Medusa (DC Comics)

Medusa
Medusa in Nubia & the Amazons #5 (April 2022); art by Alitha Martinez
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Wonder Woman #153 (August 1964)
Created by	Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru
In-story information
Species	Gorgon
Partnerships	Euryale, Stheno
Notable aliases	Medousa
Abilities	Petrification Acidic venom Flight Expert combatant Divine empowerment Genesistic blood Transformative tears

Medusa (also sometimes Medousa) is a fictional character appearing in DC Comics publications and related media, commonly as a recurring 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. 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.^[1]

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.