Barbara Minerva (Prime Earth)

{{DC Database:Character Template
 * Image                  = Wonder Woman Vol 4 23.1 The Cheetah Textless.jpg
 * RealName               = Barbara Minerva
 * CurrentAlias           = Cheetah
 * Aliases                = Priscilla Rich, Deborah Domaine, Sabrina Ballesteros
 * Identity               = Secret
 * Alignment              = Bad
 * Affiliation            = Suicide Squad, Secret Society of Super-Villains, Menagerie
 * Relatives              =
 * Universe               = Prime Earth
 * BaseOfOperations       =


 * Gender                 = Female
 * Height                 =
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 * Eyes                   =
 * Hair                   = Brown
 * UnusualFeatures        = Cheetah-like skin and fur.


 * Citizenship            = American
 * MaritalStatus          = Single
 * Occupation             = Antiquities expert; criminal
 * Education              =


 * Origin                 =
 * PlaceOfBirth           =
 * Creators               = Len Wein; George Pérez
 * First                  = Justice League Vol 2 10


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 * HistoryText            = Barbara Ann Minerva is the Cheetah, a feline foe of Wonder Woman.

Origin
Barbara Ann Minerva was raised in a group home in Idaho, run by a woman named "Aunt Lyta". The group home, Amazonia, was run along the lines of a cult, where the occupants were trained to view life as a hunt, and all other people as either competitors or prey. On her last day there, she killed her brother in a fight to the death, proving her worth to their sacred cause: retrieving the God-Killer Knife.

Building a series of false identities, Barbara Minerva got a job in Washington, D.C. as an expert in antiquities, and searched. Her life was immensely enriched by meeting Wonder Woman, a member of the Amazon culture she had been raised to admire, but when Wonder Woman laughed at her beliefs, Barbara decided to bring her down. She convinced Wonder Woman to let her into the Black Room, A.R.G.U.S.' special containment facility for magic artifacts, stole the God-Killer Knife, and stabbed herself in the chest in the name of her goddess.

This act empowered her, turning her into a cheetah woman, with the cheetah's characteristic hunting prowess and speed. She would spend the next six years committing criminal acts, though Wonder Woman was frequently on hand to stop her, always believing that the knife had somehow corrupted her and that she could be saved.

Secrets of the Cheetah
Five years after the creation of the Justice League, Cheetah was a member of the Secret Society. In the wake of the Graves Incident, Cheetah got some final piece of data necessary to track down a tribe in the Congo who had been the original custodians of the God-Killer Knife. As she had before, Wonder Woman went to stop her - but this time, she brought the Justice League. Thanks to the interference of the larger group of heroes, Cheetah was caught, and the truth of her original scheme to befriend Wonder Woman was revealed.

After being caught by the heroes, the Cheetah went to prison, where she contacted Black Manta, indicating that all was as it should be. She was subsequently chosen to join the "Suicide Squad", a black ops team of supervillains who worked for the American government.

Forever Evil
Cheetah was broken out of jail by the Crime Syndicate and recruited to be part of their forces. Her first act was to seek out and kill all her blood relatives and friends from Amazonia. That done, she declared herself free of the dictates of the being who empowered her.

Lured to Happy Harbor alongside every other supervillain, she was in the audience when the Crime Syndicate revealed that they had killed the Justice League. As proof they offered signature items, including Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth, which Cheetah immediately pocketed.

A loyal soldier serving the Crime Syndicate's brief takeover, she led a gang of animal-themed villains called the Menagerie, who terrorized New York from a hideout in Central Park. She was defeated by Steve Trevor of A.R.G.U.S., who needed the Lasso as part of a plan to save the world.

A month later, Cheetah was hired by the billionaire activist John King to kill Green Arrow. Due to the intervention of a small army of masked heroes, she was unsuccessful.

Cheetah was subsequently depowered by a strike against the magicians of Earth by a group of Elder Gods.


 * Powers                 =
 * : Due to cutting herself with the God Killer Knife, Barbara Minerva has managed to acquire a cheetah-like humanoid physiology.
 * : Can "infect" others with a cheetah-like appearance and animalistic traits by biting them, including Kryptonians.
 * : Fast enough to cut the Flash.
 * : Bite is powerful enough to pierce Kryptonian skin.
 * : Bite is powerful enough to pierce Kryptonian skin.


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 * Notes                  =
 * Barbara Minerva was created by Len Wein and George Perez, first appearing in Wonder Woman #7 (Volume 2) and Cheetah was created by William Moulton Marston and Harry G. Peter, first appearing in Wonder Woman #6. However, in the rebooted Prime Earth continuity her first appearance is as part of the DC Universe is in Geoff Johns and Jim Lee's New 52 Justice League series.
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