Characters / Wonder Woman Mythical Figures

Wonder Woman Main Character Index
Title Character
Princess Diana of Themyscira/Diana Prince
Mythical Figures
Amazons | Gods (Ares)
Supporting Cast
Wonder Girl (Donna Troy | Cassie Sandsmark)
Villains
A-L (Cheetah) | M-Z

Wonder Woman drew from Classical Mythology and several characters were ripped right from the public domain, though there are some comics original additions to established groups.

The Amazons

See Wonder Woman: Amazons

Gods

See Wonder Woman: Gods

Others

Achilles

Achilles of Phthia (Pre Crisis)

"Ha ha! The greatest hero of all time, afraid to fight a little captive girl? Ho ho ho!"'

The war hero who helped invade and sack Troy who was deified after his demise. He has appeared in numerous different ways over the many iterations of DC Comics. He first appeared as an opponent to Wonder Woman in the The Golden Age of Comic Books due to Giganta's meddling with Doctor's Zeul's machinery.

First DCU Appearance: Whiz Comics #2. (1940)

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• Achilles' Heel: The Achilles heel. On Earth S however he is deified and loses this particular weakness.
• Adaptational Heroism: Earth S and Earth One Achilles are far more heroic than his mythological self, being active hunters of evil and defenders of those who cannot fight for themselves. Earth S Achilleses still ends up killing Hector of Troy to avenge his friend Patroclus, however. Earth One leaves this part of his story out too though.
• Alternate Self: His "Earth S" counterpart is a friend of the Wizard Shazam who gifts Captain Marvel with the courage Achilles is famous for. His Earth Two self is simply an enemy of Troy, Amazonia and Wonder Woman but his Earth One counterpart is a friend of Lois Lane and precursor to Superman.
• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Earth S Achilles ascends to The Rock of Eternity, while Earth One Achilles ascends to Mount Olympus.
• Badass Cape: Earth One Achilles wears a flowing red cape just to make him even more like Superman.
• Chest Insignia: Earth One Achilles weas the Greek letter "omega" on the chest plate of his armor.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Earth Two Achilles is the only Pre Crisis Achilles never seen without his helmet and he's also the least heroic of the lot. Still, Downplayed as he is still heroic to a degree even if he is the antagonist.
• Hero Antagonist
  • Earth Two Achilles is not a paragon of virtue, even by ancient Greek standards, but he isn't attacking the amazons out of malice. He's only around because of Giganta and because of her meddling doesn't realize the Trojan War has ended already. On Earth Two he also fought the amazons before they had settled on Paradise Island, when they were not quite yet the Perfect Pacifist People they would be when Diana was born.
  • Earth One Achilles is a defender of the weak, but he still grants Hercules the same Nigh-Invulnerability he has to help Hercules gain an edge on Superman. Achilles makes sure Hercules has the same ankle weakness that plagued Achilles before his ascension to Olympus, so that Superman still has a fighting chance. Achilles later gifts another Superman enemy, Zha-Vam, with Nigh-Invulnerability too but again leaves on of Zha-Vam's ankles unprotected.
• Hero Killer: On Earths S and Two Achilles kills Troy's greatest warrior Hector and on Earth Two he also kills Amazonia's captain, Penthesilea.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Wonder Woman knocks and tosses Achilles around at will, but he isn't actually hurt by her in anything other than pride. The only way to physically hurt him is to attack his ankle.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: In the Golden Age DC Achilles was a Wonder Woman foe but in the Silver Age DC Achilles was mostly a Superman foe.
• Smug Super: Earth Two Achilles is convinced of his own superiority to all other Greeks. Odysseus realizes Wonder Woman can beat Achilles and tries to keep her away from him but Achilles doesn't take the hint and tells Wonder Woman he's "the greatest hero of all time". Achilles ends up humiliated by a woman he goes on to describe as "stronger than Hercules".
• Spirit Adviser: On "Earth S" Achilles mentors the hero "Kid Eternity" as a ghost.
• The Ace: In Wonder Woman volume one Achilles is described as the most skilled of the Greek heroes, and he shows some of that skill when he breaks Wonder Woman's blade during a sword fight. Achilles is simply out of his league as Wonder Woman proceeds to trounce him even without a weapon of her own.

Achilles Warkiller/Olympian (Post Crisis)

" I have done many misdeeds. But I will not allow you to sacrifice yourself."

He appeared as part of an effort to take control of Themyscira Zeus tried to create a Themysciran King loyal to only himself. Using the ancient warrior's soul to make "Achilles Warkiller" from the remains of Kane Milohai. Achilles ended up freeing Wonder Woman himself once he realized how he was being used. He later joined The Outsiders with the code name Olympian.
Unlike Hercules he's tried to adapt with the times and has done his best to become heroic in a modern sense of the word rather than remaining a violent, proud and self-obsessed Greek hero.

First DCU Appearance: Wonder Woman Volume 3 #30. (2009)

Affiliation: Elysium. Olympus. Gargareans. The Outsiders.

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• Adaptational Heroism
  • Achilles is trying his hardest to be a hero in the modern sense of the word, and has little in common with the narcissistic Straw Nihilist of the original myths.
  • He's also more heroic, in the modern sense of the word, than the Golden Age Earth Two Achilles, who was an enemy to Wonder Woman through and through.
• All Crimes Are Equal: Achilles leads the Gargareans to forcibly disarm the United States wherever its soldier provoke hostilities in a smaller nation. The biggest problem Diana has with this? Achilles kills the soldiers on both sides, complaining that it doesn't even make sense!
• Arranged Marriage: Zeus's plan A was for Achilles Warkiller to marry Wonder Woman and takeover her mission and Diana enjoyed a much needed retirement raising Achilles's children. Provided that failed, plan B was to beat Wonder Woman into submission and take a willing amazon as queen until Diana came to her senses. Warkiller is not informed of this until weeks he has been in opposition to Wonder Woman and the amazons.
• Awesome by Analysis: Wonder Woman has a hard time fighting him because Achilles Warkiller can reliably predict her movements. She nonetheless figures out a new way to beat him every time.
• Back from the Dead: Resurrected by Zeus to be the leader of his new anti-war mission.
• Big Damn Heroes: Against the Citizenry's snake.
• Body Horror: He's got the soul of Achilles, the legendary hero, but he's techically the mutilated possessed corpse of the polynesian god Kane Milohai, whom Zeus attempted to turn into a puppet.
• Flight: Achilles can fly, though he seems to like riding Mysia.
• Heel–Face Turn: Abandons his mission from Zeus to side with Wonder Woman.
• Horse of a Different Color: He has a flying elephant with two tusks named Mysia.
• I Have Your Wife: In this case, Wonder Woman's mother Hippolyta. It's not a tactic Achilles wants to use, or even thinks will work, but Alkyone, who has no intentions of harming Hippolyta either, assures him that it will if he follows all of her instructions, which start with the skinning of three guards Diana had left with Hippolyta on Themyscira.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: By Alkyone. Luckily, Achilles had the heart of a God and healed from it.
• King Pin In His Gym: He is often seen sparring with Alkyone in between his legislative duties or leading his troops.
• Public Domain Character: He's from The Iliad. It doesn't get much more public domain than that.
• Redemption Promotion: He proves far more powerful when he's on Wonder Woman's side than he did as her enemy. Etta Candy questions why he wasn't like before during The Citizenry scouting of Washington DC, in the most polite way she can, and he simply exclaims that he's more confident now.
• Spear Counterpart: To Wonder Woman. Both created by Gods? Check. Both attempting to stop conflict, despite different methods? Check. Both the rulers of one gender races? Also check. You see where I'm going with this.
• Straight Gay: You wouldn't know it from the way he looks or acts, but Achilles is this. His marriage to Alkyone was merely a political one and he later hooks up with his realtor, Patrick Cleese, who turns out to be the reincarnation of Patroclus.
• Super-Reflexes: Achilles Warkiller can consistently react to and counter Wonder Woman's strikes. He has a significantly harder time when she holds onto him and starts manipulating his joints, however.
• Super-Strength: On par with Wonder Woman.
• Sympathy for the Hero: Despite being opposed to Wonder Woman Achilles Warkiller sees the zombie android Genocide as an abomination and wants to help Wonder Woman kill it. He only stays his hand because Zeus tells Achilles to shut up and watch.
• Unwitting Pawn: Of Alkyone. He figures it out and eventually kicks her ass.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: When he was still working for Zeus, The Gargareans supposed goal in disarming humanity and slaughtering anyone who stood in their way was to end war and strife,... by subjugating everyone to Zeus and punishing those trying to practice their free will. A few confrontations with Diana had him questioning the whole thing.

Achilles of Phthia (DC Rebirth)

The great Greek hero of The Iliad, now little more than a shade in Hades. Nonetheless his legendary courage has been gifted to Captain Marvel.

First Appearance: Lucifer Volume 3 #12 (2019)

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• Call to Agriculture: He became a war hero because Achilles thought it was needed and did not fear death. What he really wanted to do is spend his life as a farmer, however.
• Kissing Cousins: The Nazi Vampire Count Berlin altered history to change Achilles and Patroclus into cousins, and it was up to Midnighter and Extraño to set things the way they had been before.
• Respected by the Respected: Achilles is Deathstroke's favorite hero.

Circe

Circe

Circe's preferred appearance as of DC Rebirth. Wonder Woman #20 (vol. 5), 2017. Art by Bilquis Evely

First Appearance: Wonder Woman (1942) #37. (1949)

Created By: Robert Kanigher & Harry G. Peter

Universes: Earth-Two, Earth-One, New Earth, Prime Earth, DC Animated Universe

"When I heard you had killed Ares and began strutting around as the "God of War," I thought to myself... now that is the arrogance of an Amazon. Taking what doesn't belong to them all while acting like a god's gift to women."

— Circe to Wonder Woman, Superman/Wonder Woman #16

DC Comics' version of the Ancient Greek sorceress from Classical Mythology and Homer's The Odyssey. Circe would at first only make a variety of scattered and intermittent appearances in multiple DC Comics books, not just Wonder Woman's, but when the Wonder Woman title would be relaunched under George Pérez, Circe would go on to become one of Diana's most persistent and dangerous foes ^note  Surpassed only by Cheetah and Ares in terms of prominence, being the source of a many calamitous events in her history.

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• Adaptational Badass: Post Crisis Circe is more martially inclined than her Golden Age and Silver Age counterparts. While she's nowhere near as skilled at hand to hand combat Post Crisis Circe is a capable Greco-Roman wrestler, while her older incarnations are physically feeble without magic. Post Crisis Circe is initially far more powerful than them in magic as well due to being possessed by Hecate. She in fact curbstomps Wonder Woman the first two times they encounter each other, and while this was mostly due to Wonder Woman not even realizing Circe was after her at first, Circe was actively silencing anyone who could warn Diana, something her Golden Age counterpart failed to do. Even when Wonder Woman was ready for Circe she initially struggled to fight Circe out of fear Hecate's soul would try to possess her next at any moment. Only after realizing no such attempt was coming could Diana find the resolve to defeat Circe.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: On the Golden Age Earth Two Circe was a blonde. One the Silver Age Earth One her hair wavered between green and black, before settling on auburn towards the end of Earth One in the Bronze Age. Post Crisis Circe has purple hair. New 52 makes Circe's hair blood red, while DC Rebirth sometimes makes her hair a mix of red and purple but usually gives Circe natural shades of red hair, sometimes making her auburn again.
• Adaptational Modesty: After Circe's outfits got progressively skimpier with each continuity following DC's golden age she finally got her legs covered consistently again in DC Rebirth, even regularly having her arms in sleeves again. She even wears more full gowns at times!
• Adaptational Skimpiness: On the Golden Age Earth Two Circe wore long sleeved leg covering gowns of many colors. On the Silver Age Earth One Circe tended to wear sleeveless gowns. Later in the Bronze Age the Earth One Circe wore a robe over her gown but still showed more skin than her Earth Two counterpart by switching to gowns that left left her legs bare. Post Crisis Circe wore less of a "gown" than a dress that was both sleeveless, legless and had a plunging neckline, however this Circe did tend to switch to a one shoulder unitard or sleeveless catsuit when it was time to do a physical activity, with the skimpy dress seemingly being her longue wear. Circe hit the height of this in New 52, where Circe tended "wear" nothing but a towel, and sometimes even less than that. She did briefly put on a black and red sleeveless v neck dress slightly more modest than her post crisis dress, however.
• Adaptational Villainy: Homer described Circe as a dangerous, callous, territorial goddess who would curse sailors who trespassed on her island and use her wiles to seduce anyone who managed to get around her magic, but as unpleasant as she was Circe wasn't dangerous as long as she was avoided. Even when her wrath is triggered Circe doesn't do nearly as much damage to Odysseus's crew as Scylla or Polyphemus, and when she meets unexpected resistance, Circe relents, while Athena herself had to step in to make Calypso let Odysseus go. DC Comics Circe consistently travels far from her island to harm others and just won't quit no matter how many times she is outright defeated.
• Adaptational Wimp: In Homer's tales Circe was an island goddess, immortal and so charming it was flat out impossible for mortals to resist her seduction, if she took an interest. In DC Comic's she's consistently been a sorceress who convinced people she was a goddess before being exposed as less than, and can't even seduce Rip Hunter, Dane Dorrance, Biff Bailey, Lex Luthor or Green Arrow. In the Post Crisis continuity, Hecate is a Benevolent Boss who grants Circe the power of a goddess by possessing her body but leaving Circe in full control, reducing this somewhat, but Hecate still warns Circe that she will eventually suffer a mortal's death and that Hecate will move on after it happens. In the Rebirth continuity Circe is once again a Squishy Wizard anyone with a working arm can kill with knife if they catch Circe by surprise, but Circe becomes a goddess by usurping Hecate.
• All Women Hate Each Other: She expresses this view in issue #14 of Superman/Wonder Woman.
  What is it with women? With men I know what to expect. An initial spurt of bravura teamed in the end with cowardice. Even the best of men are driven by—at most—two or three desires. Easily manipulated. Like putty, but with too much hair. But women... women are as baffling and as dangerous to each other as we are to man. You can make no predictions on what we will do next, who we might crush... Who we might love.
• Amoral Attorney: Donna Milton is shamelessly amoral. That does not mean that Donna Milton is immoral. Ares Buchanan learns the difference the hard way. Donna is perfectly willing to use dirty tricks to keep Ares out of trouble, but she's not willing to let harm come to people who don't deserve it for his pleasure. For the same reason, Donna Milton hates Circe.
• Ambiguously Bi: DC Rebirth Circe still shows interest in men, but is all but stated to be dominating lesbians in off panel bondage sessions and uneasy about the prospect of being in the ropes. This is Depending on the Writer and Depending on the Artist, however as these lesbian chic/dom elements seem to abruptly disappear and return at random otherwise. Some people apparently wanted a complete break from New 52 Circe while some others are content on basically putting New Fifty Two Circe in more modest clothing.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: "Donna Milton" hates Circe. When Diana finds out that they are one in the same and asks for Donna's help in saving Artemis from The White Magician, Donna is offended Diana dare insinuate Donna is that criminal.
• Animal Stereotypes: When Circe is feeling particularly whimsical she has her magic transform her victims turned slaves into creatures based on their "animal within", such as a particularly stubborn man turning into a bull headed man. Maj. Griggs, who is respectful but unquestionably a horndog, ends up turned into a goat-like monster that looks like a satyr.
• Animorphism: Circe, much like her mythological counterpart, has a nasty habit of turning men into animals against their will and erasing their sense of self while she does so. Sometimes she turns them fully into animals, which she did more often back in Wonder Woman (1942), but from Wonder Woman (1987) on she's more likely to turn them into animalistic monsters to serve her more usefully. She also cooks and eats her Beast Men.
• Anti-Villain:
  • Donna Milton was perfectly fine with a hitwoman like Mayfly dying. She was even fine with a private investigator looking into her client "disappearing". Harm coming to an investigator just doing her job was more than Milton could stomach, however, and she turned on Buchanan to prevent it.
  • After Ares and Circe return to their original selves, Ares relents and tries to give Circe everything he thinks she wants with a place beside him as queen of Tartarus and a hand in raising the daughter they brought into the world while in disguise, Lyta, as his wife. "One Year Later" Circe can't help but try to get Diana killed by enchanting her enemies to be smarter and or more powerful before finally deciding she can be a better Wonder Woman than Diana, stealing her powers, and proceeding to hunt down and kill criminals who traffic women. She almost crosses over into Anti-Hero, but Circe unfortunately becomes an unwitting pawn of the New God Granny Goodness, who disguises herself as Athena and convinces Circe that Ares stole Lyta away while Circe was busy harassing Wonder Woman. This leads Circe to instigate "Amazons Attack".
• Arch-Enemy: She, Ares, and the various incarnations of The Cheetah are the three contenders for this title, as Diana's longest-running, most consistently dangerous, and deeply personal adversaries. When Luthor assembled the first Injustice Gang, Post-Crisis, he wanted it to include the worst enemies of every Justice League member and chose Circe to fill that spot for Wonder Woman.
• Ascended Extra: While Wonder Woman had to deal with Circe on both the "Golden Age" Earth Two and "Silver Age" Earth One Circe didn't become a persistent problem until after Crisis On Infinite Earths, where screwing with Diana stopped being a means to an end and became an end unto itself.
• Asshole Victim: Their team up in DC Rebirth ends when Ra's al Ghul realizes Circe has been lying to him about whan the so called "Pandora Pits" actually are and betrays Circe by stabbing her In the Back and leaving her for dead. Ra's al Ghul's goals at this point are less selfish than Circe's but have the potential to be far more destructive since Circe's merely apathetic to what damage she may cause, rather than actively trying to commit mass murder. Nonetheless Circe was lying to him about a very dangerous, selfish gambit and stopping Circe was a good thing.
• Attack Animal: Golden Age circe trained dogs to herd the people she turned into animals.
• A God Am I: In Justice League Dark (vol. 2), she becomes the new Goddess of Magic of the DC Universe following the death of Hecate. Thanks in part due to her manipulations of events that led to The Upside Down Man eating Hecate and Circe inheriting Hecate's powers in the goddess's absence.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: As of DC Rebirth and as one can see in the page image above Circe seems to have gone in this direction, adopting a cream blazer/long coat, black leather slacks, and Waistcoat of Style ensemble paired with a bright red pixie cut. This is Depending on the Artist, however, as there is an equally strong push to give Rebirth Circe a more medieval or rennisance look and only have her wear business casual/lesbian chic when she's actually talking business.
• Bad Boss: Consistently treats her Bestiamorphs like crap in every continuity.
• Barrier Warrior: Often creates shields in combat, once erecting one around a city.
• Becoming the Mask: When disguising herself as Donna Milton, the spell works a bit too well, and she comes to be Diana's good friend.
• Been There, Shaped History: States she almost gave Homer his eyesight back for including her in The Odyssey.
• Berserk Button: Wonder Woman's idealism and speechifying is one for her. Mentioning her daughter Lyta, even indirectly, is an even bigger one. She fried an Amazon to the bone with magic lightning just for mentioning her.
• Big Bad: If somebody is screwing with Diana's life it will be one of Ares, Cheetah II, or Circe. She's been the mastermind behind Amazons Attack, War of the Gods, and more than a few other ugly little plots... though in Amazons attack she was revealed to be a pawn motivated by lies told by Granny Goodness disguised as Athena.
• Braids of Action: Sports two of these in a form she takes◊ in the New 52 and DC Rebirth
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: DC Rebirth Circe alternates between Card-Carrying Villain eager to execute Wonder Woman in contrived manners for daring show herself in Circe's presence and Friendly Enemy who enjoys screwing with Wonder Woman but doesn't really want to see her seriously hurt. In truth both are acts to keep Wonder Woman ignorant of ritualistic sacrifices Circe keeps trying to perform on her. Circe wouldn't just kill Wonder Woman outright even if she could but is in no way Diana's friend, not even when she's healing Diana's Justice League Dark.
• Cerebus Syndrome: Her earliest DC Rebirth apperances protray Circe as a borderline Punch-Clock Villain, as she doesn't really need to be working for Veronica Cale but is helping her through the occasional dustup with Wonder Woman until Veronica asks for something Circe refuses to give her. One year later Rebirth Circe resurfaces as a desperate schemer trying to prepare Wonder Woman for a sacrifice to a demon.
• The Chessmaster: The most consistent when it comes to this of all of Wonder Woman's major rogues;
  • During War of the Gods she manipulated the several pantheons of the DC Universe into war with one another
  • She was also behind Amazons Betrayed, being the betrayer who goaded the Bana-Mighdall into war with Themyscira with the lie she would give them control of the island while in reality planning to kill all the amazons in one fell swoop. Too bad Diana wasn't around.
  • She orchestrated the events of Amazons Attack! by mind-controlling Hippolyta into believing Diana was being held captive by the U.S.
  • In Justice League Dark (vol. 2) she manipulated the JLD into killing the Goddess Hecate so she could take over as the DC Universe's Goddess of Magic.
• Classic Villain: She is a Proud, narcissistic, shapeshifting Wicked Witch who often uses lies and half-truths. Her opponent is a humble sincere warrior princess who carries the Lasso of Truth.
• Corrupted Character Copy: Circe's stint as Wonder Woman was a corruption of Winged Victory, an Astro City character of rival comic book company Image. Winged Victory cut back on the classical mythology and spy smashing of Wonder Woman to focus more on the mission to guide "Man's World" for the better, and she took particular interest in arresting men who targeted women. Still, Winged Victory was a law abiding vigilante who was simply compelled by her own powers to help women before men. Wonder Woman Circe was similarly rooted in "man's world", was similarly laser focused on male criminals targeting women, but rather than being granted power by a supernatural group Circe stole it and Wonder Circe was a Hanging Judge, Jury, and Executioner performing mass extrajudicial executions, something Winged Victory had been framed for. No, it's not a Take That! at Astro City/Image, as the return of DC's Multiverse made Earth 34's Herculina an accurate, positive Captain Ersatz of Winged Victory. Writing that Frame-Up as an actual rampage was just too tempting apparently.
• Deal with the Devil
  • Post Crisis, after losing Hecate's powers and then failing to defeat The White Magician, Circe decides to sell her soul to Neron for more power. He actually takes away her power to turn women into other animals, restricting that ailement to men, but otherwise does seem to keep to his end of the deal.
  • In DC Rebirth Circe herself is the devil summoned by Veronica Cale to free the soul of Veronica's daughter Ilsadore from the soulstone. Circe keeps to her end of the deal, but then bales on Veronica after learning Ilsadore is not in the soulstone but in the clutches of Ares, as Circe has no interest in freeing Ares from Themyscira.
  • She becomes the devil again in DC Rebirth when she promises to raise an army from "The Pandora Pits" in exchange for the servitude of Lex Luthor and Ra's al Ghul. Once a demon with Superman's head arises from the "pits" Lex decides he wants nothing more to do with Circe but Ra's al Ghul keeps serving her until he finds out "The Pandora Pits" are a portal to hell and that Circe is using him to get her soul back from a demon.
  • It turns out this drives her actions in DC Rebirth, as having sold her soul to a demon for power Circe is now is terrified of what will happen when she dies. Circe's ultimate goal is to sacrifice Wonder Woman to get her soul back, which means she's forced to save Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman when they attempt to sacrifice themselves to stop the demon Entrigan and The Legions of Hell spilling out of her portal. When Circe's boss Hecate desires Wonder Woman's body, Circe seems to settle on using Diana to help her steal Hecate's power and replace her as goddess of magic, but then Circe starts putting together a "Dark League" to counter Wonder Woman's Justice League Dark, implying she still plans on sacrificing Diana to get her soul back.
• Deity of Human Origin: Originally a princess from the island of Colchis as of Justice League Dark (vol. 2) she has become the new Goddess of Magic of the DC Universe. In Amazons Attack (volume 2) The Sovereign is a little weary of Sergeant Steel recruiting Circe, but convinces himself he can stop Circe from becoming a goddess again.
• Demonic Possession: Post Crisis Circe is possessed by the goddess of magic Hecate, although this is subverted in that Hecate allows Circe to retain full control of her body. The only "catch" is that Hecate won't be giving Circe this gift forever and will eventually leave, admitting to being really tempted by the much stronger body of Diana, though Hecate stays loyal to Circe until Circe's misuse of Hecate's powers cause Hecate to attempt to flee into Diana's body, to stop the unexpected reemergence of The Titans.
• Depending on the Writer: DC Rebirth Circe ranges from a Punch-Clock Villain who only antagonizes Wonder Woman because it's her job and is absolutely against recklessly endangering the masses to desperate Anti-Villain out to regain her lost soul through any means necessary, who believes sacrificing Wonder Woman is one such acceptable means to get it back and will endanger all life on Earth if it means she personally has a chance at escaping hell.
• Divide and Conquer
  • Post Crisis, after Hecate willingly gives Circe her power by possessing Circe's body while allowing Circe to keep full control of it, Circe decides she wants more and pits the various pantheons of gods existing in the Post Crisis DC Universe against one another in order to steal their powers as they weaken in battle. She also undoes a the immortality of a weakned Hermes, where some of Diana's gifts come from and uses this opporitunity to also end Diana by reverting her to clay.
  • After losing Hecate's powers in "War Of The Gods" Circe reduces her scope and settles for pushing The Bana-Mighdall amazon tribe into conflict with the Themyscira tribe, only to turn on The Bana-Mighdall now that she has all the amazons together and weakened, banishing them to a demonic realm in the hopes they will all be killed and tortured there.
  • She later takes over several television stations in order to have a global broadcast of Superman and Wonder Woman killing each other, after she turns Superman against Wonder Woman. The later is eventually able to break the spell over the former with her lasso, to Circe's disappointment. This is repeated in the New 52 continuity, though Circe doesn't waste time with the televisions there.
• Does Not Like Men: Depending on the Writer. Other times she's a Misanthrope Supreme.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Rebirth Circe is the most devout and lavishly rewarded servant of the goddess Hecate. She recognizes Diana as someone Hecate has marked as needing alive. However, Circe's reasons for prolonging Diana's life are completely different than Hecate's, as while Hecate wants to use Diana's body as a super powered Meat Puppet Circe means to ritualistically sacrifice it to a denizen of hell.
• Dragon Ascendant: When Circe realizes Hecate has marked Wonder Woman in DC Rebirth Circe puts off her plan for sacrificing Diana in order to take Diana's mark and use it to take all of Hecate's power after Hecate's body is disposed of in Upside Down Man's digestive system.
• Dream Weaver: In between Circe's two attempts to catch Wonder Woman's death or discrediting on camera, Post Crisis, she tries to disrupt the sleep of Diana and Donna Troy by flooding their dreams with images of Hippolyta dying.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: Her end goal regardless of her motives has been to create a chaotic world of misery, conflict, and all-around vileness where she reigns supreme.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Her daughter, Lyta, is the only person ever shown that Circe genuinely cares about and loves enough to hold off on attacking Wonder Woman. She mentioned that Lyta is the only thing that makes her feel her long life was worth living.
• Evil Counterpart: Wonder Woman loves everyone. Circe hates everyone. Both are magical and mythological superwomen empowered by higher beings who strive to change the world with their beliefs and powers. However, Wonder Woman wants a peaceful world of kindness and virtue, whereas Circe desires a world of cruelty and depravity. Even their behavior marks the contrast of a Madonna-Whore Complex perception seen against women. Wonder Woman's rarely actually a madonna, but comes pretty close in the Post Crisis continuity.
• Evil Is Petty
  • After losing her throne on Olympus, losing Hecate's powers, and having her banishment spell on the two amazon tribes undone by Wonder Woman, Circe settles on casting a memory charm on Hippolyta and removing Hippolyta from her island to subject the now clueless Themysciran amazon queen to the life of a domestic housewife, out of spite. Diana eventually gets an antidote for this as well.
  • When Circe learns Hippolyta was killed by an Imperiex probe but that it and Imperiex himself is gone she decides Diana's time of mourning is the perfect time to start slowly destroying New York while taunting Diana about undoing all of her hard work as an ambassador.
  • Circe later films Diana while Diana is observing in the Parthenon in an attempt to discredit Wonder Woman's mission of peace by goading Diana into killing her on camera.
• Evil Parents Want Good Kids: She goes out of her way to keep Lyta away from her villainous activities. This allows Granny Goodness to trick Circe into thinking Ares ran off with Lyta while Circe left Lyra behind to screw with Wonder Woman.
• Evil Redhead: And Post Flashpoint we are talking crimson more often than not.
• Evil Takes a Nap: Sarge Steel convinces Circe to work for The Sovereign in Dawn of DC Comic Book/Wonder Woman|2023}} #5 but she quickly gets bored with their game and dozes off after casting token Status Buff and status infliction spells.
• Eviler than Thou: Has clashed with other Wonder Woman villains, and with the likes of Lex Luthor and The Joker on occasion.
• Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables: The moly herb is adapted into DC comics with the rest of classical myth, and here it is typically used in making "antidotes" for Circe's curses.
• Flaming Hair: Has this in her'' Goddess of Magic form in Justice League Dark (vol. 2)
• Foil:
  • Circe's attitudes towards men and the world are played in deliberate contrast to Diana's more compassionate view. Really exemplified after Circe briefly stole Diana's powers and became an Evil Counterpart to Wonder Woman.
  • In her first Post-Crisis story, she herself points it out. Much like her, she too came to be to fulfill a mission from the gods - namely, Hecate, who wished to punish humanity for her mistreatment, which Circe did by driving divides between men and women further. She later invokes their similarities again when she explains how both she and Diana are powerful women who are outsiders feared by humans because the causes they fight are hidden beneath blood shed by their hands (Circe fought and killed to get her daughter back, while Diana fought and killed others like Maxwell Lord to protect her friends and herself).
  • Their modus operandi, as Wonder Woman is a truth seeker and spy smasher, while Circe is a deceptive chess master. Where Wonder Woman seeks to reform Circe seeks to transform for the sake of control or torment. Where Wonder Woman handles hostilities with striking, wrestling, tieing, even cutting if she has to, Circe prefers to have other people do those things for her, lay traps or cast spells from a distance if she has to get herself involved.
• Food Chains: The Golden Age Circe had tainted all the water on Sorca with a transformation formula. Not only could visitors not afford to drink anything, but simply getting too wet was trouble. Just staying on the planet would eventually result in a Forced Transformation unless one had taken precautions to protect themselves from dew.
• Forced Transformation
  • Her most common shtick is turning men into Bestiamorphs against their will. The level of consciousness she leaves the victims varies with her whims but they are forced to serve her and lose their human forms to become animalistic and monstrous, usually as Mix-and-Match Critters but occasionally looking like an ordinary animal.
  • Post Crisis Circe develops a Nostrum of Regression potion that is part of a ritual that will revert Wonder Woman back into clay. Julia Kapatelis disrupts the ritual with moly herbs, but during War Of The Gods Circe becomes powerful enough to turn her back to clay with just a spell after catching Diana on the beach wear she was shaped.
• Frame-Up: Post Crisis Circe had been fucking with the amazons long before Diana of Themyscira was a thing. She's in fact responsible for the Bana-Mighdall becoming the violent nomands they were, as founding queen Antiope successfully lead them to peace with Athens but Circe had Antiope assassinated by Theseus's exwife and then framed Theseus for it, causing The Bana-Mighdall to not only war with Athens but eventually all of Greece before pissing off to the deserts of North Africa.
• Friendly Enemy: Sometimes behaves this way towards Diana. Like many other things about Circe, this is dependent upon the writer. It stems from a story where she wanted to get close to Diana, to ruin her, but to get around the lasso of truth Circe couldn't just change how just looked and sounded but also had to banish the feelings of hatred she had for Diana from her heart, mind and guts. While these did come back, some writers portray this as having gone wrong, with Circe unable to rid herself of genuine feelings of friendship she formed for Diana in the interrim, causing internal conflict within Circe.
• Gendercide: Not the first Wonder Woman antagonist to try this, and she won't be the last either.
• Grave Robbing: In the Silver Age Circe helps Nikos Aegeus steal the body of long dead amazon warmonger Artemis, so that she can be resurrected in an attempt to kill Diana. Post Crisis, Circe opens the tomb of Drakul Karfang after Diana invoked The Gods Of Olympus to keep it sealed, being directly related to those gods and all.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Post Crisis it is eventually revealed that while Hecate has been rewarding Circe for her loyalty by giving Circe free reign of her powers, Hecate ultimately desires Diana's stronger body. Nonetheless Hecate remains loyal to Circe until Circe takes her "War Of The Gods" too far and involves Titans from an alternate reality where The Olympians never imprisoned them. At this Hecate freaks out, leaves Circe's body to try and take Diana's by force and in the ensuing struggle between Hecate and Diana Circe is killed.
• Green Thumb: In The Earth Two Circe could command plant life to come to life and obstruct Wonder Woman, except for the "molu"(moly) herb, which she couldn't control and was an antitode to her transformation formula.
• Hot Witch: A very conventionally attractive witch who often wears revealing clothes.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: In post-crisis. She started out as a villain. Then she tried to infiltrate Diana's life by posing as a woman named Donna Milton only to end up Becoming the Mask. For a brief time she was an ally to Diana but went back to being a villain. The end of Allan Heinberg's Who Is Wonder Woman? miniseries ended with her and Diana reaching a truce of sorts only for her to go back to being evil again in Jodi Picoult's run.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Wore a very revealing all-black leather getup in Rucka's first run.
• Hero Killer: Actually manages to kill Wonder Woman during War of the Gods by using a spell designed to revert her into clay. This makes her the only villain amongst the DC Trinity's rogues gallery who has actually succeeded in killing the hero she opposes in main continuity.
• Hot Witch: Circe is often depicted as wearing outfits that flatter her beautiful figure.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Post Crisis Circe was slowly on the path to becoming a better person but Granny Goodness ruined all that by convincing Circe that Circe's daughter Lyta had been taken away from her.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: In the Silver Age Circe frequently switched from enemy to ally of Superman, Lois Lane and Supergirl. Circe finally settled on "heel" after learning of a prophecy about Hippolyta's child being Circe's undoing.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Post Crisis, Circe rigs and airship to give her daughter, Lyta Milton, the best possible view of Superman and Wonder Woman's fight that will hopefully end in Diana's death or Mutual Kill. Circe's gleefully oblivious to the fact Lyta does not share Circe's sadism.
• Hypocrite:
  • Her misandry hasn't stopped her from conducting affairs with Hercules, Ares, and Ballesteros. Despite her pride and distaste in men, she even tried to seduce Lex Luthor to gain perks while he was acting as President of the United States.
  • She hated Diana for separating her from her daughter Lyta. Diana points out that Circe did the same thing to Julia Kapataelis and her daughter Vanessa.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Circe is easily the most notable Wonder Woman villain who wasn't in the original Marston/Peters run (ex. Cheetah, Ares, Dr. Psycho, Giganta). Debuting under the subsequent writer Robert Kanigher in 1949 and not becoming fully integrated into Wondy's mythos until the George Pérez reboot in the 80s.
• Immortality Immorality: Circe is one of the oldest humans in the DC Universe, and is among the most dangerous. In the Post Crisis continuity all of villainy is initially motivated by the desire to stay alive indefinitely... though she does undergo Motive Decay.
• Irrational Hatred: Post Crisis, Ares has a change of heart and gives Circe everything she wants, ruling beside her as king and queen of Tartarus and agreeing to raise their daughter Lyta together as husband and wife. Everything HE thinks she wants. "One Year Later" Circe is using her powers to give powers to or enhance the existing powers of pretty much anyone she can find with a grudge against Wonder Woman, culminating in her stealing Wonder Woman's powers herself as going on a rampage through man's world to prove she can do the job better.
• It Amused Me: Written by Christopher Priest, Post Crisis Circe is out to ruin Wonder Woman's mission and demolish the world of men because it's funny enough to make the inevitable backlash she gets Worth It. Rebirth Circe claims to be playing super villain just to pass the time, but in the latter continuity she is lying and really out to sacrifce Wonder Woman to a demon, a demon she sold her soul to and wants to it back from.
• Jerkass: She is traditionally a cruel, self-centered egotistical jerk who enslaves and forcibly transforms others into her slaves and sees all of humanity as resources that she finds annoying at best in their current state.
• Lady of Black Magic: Villainous version. Circe packs enough magical power to level cities and affect hundreds of people at once with her transformation curses.
• Magical Barefooter: She does not wear shoes save to complete a temporary disguise or mocking appearance; this, along with her overall appearance, is directly based on her prototype from Greek mythology.
• Mama Bear: She's dangerously obsessive over her daughter Lyta, especially after Wonder Woman emphasized Lyta was the one person on Earth who unconditionally loved her despite her nasty personality. As such, she becomes thoroughly vicious to anyone who threatens her relationship with Lyta or Lyta herself, to the point she manipulated many of Wonder Woman's enemies like Veronica Cale, along with instigating "Amazons Attack" simply for revenge that the Amazons and the Gods took her daughter away from her.
• Master of Illusion: It's not explored too often, as Circe is dedicated to fighting a spy smasher adept at spotting lies, who later gets a lie/illusion/falsehood dispelling weapon when Diana trades in the lasso of compulsion for the lasso of truth, and in some continuities Diana houses or becomes the outright spirit or goddess of truth. Still, Circe can change the appearance of her hair, clothing, body shape, the sound of her voice and even her scent at a whim. Sometimes just perceceptions, sometimes outright, if temporary, transformations. Sometimes she needs a Magic Mirror to pull this off, and sometimes that mirror is stolen by or lent to Hercules.
• Mirror Character: Since George Pérez's 1987 run of the comic, Circe has been positioned as this to Diana. Both are magical and mythological superwomen empowered by higher beings who strive to change the world with their beliefs and powers. However, Wonder Woman wants a peaceful world of kindness and virtue, whereas Circe desires a world of cruelty and depravity. Even their behavior marks the contrast of a Madonna-Whore Complex perception seen against women. Wonder Woman: Black and Gold: "The Acquaintance" directly comments on the similarities Diana and Circe share; both are demigoddess offspring of gods associated with the sky (Zeus and Helios), their immortality means they'll outlive most everyone they know, and they've been in relationships with headstrong muscle-bound types (Superman and Odysseus).
• Misanthrope Supreme: Believes that all humans are beasts at their core and should be treated as such.
• Mooks: The Beastiamorphs serve as Circe's monstrous minions.
• Mook Maker: She turns people into Beastiamorphs to serve her.
• Moral Myopia: Post Crisis Circe enlists the help of Heracles in her plot to steal the powers of Diana, Donna Troy and Cassie Sandsmark only to turn on Heracles and steal his powers as well. Yet she's outraged when he tries to use her to steal all the powers of the Hellenistic gods.
• More Deadly Than the Male: Usually averted, given the male in Wonder Woman's books is usually God Of War Ares or Duke Of Deception. In Superman/Batman crossovers though, the males are usually Lex Luthor and or Rhas Al Ghuld, where Circe is easily the more deadly partner.
• Most Common Super Power: Circe is quite buxom and busty, fitting for a seductive sorceress.
• 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 she hates everything Diana stands for which she sees as lies and attacks her out of hate-filled cynicism, sometimes it's because of a prophecy she probably misheard about Diana being the one to finally kill her or do something else Circe wants to avert even though later Circe apparently hates Diana so bad she's perfectly willing to die if her death can derail Wonder Woman's mission. 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 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. Most of all her actions simply just revolve around her hating Wonder Woman and just wanting to watch her squirm. Best exemplified by her banter:
  Circe: Come back home. To New York. I've been making some changes to the Big Apple while you've been here. Turning Men into Animals. Women against Men. Lovers against Lovers. All the things you despise and fight against with a passion.
  Wonder Woman: What! Why?!
  Circe: Because it's what I do, sweetheart. It's the kind of world I want to live in. And because I hate you.
• Ms. Fanservice: Circe is a buxom, leggy sorceress with a penchant for wearing very revealing outfits. Her appearance in Men Of War has her naked with only her Godiva Hair preserving her modesty.
• Mythology Gag
  • The Post Crisis conflict between the two personalities, Circe and Donna Milton, is a throw back to Pre Crisis Wonder Woman stories where there was a conflict between Priscilla Rich and her alternate personality The Cheetah. Unfortunately for Wonder Woman Post Crisis Circe follows the path of the Golden Age Priscilla, where the criminal personality defeats the one who wants to reform, and Circe continues to antagonize Diana.
  • Her Donna Milton disguise was a modestly dressed blonde, as Circe had been in DC's golden age.
• Navel-Deep Neckline: Some of her costumes have featured plunging necklines. One of Circe's favorite outfits is a floor-length slinky green dress with a v neck the lowest point of which is level with her hips and is slung with thin gold chains across the opening◊.
• Near-Villain Victory: During War of The Gods Circe is out to kill the protogenoi Gaia, believing that's what Hecate wants, but takes a detour when she sees the perfect opporitunity to lure Diana back to the beach where Hippolyta formed her and reverts Diana back into clay. Gaia is now actively paying attention to Circe, however, and holds onto Diana's soul, to make undoing Circe's undoing of Diana as easy as possible.
• No-Sell
  • After Donna Milton accepts that she is Circe, she attempts to help Diana and Artemsis fight The White Magician only to see her magic doesn't work on him. It's implied Circe is rusty from her time as "Donna" but she still ends up selling her soul to Neron for more power, after properly suppressing the "Donna" personality. To her displeasure, her forced beast metamorphosis powers no longer work on women as a tradeoff.
  • Circe ends up constructing special prisons for Beastboy, Martian Manhunter and Plastic Man after seeing them shrug off her forced beast metamorphosis powers.
• Nothing Personal: During Circe's earlies Rebirth appearances in "The Truth" and "God Watch" arcs Circe's secretly working for Veronica Cale and has no personal animosity towards Wonder Woman, dramatically antagonising her just to keep up the facade. Circe even cuts a deal with Diana to undo Barbara Miverva's Cheetah transformation, even though Veronica Cale wants Barbara that way, as Diana is willing to give up the lasso of truth for it, but when Circe's spell fails due to Barbara's refusal to cooperate Circe gives the lasso back to Wonder Woman, having secretly gotten everything she needs out of it to advance Veronica's plans.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Played straight and then subverted in Justice League Dark. She seemingly drops her hatred of Diana when she and JLD come to her asking for assistance on defeating the goddess Hecate but the end of the story however it's revealed Circe had been manipulating the team the whole time into destroying Hecate (and Diana as a possible bonus).
• Of Corsets Sexy: When Wonder Woman takes Justice League Dark on a visit to Circe's house Circe happens to be wearing a corset. By her outburst they were not the guests she had dressed up for.
• One-Steve Limit: Post Crisis, Circe the witch shares her name with Circe The Tattooist. The tattoo artist Circe also likes to turn men into animals, but she has no grudge against Wonder Woman, in fact having a vaguely similar fashion sense, and is content to make an honest living in London rather than wreak havoc across the globe. There's also a masked Batman villain in the Post Crisis continuity known as Circe The Red Witch, but that Circe has no magical abilities and is merely a hypnotist.
• Pet the Dog: Circe arranges for the Bana-Mighdall to invade Themyscira before teleporting the entire island into a demon realm. As happy soon approaching deaths of all amazons makes Circe, Diana isn't among them, and Circe is willing to undo the spell if Diana will just violate her principals and kill one innocent stranger in cold blood. As Diana wrestles with this Sadistic Choice she fails to save a predestrian from a car accident, and Circe is content to accuse Diana of and taunt her about Murder Through Inaction. That's what Post Crisis Circe looks like after creating the Donna Milton persona causes Circe to become a better person.
• Practically Joker: This has been Circe's depiction from the 90s up until the 2020s, where still acts this way to some extent but it now just an act to disguise the fact she seriously scared of dying while a demon has her soul. In addition to being a Straw Nihilist who enjoys spreading chaos, Circe also enjoys striking at Diana through her loved ones like the time when she brainwashed Vanessa Kapatelis into becoming the Silver Swan. During the 90s and early 2000s she was even depicted with purple hair and a green outfit, a visual inversion of the Joker's iconic look.
• Public Domain Character: Modeled after the sorceress who sought to bewitch Odysseus' crew in The Odyssey. Since the original Circe is one of the oldest characters in fiction, she's well into the public domain. Post Crisis plays with this, as in that continuity this Circe is not the only Circe in the Earth, and not even the only Circe turning people into animals. The Circe of the Wonder Woman books is the closest Circe to the public domain Cice in the Post Crisis continuity, but there are still some deliberate differences.
• Purple Is Powerful: Her signature purple hair. In the Post-Crisis continuity although she changed her appearance frequently her hair remained the same color. In Rebirth however it's become more reddish-purple.
• Put on a Bus: Following Amazons Attack! where Circe was banished to the Underworld, Circe would not appear in the main Wonder Woman book until Wonder Woman almost 10 years later. ^note  Though she would pop up in related titles like the Superman/Wonder Woman book from New 52 and out-continuity stories.
• Really 700 Years Old: Dates back to at least 1200 BC.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: She instigated all the events of the Amazons Attack arc, including the massive death toll of Americans and Amazons alike, irreparably damaging the reputation of the Amazons, and having Hippolyta banished as an exile. Why? Because when the gods left the mortal realm, Ares permanently took Lyta with them and Circe wanted to get revenge on the gods by tarnishing the reputation of their most ardent followers.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: On the Golden Age Earth Two she begins as an enemy to Wonder Woman, but on the Silver Age Earth One she starts out as an enemy of Rip Hunter before moving on to antagonizing The Sea Devils and then wavering as an enemy and ally to Superman and Supergirl before finally setting her sights on destroying Wonder Woman.
• Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Circe vocalizes an onomotopea for vomit(retch) in mockery of Diana's attempts to reach Vanessa Kapatelis through words during The Witch And The Warrior.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: Purple and green are Circe's most reoccurring Color Motifs. Sometimes she will be depicted with purple hair and a green outfit or wearing a purple robe. When she first appeared in the Perez run, she had black hair and a green dress. In Rebirth she's been increasingly depicted with increasingly reddish hair.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: In the Silver Age and post-Crisis continuities, Circe learns of a prophecy that Diana would be her undoing. In the Silver Age Diana ends up accidentally unmaking Circe's immortality while defending herself from the witch, something she'd have had no reason to do otherwise, given that Diana hadn't even approached Circe before she started attacking her. In The Post Crisis continuity it turns out the prophecy said nothing about Hippolyta and that Circe merely misinterpreted it. Hecate warned Circe to watch for her death by studying the moon, but since Artemis has taken over the duties of moon goddess from the Titan Selene in Post Crisis and Hippolyta's daughter is named after Artemis's avatar Diana, she conlcuded "Diana must die". When Diana hears the prophecy she mainly thinks that Hecate will eventually leave Circe's body, not that Circe will suffer any terrible fate at Diana's hands, but Circe refuses to accept Diana's alternate hypotheses, and is eventually killed by Diana on accident while Diana is defending herself from Hecate, who is trying to take Diana's body because The Titans have unexpectly entered Circe's engineered war between gods and Diana's stronger body offers better protection.
• Self-Serving Memory: Post Crisis, Circe mentions Diana coercing Circe into helping her as the meek and virtueos "Donna Milton" as justification for Circe tormenting Diana's mother Hippolyta, perhaps forgetting Circe created the "Donna Milton" persona specifically to become Diana's friend only for Donna Milton to like Diana so much that she came to hate Circe.
• Sins of the Father: Circe having run-ins with Hippolyta in the past that ended for poorly for her has occasionally been presented as reason for her hatred of Diana;
  • On the Golden Age Earth Two, Hippolyte banishes Circe to the "island planet" of Sorca, where Circe "can do no harm", to punish Circe for her misdeeds. Circe decides the best revenge is to make the child of Hippolyte her prisoner for eternity.
  • In Justice League Unlimited, Hippolyta had her banished to Hades for turning people into animals.
  • In the Superman/Wonder Woman title from The New 52 it's revealed Hippolyta and Circe made an arrangement where Circe would enchant Themyscira's weapons so it could defend itself from invaders in-exchange for the Amazon's male children. Hippolyta than double-crossed Circe and made a deal with the Smith God Hephaestus where he would get the male children in-exchange for weapons that would defend Themyscira from Circe.
• Smug Super: The Post Crisis Circe under George Perez's pen is a cold, matter of fact sadist who enjoys lording her superiority over those she does not like, then kills the sufficiently humiliated targets. Under Christopher Priest's pen she's malicious prankster confident no one can make her suffer any serious consequences for anything she does.
• Squishy Wizard: Circe has a lot of magical firepower but lacks Diana's strength, speed and fighting skills. She can magically empower herself to match Diana in strength but even then the Amazon can still beat her with her proper training, and this takes away from other things Circe could be using her magic for.
• The Starscream: Was this to the Hecate, the Goddess of Magic, in Justice League Dark (vol. 2). In her past she originally became an acolyte of Hecate as a means of enacting a Roaring Rampage of Revenge but eventually manipulated Wonder Woman's Justice League Dark team into killing Hecate so her powers would be transferred to her, allowing her to become the new Goddess of Magic.
• Straw Feminist: Sometimes portrayed this way. More often just portrayed as The Cynic who only brings up differences between women and men as a means of driving them further apart than actually wanting any kind of equality or female superiority.
• Straw Nihilist: By the end of her Post Crisis story, Circe begins to describe how everything in life from Wonder Woman to humanity live under illusions of falsehood, leaving actions of love and murder as the only things that could be called reality. As such she kills others indiscriminately in pursuit of her daughter, Lyta, the only being she loves.
• Stripperiffic: Frequently dresses this way. Mainly as a way of throwing off male enemies through sex appeal. More rarely to entice male objects of her lust, or for bargaining purposes, since this IS Circe.
• Super Power Lottery: A loser of it by birth, as Circe's father is immortal, Circe's mother is functionally immortal but death comes much easier to their daughter. Circe's magic, without artifacts like Grimoire, gifts from Hecate and deals with demons, is fairly weak and even with all of those things can often be undone with the moly herb, which tends to grow wherever she decides to reside. Her own daughter Lyta is far more powerful than Circe, without Circe's enhancements. Still, Circe did get magic out of her parentatge and children of gods have come out worse.
• Super Powered Mooks: During "War Of The Gods" Circe takes over Olympus and stars using the Greek and Roman gods as her army. The heroes of Earth are in a bind until Diana and Donna Troy open a portal to an alternate reality where The Olympians never imprissoned The Titans, and luckily for them these Titans are willing to help.
• Troll: Enjoys dicking with people out sheer amusement, especially Diana. Especially when written by Christopher Priest, though several writers attempted to capture Priest's "comedic" Circe until the New 52 Cosmic Retcon reset things.
• Unholy Matrimony: With Ares, Hercules, and Sebastian Ballesteros on occasion. She even tried to invoke this with Lex Luthor, but he flatly denied her.
• Unlimited Wardrobe: Circe's costumes are subject to change, even in the midst of battle.
• Unexplained Recovery
  • During War Of The Gods Circe loses the powers of Hecate and gets reduced to dust in the wind. She later inexplicably shows up in a desert, still weakner than she was before but strong enough to convince The Bana-Mighdall that she is a goddess who can grant them immortality if they do her the favor of conquering Themyscira. Still inexplicably strong enough to then send the entire island to a demonic realm and seemingly rid herself of all the amazons forever.
  • During Amazons Attack Hippolyta overcomes Circe's brainwashing, impales Circe through the chest with a spear and confirms that she is dead. There is no explanation as to why Circe shows up alive and well a couple issues later.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Post Crisis, Wonder Woman delivered Donna Milton's baby, Lyta, who by extension is also Circe's baby. Circe does love Lyta, but still wants to torment and kill the woman who delivered Lyta to her.
• Unwitting Pawn: Circe instigates Amazons Attack out of spite because she believes Athena ordered all of the Greek gods to retreat to another plane of reality, Ares taking their daughter with them, while stranding Circe and Hercules on Earth. This never happened and this "Athena" is actually Granny Goodness of the New Gods in disguise.
• The Vamp: Not afraid to use her sex appeal to get what she wants, at one point trying to seduce Green Arrow II on Luthor's orders.
• Villain Team-Up: Has often been either involved or the leader of such groups.
  • She's been romantically involved with Sebastian Ballesteros as well, with the two of them acting as a Big Bad Duumvirate.
  • Led a Legion of Doom made up of Wonder Woman's enemies, all of whom she empowered and has allied herself with the likes of Luthor's Injustice Gang in order to take on the Justice League.
  • After being defeated by Diana on live television Circe is imprisoned but saved by the Gorgons on Themyscira. In repayment Circe resurrects their mortal sister Medusa, and the group become mutal enemies of Wonder Woman.
  • In DC Rebirth, she formed part an evil counterpart to the Trinity of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman with Lex Luthor, Ra's al Ghul, and herself.
  • In Justice League Dark (vol. 2), she formed an Injustice League Dark comprised of herself, Klarion the Witch Boy, Solomon Grundy, Floronic Man, and Papa Midnite
• Villain Teleportation: Circe, as one of the most powerful magic users in the 'verse, is fully capable of jumping between points and dimensions at will, though Paradise Island has defenses against this. Interestingly her most notable use of teleportation may have been when she used it to help the heroes by teleporting Diana and herself to try to save Artemis from the White Magician.
• Villainous Rescue: When Gaea decides to crush Post Crisis Bana-Mighdall for defiling her namesake girdle, Circe teleports the city away at the last second because its residents are her pawns. Pawns too valuable to be disposed of just yet.
• Unwitting Pawn: Circe represses her own memories and creates the Donna Milton persona in order to befriend and get close to Diana. This plays right into the hands of Ares Buchanan, who wants someone to get close to Diana and hires Donna Milton, recognizing her as the perfect woman for the job. Donna willingly betrays Diana to Ares, thinking he just wants to stop her meddling investigations into him, but when it becomes clear to her Ares is going to torture Diana, Donna turns on him and tries to atone for putting Diana in that situation even after her betrayal of Ares gets her shot.
• Warrior vs. Sorcerer: Circe is an evil witch whose archenemy is an Amazon Warrior Princess.
• Whole-Plot Reference: In addition to nods to the prophecies of the Golden and especially Silver ages, Post Crisis Circe's jealous desire to keep Hecate's inhabitation and power from Wonder Woman is a direct reference to Eddie Brock's jealous desire to keep Spider-Man from getting the Venom symbiote. Only Circe's jealousy is even less justified than Eddie's and Circe ends up driving Hecate to try and take Diana through her own actions.
• Wicked Witch: One of the wickedest witches in comic books in fact.
• Wizards Live Longer: Circe is several thousand years old.
• World's Strongest Man: During the 1990s she discovers a spell that makes her "The strongest woman on Earth" but still ended up getting her butt kicked by Diana. During the 2000s she discovers another but this time it "only" makes her Diana's physical equal. Nonetheless Circe harasses Diana while the latter is observing in The Parthenon, goading Diana into a fight that Circe is broadcasting around the world. In the second instance Circe half expects to lose and is hoping that if she does she can at least discredit Wonder Woman by forcing Diana to kill her, but Wonder Woman is still able to subdue Circe nonlethally.
• Woman Scorned: She periodically puts off her destruction of New York to torture Lex Luthor, who had earlier spurned her advances while running for president.
• You Have Failed Me: One of Circe's Bestiamorphs failed to accomplish his assignment. What does Circe do? She turns him into a chicken dinner and eats him.

Echidna

Echidna

AKA: The Mother of Monsters

First Appearance: DC Comics Presents #46 (1982)

Universes: Earth-One, New Earth, Prime Earth

"I draw the underworld in on itself... I crush you in my damp embrace... I draw my daughters back into my womb..."

Known as the Mother of All Monsters, Echidna is a monstrous creature with the upper torso of a woman and the body and tail of a serpent. With her mate Typhon, Echidna birthed legendary monsters such as Cerberus, the Sphinx, the Chimera, and the Hydra, among others. At some point, Echidna was imprisoned underneath Themyscira.

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• Big Creepy-Crawlies: She births an amry of giant arthropods just to screw with Donna Troy and Yara Flor, who hate bugs.
• The Dragon: To Altuum The Survivor in DC Rebirth, as it is his plan to release her from Doom's Doorway and send the contestants vying to be the door's new guardian to a mass grave where Echidna is waiting. Still, Echidna doesn't need much motivation to kill amazons and takes several liberties with Altuum's plan, including setting up her own trap which collapses the grave in the event she loses, something he probably didn't want since it is full of his people's remains.
• Green and Mean: Her snake half is green and she's certainly not nice.
• Immortality Immorality: Echidna is immortal to the point destroying her nervous system only temporarily slows her down. Her children are usually losers of the Super Power Lottery that are very much more killable but she'll birth dozens, hundreds, thousands of them with full knowledge they will suffer aggonizing deaths if it can get her what she wants.
• Load-Bearing Boss: Invoked: As she has been directed to lye in wait for the would be amazon champions in a mass grave, to kill them, but having lost to Wonder Woman once already is ready to bring the whole thing down in the event Wonder Woman starts winning again.
• Monster Progenitor: As indicated by her title, she birthed most of the most famous monsters of Greek Mythology. In Classical Mythology she's much closer to Mother of a Thousand Young, with children that look nothing like her or each other, but in the comic books she's usually seem mass birthing monsters of a specific type in short times spans.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: During Trial of the Amazons she's overshadowed by one of the few figures in classical mythology capable of doing sothe protogenoi Chaos.
• Snake People: Echidna is a monstrous creature with the upper torso of a woman and the body and tail of a serpent.
• The Rival: Like in classical myth, she's a rival to goddess Athena. Unlike classical myth the DC comics amazons venerate Athena, rather than Ares, putting them on Echidna's hitlist.
• Weaponized Offspring: Completely willing to have children for no other purpose than attacking her enemies.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: During Trial of the Amazons Echidna's certainly trying to remove the amazons from Themyscira, starting with the murder of their four would be champions, but their fight leads to the opening of Doom's Doorway and the unleashing of Chaos, who dashes out as Echdnia is shoved in and wants to destroy the island itself. A step further than Altuum and Echidna intended.

Medusa

Medusa

First Appearance: Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #52. (1964)

Universes: Earth-One, New Earth, Prime Earth

"Pain can bring out your most animalistic qualities. Athena thought she cursed me, but she blessed me with the power I needed to survive this world and this prison."

Medusa is the chief of the Gorgons. She could turn people into stone with her eyes, a punishment from Athena for making love to Poseidon in a temple of the goddess of Wisdom. She was eventually beheaded by the hero Perseus. Through the actions of a jealous Hera, Medusa's two gorgon sisters were set free from their prison on Themyscira, and immediately schemed to resurrect their sister.

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• Acid Attack: The gorgon's serpentine locks produce their own corrosive toxin which debilitates and sears those affected by it.
• The Ageless: Being of divine blood, she and her sisters do not age.
• Body Surf: In DC Rebirth her shade escapes Hades, makes it past Doom's Door and begins possessing amazons on Themyscira as a ghost.
• Compelling Voice: Has been blessed by Circe with a vocal allure that compels others to turn towards her gaze when calling to them.
• Curse: Her powers are a result of a curse placed on her by Athena.
• Defeat Means Friendship: It takes several defeats over the course of "Rebirth" but when Nubia hits her with a new weapon that proves capable of removing the Gorgon curse Medusa has a change of heart and decides to join the amazons of Themyscira.
• Gorgeous Gorgon: Is the leader of the Gorgons, is smoking hot, and likes to flaunt her body. Granted, she's less hot in some continuities than others.
• Losing Your Head: Her head has survived multiple decapitations.
• Medusa: The original.
• Redemption Demotion: Medusa's Heel–Face Turn in Rebirth causes her to lose her gorgon body and powers. She does get to keep her semi immortality due to being made an official amazon of Themyscira, however.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Thrice. Despite her origins in Greek mythology, Medusa first appeared in an issue of Superman's Girlfriend, Lois Lane before going to become a regular opponent of Wonder Woman. On Prime Earth, she has primarily been a foe of Batwoman. Come DC Rebirth and she becomes more associated with Nubia than Diana.
• Siblings in Crime: Is frequently assisted by her sisters Euryale and Stheno.
• Superpower Lottery: A loser of it, as she does not have the same immortality of her sisters, due to being a cursed Gorgon rather than one by birth. However, DC's Medusa enjoys much greater longevity than her mythological counterpart.
• Super-Strength: Can go toe-to-toe with Wonder Woman.
• Super-Toughness: Can go toe-to-toe with Wonder Woman.
• Taken for Granite: Can turn people to stone with her gaze.
• Truer to the Text: She has wings, an aspect that frequently appears in archaic Greek portrayal of gorgons, but that isn't present in later depictions, especially in contemporary pop culture.
• Ungrateful Bastard: When her shade gets past Doom's Door and she becomes a body surfing ghost, Nubia asks her to stop on the condition the Hippolyta had preserved Medusa's head and they can use it to restore Medusa's body. While this does stop Medusa's ghost antics, it doesn't stop her attacks on the amazons, leading to a thrashing from Nubia. However, when this leads to Medusa losing Athena's gorgon curse she does show gratitude to Nubia and offers to serve her as an amazon.
• Winged Humanoid: Has feathered wings which enable her to fly.

Cottus

Cottus

First Appearance: Wonder Woman Vol 2 #10. (1987)

Created By: George Pérez

Universes: New Earth

One of the Hekatonkheires (Hundred-Handed Ones) of ancient Greek myth, Cottus was sealed behind Doom's Door 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 supposedly came from he).

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• Adaptational Attractiveness: His comic book form is better looking than his mythological one by greatly reducing the amounts of heads he had, clearly going more for a more streamlined "threatening" than bumpy "ugly".
• Adaptational Villainy: In the stories recorded by the Athenians Cottus is just one of many jailers who make sure those put in Tartarus stay there. In the Wonder Woman comics he's the one who is in jail and making sure he doesn't get out is one of the heroes' jobs.
• Creepy Centipedes: As originally designed Cottus is essentially a giant centipede made of humanoid arms of shadow with different sized faces all down his stomach/front and a back made up of rectangular bone pieces that are mistaken at one point as a marble staircase while he's asleep.
• Eldritch Abomination: Similar to his mythological counterpart, but with less emphasis on the eldritch and more on the abomination. He's a hundred handed nigh-unkillable avatar of natural disaster who looks like he's made out of shadow save for his glowing eyes and mouths. In his and Diana's first encounter she breaks what looks like a huge staircase he's clinging to the underside of only for it to turn out to be his spine.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: His "eyes" seem to be nothing but light emitted from eye shaped opening in his body.
• Heal Thyself: He can manually repair damage done to his body by turning his stone "bones" into clay and pushing it back into shape. Diana finds herself in a bind as Cottus repairs his body faster than she can damage it.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: The clay that was used to create Wonder Woman came from his imprisoned body. So he and Alkyone say anyway. Hippolyta herself denies this claim but Cottus still wants "his" parts "back" from Diana.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Is made of nothing but arms.
• Mythology Upgrade: In DC Comics he has some limited shape sifting abilities.
• Person of Mass Destruction: He and his brothers were Anthropomorphic Personification(s) of natural disasters.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: He is not nice at all and has glowing red eyes.
• Rock Monster: One who can "soften" into a clay monster and reshape his body.
• Sadly Mythtaken: He and his brothers were actually on the Olympians' side during the Titanomachy and served as the Titans' jailers in Tartarus.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: He is the main thing sealed behind Doom's Doorway that the Amazons have spent many centuries combating and keeping contained as their mission and purpose.
• Shapeshifting: Starts out as a centipede-like monster made of shadow, light and stone, but can become a writhing mass of arms and light.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: He can at the very least operate under water far longer than Wonder Woman can an deliberately exploits this advantage in battle against her. Unluckily for him Themyscira is patrolled by megalodons, one of which retrieves The Lasso of Truth that had been discarded in the sea Cottus moved the fight to.
• Super-Strength: A power of The Hekatonkheires in myth that carried over to the comic books. He's strong enough to hold and throw hundreds of mountaints at once. Whether those mountains stay intact during the process or not is another matter entirely.
• Throat Light: When he actually has a "mouth".
• Visual Pun: He starts off as a centipede. Centimanes is an alternate name for the Hekatonkheires.

Sigurd

Sigurd

First Appearance: ''Wonder Woman' #770. (May 2021)

Affiliation: Asgard. Valhalla. Checkmate

A Norse hero whom Diana encountered in Asgard. They had a brief fling.

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• Blood Knight: Siegfried admits in private to Steve Trevor that he's enjoying Hera's war against humanity so much he doesn't want to go back to Valhalla until it is over. All the same, Siegfried is trying to prevent civilian casualties and collatoral damage.
• Cool Sword: His sword Gram. He gifts it to Diana on their last night together in Valhalla.
• Costume Copycat: After brainwashing Siegfried Doctor Psycho has Sigurd wear the amor of Shining Knight, knowing it will anger Wonder Woman.
• Death Seeker: Since being brought back to life by Doctor Psycho Siegfried joined Checkmate and has tried very hard to die. Honorably he must die though, so he doesn't just stand still and let his enemies kill him. To his bemusement the dark magic involved in his resurrection has caused Siegfried to maintain his Nigh-Invulnerability from his time as an Einhejar, so there's really no benefit to going back to Valhalla for him other than Earth occasionally being boring.
• Enemy Mine: While brainwashed Siegfried vows to kill Wonder Woman for his lord. He nonetheless fights alongside Wonder Woman when she is attacked by duplicates sent after her by Image-Maker, as he wants to kill her in an honorable duel and their interference is not appreciated.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Siegfried comes back to life Nigh-Invulnerable, so he really does not need any armor at all. It's mainly there to hide his identity from Wonder Woman and prevent her from realizing he is a pawn of Doctor Psycho.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Siegfried becomes very attached to Wonder Woman's "new" flame Steve Trevor, even moving into Steve's apartment.
• I Believe I Can Fly: His variation of the Shining Knight armor let him fly after Wonder Woman.
• I Have Many Names: Sigurd, Siegfried, Fafnirsbane, Siggy
• Ideal Hero: He's handsome, charming and noble. Diana wishes she could have stayed with him.
• Mistaken Identity: Siegfried mistakes Hyperion, god of light, for a fire Jotun.
• Mr. Fanservice: He's absolutely handsome.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Gram burns Sigurd while his mind is being manipulated by Doctor Psycho. Once Wonder Woman and Deadman free Sigurd from Doctor Psycho's control he can freely touch Gram again.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: He complains about the heat of lava, but it does not cause him any serious burns and doesn't even really hurt him at all so long as he avoids touching it directly.
• Permastubble: There does seem to be some variation in the thickness of his beard, but only in how much skin of his chin it covers. The hair never gets any longer than stubble.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Siegfried remains close to Diana after he is brought back to life and the Mind Manipulation of Doctor Psycho is removed. He respects that she has "moved on" to Steve Trevor, however.
• Popcultural Osmosis Failure: Siegfried only knows some of The Olympians by name and has no knowledge of the rest of the Hellenist Pantheon, even though he was dead at the time Janus was making a mess of the after life and sphere of the gods.
• Recurring Dreams: Every night Sigurd dreams about being torn apart by Jotnar and or trolls during Ragnarok. He gets a little variation during Whatever Happened To The Warrior Of Truth when Wonder Woman is forced to share his dream and decides to help him survive the battle for a change.
• Religious Bruiser: Siegfried is a devout follower of Odin, praying to him even as the gods were making war on humanity. As it turns out Siegfried wasn't entire wrong too, as Skadi was the only Norse deity to side against humanity, with most like Odin deciding to stay neutral and some helping the humans even.
• Resurrective Immortality: As an einherjar Siegfried's body will always recover from whatever damage is done to it in Valhalla. Unfortunately he will one day have to leave Valhalla and die for real in Ragnarok.
• Resurrection Sickness: Siegfried initially has poor stamina due to being forced into combat immediately after being brought back to life. Poor stamina by einherjar standards, so he's still able to hunt Wonder Woman for days before finally collapsing.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Siegfried can talk to birds.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Barbara Minerva openly berates him for any slights, real or perceived, and only refers to him as "viking" but Siegried takes it all in stride and joyfully works with her.