Medusa (DC Comics)

rdf:langString Medusa (DC Comics)

rdf:langString Medusa

rdf:langString Medousa

rdf:langString Medusa in Nubia & the Amazons #5 ; art by Alitha Martinez

rdf:langString Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru

rdf:langString Wonder Woman #153

rdf:langString Euryale, Stheno

rdf:langString Mythological creature

rdf:langString Medusa (also sometimes Medousa) is a fictional character appearing in DC Comics publications and related media, commonly as an adversary of the superhero Wonder Woman. Based upon the eponymous Greek mythological figure whose story was chronicled in Ovid's Metamorphoses, she is a snake-haired Gorgon with the ability to turn living creatures to stone with her gaze. Since her debut in 1964, Medusa's physical appearance has been presented variously as DC Comics' continuities have shifted and evolved. Though she has routinely been depicted with snakes for hair, she has sometimes been shown as bipedal and sometimes with a serpentine lower body. However across continuities, she has consistently been written with the ghostly ability to possess or influence other beings after her physical body has been killed, as well as an uncanny capacity for resurrection after death. Her characterization has been that of a dangerous immortal creature who is at turns both vengeful and sympathetic. Though she first appeared as a Wonder Woman character, Medusa would spend the next 30 years as a spectral antagonist for other DC Comics heroes, such as Supergirl, Green Lantern, Green Arrow and Black Canary, as well as Hawkman and Hawkgirl. (Medusa's fellow Wonder Woman rogue Circe followed a similar 20th century narrative trajectory, though Circe resurged in the Wonder Woman mythos a full decade before Medusa did.) In 1994, nine years after DC Comics rebooted its continuity in a publication event known as the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Medusa would return to her roots as a menacing figure in Wonder Woman's world, rising to become a consistent recurring foe in the hero's late-Modern Age, New 52 and Rebirth-era adventures. Medusa has been adapted into several Wonder Woman-related animated TV and film projects, and has been portrayed by Shannon Farnon, Laraine Newman and Cree Summer. In 2011, she was featured as the villain in an international animated advertising campaign by MAC Cosmetics to promote a Wonder Woman-themed makeup collection. Though similar in appearance, Medusa is a separate character from Myrna/Myrra Rhodes (aka Dr. Medusa), a member of the Creature Commandos, a team of DC Comics anti-heroes loosely inspired by classic 20th-century movie monsters.

rdf:langString Medusa

rdf:langString Flight

rdf:langString Expert combatant

rdf:langString Divine empowerment

rdf:langString Petrification

rdf:langString Acidic venom

rdf:langString Genesistic blood

rdf:langString Transformative tears