Wonder Woman/Cheetah
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Diana Prince/Barbara Minerva |
| Alternative name(s): | Wonder Woman/Cheetah, WonderCheetah, Dianerva |
| Gender category: | Sapphic, F/F |
| Fandom: | DC Comics |
| Canonical?: | No |
| Prevalence: | Common |
| Archives: | https://dianerva.carrd.co |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Diana Prince/Barbara Minerva, also known as Dianerva, is a femslash pairing of Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) and Barbara Minerva (Cheetah) in the DC Universe fandom.
Canon
In Rebirth, Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva is Diana’s first friend and anchor to earth. Inspired by the discovery, she carried on with her expedition in which she got her research funding from Veronica Cale, who tricked her service along with twin brothers Phobos and Deimos, sons of Ares. She later became Urzkartaga’s bride against her will, the goddess Cheetah.
After Wonder Woman freed her from the curse, Minerva learned the truth about her master and went to mental breakdown knowing she was abused through both phsycally and manipulation. Not having enough time to rest, Veronica Cale threatened her friends’ lives, including ex-lover Etta Candy. As she didn't have other options, she accepted the offer and became Cheetah again. She didn’t want to turn into human anymore prior to mental health she would go through again. Diana still has hope for her best and try to restore the humanity in her whenever she has time.
Sexual Orientation
- Diana alias Wonder Woman: Pansexual. In Rebirth, she is canonically queer. She dated several women in Themyscira as stated in Year One, one of them being Kasia. She haven’t got her own girlfriend in world of men yet. Accordingly to writer Greg Rucka, her sexual orientation being pansexual is also true.
She is who she is. Saying she’s queer, saying she’s pan -- all true.
- Barbara Minerva alias Cheetah: Sapphic. It has been confirmed by DC Comics that she had mutual romantic feelings for Etta Candy in Rebirth and have showed attraction to her only as far we know. They’ve been together for a while, but because of the curse, both moved on from their past relationship. However, it’s still unknown to her label.
[...] But while Barbara reciprocated Etta’s feelings, their relationship was doomed by Dr. Minerva’s transformation into Wonder Woman’s arch-enemy, the Cheetah.
Fandom
Although the concept of a Wonder Woman/Cheetah pairing been floating around the fandom, it was during 2016 with Greg Rucka's run whose sparked much more interest towards them. The mainly reasons were Barbara Minerva's Cheetah being given her own unique motive and the suggestive cover by Liam Sharp.
Due to Cheetah having four different versions each other in DC Universe, Dr. Barbara Ann Minerva being defined as main archenemy and with such friendship with Wonder Woman, the pairing name Dianerva emerged after to be more specific and less aggressive. For example: Diana refuses to call her a Cheetah, the curse, rather than the name of a woman she once knew before.
Common Tropes in Fanworks
- Friends to Lovers: Their friendship developing into a romantic relationship.
- Hurt/Comfort: Who gets hurt and who does the comforting varies, with neither role being upon one character.
- Enemies to Lovers: The two characters who often have a long history of conflict with each other. They may be on opposite sides of a struggle, or may have just met under unfortunate circumstances and their personalities clashed.
- Polyamory: Most often involving Steve Trevor.