Created for her mother with the wisdom of Athena, the strength of Demeter, the speed of Hermes, the beauty and loving heart of Aphrodite, the sisterhood with fire of Hestia and the hunters skill of Artemis, Princess Diana of the Amazons was sent to Patriarch's World to defeat Ares, and afterward stayed to deliver her message of love and peace."If it means interfering in an ensconced, outdated system, to help just one woman, man or child... I'm willing to accept the consequences."
Friend to All Living Things: One of her least utilized powers is the ability to communicate empathically with animals.
Honor Before Reason: One of her vices is that she absolutely refuses to retreat or surrender, and a big enough Zerg Rush could occupy her until she collapses from exhaustion.
Luke, I Am Your Father: In the New 52 Universe, it's revealed by Eris in issue #2 and later confirmed by Hippolyta in the next issue than Diana is the daughter of Hippolyta and Zeus.
Made of Indestructium: Not even Superman or Captain Marvel can break her lasso. Her bracelets can withstand even Darkseid's Omega Beam.
More Hero than Thou: On one occasion, after hearing a prophecy that said the entire JLA would perish while fighting an ancient evil, Diana decided to decommission the League (by force) and fight the monster solo, as a League of One, reasoning that her one death was preferable to the death of every one of her teammates.
Nigh Invulnerability: Though not to the same level as Superman, which is why she has those wristbands.
One Woman Army: Can and has taken on whole armies and even entire superhero teams single-handed.
"We are indeed a race of wonder women."Reincarnations of abused women given incredible strength, the Amazons were charged to lead Ancient Greece into a better way of life. Unfortunately, when the Amazons were captured and violated by Heracles' tribe, they grew vengeful in their payback. The Gods charged them to keep guard of the demon Cottus on Themyscira is restitution. The Amazons are a race of warrior women, but they are very diverse and generally compassionate. The Egyptian sect, the Bana-Mighdall, was much more misandrist and kill-happy. Now that the Amazons are free from Cottus, they act as their own sovereign nation.
Nothing ambiguous about it, it's canon that the majority if not all of the Amazons are either lesbian or bisexual and that Io was in love with Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman's own bisexuality has only been hinted at though, at least so far
Straw Feminist: In a few stories, much to the annoyance of the fans... don't even mention Amazons Attack.
Artemis / Wonder Woman II
Artemis was raised by the Bana-Mighdall, a rough and misandrist Egyptian sect of Amazons. She briefly took Diana's place as Wonder Woman, and was promptly killed. She got better, and despite her disdain towards men and warrior attitude, she's become a close and loyal ally of Diana's and a true hero.
Etta Candy is Diana's best friend and plucky sidekick. Pre-Crisis, she was a college student who led the Holiday Girls, a sorority devoted to Wonder Woman. Post Crisis, she is married to Steve Trevor and is a snarky Air Force lieutenant colonel.
Badass Normal: When Simone is writing her. She manages to effectively blackmail Director Steel with his substance abuse habits in one of her first appearances.
Big Beautiful Woman: Under Simone, and Etta actually lost some weight a while before she was introduced, but is still a BBW
The Queen of the Amazons always longed for a child, because out of the Amazons, it was she who was reincarnated from a pregnant woman. In reward for her service and leadership, the Gods gifted her with Diana. Hippolyta is a stern leader, but she is also a nurturer who loves her daughter.
Adaptation Dye Job: Was originally blonde in the Golden Age, then became dark-haired like her daughter, was blonde in Justice League animated show but dark-haired in the direct-to-video movie, and is back to blonde again in the New 52.
And I Must Scream: Her destiny and the destiny of her amazons after Hera's punishment: she is turned in stone and her amazons are turned in snakes.
The Atoner: Hippolyta's stint as her daughter's replacement was part of her penance for inadvertently causing Diana's death in the first place. (She had an Amazon sorceress cast a spell to transfer some of Diana's power to Artemis, and never had the spell reversed.) She later started to enjoy the role.
Ax Crazy: When she's written badly, most famously in Amazons Attack.
Bi the Way Hippolyta is canonically bisexual, having been in love with both men (Wildcat of the JSA) and women (Phillipus).
My Secret Pregnancy: In the New 52, Hippolyta made up the "clay" story to cover the fact that she'd gotten pregnant from Zeus.
Nemesis
AKA: Tom Tresser
Former vigilante and member of the Suicide Squad. Diana's coworker in Washington DC. He eventually learned her secret and became her lover. Holds the honor of being the only man to be officially inducted as an Amazon, with the title: Sir Thomas of Cleveland.
Pre-Crisis, Steve was Diana's love interest, and Diana decided to stay in America after delivering him back from crashing near her island. After years of dodging his advances (she'd only marry him when she got rid of all evil in the world, y'see) she eventually did get married to him.Post Crisis, Steve crash landed on Themyscira thanks to the machinations of Ares, and when Diana's mission was both to go to America to fight Ares, and deliver Steve to the hospital. Though initially distrustful, she struck up a close friendship with the older man, and he came to regard her as a like a sister.
The Ace: Steve is a high-flying, death-defying manly man—but unlike many other such characters, who are often womanizing pigs, he has the utmost respect for Wonder Woman and consistently defers to her.
Love Interest: Pre-Crisis and arguably in the New 52 Universe.
Wonder Girl I / Troia / Wonder Woman IV
AKA: Donna Troy
Donna Troy's past is... complicated. But basically, she's Diana's sister. She is known for being a sweet woman and a good listener, but she's faced much tragedy and a tangled past in her life. She was originally Wonder Girl of the Teen Titans, and now she forges her own path as simply Donna Troy.
Platonic Life Partners: With Dick Grayson (Robin I/Nightwing/Batman III). Considering she gets away with greeting Batman with a brofist, may also count as One of the Boys.
Team Mom: For the Titans. It's even lampshaded a few times.
Wonder Girl II
AKA: Cassandra Sandsmark
Cassie Sandsmark was the president of the Wonder Woman fan club in Gateway City. When she actually met Wonder Woman, she was so enthusiastic that she took artifacts from her mother's museum to help Wonder Woman fight. Impressed with her bravery, the Gods granted her powers of her own. Cassie became leader of Young Justice and the Teen Titans, and she eventually discovered that Zeus was her father.
Action Girl: When at her best. Later writers have waffled between this and putting her as a Faux Action Girl.
A member of The Circle, Hippolyta's elite blood-sworn bodyguards, and a former weapons master. Alkyone calls Diana "The Dragon" and was convinced that she would destroy Themiscyra, and tried to kill the infant, resulting in her imprisonment with the other members of The Circle.
Green-Eyed Monster: Hinted to be a major reason she despises Diana. Upon being defeated by Diana the first time, her words were "You could have been mine."
I Did What I Had to Do: Her justification for killing the Amazon Gennes after she went mad and thought a doll was her child.
Immortal Procreation Clause: A major source of angst not just for Alkyone, but all the Amazons, since none are able to have children.
Knight Templar: The Circle were well-known for being overzealous about protecting Hippolyta.
Barbara Minerva was an archeologist who ran across an ancient ritual that gave her power, speed and immortality as a Cheetah. This had a price—because she was not a virgin as the god Urtzkartaga required, her body was frail and painful when not in Cheetah form. Her interest in rare artifacts caused her to clash with Diana when she tried to steal the magic lasso... the rest is history.
Sebastian Ballesteros was a corporate raider who learned early on that true power inevitably trumps riches. Making a deal with Urtzkartaga, he had the powers of the Cheetah transferred from Barbara Minerva to himself. He later cut a deal with Circe, and had one of Diana's closest friends transformed into the third Silver Swan. Easily overpowering Minerva when she tried to regain the Cheetah powers from him, he was eventually killed by her while in human form.
Of all of Diana's mortal enemies, Circe is the most persistent and dangerous. The ancient Greek sorceress had a mad on for Diana thanks to an ancient prophecy. This hatred only got worse when Diana actually made Circe see the goodness inside her when Circe went into deep infiltration mode and became Diana's friend.
Motive Decay Okay so... why is she still trying to kill Wonder Woman? Sometimes it's because she hates the world of peace and equality that Diana wants to create, sometimes it's because of prophecy, sometimes it's because she thinks the Amazons stole her daughter, sometimes it's because she thinks that Wonder Woman doesn't do enough to stop the oppression of women despite the fact that pretty much directly contradicts one of the main reasons she gave for hating Wonder Woman's message of peace and tolerance during one of her Motive Rants.
One of the Hekatonkheires (Hundred-Handed Ones) of ancient Greek myth, Cottus was sealed under Themyscira long ago, and watched over by the Amazons in case he ever escaped, which he has a few times. If both he and Alkyone are to be believed, he is Wonder Woman's father (the clay she was created from came from he).
A psychotic witch, or a wandering, demonic spirit who's got it out for Donna Troy, Dark Angel first appeared to vex the Golden Age Wonder Woman Hippolyta after being summoned by Paula von Gunther. She returned years later to try and get revenge on Hippolyta by cursing her daughter to live an infinite amount of lives, all ending in tragedy. She snatched her daughter's doppelganger, Donna Troy by mistake. Dark Angel had now made it her life's effort to make Donna as miserable as possible, either as revenge or just for the hell of it. Last seen under the employ of the Monitors. It turned out she's really the Donna Troy of Earth-7, from the Multiverse that was destroyed in Crisis on Infinite Earths. The Anti-Monitor saved her in order to make her his own harbinger, but she was too difficult to control and fled.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Was last seen escaping from Earth-33 in Countdown to Adventure #4. That was the last anyone saw of her.
Demonic Possession: First manifested on Earth by possessing Paula von Gunther's body.
Doppelgänger Attack: In Teen Titans, she was able to make five alternate copies of herself to go into different points in Donna Troy's lifetime and kill her, including a cyborg, an old woman, a bat-like demon, a glam punk, and a teenage girl.
The Dragon: Was this for Adolf Hitler, currently for the Monitors. The Anti-Monitor groomed her to be this, but she escaped into the time stream.
Even Evil Has Standards: She made it clear that, while she was occupying the body of Paula von Gunther and under Hitler's control, she did not share in his Nazi dogma.
Evil Counterpart: To Donna Troy. She's really the Donna of a destroyed parallel Earth. Also to Harbinger, as she was meant to serve a similar role to the Anti-Monitor.
For the Evulz: It isn't clear if what she'd doing to Donna Troy is revenge or just because she likes screwing with her.
Hot Witch: She couldn't possibly pass for a Wicked Witch. Although a temporal doppelganger of herself was a white haired hag.
New Powers as the Plot Demands: In Countdown to Adventure #4, she could grow to giant size. This was the first and last time she ever demonstrated this power. She also demonstrated the power to bring the dead back to life in Supergirl.
Omnicidal Maniac: Wiped out the entire Forerunner race of Earth-48 with the shadow demons, then gloated to Viza Aziv that she enjoyed watching them die.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Her eyes shift from black with red pupils, to black with white pupils.
Ret Gone: In universe, she did this twice to Donna Troy. The first time, when she still believed Donna was really Diana. The second time, as revenge for killing her. However, the second time she took the opportunity to do this to every single Donna Troy in Hypertime, before doing it to the mainstream Donna. Both times the trick only worked on people currently in the main timeline.
Secret Test of Character: In Supergirl, she was ordered by the Monitors to test the current Kara Zor-El to see if she deserved the right to exist in the current DC Universe. She didn't take Kara passing the test with grace.
Unexplained Recovery: There's been no explanation offered as to how she came back after Donna Troy killed her in Wonder Woman.
Would Hurt a Child: Was more than willing to harm Donna Troy when she was a young girl. It's implied that she was responsible for the crash that killed Donna's ex-husband, her son, and stepdaughter.
Doctor Cyber
AKA: Cylvia Cyber
A scientist turned crime boss, Doctor Cyber replaced parts of her body with cybernetic implants and donned a power suit to battle Wonder Woman. Most of her plots revolve around global conquest and large-scale extortion schemes.
Putting on the Reich The post crisis Dr Poison is basically a female Josef Mengele who is obsessed with cruel, pointless and often fatal "Experiments" For the Evulz
Yellow Peril: In her Golden Age appearances (later revealed to have been the modern Dr. Poison's grandmother).
Doctor Psycho
AKA: Edgar Cizko
Diana's most disgusting and diminutive foe can control people's minds and broadcast illusions. He's a complete misogynistic sadist... and it doesn't help that he has a creepy crush on Wonder Woman.
Card-Carrying Villain: He once went on a rampage because a woman called him "normal". He loves being a villain.
Created by the Secret Society of Super Villains from the soil of the sites of the world's worst atrocities, Genocide has the strength of a god and nothing even resembling human compassion.
Emotion Bomb: One of her powers, which she uses to turn Donna against Diana.
Even Evil Has Standards: Causes this reaction even among the Secret Society of Super Villains, especially with Dr. Morrow who reveals that being of Polish descent means that he can't stomach having anything to do with Genocide.
Evil Me Scares Me: Genocide was created from the corpse of the future Wonder Woman.
Omnicidal Maniac: The true purpose behind her creation is to kill and kill and kill, without ever stopping.
Giganta
AKA: Doris Zeul
Exceptionally strong even at her normal height of 7 feet, Giganta has the power to grow to over 50 feet tall.Pre-Crisis, Giganta was a gorilla who was transformed into a human by a well-intentioned Mad Scientist only to go on a rampage.Post Crisis, Giganta is Doctor Doris Zeul, a mousy scientist who was dying from a fatal disease. After trying and failing to place her mind in Wonder Woman's body, Dr. Zeul instead switched bodies with a circus strongwoman who just happened to have mystical size-changing powers. In addition to her feud with Wonder Woman, Giganta is also a long-time member of the Secret Society of Super-Villains and Injustice League and has a crush on her one-time colleague Ryan Choi, the fourth Atom.
Amazonian Beauty: Giganta is commonly drawn with a fair amount of muscles, at least until One Year Later where she got a lot slimmer in a lot of (but not all) depictions.
Dating Catwoman: She's the Catwoman in this case; she was once involved with Ryan Choi, the fourth Atom. In a bit of irony, their powers areopposite.
Weaksauce Weakness: Originally, the bigger Giganta got, the stupider she became, making her easier to defeat. She lost this ability thanks to Circe (and got a more sensible outfit out of the deal).
Paula von Gunther
An enemy of Queen Hippolyta when she went back in time to World War II, Baroness Paula von Gunther was a Nazi spymaster whose plots to undermine America were constantly defeated by the queen and her allies in the JSA. Finally, though, von Gunther was shown the error of her ways and became Hippolyta's closest friend and ally. She retired to Themyscira, where she became an honorary Amazon and created the healing Purple Ray. At one point, she was the host of the evil spirit Dark Angel.
Rogues Gallery Transplant: She occasionally harasses Superman, trying to force "Prince Charming" to marry her.
Sealed Evil in a Can: She was once defeated by being trapped in a U.S. Tax Records book.
Thoroughly Mistaken Identity: She thinks Wonder Woman is Snow White and Superman is Prince Charming. Nothing can convince her that she is mistaken, not their powers, not the fact that the story of Snow White happened hundreds of years ago, nothing.
AKA: Helmut Streicher (1st); unknown (2nd and 3rd); Justin (4th, last name unknown)
Originally a Nazi general, and a foe of the Golden AgeWonder Woman, the Red Panzer's legacy has long survived his death, and the fall of the Third Reich, being adopted by various Neo-Nazis and fanatics. All of them have, at some point, come into conflict with Wonder Woman and Donna.
Avenging the Villain: Red Panzer III sought to avenge his father, Red Panzer II.
Four Star Badass: Red Panzer I was an actual Nazi general, and a capable fighter. The later versions... not to so much.
Freudian Excuse: Red Panzer III watched his father kill his mother over supposed imperfections in her bloodstream. This screwed him up pretty badly to say the least.
Gratuitous German: The name. It should either be "Rote Panzer", or "Red Armour," not the mishmash that is "Red Panzer."
Hypocrite: The third Red Panzer had African-American ancestry. He was aware of this, and loathed himself for it. Then there's IV whose actually an anarchist, but wears the Red Panzer armour because Vandal Savage told him to.
Legacy Character: Four men have worn the Red Panzer's armour: Nazi leader Helmut von Streicher (I), an unrevealed father (II) and son (III) and teenage Justin (IV).
AKA: Helen Alexandros (1st); Valerie Beaudry (2nd); Vanessa Kapatelis (3rd)
There have been four of these of these so far. They pack metallic armor and wings, and a powerful scream. They each have a Freudian Excuse to fight Wonder Woman, except for the fourth who didn't even get an origin story
Earn Your Happy Ending: Vanessa's story was finished in Wonder Woman #600 at her graduation, having completely recovered from her time as a cyborg and grown as a person.
Heel Face Turn: Valerie and Vanessa. Valerie actually kept the Silver Swan name for a while and acted as a member of the superhero team called the Captains of Industry, as well as the Suicide Squad.
More than Mind Control: In Vanessa's case. Circe and Dr. Psycho played on her feelings of resentment and abandonment towards Wonder Woman in order to turn her into the third Swan.
A billionaire perfume magnate that just happens to also be an Omnidisciplinary Scientist. She is currently the leader of Oolong Island, a commune of Mad Scientists in the Yellow Sea off the coast of China.
Expy: She's effectively Wonder Woman's version of Lex Luthor.
Green-Eyed Monster: Her motivation for loathing Wonder Woman is essentially this. Wonder Woman is an immortal superpowerful princess who can talk to animals while Veronica had to work her way up from being white trash.
The Greek Gods from myth, who created the Amazons and Diana (well, only the female gods and Hermes, but Zeus liked to pretend it was his idea afterward).
Arguably Wonder Woman's archnemesis, Ares, the God of War, is a cunning schemer who thrives on conflict and seeks to perpetuate endless war. Despite his bloodthirsty nature, Ares is a genius tactician and master manipulator.
Adaptational Badass: Ares in Greek Mythology was a Dumb Muscle bruiser who left the thinking to Athena, and occasionally got his rear handed to him by mortals. This version, on the other hand, is bright, motivated, and extremely dangerous.
Omnicidal Maniac: Came within a few minutes of starting a world-ending nuclear war before Diana pointed out the flaws in that plan. Did it again years later when he didn't need to worry about running out of people to worship him.
Though this was kind of subverted when it turned out that his powers were driving her crazy. Though he may not have known that, so it could still count.
Pragmatic Villainy: With a little help from Wonder Woman, he realized that, thanks to nukes, starting World War III would destroy the world and leave no one left to fight his wars.
Kick the Son of a Bitch: What Diana does after the whole Genocide affair by grabbing an axe and splitting his head open.
Villains Blend In Better: Unlike most of the other Gods, he has adjusted to the modern world and is comfortable with wearing modern clothing if the situation calls for it.
Athena
Diana's patron goddess is Athena, the daughter of Zeus and goddess of wisdom, skill, and military strategy. She's as wise and warlike as in myth, and even once dethroned her father and took over Olympus.
Generally leader of the gods, and he acts just like in myth, complete with the jerkass tendencies and the Attempted Rape. Even so, he's among the most powerful beings in the cosmos and commands the respect (if not the admiration) of every pantheon of gods, even Darkseid. He's spawned countless offspring over the ages, including the gods Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus; and the demigods Hercules and Cassandra Sandsmark (the second Wonder Girl). Just as the goddesses of Olympus lend their powers to Diana, Zeus has also empowered other heroes, such as the Olympian and Captain Marvel.
Attempted Rape: He was going to try this on WONDER WOMAN of all people.
Jerkass: Even when he acts nice it ends up being a Double Subversion as his jerkassness comes back tenfold whenever he doesn't get what he considers to be the proper gratitude for his "gifts", which have included the chance to be impregnated with yet another one of his illegitimate children, or having your entire society be pushed aside to make way for his newest favorites.
Really the only reason he's not a Complete Monster is that he does at least sometimes learn from his mistakes and even eventually accepts that his daughter has taken over from him when he realises that she deserves it more than he does .
Bi the Way: Fans were amused when Achilles met a man named Patrick (Patroclus) and thanked Wonder Woman for setting them up.
Cool Pet: What else do you call an elephant that flies and has two trunks?
Hercules
The bastard demigod son of Zeus, now an immortal himself with powers on par with Wonder Woman's. In ancient times, Hercules seduced and raped Diana's mother, Queen Hippolyta, a source of constant enmity between the Amazons and this brute. Over the centuries, Hercules has become slightly more noble, but his rash nature and love of violence make him a frequent thorn in Wonder Woman's side.
Brother-Sister Incest: When Zeus and the other gods were abducted by Darkseid's minions, he suggested to his sister Cassandra that they might have to start a new pantheon themselves.
Face Heel Turn: Was revealed to be working with Circe in a plot to conquer the entire world. And then tried to rape Circe and Wonder Woman. And worst of all seems to have got a Karma Houdini as he's never actually faced justice for anything he did
Heel Face Turn: Hippolyta forgave him in the end for what he did and he was actually a (Sort of) hero for a little bit. Until... well, see above.
Evil Matriarch: In The New 52 Universe, unlike her previous incarnations.
Nemesis/Strife
The Goddess of Retribution. Nemesis was driven mad by the cries of the unjustly slain, while simultaneously being empowered by them. Every murder, and every casualty of war made her stronger and more fanatical, until she was strong enough to drive all other gods out of reality itself. Seeing Diana as the last obstacle to her own domination, Nemesis sought to remove her by any means necessary.
Affably Evil: In The New 52 Universe, although she is more Affably Amoral.
Artifact of Doom: The Flashing Blade, created by the Titans to kill gods themselves. It's a semi-sentient sword that longs to punish murderers and warmongers.
Omnicidal Maniac: Since humanity is the source of murder, Nemesis reasoned that she could only fulfill her purpose by destroying them entirely.
Suicide By Cop: Her ultimate goal. She considers allowing Diana to kill her and become the new Nemesis to be her ultimate victory.
With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: With every unjust death, her power grew until she could reign alone out of all the gods. It also drove her completely mad.
