were for a time the only recurring villains. The Angle Man was dropped in the 1960s, as Wonder Woman shifted away from superheroics to feature espionage and urban adventures of the depowered Diana Prince, but he reemerged in the 1970s as a more traditional costumed supervillain, now equipped with a superpowered "angler" device. The Angle Man was one of many Wonder Woman rogues who were not updated following the reboot of the Wonder Woman series after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, until relatively recently. Later, during Phil Jimenez's run on the Wonder Woman title, he was revamped into Angelo Bend, an Italian master gentleman thief for hire who uses his special angler to escape authorities. He was caught by Donna Troy while trying to steal an ancient artifact from a museum. Even though Donna, as Troia, was trying to stop the villain, Angle Man formed a bit of a crush on the Amazon. He became so enamored with her that he instinctively transported himself to Themyscira seeking Donna's help when he was savagely attacked by a Fury possessed Barbara Minerva. Later it was learned that he had been hired by Barbara, the previous Cheetah, who had lost her powers to Sebastian Ballesteros and needed the stolen artifacts to regain them. He was also seen grieving at Donna Troy's funeral after she was briefly killed by a Superman robot. The next time he is shown was among a large team of super villains formed by the Wonder Woman villain Devastation. An enemy of Cassie Sandsmark, Devastation formed the group to battle the now disbanded Young Justice. |
| Ares | Wonder Woman #1 (Summer 1942) | Ares, referred to by the Roman name Mars for most of the pre-Crisis period, is the god of war and son of the Greek god Zeus. |
| Baroness von Gunther | Sensation Comics #4 (April, 1942) | Wonder Woman's first recurring arch-nemesis, a ruthless Nazi spymaster, evil scientist, and femme fatale. Blackmailed into serving the Nazis because they held her daughter prisoner, she changed sides after Wonder Woman rescued her daughter, Gerta, and joined the Amazons as their chief scientist. Pre-Crisis, Paula von Gunther had standard Amazon powers, such as superhuman strength capable of breaking chains and leaping great heights, speed and stamina enough to deflect bullets and other projectiles from her Amazon Bracelets. She was also a skilled hand-to-hand combatant. Post-Crisis, von Gunther was empowered when possessed by Dark Angel, who had vast powers and was able to perform a variety of feats including mind control, altering her size, teleportation and altering the time stream.
Von Gunther went to trial, but Wonder Woman acted as her defense and got her off. Murder charges had to be thrown out on double jeopardy, because Paula had previously been tried, convicted... and executed for that crime in the electric chair, but her henchmen had revived her with an electrical machine she had invented after the Doctor gave her body to them (Sensation Comics #7). Wonder Woman also dramatically revealed Paula's scarred face to the jury, which was moved by Paula's heroic self-sacrifice and acquitted her of the remaining espionage and sabotage charges. (Wonder Woman (vol. 1) #3.) Paula returned to Paradise Island with her former slave girls and her daughter to live and undergo Amazon training. She became the Amazons' chief scientist, spending part of her time on Paradise Island and part aiding Wonder Woman from a hidden underground laboratory beneath Holliday College. Her daughter Gerta also was a scientific savant, although her experiments sometimes led to accidents. |
| Blue Snowman | Sensation Comics #59 (September 1946) | Byrna Brilyant, a small town school-teacher and scientist who disguised herself as a man called "The Snowman," using a telescopic snow ray to create and reverse blue snow, which paralyzed victims, and an army of robots attuned to her brainwaves. She later joined the first Villainy, Inc. as they attempted to take over Paradise Island. |
| Cheetah | Wonder Woman #6 (October 1943) | The original Cheetah, Priscilla Rich, was a beautiful dancer and philanthropist who developed an odd sort of split personality when she felt overshadowed by Wonder Woman. |
| Wonder Woman #274 (December 1980) | A second pre-Crisis Cheetah, Debbi Domaine, the niece of the original, was an ecologist, she was kidnapped, brainwashed into a feral ecoterrorist, and trained in unarmed combat by Kobra. Post-Crisis, Debbi never became the Cheetah. | |
| Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #7 (August 1987) (as Barbara Minerva); #8 (as Cheetah) | The current Cheetah, Barbara Minerva, is a former archeologist and treasure-hunter who sold her soul to the plant-god Urtzkartaga for power and immortality, not realizing she'd be bound in eternal servitude to him. | |
| Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #171 (August 2001) | Minerva briefly lost her power to Argentine businessman Sebastian Ballesteros, who became Circe's consort and funded the transformation of Vanessa Kapatelis into the Silver Swan. He lost the Cheetah power in a deadly battle with Minerva and was later found slain by Minerva after having abducted Kapatelis and again transformed her into the Silver Swan. | |
| Circe | Wonder Woman #37 (Sept/Oct 1949) | Circe is based on the Greek mythological character of the same name. A witch and sorceress of vast power, specializing in illusion and transformation spells, Circe was originally a minor villain but post-Crisis has become one of Wonder Woman's most formidable foes and even triggered a War of the Gods. |
| Dark Angel | Wonder Woman vol. 2, #131 (March 1998) | Dark Angel is the spirit of an ancient demon summoned forth by the German Nazi Baroness Paula von Gunther during World War II. Finding an enemy in Wonder Woman's mother Queen Hippolyta, the two battled on several occasions. Seeking revenge, Dark Angel secretly transported herself onto Themyscira and kidnapped Hippolyta's daughter Donna Troy, mistaking her for Diana. She placed Donna in suspended animation until rescued years later by the now adult Diana as Wonder Woman. |
| Devastation | Wonder Woman vol. 2, #143 (April 1999) | The titan known as Cronus created Devastation much the same way Wonder Woman was created: by having life breathed into a clay female figure. With his Titan children each blessing her with dark gifts, she is Cronus' champion who he hopes will defeat Olympus' champion: Wonder Woman. With almost the same powers, this demi-goddess is almost an exact copy of Wonder Woman, save for the dark twist behind her powers.
Devastation is featured as an agent of the Light in the television series Young Justice. |
| Doctor Cyber | Wonder Woman #179 (November–December 1968) | A female criminal mastermind and head of an international crime syndicate, Doctor Cyber was Wonder Woman's arch-nemesis during a period when she had given up her Amazon powers and become a white-costumed karate expert. During an early battle, Cyber's face was horribly burned. Vowing revenge for her ruined beauty, she became obsessed with having Wonder Woman's face removed and surgically grafted on her own. She also teamed up with Batman foe Doctor Moon in this period. |
| Doctor Poison | Sensation Comics #2 (February 1942) | Princess Maru became Doctor Poison who, disguising her gender via a bulky hooded costume and mask, was the leader of a Nazi spy ring whose ultimate goal was to wreak havoc by contaminating the army's water with "reverso", a drug which would cause people to do the opposite of what they are told. |
| Wonder Woman, vol. 2, #151 (December 1999) | In recent years, an unnamed grandchild of the original Doctor Poison appears in league with Devastation, Villainy Inc., and the Secret Society of Super Villains. Having used herself as a subject for biochemical experiments, she's developed the ability to secrete various toxins and chemicals. | |
| Doctor Psycho | Wonder Woman #5 (June–July 1943) | Ridiculed as a child for his small stature and strange appearance, Doctor Psycho grew up to be highly sexist and misogynist. Formerly a brilliant student, he went mad and turned to crime after being framed for a crime by a rival who stole the only girl he ever loved. A little person with telepathic and psychic powers, he was originally intended to be an archetypical mad scientist and spirit medium, but that image was dropped post-Crisis. He is one of Wonder Woman's most deadly foes. |
| Duke of Deception | Wonder Woman #2 (Fall 1942) | A servant of the evil god Mars from his base on the planet Mars, he embodied deceit, confusion, and treachery, using his godlike powers of illusion, shape-shifting, and influencing minds to further the cause of war. One of Wonder Woman's most persistent foes, he plagued her throughout the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages. Little is known about the true history of the Duke of Deception. He appears to be a minor god who existed for thousands of years. He is drafted by Mars to battle Wonder Woman. He uses his powers to spread falsehoods to provoke humanity into conflict and war.
Deception sends his astral form to inspire military and government leaders with duplicitous thoughts that could lead to war. His contributions to World War II include "persuad ... the Rising Sun (Japan) to make peace talk at Washington while they struck with deadly venom at Pearl Harbor" and "show the addled Hitler how to cultivate Russia's friendship until the hour arrived to attack" (Wonder Woman (vol. 1) #2). On the war god's interplanetary base on the planet Mars, Deception operates the Lie Factory, which uses slaves, spirits from different planets such as Earth and Saturn that inhabit bodies, to craft deceptions for a variety of stratagems. Other slaves are used for gladiator conflicts. Wonder Woman first met him when he kidnapped Steve Trevors, and foiled his plan to cause further war with the help of Etta Candy. After repeated failures, Mars strips him of his mighty appearance, leaving him a weak, toothless man. He was once imprisoned with the female slaves, but convinced them to rebel and briefly ruled Mars. He eventually begins working independently from Mars, and continues to unsuccessfully battle Wonder Woman. Later he tries to attack the entire Solar System of Earth-1 after capturing Wonder Woman and Steve with a key that transforms into a spaceship which paralyzes them, but she is able to escape using her bracelet to turn off the device and destroy all three-thirds of his fleet which were massing at different planets and his own ship crashes into an Earth satellite. Deception's daughter, Lya, is a "mistress of lies" who attempts to double-cross her own father. After the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths, this version of the Duke of Deception is erased from history. |
| Genocide | Wonder Woman vol. 3, #26 (November 2008) | Created by the Secret Society of Super Villains, Genocide was formed using soil samples taken from various locations on Earth where genocide took place and magically adding them to Wonder Woman's future corpse. |
| Giganta | Wonder Woman #9 (June 1944) | Giganta was originally a gorilla who was super-evolved by Professor Zool. Her modern day version is Doctor Doris Zuel, a medical doctor suffering from a fatal disease who hoped to transfer her life essence into Wonder Woman. When Wonder Girl foiled her attempt, her essence was placed into a gorilla. She then transferred her essence into Olga, a circus strong-woman. Post-Crisis she has the power to grow to gigantic size. |
| Maxwell Lord | Justice League #1 (May 1987) | An evil businessman with mind control powers. During the Infinite Crisis, he manipulated Superman to attack Batman and Wonder Woman; she found that the only way to stop him was to kill him and snapped his neck, causing her to become wanted. Recently, during Blackest Night, he came back to life as a zombie, whose only goal is to get revenge on Wonder Woman. |
| Queen Clea | Wonder Woman #8 (March 1944) | Cruel ruler of the Atlantean city of Venturia, where women were large and powerful and men were stunted, weak, and servile, Queen Clea often forced her subjects to battle in gladiatorial combat. Wanting to take over all of Atlantis she eventually stole the Trident of Poseidon to make herself supremely powerful. She was stopped by Wonder Woman and later joined Villainy Inc. in an attempt at revenge. As an Atlantean, Queen Clea can breathe both above and under water. Clea can also physically withstand the great amounts of undersea depth pressures. Because of this, her body is resistant to most physical injury and provides a form of super strength. When in possession of the mystical trident belonging to Poseidon, Clea's strength levels increase and she has limited control over water. The trident also has the ability to fire force blasts. Due to a spell by the witch Circe, Clea now also has the ability of flight. |
| Silver Swan | Wonder Woman #288 (February 1982) | Pre-Crisis, Helen Alexandros was a homely ballerina passed up for roles until she struck a bargain with her ancestor, the war-god Mars: power and beauty in exchange for killing Wonder Woman. She had great strength, the ability to fly, and a powerful sonic scream. |
| Wonder Woman vol. 2, #15 (April 1988) | Post-Crisis, Valerie Beaudry was deformed by her parents' exposure to radiation but had nascent abilities to control sound. Industrialist Henry Armbruster seduced and even married her to convince her to submit to experiments that enhanced her sonic powers and transformed her into a beautiful woman. However, she remained insecure and emotionally dominated by Armbruster, who used her as a weapon against Wonder Woman. | |
| Wonder Woman vol. 2, #171 (August 2001) | A third Silver Swan, Vanessa Kapatelis, was actually a longtime friend of Wonder Woman, kidnapped by Circe, Doctor Psycho, and others, brainwashed into hating her former idol, and turned into a murderous cyborg. | |
| Veronica Cale | Wonder Woman vol. 2, #196 (November 2003) | Scientific genius and part owner of Cale-Anderson Pharmaceuticals, Veronica Cale has made it her goal to destroy Wonder Woman. Her reasoning is that Wonder Woman was handed many privileges in life whereas Veronica had to work hard for everything she's accomplished. Along the way she's worked with other enemies of Wonder Woman such as Doctor Psycho and Circe. |
| White Magician | Wonder Woman Annual vol. 2, #3 (September 1989) | The sorcerer Thomas Asquith Randolph made a pact with a demon in order to acquire more magical power as his previous magic began to wane with age. During his climb to power, he became stunted in his rise several times by both Wonder Woman and her fellow Amazon sister Artemis. Wonder Woman was finally able to destroy the evil wizard-turned-demon but at the cost of Artemis' life. |
Read more about this topic: List Of Wonder Woman Enemies
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