First Appearance: Wonder Woman 26 (2009)
Creators: Gail Simone
Abilities: A golem with the power to emotionally manipulate, who also possesses superstrength, durability, speed, healing, teleportation and for a time, the Lasso of Truth.
Backstory: Genocide is a sadistic super-weapon created by some of the world’s darkest scientists, using both science and magic, in order to destroy Wonder Woman at the behest of none other than Ares, the God of War. Like other proxies of Ares, Genocide can project anger, fear and despair to weaken her enemies, and as a magical construct, she is nearly indestructible and can heal any damage her body receives.
Far in the future, Ares steals Wonder Woman’s dead body, and travels back in time to manipulate Dr. Barbara Minerva (Cheetah), at the Secret Society of Super Villains to proceed with an experiment. They call upon Dr. Ivo to acquire ashen remains from various locations on earth where the worst acts of genocide in history had taken place: Rwanda, Poland, Croatia, Sudan, Cambodia. They then used this dust and an unknown power source from Felix Faust to animate a golem. Using Diana’s dead body, they infuse her with this cocktail of evil energy, and the result is the a savage monster that calls itself Genocide.
With Wonder Woman and the Amazon’s destruction their ultimate goal, they set Genocide loose at a shopping mall in downtown Washington D.C. to draw the Justice League’s attention. The Department of Metahuman Affairs dispatches a team of agents to investigate the disturbance, which includes Agent Diana Prince. After Diana changed into her super alter ego, Wonder Woman, Genocide brutally murdered a woman in cold blood, so Diana furiously attacked. But Genocide began to feed off of Diana’s rage, and using it to paralyze her, Genocide would beat her nearly to the point of death and stole the Lasso of Truth.
The lasso is then surgically grafted onto Genocide’s body and it allows her to
create explosions of negative psychic energy. Genocide uses the blast to destroy the Department of Metahuman Affairs building killing the majority of personnel, and leaving the few survivors to suffer from psychosis and a lingering sense of dread.
After learning that Genocide was a weapon created by Ares to ultimately destroy the gods, Diana finds and attacks Genocide, ripping the lasso from her body and leaving her to drown in the sea; However, Genocide’s body is retrieved by Euphemus, and brought to Ares, who preserves Genocide’s soul in clay and entrusts it to rogue Amazon warrior, Alkyone, who is determined to destroy Diana.
More recently, Genocide was retconned as a golem of unknown origin who was buried on the Island of the Gargareans in the Tyrrhenian Sea after Diana defeated the destructive creature. Genocide is later unearthed by Warmaster (aka: Paula Von Gunther) in a blood ritual and recruited to the Four Horsemwomen to help bring about the destruction of the Amazons.
