8 Likes
8 Likes
Name: Giganta the Gorilla Girl
First Appearance: Wonder Woman #9 (1944)
Creators: William Marston and H.G Peter
Abilities: Phenomenal strength rivaling that of Wonder Woman herself
Backstory: Caged away in the national zoo was the worlds largest gorilla. A huge creature which could rip apart steel with ease and toss people like rag dolls. This incredible beast however was overwrought with grief and wasting away. For her daughter had perished the previous year.
When Steve Trevor was visiting the zoo with his niece Dotsie, Giganta would imprint onto the young girl and become convinced she was really her daughter. Thus Giganta tearing her cage to shreds, would snatch Dotsie and flee into the wild, refusing to be separated again.
Eventually Wonder Woman with help from the Holliday Girls would succeed in rescuing Dotsie, with Giganta to be used in a lab experiment by Holliday evolutionary ape ethusist Proffessor Zool, as otherwise she would have to be put down for being a danger to society.
Thus Giganta became a giant of a woman but possessed incredible strength. Strength based on the principle that a regular woman could lift a bus if her daughter was in danger, Giganta already possessing incredible strength due to being the worlds largest gorilla, magnified her inherent strength several folds.
Thus Giganta swore to have her revenge against Wonder Woman for stealing away her baby.
10 Likes
Name: Ferdinand
First Appearance: Wonder Woman #195 (524) (2003)
Creators: Greg Rucka and Drew Johnson
Abilities: Five star vegan chef.
Backstory: Kithotaur hailing from the Greek Island of Kythira. Ferdinand was a big beefy individual who found his true calling in the kitchens. For years Ferdinand would refine his culinary craft until he is ranked amongst the worlds greatest chefs.
Refusing to cook with meat for he was vegan, some may initially scoff at eating food without meat. That is until they taste of Ferdinands cuisine and realize that true culinary talent is not constrained by something as foolhardy as the ingredients available.
Over the years Ferdinand would come to befriend Diana who impressed by his cooking, would offer the Kithotaur a job at the Themysciran embassy in the United States. His delicious contribution aiding in improving relations and creating positive good will.
11 Likes
I cannot express in only a few words how much I love Ferdinand.
What comic is the first panel set from? I don’t think I’ve read it.
9 Likes
Happy Mother’s Day! 
Dog Days of Summer, an anthology special about various uh, animal characters
9 Likes
Name: The Knife
First Appearance: Wonder Woman #308 (1983)
Creators: Dan Mishkin and Don Heck
Abilities: Evil scientist whose an expert on the mind. Army of devolved monsters, machine based psychic powers which allow him to perform a seemingly endless number of feats from teleportation, telekinesis, force fields, to controlling machines and nature with his very mind.
Backstory: Karl Schlagel had been a heartless and merciless nazi scientist during World War 2. His focus being on psychic abilities, Karl would use the resources given to him in the form of large camps of victims to at his leisure, put under the knife, attempting to carve out the secrets of the mind.
Having murdered hundreds in his sadistic experiments to tap into the secrets of psychic power and earning the name ‘The Knife’, Karl Schlagel after the colapse of the nazi regime would migrate to the United States and live a life of comfort for decades without even having to change his name. Never having to pay for his crimes.
However Karl was not satisfied with what dark secrets he uncovered in his horrific research. Thus he continued his work while in the states. Taking advantage of societies penchant for ignoring the poor and impoverished, he would kidnap people off the streets, subjecting them to his experiments without anyone ever being alerted to his actions.
Over the course of thirty years of kidnapping and experimenting on the poor and the overlooked, Karl would discover that he could steal away the untapped mental powers of others so long as he targeted them before their brains fully formed. Thus he would turn his focus to abducting children, going on to create a machine which would drain the minds of his victims, in the process turning their bodies into hulking mindless monsters which obeyed his will.
With every child he kidnapped and irreversibly transformed into his mindless minion, The Knife would obtain a new psychic ability. Growing in psychic power as he consolidated and prepared to use these abilities to retstore the nazi regime and conquer the world.
10 Likes
Name: Etta Candy
First Appearance: Sensation Comics #2 (1941)
Creators: William Marston and H.G Peter
Abilities: Amazonian super strength. College level education in a seemingly endless number of fields. Skilled in dozens of different sports and physical activities. Proficient in numerous firearms. Military training. Secretarial ability. Leader of the Holliday College Beeta Lamba Sorority. High ranking official in Argus, Checkmate, D.M.A, American Airforce. College Dean, Technological expert.
Backstory: Born in the rootin tootin state of Texas, Etta Candy was the daughter of the kindly Sweet Candy and the millionaire/oil tycoon/miner/prospecter/rancher/cowboy Hard Candy. Raised on the Bar-L ranch and learning to work a six shooter, ride a horse, and hog tie cattle not longer after she learned to walk, Etta Candy was a clever young woman with a bright future ahead of her.
Hard Candy wanting the best for his daughter would pay to send her to the greatest university in the country, Holliday College wherin she would apply herself to her fullest and bury herself in studies, sports, and extracarricular activities. Ready to experience everything college had to offer.
However Etta unknowingly suffered from a medical condition wherin if she went without sugar for to long it would have a detrimental effect on her health, causing her to rapidly lose weight, becoming naught but skin and bones. Needing to be hospitalized due to this, Etta Candy would meet Diana Prince who immediently recognizing Ettas malady, prescribed candies and high sugar meals to keep Etta in good health.
Etta would bounce back with a speedy recovery and would later be approached by Wonder Woman who recognizing Ettas sheer awesome, recruited her to help fight nazis. Etta would be all for this and would found her colleges ‘Beeta Lamba’ sorority, made up of women who supported Wonder Woman and swore to aid her in the fight against evil and inequality.
Thus Etta would lead her Holliday Girls sorority to aid Diana in punching nazis, punching gods, and traveling across realities to come to Wonder Womans aid. Over the course of things Diana would share with Etta and her fellow sorority sisters the secret of Amazonian super strength, training them in the ways of the Amazons so they might better defend themselves.
The silver age would see Etta reinvisioned as just a regular college girl who never went on adventures. Instead being a random girl who Diana would on occasion visit and regale with stories of her many adventures. Hanging out with her friends Thelma Tall, Lita Little, and Tina Toy.
–
The Bronze age would see Etta become a secretary in order to match the characters role in television. Working first under Steve Trevor in Army Intelligence and later under Philip Darnell in the Pentagon.
–
The post crisis era would see Etta Candy as a lieutenant in the Air Force. A career military woman who would also co-own a service for flight instruction. She would become well recognized for her success on various missions, leading to her being scouted by Checkmate and becoming one of their covert operatives. Moving her into different organizations such as the Department of Metahuman Affairs (D.M.A) as part of her investigations.
However despite her loyalty to her country, Etta Candy would never betray her dear friend Wonder Woman. Aiding her however she could when the opportunity arose.
This iteration of the character would also develop romantic feelings for Steve which he returned, resulting in the two marrying.
–
New 52 would return Etta Candy to the role of a secretary for Steve Trevor. A role she would hold briefly before becoming an agent of Argus. This iteration of Etta was skilled in logistics and data management. Operating the Argus Archives and warehouse of dangerous curiosities.
–
The Rebirth era would see Etta become the head of an unspecified United States military unit that was possibly related to Argus. With Steve as one of her operatives, she would direct her military task force on both independent missions and to act as support for Wonder Woman on her own missions.
This is a role she would hold until the disolution of all the worlds spy organizations led to Etta losing her job. With a tidy bank account, Etta decided to form and fund a disaster relief organization, to provide aid to people caught in natural disasters and help them to rebuild.
The fate of her organization is unknown after she was offered a job by the newly reformed Checkmate.
–
Regardless of the continuity there is one constant truth for Etta Candy and that is through thick or thin, she will always be Wonder Womans best friend.
10 Likes
I can’t decide if the hardest part for covering Etta was finding all of the reference images I wanted, or cutting it down to a more manageable number due to the sheer amount of options…
7 Likes
both?
6 Likes
Yeah, probably both. XD
Etta is one of the most consistent characters in the series barring Hippolyta and Steve. Certainly gone through the most redesigns of the three.
7 Likes
I was so confused when her latest redesign happened. I wasn’t reading the current series and during 2020 when they had those digital firsts I didn’t realize it was Etta at first, even when Wonder Woman clearly called her Etta.
7 Likes
I sorta knew about it second hand as the new 52 thin version reached my ears. That one threw me more than anything with how thin she was.
Though i’ll confess the Rebirth one also flew over my head at first because at first I thought it was Waller
8 Likes
The Rebirth WW characters are my favorite because I first imprinted on those. Things I love about that version of Etta are her close friendship with Steve, and her romantic relationship with Barbara Ann.
10 Likes
Oh 100% It can just be tricky to visually identify a character initially when they go through a big redesign
9 Likes
I agree. Once I realized that was Etta, I was all in. It just took a moment for me to recognize her as Etta.
9 Likes
Glad to see the love for Etta here. She was a favorite of mine right from the original Sensation comics.
Had to get this lego of her:
She was always represented in Golden Age as tough, smart, and reliable. I loved how Wonder Woman would call her and the Holliday girls to come and help defeat Nazi’s, gangsters, or martians. The girls would show up and just wreck the place. Really empowering. I can’t imagine how it must have hit reading it back in the 1940’s.
My favorite Etta moment:
10 Likes
Sorry Diana (and Yara), it appears I have a new favorite Amazonian.
8 Likes
This is absolutely the main point about Etta, no matter what era she appears in. 
(Including the character Beth from Earth One who is essentially Etta…)
I also loved Etta in Bloodlines:
And let’s not forget her small but important role in the 2017 film:
9 Likes