Giganta (DC)

Giganta is a villain in the DC Comics multiverse.

Giganta is a size-shifting supervillain who is a frequent enemy of Wonder Woman as well as the Justice League - originally little more than an ape she was artificially evolved by Gorilla Grodd into a human female (both in appearance and mannerism): she in turn became very devoted to him and also gained the ability to grow to gigantic heights at will.

This served to make Giganta a formidable opponent to any hero in the DC multiverse and although she began her career as somewhat of a savage complete with leopard-skin clothing she would evolve into a much more refined woman, albeit still a dangerous criminal, as the series and comics went on.

It is worth noting that their are many variations of Giganta depending on the era or writer and her origin varied greatly as do her powers depending on who writes her - though modern writers tend to stick with the size-shifting hyper-evolved ape (this is also the version that was made popular in the cartoon series Justice League).

Another popular version of Giganta was in Superfriends, where she was shown as the rival to Apache Chief, and was present as his superheroic debut. She had been an ordinary woman horseback riding when she saw the effect of the magic powder, and desired to use it to become famous. She stole the bag of powder from Apache Chief when he was busy. Although warned by Apache Chief's sachem to leave it alone as the effects multiply emotions, she ignored the warning. True to form, her selfishness was multiplied along with her size, and she became an evil giantess.

Features and general information

 * Height: 6'6" (198 cm)
 * Weight: 220 lbs (100 kg)
 * Eyes: Green
 * Hair: Red
 * Identity: Secret Identity
 * Occupation: Scientist, Professor
 * Citizenship: American
 * Place of Birth: United States
 * Marital Status: Single

Pre-Crisis
Originally, Giganta was an ape artificially evolved into a human woman by Professor Zool. She soon came into conflict with Wonder Woman and, upon being subdued, was imprisoned at Transformation Island. Rather than find rehabilitation, Giganta was rescued and recruited by Eviless, becoming a founding member of Villainy Inc.

Notably, the pre-crisis version of Giganta does not grow to gigantic proportions. She is very strong, perhaps to a slightly superhuman degree, and somewhat larger than normal, but has no other powers.

Post-Crisis
Giganta starts out as Doctor Doris Zuel, who worked at a medical facility where the comatose Wonder Woman was being kept. Dying of a terminal illness, Dr. Zuel plotted to transfer her mind into Wonder Woman 's body. This procedure was stopped halfway by Wonder Girl and both Dr. Zuel and Wonder Woman were declared dead. Neither of them were, however.

Dr. Zuel's assistant found out that her essence had been stored in the transference machine's buffer module. Wishing to save her, he put her in the body of one of the test animals, a gorilla named Giganta.

Dr. Zuel was not pleased with this, desiring a human body. She discovered another suitable host: a beautiful red-haired strong woman from a traveling circus named Olga, who was comatose. Absconding with Olga's prone form, Zuel did another transfer, successfully putting her mind in Olga's body and, presumably, Olga's mind into the gorilla. (That being said, the fate of Olga and the gorilla have never been revealed.)

Dr. Zuel discovered something amazing. She could now grow to a gigantic size, a power that Olga had possessed before Dr. Zuel stole her body. Using this ability, Dr. Zuel, now embracing the identity 'Giganta', joined Villainy Inc., but met with defeat at the hands of Wonder Woman. She would later on join Secret Society of Super Villains, a united team of super villains.

New 52
Giganta's Origin was changed in the New 52, this time Doria Zuel had a blood disease from when she was a child, because she could not participate in activities she was often mocked and bullied however this drove her to become a doctor to help people.

She apparently had a successful career but her time was running out and she made a cure for her own disease, fearing she was close to death she used the untested vaccine on herself and while it did indeed cure her illness and gave her the ability to grow to gigantic sizes, it also dropped her intellect and filled her with rage.

Character evolution
After Donna Troy assumed the identity of Wonder Woman, Giganta teamed up with the Cheetah and Dr. Psycho to search for the 'real' Wonder Woman, Diana. After holding Donna hostage, they eventually clash with Wonder Girl, Robin, Hercules and Diana, who was under the guise of Diana Prince, government agent. Giganta is ultimately defeated by Hercules in this conflict.

Giganta's next appearance featured her as an instructor at Ivy Town's University, but under the control of M'Nagalah, the Cancer God. Under his influence, she was assigned to seduce and capture the new Atom, Ryan Choi. She ended up swallowing him whole but he managed to escape by making her sick, thus causing her to cough him up.

Free of the M'Nagalah's control, Dr. Zuel remained in her position at the university. She has also since approached Ryan for a second chance, despite the unusual nature of their initial encounter.

The two do make a second date, but before it happens Ryan is asked by Wonder Woman, on behalf of the Department of Metahuman Affairs, to wear a wire on his date with Doris. During their date, Doris discusses her desire to reform. When Ryan is away, however, she learns that he was wearing a wire and angrily tears off the roof of the restaurant to see Ryan and Wonder Woman talking, unaware that he had removed his wire. Wonder Woman and Giganta fight, with Wonder Woman emerging victorious. Ryan intervenes, preventing Wonder Woman from beating her further. Wonder Woman admits she lost her temper, but both realize that Giganta had escaped. It is unknown whether or not Doris heard Ryan's pleading on her behalf.

Major Story Arcs
Giganta has appeared as one of the inmates on the prison planted in Salvation Run. As part of the group that follows the Joker, she has apparently formed a friendship with Leather. Giganta was seen as a Member of Libra's SSSV, and at the end of Final Crisis #3 she is shown as a Thrall of Darkseid alongside several other Super-Powered Women. She is then called Gigantrix, and wore a mask with a skull and cross bones design. Giganta was being controlled at this time by Stompa and this control was maintained by the mask, until Supergirl destroyed it which resulted in Giganta being released from Darkseid's control.

She was recently hired by Secret Six to aid them while their teammate Catman was away. She would join a Secret Six version who would battle the current version of the Secret Six. She returned stateside with the others and Amanda Waller had them all pardoned by the President. She tells them that the Suicide Squad is not seen in a positive light and that she needs 6 members to be called upon for secret missions. She invites Dwarfstar to her room. When he shuts the door she begins to beat him and torture him with his own molecular belt. She tells him that he killed her boyfriend Ryan. She duct-tapes his mouth shut before continuing. He begs for his life, in contrast to Ryan Choi who did not when facing overwhelming odds against Deathstroke's Titans. Dwarfstar is later shown to have survived Giganta but is last seen wearing a full body cast to be interrogated by Ray Palmer.

Forever Evil and Pandora
Giganta is first seen among holographs of numerous villains that had been attacked and interrogated by David Graves. Later appears to have joined the Secret Society and has been dispatched along with Signal Man and Vandal Savage to find Pandora, a fight erupts when they encounter Pandora who throws an exploding sword at Giganta, damaging her right eye. The eye would be replaced by a new one thanks to the Society.

She is then seen as one of the attackers sent by the Crime Syndicate to stop Lex Luthor's team in the "Forever Evil" storyline, she is quickly defeated by being sent flying out a building.

Later Giganta takes revenge on Pandora and attacks her, the fight is one sided as Giganta uses her massive size and strength to rip Pandora in two pieces however she lets Giganta know that she can't be killed, which seems to please Giganta. Pandora uses her powers to see the anger within Giganta as well as her past, Doris had a blood disease from a very young age which prevented her from joining in on activites and was bullied for it. She decided to become a doctor to help the world and even found a cure for her illness but tested it early which gave her the ability to grow in size but she also lost her intelligence. Pandora offers to help her as she too was judged over a mistake but Marcus, the lover of Pandora, fires a rocket at Giganta. Pandora jumps in front of it, Saving Doris, and is knock into another building, before Marcus can reload and fire again, Giganta escapes.

Giganta returns to help Pandora with Vandal Savage as she throws him into the ocean with her strength, seemingly now reformed and much less angry, she helps Pandora and S.H.A.D.E defeat a vampire threat.

Rotworld
While in Rotworld, Swamp Thing, see a dead Giganta being eaten by Rotlings. Then later while with the rest of the Red's Resistance, a Rot controlled Giganta attacks the Arkham Ayslum dome, it is unclear what happens to this version of Giganta, but most of what happened in Rotworld was undone when Animal Man and Swamp Thing returned to their own time.

Powers & Abilities
Giganta can grow from human size to hundreds of feet tall in a matter of seconds. Her strength and durability increase to superhuman levels as she increases in size, as well. Initially, Dr. Zuel lost her intellect as she grew in size, becoming more brutish and violent the bigger she grew. She has since transcended that limitation, retaining her full intellect at any size.

Giganta's powers appear to be mystical in nature; Giganta has been shown to be aligned with the forces of magic. The clothing she wears changes size when she does, and also increases her invulnerability during giant-size.


 * Powers Size Alteration: The ability to increase her size from roughly 6'6 to several hundred feet in seconds. This power appears magical in nature, as it violates the Square-Cube law.


 * Superhuman Strength: Above average in normal form, superhuman when gigantic.


 * Durability: Her durability is higher then an average woman but it is not superhuman (Until she begins growing).


 * Enhanced Intellect: Giganta is also a brilliant scientist who now retains her full intelligence at any size from normal to maximum.

Gallery

 * Wonder Woman vs Giganta by Art n Coffee.jpg images here.