Cheetah I

History

The first Cheetah is Priscilla Rich, a rich woman who is pretty envious of Wonder Woman. At a charity benefit, she is humiliated when the crowd boos her off the stage and insists they bring on Wonder Woman. Later on, Wonder Woman tries a Houdini-like stunt where she’s to be bound in chains and put in a glass tank. When nobody’s looking, Priscilla uses Wonder Woman’s lasso as well, which she knows Wonder Woman can’t break. The crowd is afraid that Wonder Woman might be in real danger, but Priscilla assures them that she’ll escape. By working through the chains, Wonder Woman does somehow find a way out of it. Priscilla then gets even more jealous when Wonder Woman convinces her boyfriend to break off a promised dinner date. That’s when things hit a boiling point.

"Horrors!" she cried, as she gazed at her evil inner self for the first time. "Don't you know me?" replied the reflection. "I am the REAL you — the Cheetah — a treacherous, relentless huntress!" The image commanded her to fashion a Cheetah costume. "From now on, intoned the reflection, "when I command you, you shall go forth dressed like your TRUE self and do as I command you..." She steals the charity money and then follows Wonder Woman home. She stands over Wonder Woman with a knife, but decides that death would be too good. She wants to ruin her as well. She plants the money underneath the bed and runs off. As Priscilla, she gets Wonder Woman arrested. Wonder Woman is bailed out and is given a message of where to meet her lawyer.

At the address, Wonder Woman instead finds a warehouse. Inside is Cheetah holding her boyfriend Courtley Darling at gunpoint. Using Darling as a hostage, she pushes him and Wonder Woman into a room full of quicksand. Wonder Woman’s supporting cast catches up on the clues and comes to the warehouse just as Wonder Woman jumps out of the quicksand. Cheetah’s on the roof, trying to set the building on fire and destroy the evidence. Once she sees Wonder Woman’s escaped, the roof breaks apart and she falls to her supposed death. There are a couple other Cheetah stories in the issue, including one where she and Wonder Woman finally fight it out. When Wonder Woman wins, she unmasks Cheetah to find Priscilla Rich. Priscilla breaks down and admits that she’s gone insane. She begs Wonder Woman to keep her prisoner so she can one day control the Cheetah side of her.

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