Thanks to Lex Luthor’s mischievous master plan, the God Killer Sword is now in the possession of Wonder Woman’s arch-nemesis: Cheetah. DC’s Year of the Villain event has seen Lex Luthor powering-up villains across every main DC book, preparing the world for one massive war for the future of Earth (and the rest of the universe, too). Now that one of his recruits has become a certified God Killer, how are the heroes going to stand up to the threat?
The God Killer Sword is one of the most powerful weapons ever created in DC’s history, forged by the god Hephaestus for Deathstroke to kill a Titan. The version most fans will know was introduced in Patty Jenkins’s Wonder Woman (2017), where it turned out the “God Killer” wasn’t actually the sword at all, but Diana the entire time. But in the comics, the sword is very much a weapon of mass destruction, capable of destroying a deity. To gain another soldier in his sinister forces, Lex Luthor has handed the sword to one of Wonder Woman’s worst enemies–her former friend, Barbara Ann Minerva.
Since DC’s Rebirth, Cheetah has been more of an (involuntary) anti-hero than a villain, the victim of a curse that was unjustly forced upon her. While Cheetah and Wonder Woman have enjoyed a brief friendship in the last couple of years, Cheetah ended up joining Lex Luthor’s latest incarnation of the Legion of Doom. Now, to further his own sinister plan, Lex is pushing her directly over to the villainous side.
Unfortunately for Diana, Dr. Minerva has already put the sword’s name to the test. Cheetah used the sword to kill the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite. Now, she’s running rampant around the globe as she seeks to use her sword to destroy the veil between the worlds of gods and humanity. But not if Wonder Woman has anything to say about it! Equipped with a special elixir created by Veronica Cale, Diana seeks to stop the “God Killer” in her tracks–and walks directly into a trap, dosing Cheetah with the final catalyst needed to turn Cheetah into the ultimate God Killer!
Now, Diana will have to face the fully-powered feline in all of her glory. As The Batman Who Laughs and Lex Luthor continue to amass their armies before their eventual showdown, the entire DC Universe is at stake. Especially now that Cheetah’s been promoted to that same level, no longer wanting to kill Wonder Woman, but every single god in the known universe. Hopefully, Diana can muster the strength to stop her sword-wielding foe. Without having to put an end to her, once and for all. The feisty feline’s fate will be revealed when Wonder Woman #81 hits comic book shelves on October 23rd.
Olympus has been returned to the gods! Now that the deities of Diana’s world are back in power, all of her troubles are over. Or are they? Using the welcome distraction, Cheetah has finally made her way to her final destination for destruction: Themyscira!
