DC Just Made a Major Change to an Underrated Villain (And It Makes No Sense)

In 2025, DC Comics began one of its most interesting miniseries in recent years, Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League. As the title suggests, the story follows the villains Cheetah and Cheshire as they assemble a crew in a plan to steal from the Watchtower, the Justice League’s satellite headquarters. Across the six issues, the series offers an engaging heist story and interesting character interactions between lesser-known villains. In particular, this series gives Cheetah a chance in the spotlight that she’s rarely afforded outside of Wonder Woman comics. However, the final issue in this riveting series not only throws a plot hole so massive it unravels the entire story, but it also shows the struggle DC Comics writers have at coherently characterizing Cheetah.

Unlike other villains like Lex Luthor or the Joker, Cheetah is often overlooked in DC Comics despite her role as one of Wonder Woman’s primary villains. Her history offers a lot of potential for emotional and action-packed storytelling, some of which is explored in Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League. Barbara used to be an archeologist and a friend of Wonder Woman. However, she was forced by a cult to undergo a ritual that made her the wife of the plant god Urzkartaga. The malevolent deity turned Barbara into the cannibalistic Cheetah. Yet despite Cheetah’s interesting design, powers, and backstory, her latest storyline accidentally exposes one of the character’s most significant issues.

Cheetah and Cheshire’s Entire Heist is Practically Pointless

After Cheetah recruited Cheshire for her scheme, they work together to assemble a team of villains capable of busting into the Watchtower. With the help of villains like Klarion the Witch Boy, Hazard, Lian Harper, and Featherweight, they manage to steal a room full of treasure and priceless artifacts under the Justice League’s nose. However, Cheetah doesn’t care about any of the loot, because she obtains her actual target: the cursed plant of Urzkartaga. Throughout the series, Cheetah makes it clear that she desires to be rid of the abusive god that made her a bloodthirsty beast. With Klarion’s magic and the plant, Cheetah summons Urzkartaga and proceeds to kill her oppressor and abuser. Once the smoke is cleared, Cheetah is human again and free of Urzkartaga’s curse.

Although the heist itself is a lot of fun and has plenty of interesting turns, the ending has a significant problem that practically undermines the entire plot. If Cheetah was in so much pain and so desperate to be free of Urzkartaga, why didn’t she ask Wonder Woman for help? In almost every other interaction the two characters have had over the years, the Amazon has been desperately trying to find ways to cure Cheetah. In fact, in 2016, Wonder Woman had already defeated Urzkartaga and freed Cheetah from her curse. However, the villain was almost immediately forced back into the Cheetah just a year later. Afterwards, Cheetah embraced her monstrous form and actively refused the treatments Wonder Woman offered to restore her humanity.

This ending makes even less sense because the last storyline involving Cheetah had her and Diana putting their differences aside to fight the villain, the Sovereign. Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League #1 even acknowledge that storyline. No explanation is given as to why Cheetah thinks that a heist on the most fortified base in DC Comics is somehow easier than just explaining the situation to Wonder Woman and asking for her help. Cheetah even encounters Wonder Woman on the Watchtower but doesn’t say anything about her motivation. Wonder Woman is well-known for her drive to save everyone. So, it wouldn’t be a stretch for the Princess of Themyscira to willingly give Cheetah the plant to free her former friend of Urzkartaga’s curse, making the entire heist meaningless.

Read Next

Wonder Woman Has the Weakest Villains in DC (& That’s a Problem)

Wonder Woman and Cheetah Have the Most Frustrating Rivalry in DC Comics

Ever since her introduction during the 1980s, Cheetah has been one of the most prominent and dangerous adversaries Wonder Woman has ever fought. Their shared history before Cheetah’s transformation also makes them much more personal than other archenemy dynamics, like Superman and Luthor or Batman and the Joker. Wonder Woman and Cheetah also act as two sides of the same coin, as the gods blessed one while they cursed the other. However, the biggest problem in their dynamic, as seen in the ending of Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League, is the lack of consistency.

DC writers seem unsure whether they want to portray Cheetah as someone who abhors or welcomes her transformation. Sometimes she’s willing to do anything to rid herself of the Cheetah curse, while other times she revels in it and the strength it provides her. While this conflict of viewpoints can be fascinating when examined over a long period of time, writers mostly have her go through these transitions off-panel and instantaneously. Any growth in either Cheetah’s character or her complicated relationship with Wonder Woman goes practically unacknowledged by the next story arc. The complete disconnect between the Cheetahs portrayed in the Sovereign storyline and the Cheetah and Cheshire in the Justice League miniseries feels incredibly jarring and inorganic.

Instead of exploring why Cheetah suddenly doesn’t feel like she can trust Wonder Woman to help, even after they had been allies that same year, DC just completely rewrites their relationship off panel. Given their history as friends and Wonder Woman’s drive to cure Cheetah, DC can’t just have them acting like sworn enemies without first revealing how their relationship devolved to that state. However, now that Cheetah is human once again, it raises many questions about how DC writers plan to use her character in the future. Given that Cheetah’s now free of her curse, she could realistically try to reintegrate herself into human society. More importantly, though, Wonder Woman is bound to be shocked to see her archnemesis cured without her prior knowledge.

If DC writers sit down and think of a long-term plan of how they intend to portray Wonder Woman and Cheetah moving forward, then it could potentially solve the inconsistencies of her characterization as well as elevate one of DC Comics’ most underrated archenemies. Or, they may just take the easy way out and have Barbara’s bad luck continue and once again have her be transformed by the cruel plant of Urzkartaga and revert to her savage Cheetah form without any acknowledgement of her and Wonder Woman’s shared history.

What do you think? Leave a Comment below and join the conversation in the ComicBook Forum!