Villains With Potential-The Cheetah

First off, let's get this out of the way-Barbara Minerva is and will always be a cooler name for a super-villainess than 'the Cheetah'. It's got a very pulp-y vibe to it...and considering Minerva's profession (archaeologist), a writer would be amiss not to exploit that vibe.

She should be Lara Croft, only interesting. A villainous Indiana Jones, with a penchant for ancient knowledge and an irritating quirk of dropping lines from famous Greek and Moorish plays that no one has ever heard of. Supercilious, arrogant and above all, smart. That's Barbara Minerva in a nutshell.

She has physical abilities which she relishes in, but she'll not hesitate to use whatever means there are at hand to dispose of her enemies-guns, knives, dead-falls, tiger-traps, other super-villains, biological weapons, etcetera and so on. She should be just as devious as Lex Luthor (if not as scientifically savvy), thinking five steps ahead...her physical speed should be accompanied by a mental acuity that makes her more dangerous than a simple street brawler.

The weakness of the Cheetah as she's currently portrayed (with some exceptions), is that she's essentially Sabretooth in drag. A vicious, spitting, speeding, clawing female fiend with the instincts of an animal and the savagery of a woman denied tenure. And there's nothing wrong with that as far as it goes.

But she could be so much more. I've always liked the modern incarnation of the Cheetah because she starts off as a competent (if amoral) professional and her super-villain alter-ego emerges as a consequence of her actions and decisions. She goes searching for power and gets it, regardless of the dangers inherent. And then she uses that power to do exactly what she was doing before...only better.

Barbara Minerva was the heiress to an ancient family fortune and a tomb-robber to boot. English, aristocratic and interested in plundering the secrets of the secret places of the world, she fits the 'scary imperialist' role to a 'T', and it's something that should be explored. She's no mindless savage nor is she a bloodthirsty loon, despite the effects of the ritual which have given her her abilities. No, instead, she is a cunning, calculating, ambitious woman. She wants something. Something big. Bigger than Wonder Woman's Lasso, bigger than Neptune's Trident or Hercules' Lion-Skin.

Spite plays a strong role in a personality like Minerva's, but lately, writers have been using it as an excuse not to do anything interesting with the character. She goes after Wonder Woman because that's what the Cheetah does. Only it's not, is it? She's not the Joker or Luthor (despite the earlier allusion) with an almost emotional connection to her nemesis. No, she's more like Spider-Man's rogues gallery-Minerva's goals have nothing to do with Wonder Woman or any hero.

See, the power of the Cheetah wasn't Minerva's end-goal. It was just a stepping stone onto bigger and better things. The power of a god, but still only one piece of an intricate and ever-evolving plan. Now, what, you might ask, is that plan? No clue. But wouldn't it be interesting to find out?