Villain Profile: Cheetah

Sorry this one is a little later in the day. There was a family emergency yesterday that made it impossible to write at my usual time. Me and time management are still not on speaking terms. So, Cheetah.

Like with Lex, Supergirl, Batgirl, Mirror Master, Reverse-Flash, regular Flash, and so many other characters in comics, there is more than one Cheetah. For simplicities sake I will once again go with one of the more recent iterations of the character. In this particular case, the “modern” Cheetah is a woman named Barbara Ann Minerva, and is the third version of Cheetah to appear in comics. Let’s get to it.

Wait a sec, she doesn't have her claws out.
Calling BS on this, Cheetah's are the only
big cat that can't retract their claws. Fun Fact.

Dr. Minerva was a British archeologist studying ancient tribes in Africa. She was all but obsessed with finding a particular ancient tribe that used a female guardian that was imbued with the power of a cheetah. After several years of searching she uncovered the tribe, and their guardian, just before a band of marauders slaughtered the guardian, the tribe, and most of Barbara’s expedition party. Them’s the breaks when searching for ancient cultures. Thankfully for Barbara, the high priest of this tribe, Chuma, survived and with him so did the ritual necessary to make a new Cheetah. Barbara agreed to be the new Cheetah, partially because she was promised that immortality comes with the job. And for those who may question it, this is the modern take on immortality, meaning that you won’t die from old age, but fatal wounds are still fatal. She was given a combination of human blood and the berries from the sacred Urtzkartaga plant. A few mystical chants, and BAM, cat person. Though, apparently Chuma left out a very small but still vitally important detail about the whole immortal guardian position. Because we’re dealing with an ancient culture I’m a little shocked that the possibility didn’t occur to Dr. Minerva. But, the guardian is supposed to be a virgin. Minerva, was in fact, not. So things didn’t go 100% as planned. The transformation worked, but in her human form Barbara experience insane amounts of physical pain, and while in her Cheetah form she was filled with a berserker’s bloodlust. This is why you should consult your doctor before performing ancient superpower granting rituals.

Apparently she took a few notes from Joker and
Decided to keep savage beasts as pets.

The new Cheetah and Wonder Woman first cross paths for the simplest of reasons, Cheetah wanted WW’s stuff. Specifically that magic Lasso of Truth that Diana is always sporting. An archeologist with a weird obsession with collecting rare and magic stuff, who’d a thunk it? Well, anyway, Cheetah nearly gets her hands on the Lasso in the simplest of ways, she lied to Diana. In her human form she told the Amazon Princess that she had a Golden Girdle of Gaea, which she claimed was part of a matching set with the Lasso. Diana, in a rare moment of extreme naiveté, hands the Lasso over. Unfortunately for Barbara, that’s when the whole “of Truth” part of the Lasso kicked in. She spilled the beans about making the whole thing up and her plan to keep the Lasso forever. Wonder Woman takes the Lasso back. Since the subtle approach failed, Barbara morphs into her Cheetah form and tries to steal it by force. In the ensuing fight it became clear that Cat powers are pretty much equal to Greek God powers, but Cheetah was forced into retreat.

While getting the Lasso was Cheetah’s motivation for several years, as time passed Cheetah’s obsession shifted more and more to getting payback against Wonder Woman. You can only bruise an ego so many times before getting on someone’s $h!t list. That being said there are a couple of instances where they pull “an enemy of my enemy is my friend.” I never got that saying, since the hero usually teams up with their enemy to be the enemy’s enemy. It makes no sense. Whatever, Cheetah was kidnapped by the dictator of fake Balkan county 27a, Pan Balgravia. Said dictator had made a deal with a demon to find a powerful Metahuman woman to be the host for said demon’s demoness wife. Wonder Woman tries to save her enemy for…reasons, but Barbara chooses to jump into the dimensional vortex used to summon said demoness, to prevent it from crossing over. She’s later rescued by some Boston area mob boss, in an attempt to get some superpowered muscle, but double crosses said mob boss when Wonder Woman gets caught in the middle of Boston mobs turf war. Debt repaid, the two go back to fighting like Cats and Demi-Gods. Them’s the breaks with supervillains.

Dr. Minerva has the usual superpowers connected to her namesake. Razor sharp claws, enhanced senses, superhuman speed, and obsession with catching the little red dot created by a laser pointer. Okay, maybe not that last one. Her powers are connected to the Urzkartaga plant-god, whom can take her powers away as he sees fit. There’s actually a story arc where she loses her powers to a man named Sebastian Ballesteros that convinced Urz to make him the first male Cheetah. She gets her powers back after killing Ballesteros and sacrificing his blood to Urzhkartaga. Ancient Gods sure need a lot of ego stroking.

Not a lot of spots for a Cheetah, just saying.

Cheetah has appeared a few times in various DC series, always against her arch nemesis Wonder Woman. They tend to skip over the whole, Magic Lasso obsession and jump right into killing Wonder Woman because of bruised ego obsession.

Her first major appearance wasn’t 100% her, a Cheetah that was loosely based on her appeared in the Justice League TV series. In it, Cheetah used to be a respected geneticist that performed some last minute “prove my theories right” experiments on herself that turned her into a cat person. She joins Lex Luthor’s Injustice Gang in “Injustice for All” because Luthor promises a big pay day. She wants the money to fix herself. Batman, who was captured by the group, offers her help if she releases him. Cheetah hesitates, and even kisses Batman for…reasons, but apparently doesn’t go through with it. Luthor begins to suspect a traitor, sees the kiss for a security camera and has super powered zombie Solomon Grundy take care of Cheetah Of Mice and Men style. Imagine his embarrassment when it turns out it was the Ultra-Humanite that pulled the double cross. Somehow, Cheetah survives Grundy “tending the rabbits” and alter joins Gorilla Grodd’s Secret Society in Justice League Unlimited, but in a minor role.

We see Cheetah, briefly, in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies. In it, she’s one of over a dozen supervillains aiming to take out Superman and Batman in order to collect a sizeable bounty President Lex Luthor put out of Superman. Superman was accused of murdering Lex Luthor pardoned supervillain bodyguard, Metallo. She and a lot of bad guys get their butts kicked by the Super-Bat team up.

Not exactly Dr. Barbara Minerva, but pretty close on the
Wonder Woman hate.

Her first large, 100% Barbara role was in Justice League: Doom. She’s one of several villains hired by Vandal Savage to kill their respective superhero. She’s the one most vocal about not doing it, claiming she doesn’t need help. But, once Vandal reminds the good doctor of her numerous failed attempts and the large sum of money he’ll pay, she agrees. Cheetah lures Wonder Woman onto a boat and the two brawl. During the fight, WW is slashed by Cheetah’s claws. Normally this would be no big deal, it happens a lot when fighting a superpowered cat-person, but not this time. Cheetah’s claws were coated in a nano-bots, the tiny machines infected Diana’s blood and traveled to her brain. Once there, they took control of her audio and visual nerves and rewired them so that every person she saw would appear and sound like Cheetah. The plan was, given Wonder Woman’s warrior ways, she’d keep fighting the Cheetah’s she saw, without stopping or resting which would lead to one of three outcomes; 1. She’d have a heart attack, 2. Have an aneurysm, or 3. Shot to death by police. Cyborg is able to keep her busy long enough to prepare and administer an antidote. Cheetah joins Vandal Savage’s phase two plan, causing a global genocide since it was preferable to be one of the people in the global genocide. She’s beat by Wonder Woman when the League storms the Hall of Doom.

Cheetah is your pretty standard revenge villain. She’ll keep on fighting Wonder Woman until she’s either killed or succeeds. You can probably guess how often supervillains succeed in beating their superhero. Her Cheetah powers, while somewhat unique in the whole “powers on or off have their own awful side effects” are also pretty standard for a cat person. I’m not saying she’s a bad character, or that I particularly dislike her, it’s just that she’s kind of generic. Cheetah does earn points, though, for being one of the first characters to show Wonder Woman that there are women that are as "bad as men." Which I think does kind of help Diana move away from judging the entire male half of the human race as inherently bad and the entire female half of the human race as inherently good. She’s the Savage Feline Foe of Wonder Woman, the Cheetah. Next time, Deathstroke, the Terminator. 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheetah_%28comics%29#/media/File:Cheetahwonderwoman.PNG

 http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110504062952/villains/images/f/f3/346px-Cheetah_02.jpg

 http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/dcmovies/images/e/ec/Cheetah_%28Justice_League_Doom%29.png/revision/latest?cb=20120825152941

Villain Profile: Ma'alefa'ak

Having siblings can be a pain in the butt sometimes, but I am very glad to say that my brothers, my sister, and I have a much better relationship than various siblings of fiction. I’ve covered this point a few time already, but the next post makes me real glad that none of my siblings have a never ending quest for vengeance against me, or me against them. But I’ll cover that in a second, on with the show.

Resting a throne of corpses, subtle.

Ma’alefa’ak is the younger twin brother of J’onn J’onzz. On Mars, twins are very, very rare, and are usually considered a bad omen. As such, older brother was named J’onn meaning Light to the Light, and younger brother was named Ma’alefa’ak meaning Darkness in the Heart. Sigh, I mentioned this in J’onn’s profile, but seriously folks, even if you know without a shred of doubt that one of your children is going to turn out to be evil, ya still shouldn’t give them a name that's the equivalent to Lucifer Beelzebub McBadguy. Self-fulfilling prophecies folks! Speaking of self-fulfilling prophecies, we pretty much have one here. J’onn went on to be a successful Manhunter (police officer) and philosopher, while Ma’alefa'ak was pushed to the fringe of Martian society. It didn’t help that he lacked the ability to speak telepathically, which is a Martian’s primary means of communication. Ma’alefa'ak’s lack of telepathy is what lead to his plan to get vengeance against the rest of Mars. This is getting to be too much of a mouthful. From now on, I'll refer to him as Ma'al for short. Ma'al created a plague, which he named after the Martian god of Death and Darkness, H’ronmeer. H’ronmeer’s Curse quickly swept across the face of Mars. Any time a Martian attempted to speak with someone telepathically they would pass the infection on. A mark appeared on their forehead, and within a few days the infected Martian would burst into flame. Considering that Martian’s have a deeply rooted fear of fire, even the smallest amount of fire can cause a Martian to freeze up in fear, this was pretty much the worst way to go for them.

I’m not sure if Ma’al was aware of this, but his brother J’onn was tasked with disposing of the infected corpses, which later included J’onn’s wife and daughter. If he was, that must have been gravy to the insane Martian. Eventually, Ma’al believed himself to be the last Martian on Mars. He lived on the planet comfortably for centuries, unware that his brother was still alive, and that he was later transported across time and space to Earth. After learning of J’onn’s continued existence, he traveled to Earth to see the end of Martians once and for all. You’d think being left alone on a planet for a few hundred years would have cooled his temper a little, but sadly no. He became one of his brother’s most persistent and dangerous enemies. During one of their earlier encounters the brother’s underwent the G’amal’khul ritual, where the two traded a small portion of their psyches with one another. Hm... having a small bit of a close family member permanently lodged in one's brain? A bit of Scott or Amy I could handle, a little of Matt would probably drive me insane. But enough of my familial hypotheticals.

Someone is trying too hard to look bad ass.

The bit of Ma’al that was in J’onn made it his life goal to destroy J’onn for the inside out. He twisted J’onn’s memories, both of Earth and Mars, and constantly urged his brother towards suicide. Why the bit of J'onn in Ma'al didn't make him a better person, I'll never know. Eventually, Ma’al took control of his brother’s body and started causing trouble. This worked until J’onn, strengthened by the bits of his wife and daughter’s psychic essence that was also within him, force Ma’al back. In a later story it is revealed that Ma’alefa’ak’s perceived genetic defect was not, in fact, genetic. Apparently back on Mars, before engineering H’ronmeer’s curse, he was still a pretty bad dude. He used his telepathic powers on J’onn’s wife to, well, psychically rape her. He was punished by the ruling council of Mars, who put up mental barriers to cut Ma’al off from the rest of Mars, and then modified his memories so he believed that this was always the case. Given what he did later, I think that the Martian ruling council may have come to regret this decision. I’ll get back to this in a second.

Eventually, Ma’al used his shapeshifting powers to pose as J’onn and attack the Justice League. He personally tortured another extraterrestrial hero named Jemm, before confronting his brother directly. The twins were evenly matched, but J’onn got the upper hand in the end. He used his own telepathic powers to remove the telepathic blocks on Ma’al. Now, you may be thinking that giving Ma’al access to his telepathic powers would be a stupid thing, but with his telepathic powers comes the Martian intense pyro-phobia. J’onn had undergone several years of rigorous mental and physical training to help him combat this intense, crippling fear, but Ma’al hadn’t. The completely terrified Ma’al was trapped in a spaceship in close proximity to the sun. He just watched in terror as his body burst into flame. Like so many other villains that I’ve covered before, Ma’al wasn’t gone for good, he’d eventually return to menace J’onn once again.

Ma’alefa’ak possesses nearly all of the Martian powers inherent to his species. He’s incredibly strong and durable. He has complete control of his molecular structure which allows his to shapeshift, regenerate, increase or decrease his density, become intangible and invisible. He can use “Martian Vision,” high powered energy beams of energy fired from his eyes. He’s also telekinetic. Because, why not? While for most of his supervillain career he didn't have telepathy, reasons may vary, this was in at least one a benefit. Lacking telepathy for whatever reason also freed him of the crippling pryrophobia that plagues his species. He can handle fire just like anyone else, well, like any other superbeing.

Ma’al is an underused villain, appearing only in one DC series thus far.

Ma'al is never amused. Which is a pretty awful way to live,
not going to lie.

In the direct-to-DVD movie Justice League: Doom, he’s recruited by Vandal Savage to destroy his hated older sibling. Fun fact, J’onn and Ma’al are played by the same actor, Carl Lumbly, most likely to highlight the fact that they’re supposed to be twins. Ma’al shapeshifts into a leggy blonde, and buys J’onn a drink. Hm… I’m thinking a therapist would have a field day with Ma’al’s strategy here. Whatever, he buys J’onn a drink, spikes it, and J’onn rather stupidly drinks it. He then reveals his identity to J’onn, and reveals that the drink J’onn ingested was spiked with magnesium carbonate. J’onn was made physically ill by the chemical, and worse, his body tried to sweat it out. Ma’al then set his brother on fire. For those who don’t know, Magnesium burns hot, and continues to burn even when dosed in water. So, yeah, J’onn is pretty much screwed. He’d have burned to ashes had Batman not given Wonder Woman and Cyborg aluminum oxide which they injected into J’onn’s body. The aluminum oxide counteracted the magnesium. After recovering, a little, from the ordeal, J'onn joins the League as they assault the Legion of Doom's base. During the battle between the J L and the L of D, the J’onzz brothers fought it out by shapeshifting into various animals and monsters. The fight ends when J’onn drops out, and Ma’al is burnt to cinders by a rocket. Got to assume that J'onn needed a few therapy sessions after seeing his twin burn to death. No matter how much bad blood there is between brothers, seeing that would mess ya up.

Like Mirror Master yesterday, Ma’alefa’ak is a character that I don’t really know well enough to judge whether I like or dislike the character. Based entirely on the Justice League: Doom, he’s an incredibly creepy and dangerous character. His shapeshifting powers and seeming unending hatred for J’onn makes him a character that is incredibly difficult to track and very unpredictable. I wonder if this between him and J’onn would get better if the two of them just tried to hug it out. Probably best to not try that one out, as Ma’al would just try to stab J’onn in the back. He’s the evil, malevolent alien from Mars, Ma’alefa’ak. Next time, Wonder Woman’s feline foe, Cheetah.

 http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Ma%27alefa%27ak_J%27onzz_%28New_Earth%29
 http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120411112028/marvel_dc/images/4/41/Malefic_Doom_001.png
 http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/dcfanfiction/images/d/d7/2229905-screen_shot_2012_03_05_at_11.14.15_am.png/revision/latest?cb=20120311014822

Villain Profile: Mirror Master

Mirrors are rather fascinating, aren’t they? A surface that perfectly captures and reflects back whatever thing is put in front of them. Put an infant or an animal in front of one, and they’ll react as if there is another infant/animal across from them. Now, imagine if there was an actual dimension hidden behind the reflective surface. That’s the thought that crossed the mind of convict Samuel Scudder. Before I get started, I know that technically Mirror Master isn’t really in the same league of villain as say Lex Luthor or Ra’s al Ghul, but I’ve already done Reverse-Flash, Gorilla Grodd, and Captain Cold, so I’m forced to go with some of the B-listers. Let’s get to it.

A really cool design, not going to lie.

Sam was a convict working at a mirror factory on one of those work release programs. One day, while mixing the chemicals necessary to give modern mirrors their shiny surface, he got a few vials mix up. Despite being told to throw out the bizarre mirror that he’d manufactured by his foreman, Sam smuggled the mirror out of the factory and began to study it. He discovered that this mirror had a number of strange powers, one of which being the ability to create reverse copies of people. Sam threw together a costume and named himself Mirror Master. He used his cloning mirror to make copies of people and having them help him create crimes. His weird robberies finally got the attention of the Scarlet Speedster, the Flash, and was defeated.

Sam continued his research, somehow, in prison and discovered his own extra dimensional space. Apparently by setting several mirrors at the absolute perfect angle he could access this space, which he dubs Mirror World. Why the guards let the “MIRROR MASTER” have lots of reflective surfaces in his cell, I’ll never know. He slid into the alternate realm, but got stuck. He met and was waited upon by a telepathic species called the Orinocas. These little creatures worshipped as an extradimensional deity for his ability to make and manipulate mirrors. Sam grew very bored with his new life of luxury, they gave him everything he wanted, so he decided to escape. He used his Mirror sliding powers to lure the Flash into Mirror World, in the hope that the Flash’s speed could be used to get him out of his new prison. The Flash did get them both out, but Flash slammed Sam back into his old prison again.

Smug looking SOB, isn't he?

When on trial for one of his crime sprees, Sam uses his super mirrors to hypnotize his layer, Paul Barrett. Damn, magic mirrors are so useful. Sam ordered Barrett to don his Mirror Master costume, as well as spare costumes of his teammates on the Rogues, and cause trouble all around Central City. Seeing his supposedly imprisoned enemies around town piqued the Flash’s curiosity, and he traveled to Paul Barrett’s house to get some answers. He was ambushed by the mind controlled lawyer, who then stole his costume and went to “interrogate” Mirror Master in prison. Once inside the prison, Barrett and Sam switched clothes, and Mirror Master walked out in Flash’s costume. Why the guards didn’t question the Flash walking out of prison, I’ll never know. This bit of freedom lasted until Flash got out of Barrett’s bindings, where the Flash promptly re-imprisoned Mirror Master. Mirror Master proved to be one Flash’s most persistent foes. He never quiet really reached the same level of notoriety as Reverse-Flash or Captain Cold, but he did keep trying. He was eventually killed in the Crisis on Infinite Earths story, where his name, costume, and gear were passed on to Scottish mercenary, Evan McCulloch, but I’ll get to that another day.

Mirror Master utilizes several specialized mirrors to produce weird and quasi-magic effects. With his special mirrors he can become invisible, create holograms, alter his appearance, communicate long distance, and travel to the parallel Mirror World. Later versions also incorporated a laser pistol as well. Every villain needs a cool gun of some sort. Like many of the other Rogues, Mirror Master’s biggest weakness is that he’s completely reliant on his tech for his powers. Take away his special mirrors and he’s just a normal dude. Which makes it really, really easy for someone with superspeed to beat up.

I wonder if he can only fire from one
mirror, or from all of them.

Mirror Master has appeared in several different DC series. Again, of the various Flash villains, he’s a B-lister. As such, he is usually more of a background character than say Grodd or Captain Cold.

A version of Mirror Master appeared in Justice League Unlimited. His real name isn’t revealed, but this version seems to be a mix of the two major Mirror Master’s anyway. He doesn’t have a Scottish accent, which is part of McCulloch’s shtick, but he does have some of McCulloch’s more enhanced abilities and the laser pistol. He works with the Rogues and later the Secret Society in several episodes.

In the final season of The Batman, where Batman starts dealing with other heroes and their villains, there is another Mirror Master. This version is an optical physicist that has lost his marbles. He uses his powers to create Hard Light Hologram Clones of the Flash and later Batman and Robin. These duplicates steal components for a specialized portal ray that he uses to trap the citizens of Gotham into any reflective surface. He’s eventually defeated by Batman and the Flash.

The Mirror Master, while not the mastermind behind, is instrumental in attack on the Justice League in Justice League: Doom. Supervillain immortal Vandal Savage hires him to sneak into the Batcave, using the Batmobile’s rearview mirror to do it, and steal information from the Batcomputer. He initially wanted to try and discover Batman’s secret identity, but Savage dismisses that idea as he already knows Bruce Wayne is Batman. Instead, Mirror Master downloads Batman’s emergency contingency plans and escapes. After giving Savage the data, he’s chosen to kill the Flash. Mirror Master robs a train and holds the occupants hostage. The Flash runs in to stop him, destroying several Mirror-Holograms, but his caught off guard by the last one. The real Mirror Master nails a bomb to the Flash’s wrist. The bomb is designed to go off in the Flash remains still for 60 seconds, try to take it off, or if he decelerates once he starts moving. Flash races around the world, pushing his body to the limit until Batman is able to get in contact with him. Flash removes the bomb by phasing through an iceberg. Flash gets payback at the Hall of Doom, knocking Mirror Master out with one punch.

Huh, Mirror Master and Heat Wave are looking unusually buff.

He appears in a non-speaking role in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox alongside the rest of the Rogues. He and the team attack the Flash Museum to lure the Flash out. They had some sort of plan to beat the Flash, but that is tossed out the window when the Rogue’s client Reverse-Flash arrives. He sticks bombs on each of the Rogues and the Flash. He’s saved by Green Lantern and Batman. GL takes them to the upper atmosphere in a bubble while Batman removes the bomb with a laser cutter.

Mirror Master didn’t appear in the first season of the Flash, but there’s always season 2.

Like so many minor villains, Mirror Master is one of those guys that I really don’t know well enough to say whether or not that I like the character. I can say, that his powers are rather unique. I can safely say that I’ve never seen a villain with this exact gimmick or power set. While he’s been a background character for most of his career, I can see him having a larger role in newer series. Not “major villain of the season” big, but definitely more than a background character or one time baddy. Just have to wait and see I guess. He’s the reflective rogue, the maniacal menacing Mirror Master. Next time, J’onn J’onzz’s evil twin, Ma’alefa’ak.

 http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/File:Mirror_Master_Doom_001.png
 http://de.batman.wikia.com/wiki/Datei:Mirror1.jpg
 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b7/Flash_v1_105.jpg
 http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/File:Rogues_JLFP_Original_001.jpg