Heroes originating in National Allied Publications, Detective Comics and All-American Publications

• All-Star Squadron
  • DC editorial refused to let Roy Thomas use Golden Age Quality Comics character Wildfire on the grounds this World War II era female would be confused with the far future male Legion of Super Heroes character of the same name^note using both World War II era male Manhunters, both Golden Age male Tarantuals was just fine, so he created a female version of Firebrand. Being an expy of Wildfire, she was much more powerful than her brother, and refused to stop fighting under his title for the sake of his ego(he never recovered from his war injuries, so it becomes a moot point)
  • Tsunami was created specifically to add more diversity to the World War II Japanese super villains, but towards the end of the war she became neutral over, among other things, the fascists Imperial Japan had allied itself with being worse than most of the Allied powers it fought. She then became a member of Aquaman's supporting cast, fighting for Atlantis when needed. She can turn what are usually marine forces into aerial ones and has Super-Strength besides.
• In Arak: Son of Thunder, Arak's most constant traveling companion is Valda, the Iron Maiden. Valda is the daughter of Bradmante, the legendary female knight, and became the only female knight in Charlemagne's court.
• Aquaman
  • Aquagirl
    • The first Silver Age Aquagirl, Lisa Morel, is capable of doing everything Aquaman is, if only when seeing someone in danger at sea, and only for a couple days before she needs to return to land.
    • Selena, the second Silver Age Aquagirl, competently serves as a substitute for Aqualad while he is recovering from injuries.
    • The third Silver Age Aquagirl, Tula, becomes more action oriented with each following iteration of the DCU, to the point she becomes an elite Drift warrior
    • The post Crisis Aquagirl, Lorena Marquez, fought crime in the sunken city of Sub Diego and violently turned away tresspassing divers.
  • While Aquaman's fish talking and Aqualad/Garth/Tempest's water temperature changing powers have never been the useless abilities they've been mercilessly parodied as weak over the decades. Mera's solid water that isn't ice powers have much more obvious martial application, thus she tends to get parodied as a showboat rather than as helpless. It has in fact bled into official material, as there are numerous stories of Aquaman or Garth obtaining Mera's powers or something roughly equivalent to become more capable in combat.
  • Silver Age DC simply portrayed Dolphin as a Water-Breathing Human who tried to interact with air breathing humans a few times, even learning to speak, but would invariably retreat back to the solitude of the ocean depths. Post Crisis, she was added to Aquman's cast, given a much fiercer personality, and made an active defender of Atlantis and its throne
  • Deep Blue, the daughter of Flash Comics super hero Neptune Perkins and All-Star Squadron enemy turned ally Tsunami, has the power to alter the size of sea creatures. This has natural synergy with Aquaman's fish talking, allowing for especially unexpected attacks.
  • The Others
    • Ya'Wara, a member of the Tapirape tribe tasked with defending the Amazon rain forest as payment for being saved from a plane crash in it. She can talk to jaguars the way Aquaman can talk to fish, teleport, and really doesn't like Aquaman butting in on her fights unless she actually needs the help.
    • Sayeh the Seer, an Iranian swords woman who makes up for her lack of training and combat instincts with precognition and the ability to read any language, including body language
    • Sky Alchesay, a vengeful survivor of Skinwalker's rampage through the reservations of Arizona. Which one she came from is unrevealed, but we see she can talk to the dead(sadly not dead fish), open portals to the Ghost Lands, and channel energy from them into offensive blasts.
• Batman developed a "Bat Family"" with many Action Girls in it
  • Kathy Kane, the first Batwoman, was disliked by editorial for her use of gadgets that were goofy even by Silver Age Batman standards. The fact remains they were not only shown to work, but she saved Batman's life several times and Batman respected her as a combatant, though criticized her detective work and lack of care protecting her secret identity. She was welcomed back on the streets once she improved in these areas, and reluctantly welcomed back into the books as fans demanded it, though editorial insisted on the writers coming up with gadgets that were less goofy.
  • Bette Kane, the first Batgirl, later taking on the alias Flamebird, was initially shown to be an over eager crime fighter who didn't know what she was getting herself into. Despite Kathy's protests, Kate continued to operate and gradually became competent enough to foil gang heists on her own. She suffered a lot of Badass Decay Post Crisis, though.
  • Barbara Gordon, the second Batgirl, was shot and paralyzed from the waist down while off duty. She then became Oracle, proving she could still fight armed and able bodied men in her wheelchair
  • Catwoman was one of Batman's oldest enemies, and not particularly known for her combat ability so much as Batman going easy on her, sometimes simply letting her go without a fight, because she wasn't particularly harmful. Over the decades she would become more heroic and more of a combatant, with Backported Development in All-Star Squadron showing her gunning down an assassin in the 1940s before Batman and Robin could catch him.
  • Huntress
    • The first Huntress appeared in Golden Age throwback stories as the vengeful daughter of the murdered Selina Kyle and retired Bruce Wayne. She was known for deploying edged weapons like crossbow bolts to ensure her targets would both fear her and bleed.
    • The Post Crisis Huntress was a Mafia Princess unrelated to Batman. Not actually interested in crime, criminals took an interest in her to get at her family, and she responded lethally.
  • Stephanie Brown as the Spoiler, the fourth Robin, 4th Batgirl, was competent detective but Incompletely Trained combatant who was "fired" by Batman. She later became an examination on how a truly realistic Bad Ass Normal could plausibly take down the crazy criminals of Gotham and prove her worth among the Charles Atlas Super Power possessing vigilantes claiming to be normal humans.
  • Marian Mercer, Pagan, was originally an enemy of Batman, but killing criminals he wanted to interrogate before he could catch them. She does eventually start trying to follow his less lethal example, however.
  • DEO Agent Chase has "protoplasm" powers that suppress the meta-human abilities of others while fueling her own psychokinesis, and she's got a pistol if that doesn't carry her through. Post Flashpoint she loses the protoplasm but gains a wider arsenal of much larger guns.
  • Cassandra Cain, third Batgirl, Black Bat and Orphan, a Tyke-Bomb assassin able to predict the movements of her targets simply by reading their body language. She's commonly shown capable of besting Batman himself in pure hand to hand combat, with even the greatest martial artists of DC only able to best her if they learned the "trick" to her abilities by studying her since infancy or are too overwhelmingly super human.
  • When creating Kate Kane, the second Batwoman introduced in 52, the writers were afraid that she would quickly become a Faux Action Girl, especially since, though important, she is not the hero of the story. The Real Life furor surrounding the fact that she was a gay character caught them completely by surprise (They expected a response, of course, but not nearly of the size they got) and they wanted to make sure she was more than a token-anything. As such, they wanted the few action scenes she was in to be explicitly cool, they did not want to just talk about how cool she was. To this end, when writing one fight scene they scripted it as simply "Batwoman is finishing off the last two Intergangers with a devastating move that will have people saying 'holy ***, she's cool!'" When looking at the finished product, Greg Rucka observes what she is doing and points out that the injury she is causing is something "the Batman himself would think twice about before inflicting." Even before becoming Batwoman, Kate was a highly skilled cadet and boxing champion at West Point.
  • Batman and the Outsiders
    • Halo was a corpse experimented on by the Aurakle, who had lived since the dawn of time without encountering a carbon based life form before. She was given seven different battle auras based on seven different colors they worked out her eyes could perceive, each granting her different abilities. There's also an Aurakle still inside her, giving her body it's second life, which also allows her to fly, has millions of years of combat experience to share with her, and can raise her corpse again, should she be slain again.
    • Katana once studied martial arts as a hobby. After her brother in law killed the last of her family, however, she stole his sword, Soultaker, got serious about combat training, and set out on the path of revenge, against her sibling, his Yakuza company, and crime in general. She also saved Batman from Baron Bedlam with Halo's help.
    • Windfall was a member of the Natural Disasters, perennial foes of the Outsiders, with Blow You Away powers. She once had Halo at her mercy, but wasn't interested in killing her and was disturbed that her teammates insisted on it, swearing allegiance to the Outsiders in protest.
    • Looker is a telepathic, telekinetic vampire from the subterranean city state of Abyssia. Her ultimate goal was to get a television show and retire in peace, but her very unvampiric conscience won't let her leave the Outsiders to their fate if she truly believes they're in trouble.
    • Grace Choi is half Bana-Mighdall amazon, and possesses an irregular amount of strength for an amazon, when super strength was supposed to be rare among Bana-Mighdall descendants. She used her gifts as a bouncer, supplementing her income with prize fighting until she realized there was money in the Outsiders and joined the team to further increase her income.
  • Force of July
    • Lady Liberty is gifted with psychokinesis that she can channel through a torch to fly and or unleash destructive blasts. She also uses a bullet proof tabula ansata as a shield.
    • Mayflower was rejected by the UK for her "useless" elemental control of plant life, emigrating to the United States to prove otherwise, successfully using her abilities to defeat Katana.
  • Pre Flashpoint Harley Quinn is subjected to an experimental procedure of Poison Ivy's that increases Harley's physicality and makes Quinn immune to toxins. Harley still gets trounced by the Batman family until Detective Comics #831 when Harley is kidnapped by the second Ventriloquist, actively assists Batman in her own rescue, and then willingly surrenders herself to Arkham Asylum, completing a Heel–Face Turn that sees her released on good behavior and become an asset, if an annoyance, to the Batman family. Post Flashpoint, Harley Quinn lacks super human abilities and has to be actively saved more often, but she's still able to defeat, subdue and "kill" the Joker.
  • Gotham Central: A general requirement for female cops in Gotham, which the series has a 50/50 split with male officers. Not all live up to the billing on panel but...
    • Detective Romy Chandler is probably given the first real action moment in the second arc. Having discovered the secret identity of Firebug and trapping him within the police station, Firebug activates a hidden flamethrower to burn his way out; however, instead of burning Marcus Driver to a toasty crisp, he is instead instantly buried in foam. The next panel shows Romy standing there, holding a fire extinguisher and glaring at him.
    • It's Captain Maggie Sawyer who finally stops the Joker's rampage through the MCU squadroom.
    • Renee Montoya gets the next reveal of her action potential. Apart from "minor" incidents throughout the series (Like beating the crap out of a rapist when he starts following her with a video camera) she gets to beat up a few "freaks" (supervillains) singlehandedly, starting with Two-Face. He has ruined her life (Framed her for murder, outed her to friends and family, kidnapped her, etc.) and is now holding her prisoner, but she knocks him down and goes right after his gun, and she does not stop until the Batman himself shows up. She resolves one arc by engaging in a bare-knuckle boxing match in a bar back alley.
    • Montoya built up enough of a reputation that she became the new Question when Vic Sage died.
  • Batman Incorporated
    • New 52 still has a male Knight, Squire and Legionary, but they're quickly killed off after being introduced in the new iteration of the DCU, replaced by female successors more vigilant about their new, more murderous enemies, and quite eager to bring the new criminals to justice.
    • Spidra is a genetically engineered agent of Leviathan with four arms. Upon learning there's a Batman Inc. fighting the organization, she and her boyfriend Traktir are rather quick to switch sides and use their super human abilities against their would be masters.
    • Detective Cayha, an officer who helped Batman catch wannabe Batman Inc. member Abyss, who tried to publicly execute Lex Luthor in Batman's name. She did this to use Abyss's equipment to execute men who wronged her, but Batman convinced both male and female Abyss to turn criminals in alive.
  • Harper Row, the victim of an abusive single father who became an prodigious electrical engineer as she fixed the things he broke. Living in The City Narrows, she quickly learned how to fight, then used her talents for creating electronic gadgets when her brother became the target of gangs. The two siblings became Batman fans when saved by him during one of their scuffles, Row developing her own secret identity as Blue Bird once Batman told her to stop trying to "repay the favor".
  • Spyral
    • Katarina Netz, Agent Zero, an artificially created operative designed to be Spyral's England spymaster while also being a capable enough field operative to successfully impersonate Kathy Kane, even acting as Batwoman with no one catching on. No one who lived anyway, as Netz was more willing to employ lethal tactics than Kane.
    • Munira Khairuddin, Obscura, a Malaysian spy smasher, counter-terrorist and exchange student who just so happened to be taking classes with Barbara Gordon. Khairuddin's employers sent her back to Gotham City as needed to avert its destruction.
    • Destiny Alston, Captain Blüd, agent Siren, was left homeless in Bludhaven due to Spyral's attempts to assassinate her mother. At age 13 she raided the Ascendek company alone for trying to build a warehouse on her camp, stole one of their yachts and joined pirates. She rose up the be their leader only to reject the position in favor of joining Spyral, where she could find and take revenge on her mother's would be killer. "Ric Grayson" flat out admits she's better than him in many respects, including as a fighter. He had lost his memory, and much of his fighting skills at the time, was still a successful bare knuckle boxer.
  • After Nightwing is shot in the head and assumed to be gone, three police officers and a firefighter decide become four Nightwings to keep patrolling Bludhaven in his absence. The all use more lethal weaponry than Dick Grayson had, with female "Nightwing Gold", Colleen Edwards, using a handgun.
• Black Canary
  • The Golden Age Black Canary was a thief who constantly had to be saved from worse crooks by Johnny Thunder. She gradually picked up martial arts skills, to no longer have to rely on the buffoon, however, and developed super wrist gadgets with a variety of effects.
  • The Post Crisis Black Canary, despite having a powerful Super-Scream her mother lacked, and thorough martial arts training from the start, fluctuates between Action Girl and Faux Action Girl, depending on the writer. Chuck Dixon and Gail Simone, in Birds of Prey, were frustrated at the fact that she always seemed to end up as a victim/hostage, and devoted much of the comic to re-establishing Canary's Badass credibility. Sadly, the Green Arrow/Black Canary title utterly evaporated all that martial arts street cred. She regained it for a two-issue guest appearance in Wonder Woman (2006) written by Gail Simone, where she defeated multiple trained combatants in rapid succession, including one with super powers before being walled by the Hawaiian goddess Pele, who Wonder Woman couldn't beat either.
• Black Lightning
  • Lightning has Shock and Awe abilities similar to her father and has followed in his crime fighting footsteps, despite his protests
  • Thunder has density control powers that allow her to hit things really hard(hence "thunder"). She has also followed in her father's crime fighting footsteps, to his chagrin
• Black Orchid
  • Susan Linden was a black jack dealer at a casino killed for reporting a crime, but resurrected as a plant human hybrid for her good deed. Primarily a Master of Disguise who gathers evidence for the authorities, she could fight if needed, and her second life came with force fields, super strength, super reflexes and flight, meaning killing her again was going to be much harder without fire, or herbicides.
  • The only super human ability Flora Black shared with the original Black Orchid was flying, but she had the new power of mind controlling pheromones she used to kill the original's killers when they came after her for simply being associated.
  • Alba Garcia, the New 52 Black Orchid, is an A.R.G.U.S. agent assigned by Steve Trevor with the task of baby sitting John Constantine when comes to the Americas. When Felix Faust takes over a Mayan temple, becomes immune to all other magic within it and has John pinned down, Alba disguises herself as John before bum rushing and beating Felix down. She has connection to both the Red and the Green, allowing her the powers of both Animal Man and Swamp Thing, along with some spell casting of her own.
• Birds of Prey
  • Dina Bell, a US Martial, thorn in the side of Black Canary, tasked with the rounding up of super powered fugitives, has survived missions involving forcible extraction to alien worlds and assault by New Gods.
  • Black Alice randomly, involuntarily "borrows" the magic of other creaturs in her vicinity, usually with far less control than its original owners. This often makes her an enemy of the team, and sometimes back fires, such as when she "takes" the powers of a rogue Spectre but in actuality "takes" his ability to be harmed, but she wants to do good, and over time does managed to help more than hinder, such as when she contained much of a prison outbreak caused by Alexander Luthor, or rescued Misfit from Darkseid, briefly putting aside the fact Misfit "stole" her place on the team.
  • Misfit, who has the ability to mask herself from electronic surveillance, decided to stop hiding from the Birds of Prey and began dressing up as Batgirl to make sure she had Oracle's attention. She proceeded to clean the clocks of the team as they tracked her down for interrogation, showing off her teleportation and super human strength, but stopped playing her "game" when it attracted the unwanted attention of a vengeful gangster the team put in jail. Misfit was shot taking down the assailant, which let her show off her Healing Factor. She continued to turn what the Birds considered serious assignments into play dates until Oracle took her in after learning Misfit was homeless.
• Checkmate
  • Bruce Wayne's bodyguard Sasha Bordeaux was supposedly killed in prison after the second time he was framed for murder. She turned up alive and well, albeit with Magic Plastic Surgery that gave her black hair and brown skin, and an OMAC infection that gave her Stat-O-Vision and Super-Strength. She was already quite formidable when she was just a bodyguard, and while she doesn't like her new killer cyborg abilities, she doesn't have much choice about them making her an even more effective a fighter.
  • Jessica Midnight has powerful magical abilities but usually doesn't need them, getting by with plain old martial arts, and guns.
  • Josephine Tautin is a One-Man Army in part because of her willingness to employ neurotoxins on the field, but even without those she was already a national hero in France before joining Checkmate.
  • Ice Suwannarat, an agent of the Thailand branch of Checkmate before it was destroyed by Leviathan. She survived, even completing a rescue mission after being shot through the arm by a sniper. She also had a rivalry with Spyral agent Siren, often resulting in fights Suwannarat didn't always lose.
• Creature Commandos
  • In addition to commando training and plenty of conventional warfare experience, Doctor Medusa has venomous snakes for hair to aid in close quarters combat
  • The New 52 team has the addition of amphibian Nina Mazursky. On land she has no combat training or experience whatsoever, her most athletic endeavor being yoga. Underwater, however, she's competent.
• Crisis on Infinite Earths
  • Harbinger's function is to observe, categorize and organize the multiverse, not fight, but the "Crisis" event proved she can break that which obstructs her duties if she cannot pass through or go around, including the combined restraints of the Shattered World reassembling Green Lanterns John Stewart and Katma Tui. The Lanterns took the hint; the Manhunter androids wound up scrapped. She got weakened during Millennium, however, then got killed off by Darkseid.
  • Lady Quark became better known for suffering The Worf Effect than for being a mighty soldier, but don't let that distract you from the fact she was a warrior queen whose duty was to keep an entire planet safe, getting her own nuclear powered hands dirty to do it, that the first thing she lost to was the Anti-Monitor, that she's also survived every loss, one way or another, that she's always up for a rematch.
  • Doctor Light was an astronomer who cared more about her studies than her personal safety, even as the world was literally on the verge of ending. Needing more champions to stand against the Anti-Monitor, the Monitor rewarded her brazenness with the power to absorb the greatest source of positive matter as she knew it, the very stars she gazed at, and generate weaponized photons as far as she could see. She also suffers the worf effect a lot, but she was able to knock down the Anti-Moniter, where Lady Quark failed, after claiming a star he sought to drain, even if he did get back up.
• Dial H for Hero
  • Vicki Grant was an Academic Athlete who initially used her Hero Dial to prevent traffic accidents, but quickly learned to fight when The Master began sending super villains after her and Chris King with less altruistic designs for their dials.
  • Roxie Hodder was an elderly hippie mystic who was trying to discover the origins of the H-Dial, eventually finding one of her own, and using it as she felt necessary. She eventually created her own hero identity independent of the dial, Manteau.
  • Summer Pickens mostly provides transportation for Miguel Montez, getting him where he and the H-Dial are needed, but she has used it herself on occasion.
• Doctor Occult's sidekick Rose Psychic is the oldest female super hero in DC's library, to the point she predates Detective Comics itself by two years. While she wasn't his only sidekick and didn't always appear in his comics, she was fighting off vampires with a gun by her second appearance, and was later revealed to have her own magical abilities and work her own cases, though she didn't have a mystic symbol like Doctor Occult himself. DC has since seesawed between diminishing Rose's role even further or trying to retroactively make her more important than she originally was.
• The Flash
  • Kapitalist Kouriers, three Soviets with super speed who defected to the United States in search of money. Despite their greedy motivations, they were inspired by the good deeds of the Flash to make their money as crime fighters for hire, and Bebeck is no less competent that her male partners Cassiopeia and Anatole
  • Ivana Christina Borodin Molotova, from the Blue Trinity of Soviets who remained loyal while the Red Trinity went Kapitalist. She was faster than Bebeck, became Lady Flash, ally of Wally West, after being mistreated by Vandal Savage, and helped Wally defend the world when Circe took over the Greek and Roman pantheons during War of the Gods...before being jailed by Amanda Waller for being a super villain and dying.
  • Avery Ho, a member of the White China Triad who used her connection to the Speed Force to defend their turf from Lex Luthor. She was then recruited by the Ministry of Self-Reliance to be the Flash of China.
  • The Boom, a time traveler whose mission in life is assisting the original Flash Jay Garrick. Unlike most of Jay's successors, her time travel doesn't result in Crises.
• Green Lantern
  • The Golden Age Harlequin was on the surface a villain who hindered Green Lantern's quest to shed his light on all evil. In actuality she was a Double Agent who had to make it look like she was trying to delay Green Lantern and showed a lot more competence when helping him.
  • Alan Scott's daughter, Jade, was born with power to channel the Green Flame of Life without using Scott's ring, and immediately set out to join the Justice Society as soon as she figured it out. Kicked out of their headquarters for interrupting a meeting, she and a bunch of similar offenders then founded Infinity, Inc. to fight crime without having to worry about the established team's schedule or approval.
  • The Green Lantern Corps use Oan technology to more or less copy the powers of Alan Scott's ring...or emotional will power magic. Regardless, they are a massive Space Police force with a ring bearer of virtually every possible body plan, including several women
    • Katma Tui, a rebel against Sinestro's tyranny who was given the thankless task of restoring Green Lantern's reputation in his sector after Sinestro was finally defeated. She was also tasked with training John Stewart, after Hal Jordan quit.
    • K'ryssma, an Insectoid Alien with a near super natural level of will power that propelled her straight into the Green Lantern honor guard, guarding the Guardians of the Unvierse themselves
    • Arisia Rrab, a more controversial member of the corps both because her family has basically turned lantern of the sector into a hereditary position and because she was chosen by the ring at what is considered far too young for most police forces. Despite her youth, no one from her sector has managed to prove more qualified.
    • Hollika Rahn, who dedicated her life to using a Green Lantern Ring she found to fight both sides of a planetary civil war, trying to end it. She gets killed when lantern rings lose their power "permanently" and she has to adapt to a Darkstar exomantel, but as a Green Lantern she was an action girl.
    • Brik is a cave Dryad more humanoid than the planet's surface, but still basically a rock who is tougher and stronger than most even without the Green Lantern Ring
    • Boodikka, Blood Knight of a Proud Warrior Race, upgraded with a cybernetic body that was fused with her power battery, and assigned the task of keeping other Green Lanterns in line, her sector being taken over by her pirate hunting sister Zale.
    • Aa, another rock alien of the pumice people, recruited by Brik and tasked with proving her worth against Kworri of the obsidian aliens. She proceeds to make it through battles with criminals known for beating Green Lanterns like Flicker and Star Sapphire, beat out Kworri for her willingness to be wounded to save others, survive the destruction of the corps itself when Parallax takes control of Hal Jordan, and then survive the massacre of the Darkstars, which she joined before the corps were reformed.
    • Alia, energy being, last survivor of her home planet, subdued the star destroying Justice League villain Unimaginable with her inherent abilities after her ring failed, getting locked in the shape of a red head or blonde woman as a consequence. Insisted she was still a Green Lantern in spite of her now useless ring, unafraid of death and eager to throw down when physically able to. Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps Secret Files turned her into a coward that hides inside of her ring, for some reason.
    • Laira Omoto, an alien of sector 112 practicing an alien martial art from the earliest possible age that involves never looking directly at her opponent. It translates into long range surprise attacks from every angle once she gets a lantern ring. It doesn't work so well with the vomit inducing red lantern ring, however, and she winds up dead.
    • Sheriff Mardin, a middle aged house wife who became an officer after her husband's murder in the line of duty. She rarely needs to use the ring, and was mainly given it because Hal Jordan liked her, and as a form of appeasement since she didn't think the Green Lanterns did enough to help her sector.
    • Kho Kharhi, a Khund friend of Wonder Woman's, whose inhuman musculature made her freakishly strong even before getting a Green Lantern ring. She has little grasp of concepts like "good" and "evil" but understands duty and loyalty, which is enough to keep her in line.
    • Matris Ater Clementia, a plant alien better known as "Mother Mercy". She created the black mercy plants for medicinal purposes before Mongul turned them into weapons to use against Superman. Finally getting a weapon of her on in an Oan ring, she struck back against him.
    • Gorius Karkum, an escaped Breeding Slave with a penchant for impaling slave masters and getting reprimands from the Guardians for it, though never enough to be booted off the corps
    • Jessica Cruz became a shut in after witnessing a murder and then more murders right afterwards when she and her friends were targeted for being witnesses. Since the Oan rings are sent out to seek those who who display the ability to overcome fear, and she has to overcome great fear every time she goes outside, well, she was first brainwashed by an evil power ring used by the Crime Syndicate. Not the most welcome gift she ever got, but she packed more of a punch than the average power ring wearer, so when she was able to overcome it's control she was then given a standard power ring and tasked with punching those like the Crime Syndicate.
    • Feska, an atoning thief whose Abnormal Limb Rotation Range, by humanoid standards, allows her to catch foes off guard.
    • Trilla-Tru, appointed as an interrim Green Lantern when the corps put its collective foot down after a ring deemed another child "worthy", until said child came of age. Tru is notable for manifesting entire armies worth of contructs by herself
    • Sojourner Mullein was chosen to be a detective rather than a patrolling officer, but she was also assigned to a "sector" far outside of her native solar system. When she does fight, she's usually harsh and persistent because she often cannot call for backup.
  • Onu Murtu, alias Dorine Clay, originally just a scientist Immune to Mind Control methods used by the Headmen, seeking protection from Green Lantern Hal Jordan from them. She gradually learned how to fight for herself, in particular becoming quick to master almost every conventional weapon she got her hands on, even if power rings remained beyond her.
  • Teen Lantern is not a member of the Green Lantern Corps but was able to reprogram an Oan lantern to empower her gauntlet rather than standard issue rings, and doesn't care about the fact she lacks approval from the self appointed Guardians of The Universe to use it. The use she found is defending her home and assisting the Young Justice team, so making her stop is a low priority, though the fact the "Teen Lantern" is an eleven year old remains controversial.
• Green Arrow
  • Onyx was raised by the Ashram Monastery order that Oliver Queen was, and as a consequence, has directly assisted him and Black Canary on several missions. She was even allowed to operate in Gotham City with Batman's approval and without his supervision.
  • Shado was bow shooting assassin who had raped Oliver Queen while he was down with a fever. She became The Atoner after giving birth to their son, however. No longer as murderous, trying to help Green Arrow where she could, but never soft when it comes to her foes.
• Global Guardians
  • Even though the team was put together to reduce the amount of times America Saves the Day, they weren't about to say no to Owlwoman, a Cherokee tracker with Super-Senses, flight and retractile claws capable of rending most of her quarries.
  • Little Mermaid, the Denmark member, is a mutant from Atlantis who can only breathe dry air but will drown underwater after thirty hours. She can also fly, so long as she's above a body of water, and is stronger than most other Atlanteans, much less surface humans.
  • Ice Maiden was created by Norway to show how committed they were to not being saved by USA again, after they failed to find the legendary ice magic wielding Romani tribe policy makers had put their hopes in. Mainly, she controls small amounts of water outside of her body and draws heat from the environment under stress, usually creating durable "ice armor" that isn't fun to brush up against.
  • Ice, the ice magic user Ice Maiden was substituting for. She was originally in hiding, but agreed to join the team to give Maiden a break, and developed into quite the fighter as her "magic" is even less bound by the laws of physics.
  • Green Fury, later Fire, already an accomplished Brazilian secret agent, she was assigned to the Global Guardians after gaining rather conspicuous fire powers during a mission
  • Fleur-de-lis, another secret agent. Has yet to develop super powers but was the best thing France had when the team was being put together
  • Godiva joined the team as Great Britain's representative during Crisis On Infinite Earths. She has "tactile telekinesis", but only in her Prehensile Hair. While her arms, legs and back are only as strong as you'd expect for a woman of her size, her hair can lift giant robots threatening to smash civilians.
  • Cascade, the Indonesian member, attracted attention for her activism putting her between violent parties, and for abilities to convert every molecule in her body to water and back while telekinetically controlling large bodies of water to swamp belligerents.
• New Guardians
  • Jet, the Jamaican representative, can control the entire electromagnetic spectrum, crushing most foes with ferromagnetism alone.
  • Betty Clawman, the Australian rep, can manipulate the dreams of everything on the planet capable of dreaming, and befuddle the awake with illusions
  • Gloss, the Chinese rep, can draw power from ley lines, making herself as strong and tough as the Earth itself, as well as remotely move rocks and cause quakes, and heal her teammates, and fly.
• Great Ten
  • Ghost Fox Killer can kill all but the toughest of opponents with a single touch, and she carries a gun for those who take more effort.
  • Mother of Champions doesn't need to eat, breath, drink or even sleep, and is immune to most toxins, including all known forms of radiation poisoning, making her the ideal super soldier. Unfortunately she doesn't live up to her name, as her kids never live longer than a week, and there is one poison she's susceptible to. On the other hand, she's become desensitized to using her short lived children as Weaponized Offspring. Her exploitation is one of the main reasons the Great Ten are strongly disliked by other Chinese super teams, but she helps the Ten win all the same.
• Hawkman's wife and sidekick Hawkgirl was the first female super hero published by DC Comics proper to actually be taken seriously as a super hero, having all the same tools and skills as her husband. She did not get to star in own comics for quite some time, however, unlike Red Tornado before her, nor did she headline a series or have a solo series the way Wonder Woman would after her.
• In Hunter's Hellcats, Heller—the sole female in the squad—is at least as dangerous as any of the male Hellcats.
• Justice Society
  • Justice Society of America
    • Jill Carlyle, the third Crimson Avenger, is cursed with an immortal body that is constantly in pain from a never fully healing wound, and two guns that drive her to seek out those who have spilled innocent blood and end them. She's been stopped by the likes of Superman and Captain Atom, but is fully capable of wounding them, as her bullets don't care about physical durability, and she has to "restrain" her guns from doing too much damage to non guilty parties who get in the way of her targets.
    • Ri is a member of the Zhuguan who defend those the Chinese government turn a blind eye to, and lend assistance to overseas groups like the Society as a sign of good will despite them all being victims of foreign efforts to addict China's populace to opium. She has no super human abilities beyond Healing Hands, but was one of Bruce Wayne's trainers in the Post Crisis Pre Flashpoint continuity, so she's not one to take lightly.
  • Infinity, Inc.
    • Yolanda Maria Dorothea Lucia Montez, a Mexican goddaughter of the original Wildcat, has actual feline attributes and abilities due to one of the champ's insane rivals, Doctor Love, experimenting on those close to him. She joins Infinity Inc. to avenge Wildcat when he is injured during Crisis On Infinite Earths.
    • Doctor Midnight, or if you prefer, Doctor Mid-Nite III, can see the entire electromagnetic spectrum, and much like Mid-Nite, combines these with "black out bombs" to gain an advantage in combat. She initially rejects the team, putting her medical patients' needs above theirs, but when the world turns out to be in crisis, she reconsiders.
  • JSA All-Stars
    • Anna Fortune is a Steampunk spell caster who is hundreds of years old, but basically still in her twenties, giving her more experience than anyone else on the team while still being in her physical prime. She's very much a "punk" in that she remembers, resisted and survived all the horrible things that were recorded in that stretch of history, and a few more that were not.
    • Rex Tyler's artificial intelligence, Roxy, decided to directly assists the All-Stars by taking control of the cyborg villain Lorna Pemberton, much to Tyler's chagrin. While Roxy lacked Lorna's combat skills and the weaponry Lorna carried around, the cyborg's strength, force fields, and Roxy's belief that Lorna's body was expendable, proved key in ensuring the All-Stars stopped the non linear being Prince.
• Justice League
  • Justice League of America
    • Cynthia Reynolds, Gypsy, a Chicago acrobat trained in martial arts by Bronze Tiger. Also, a precognitive Master of Illusion, if more than conventional tactics are needed
    • 4-D, Lea Corbin of the Ultramarine Corps, was one of four US Marines converted into Justice League killing weapons by a rogue US Airforce general. She can reduce herself to two dimensions, to make herself virtually untouchable, or take on four dimensions to gain unlimited three dimensional strength. The Ultramarines turned on the general, founded a new city state, and policed Earth and multiverse independent of the League and USA. They did keep things safe until they became C-List Fodder during crisis crossovers.
    • The second Janissary is strangely not a sterilized male soldier, but a female Turkish doctor who wields the Scimitar of Suleiman and one of Merlin's spell books, assisting the League when she can spare the time.
    • Through a mastery alchemy that has become innate, Laura Klein, Moon Maiden, can freely manipulate the gravitational fields of celestial bodies like Earth, be it for flight, bringing the tide in early or crushing her foes.
    • Faith is a member of the "Contingency League" to be called into service if the main League ever falls. She can rapidly gather the other members through a combination of telepathy, telekinesis and teleportation, and isn't afraid to use any of these abilities in a fight.
  • Justice League Europe
    • Vivian and Constance D'Aramis, twin French daughters of a scientist who was poisoned by her boss. Their mother died but the twins developed super human abilities, including super human strength, speed and pheromone manipulation, taking turns acting as the vigilante Crimson Fox as they sought revenge.
    • Chandi Gupta, Maya, an attempt by the Overmaster to bring an avatar of Shiva completely under his control onto the world and destroy the Earth. He got a girl who manipulated the classical elements in ways that defied the rules of the setting, could boost her physical attributes at will, was not a second Shiva, nor an avatar of the god, and resisted Overmaster's attempts to user her as material for a second attempt. She fled from India to the UK, saved the Europe League from Sonar, then helped the team liberate southern Asia from Overmaster.
  • Justice League Elite
    • Manitou Dawn, a time traveling, knife fighting Sizeshifter from a 1000 BCE tribe that would become the Apache. She's capable of handling both Green Arrow and Black Canary in combat even without her powers or weapons(provided they're also not using theirs). She then gained the abilities of her husband, Manitou Raven, upon him being killed by a bomb, which includes seeing into the future without having to travel to it.
    • Vera Black, Sister Superior, gave herself two cybernetic arms in an attempt to destroy Superman after her brother, Manchester, killed himself trying. Her arms can shoot bullets and lasers, have retractable knives and claws, can produce illusory holograms, have speakers for acoustic deception, can even alter how other people feel the texture of objects and punch through brick walls. None of this was enough to beat Superman, but she was able to help him save the world from Protogenoi, Gaea, and then decided to lead her own Justice League to do what Superman's would not, since she was now dedicated to continuing helping him but he and Batman didn't approve of her more wet works modus operandi.
    • Sonja, the second Menagerie, joins the team with the hope of smearing Vera in revenge for what Vera's brother Manchester did to the first Menagerie, Sonja's sister. While this leads to much internal strife for both Justice League Elite and the primary League, Menagerie's efforts are still being directed at criminals and monsters. She's just far more lethal than even Vera as she seeks to stain Vera's reputation, and can kill people in disgusting ways thanks to symbiosis with alien parasitoid predators.
  • Justice League 3000
    • Alicia Silveria has all the super human abilities of Wonder Woman except for unaided flight, and is eager to throwdown with them.
    • Teri Magnus has all the perks that come with the Speed Force, though she has an increased risk of death by burning herself out. It doesn't stop her from fighting.
• Freedom Brigade
  • Pre Crisis On Infinite Earths, Princess Power is simply the Earth 12 Wonder Woman. Post Crisis, she's heir to the throne of a lost, subterranean tribe of Amazons who gives up the throne to protect the surface world from Silver Sorceress.
  • Dumb Bunny(Pre Flashpoint)/Tough Bunny(New 52), a proto Fury, is as strong as an ox and almost as intelligent as one. She lifts heavy objects and hits things really hard whenever either the Inferior Five(proto Infinity Inc.) or Angel O'Day's detective agency need the extra muscle.
  • Angel O'Day didn't inherit any of Princess Power's super strength like Bunny, but Angel's mentally competent enough to operate fire arms and a skilled enough martial artist to fight gorillas barehanded and win, as much as she doesn't enjoy being forced into such circumstances
• Legion of Super-Heroes has had a massive female cast since it officially spun off from Superboy/Superman, having gradually built up the numbers in Action Comics. Nearly the entire group are super powered aliens akin to Superman, with flexible space suits and flight rings. The females of the Legion have always been able to handle themselves in a fight. In the early Silver Age days when the Invisible Girl was little more than a hostage, and Wonder Woman was losing her powers, female Legionnaires were regularly sending villains to the hospital.
  • Pre-Zero Hour
    • Saturn Girl, even before Legion of Super Heroes split off, was just as good at making Superboy look redundant as Lighting Lad and Cosmic Boy were. Telepathy is common on the moon of Titan, which she hails from, and she's one of the best users of it.
    • Phantom Girl's alien ability is phasing, which allows her disable an unprepared space craft by herself with nothing but a Legion space suit and flight ring
    • Duo Damsel's people have three lives, and the ability to "split" into all three of them at once and recombine at will. She lost one of her lives in battle, living up to her name for awhile, but kept serving with the Legion anyway, eventually gaining the ability to create an indefinite number of duplicates, to the point some just call her "Duplicate Girl"
    • Princess Projectra hails from a backwards planet where basic elements of modern medicine like sedatives, somnifacients and anesthetics don't work. In short, she's very hard to poison or render unconscious. Instead, they project illusions on one another that affect five of the basic senses, which translates to battle just as well as it does the operating table. After undergoing the trials of ascending to the throne, ruling the planet, and fending off alien invasion, she gained the ability to "see beyond the illusions of life", meaning concepts like time and distance are basically irrelevant to her senses and not even the more advanced senses of most sapient creatures can be used to discern her illusions from reality anymore. She also married Karate Kid and learned to fight like him. She tends to get written out of the comic books.
    • Shrinking Violet's people...can shrink. Combined with a flight ring and space suit, she gets into all sorts of places to mess with all sorts of small but important things... or just suddenly grows to launch a conventional but unsuspected attack.
    • Lightning Lass was once kidnapped by her brother, Lightning Lord, then proceeded to break out of her prison and pick off every member of the Legion of Super Villains until she found her brother and defeated him in combat. Like her two brothers, she has electrical abilities powerful enough to get a small space craft up and running.
    • White Witch/Black Witch is one of the few people of Naltor who can't see the future in her dreams. She made up for her Fictional Disability by training in the mystic arts to compensate. At their most basic her spells affect air, water, fire, earth and light, which basically means she can ruin the day of about anyone not in a space suit and many that are. Given enough time, she can prepare a magic spell that can do just about anything, including increase the powers of her non disabled sister Dream Girl. Black Witch tends to get written out of the comic books for being too powerful.
    • Shadow Lass comes from a world where creatures can "see" without light. She can create "dark fields" of a hundred square feet a hundred times darker than a moonless night where no light can penetrate, and turn the darkness solid too...Legionaries aren't allowed to kill but she can really hurt people in all sorts of manners with her solid shadows. She can also reinforce her body with metaphysical darkness to become stronger and tougher, though actively suppressing sources of light can hurt her, if said light source is strong enough.
    • Despite having no combat experience, the shape shifter Chameleon Girl was able to impersonate Shrinking Violet for months after studying her for only a short while. While her deception was discovered, it was due to the fact she was far more romantic than Violet, not because she did Violet's job worse.
    • Kono, an alcoholic dealer of non addictive drugs, unlike hers of choice, nicknamed after her favorite drink, was gifted with the ability to alter the density of any given object by exchanging it with another. For instance, she make herself, and her clothing intangible while rendering something or someone else harder and less mobile. She used this gift to defy the Khunds who conquered her world before fleeing, and ending up among the ranks of the Legion.
    • Laurel Gand, Andromeda, a seven foot tall Daxamite whose parents were both part of a planetary defense force. She had been fending off alien invasions since she was a little girl, before she developed her alien abilities, which is why she got sent to Earth, where it's sunlight would develop those abilities, as she made enemies of at least one powerful interstellar empire. Gaining all the same super powers as Superboy wasn't didn't stop the Khund Empire's forces from killing her in the end, but she served in the Legion with distinction for several years, and died in battle.
    • Celeste McCauley, proprietor of the Rockfish Detective Agency, has the ability to create the constructs of a Green Lantern without a ring, similar to Jade, only more Oan plasma in nature rather than Starheart's green flame of life. She uses these in service of the Legion as Neon, and proves to be just as adept at physically subduing criminals as she is at determining their identities, motives and whereabouts.
    • Harmonia, an immortal air elemental, for when something needs to blown down, and Superboy, Black Witch and Andromeda aren't available.
  • Legion of Substitute Heroes
    • Night Girl has super strength, stamina and toughness equal to that of Superboy, but is weakened by ultraviolet light, which lowers her physicality to that of human women her size. This isn't a problem on her own planet, which produces enough geothermal heat in areas to support life without orbiting a star, and is in perpetual darkness, where people depend on artificial, non ultraviolet light for navigation, but is a problem virtually anywhere with starlight. She begins using "darkness bombs" to create smoky areas where she temporarily is at full strength and most of her opponents are temporarily lost in the dark while she wails on them.
    • Rainbow Girl has a different power for every emotion she is capable of feeling, signaling her mood by her color like an octopus. Unfortunately she's an uncontrollable mood swinger whose only real constant is a desire to fight crime. Depending on the luck of the draw she can be very effective in combat, or an active hindrance to the team.
    • Dream Girl's passive ability to see future events in her dreams didn't translate well to combat, and she doesn't regularly carry weapons, but she does frequently train with Karate Kid, so that she usually doesn't need them. She demotes herself to the Substitute Legion, as the main team were happy to keep her. She eventually hones her prophecy abilities to be able to see seconds into the future even while awake, becoming more dangerous in the process.
    • Infectious Lass comes from a world where each person has thousands of micro organism species colonizing their bodies, aggressively protecting them from all other macrofauna. She's a nightmare to fight against, but also a public relations nightmare, as her various colonies will infect anyone perceived as a threat to her, which often includes hapless bystanders.
  • Heroes of Lallor
    • Gas Girl can phase shift her entire body into any elemental or molecular gas. Extremely resistant to physical damage, she's been known to get around protective measures like goggles and gas masks rather easily.
    • Life Lass can give life to any solid object that lacks it and make it fight for her. She can do it multiple times in a row, quickly raising a small army.
  • The Wanderers
    • Quantum Queen's alien ability is shifting her body into any form of "quantum energy". What that means was never fully explained, but it mainly amounted to her becoming a glowing energy being who was both virtually immune to physical damage and could hit things really hard. She's later upgraded by a rogue Controller to also be able to shift to and discharge any form of energy on the electromagnetic spectrum, fly through the vacuum of space at faster than light speeds, destroy celestial bodies by "going nova", create duplicates of herself, and alter her size, basically making her an even more powerful version of Marvel Comics' Monica Rambeau. An upgraded Superman Blue from an in house perspective.
    • Psyche is an empath strong enough to control and remove the emotions of others, so strong she was shunned by the rest of her planet of empaths. She could make criminals give up without a fight, or turn on their conspirators, and that was before she was upgraded into a psychic vampire who can sustain herself on thoughts of others, even use them to fuel her telekinesis.
  • Legion Academy
    • Dawnstar, the result of centuries of breeding mutants for the sake of conquering the...stars...basically what every X-Men villain is afraid of or striving for, not coincidentally debuting when the rival comic book was taking off. Angel meets Thunderbird meets Warbird, she has wings that allow her to fly without a Legion ring, the way wings work against air but even faster outside of an atmosphere, where she can achieve faster than light speeds, yes, she can survive the vacuum of space, and she has Super-Senses that work across light years. Senses that can't be suppressed by Psychic Powers, drugs, or even knocking her unconscious.
    • Nightwind comes from a family where all the females develop aerokinesis. She ends up not among the legion but becomes a member of the United Planets Militia, leading platoons against invaders and training more fighters as the government falls apart.
    • Lamprey is an amphibian who can sort of fly without the aid of a Legion belt or ring, and is capable of absorbing, storing, and unleashing large amounts of electricity. She joined the United Planets Militia, rather than the Legion, and was one of the few fighters to survive the Khund Invasion following the Great Collapse.
    • Comet Queen leaves behind trails of gas when she flies. Depending on her mood this gas merely obscures vision, or puts people who are not Comet Queen to sleep when they inhale sufficient amounts of it
    • Mandalla, an alien hybrid of undetermined origins, born in prison but released at age fourteen. She can surround or engulf targets in "thought spheres" that disrupt the electrical signals of the nervous system and wreak havoc on their brain functions. She ultimately ends up in the science police.
    • Dragonwing's alien power is breathing. Anywhere and anything, as well as breathing out various toxic and acidic gases. And fire. Luckily for her enemies, the Legion practices Thou Shalt Not Kill, but she's not afraid to kill when no one's looking.
    • Glorith comes from a world of sorcerers, was named after one of the worst enemies of the Legion, raised to be everything the preceding Glorith wasn't, and is rapidly advancing as a sorceress under the tutelage of Black Witch.
  • Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld
    • Amy Winston, child of the two most powerful spell casters in Gemworld prior to the rise of Dark Opal, learned of her heritage at age 13 when Opal found her refuge on Earth and continued his quest to exterminate her family. She discovered a necklace that could turn her into the mighty Amethyst, however, and fought back, traveling to Gemworld to mastering her magic and weapons, and gather an army that eventually defeated his. She survived Crisis On Infinite Earths, though blinded during its events. She not only trained her other senses to compensate, but learned she was a Lord of Order who could access even more power than she already gained from Gemworld.
    • The Post Flashpoint Amethyst, Amaya, trained in armed, unarmed, on foot, mounted, ground and air combat since childhood, and has taken on all the magical power of every previous spell caster in her bloodline, and is much quicker to kill her enemies than the Pre Flashpoint Amy.
  • LEGION
    • Strata is a surface Dryad with rock like body, and abnormal levels of strength and toughness. She can also absorb large amounts of energy with no downsides, and make time to serve on interdimensional police force InterC.E.P.T. in addition to the space police.
    • Stealth is a mutant of the Gryxian species who can scramble both biological and techological detection, especially when it comes to sound. She's also far stronger and more physically resliant than any human of her size would be, and if she does get hurt it only takes days for her broken bones to heal. She's also got reflexes that defy biological understanding.
    • Enya Wazzo, Phase, a cousin of Legionaire Phantom Girl created by Cosmic Retcon, she has all of Phatom Girl's skills and abilities, with a more confrontational attitude
    • Layla was assigned the task of keeping Lobo under control by Braniac II. Initially she did this via hypnosis, but after an attack by bloodline parasites, she developed super strength, speed and an ability to survive in the vacuum of space, similar to his own, as well as Nigh-Invulnerability
  • Batch SW6
    • Gossamer is a clone of Lightning Lass meant to be stronger than the original. She has the ability to reduce the pull of gravity rather than shoot lightning bolts, even though electromagnetism is stronger than gravity, but she proves to be a valuable ally to the Legion regardless.
    • Catspaw was modified by the Dominion in an attempt to create something tougher and more useful than a baseline human. She has retractile cat like claws, super human agility, innate night vision and heals faster if injured
  • R.E.C.R.U.I.T.S.
    • As a Talokite, Lydea Mallor, Darkstar, can turn shadow solid, and cause it to strike with enough force to pierce most metals
    • Zena Moonstruck can passively see in the dark, and passively absorbs photons, which she can project as blasts of force or heat. She can absorb all sorts of energy of she actively concentrates on it, and can also fly
  • Post-Zero Hour
    • Jenni Ognats, XS, is a time displaced granddaughter of Barry Allen, saved by the Legion from Professor Zoom. When she gains Super-Speed, XS begins using it to repay the favor.
    • Inferno has been a scientific test subject in determining the best methods of unarmed combat since childhood, further training with Workforce and the Legion later in life. Then there's her alien ability to absorb thermal energy and create fire.
    • Kinetix is a "terrorform" who gains increased healing, strength, loses her need to eat and gains gravity manipulation powers when biospheres suffer external threat. Even without her terrorform powers, she has magic fueled telekinesis(because she's a Jean Grey parody), and can cast a variety of other spells if given the time.
    • Lori Morning, the Glorith of this timeline, does not go down the path of villainy like her predecessor but instead uses an H-Dial to take on a variety of super powered identities to assist the Legion.
    • After her brother James died, Jazmin Cullen took his place as Quantum Kid and underwent surgery to make her Time Stands Still powers more powerful than his were. She grows to the point of leading the entire Legion.
    • Monstress was once the pampered the Candi Pyponte-Le Parc III until she was disfigured by a gene bomb for the crimes of her father. The bomb also made her super strong and tough, but Monstress decided to use these gifts to help fight injustice rather than continue the cycle of lashing out at society.
    • CeCe Beck, Thunder, is a champion of Shazam stranded in this particular future. She used all the powers of Captain Marvel to help the Legion until they found a way to send her back.
    • Sensor has illusions that affect all of a targets sense the way she prefers, similar to Princess Projectra, including later gaining the ability to sense past "the illusions of the world" to do so largely independent of time and distance. Unlike Projectra, Sensor's true form is that of a giant snake woman who doesn't even need to use martial arts most of the time.
    • Shikari's people have retractile armored exoskeletons that can survive even the vacuum of space, can fly unaided and track objects across interstellar distances, not unlike Dawnstar.
  • R.E.B.E.L.S.
    • Wildstar is a mutant among the Starhaven mutants who was cast out for being born with non functional wings. Brainiac II transformed her into an "anti-energy" being who has to wear a containment suit, but otherwise out performs everyone else on Starhaven.
    • Ciji, a durlan shape shifter who quickly establishes a preference for impaling her foes
  • Threeboot
    • Gazelle has a beneficial mutation that gives her an exceptionally efficient metabolism, allowing her to exert more force at faster rates for longer periods of time than what should be humanly possible.(She's strong and fast with great cardio, but does need to eat to maintain it)
    • Sizzle can absorb any form of energy, and expel it while converting it to any other type of energy. A sandwhich into a wave of raw heat, electricity to gamma rays, but she's rarely pulled out of reserve, despite being competent, as her alien ability also absorbs chemical energy in a manner at odds with her metabolism, so she has to eat a lot, a whole lot when actively using it.
• Liberty Belle
  • The first was Boy Commandos supporting character/backup feature Libby Lawrence, a radio columnist who got a burst of adrenaline through her system every time the Liberty Bell was rung. She decided to use these periods of heightened physicality stop criminals and spite Nazis. During All-Star Squadron she had a 10-Minute Retirement, believing herself foolish for thinking she could change the world with mere largely uncontrolled adrenaline rushes, after she failed to save a guard, but then she obtained the ability to generate powerful shock waves during one last outing to get revenge on the men who killed him, and rededicated herself to Nazi hunting.
  • Tomahawk supporting character Bess Lynn was a nurse during the American Revolution who decided to take up arms against the British and their Hessian allies herself, but while wearing a mask and wig, calling herself "Miss Liberty". All-Star Squadron retroactively made Miss Liberty the ancestor of Libby Lawrence.
  • The second Liberty Belle was Jesse Quick, daughter of Libby Lawrence and Johnny Quick, who had all the super human abilities of both her parents(meaning she could also move super fast and fly) and decided to put them to use by applying to the Justice Society Of America
• Mademoiselle Marie
  • The first Mlle. Marie appeared in Star-Spangled War Stories as a love interest of Sergeant Rock and Hero Antagonist of Unknown Soldier. It was her family tradition to serve France in time of war as soon as said war claims the life of the previous most able bodied adult, so she joined the French Resistance after her father died without hesitation, rising through the ranks until she was personally leading sabotage missions against the Nazi occupiers.
  • The original Mlle. Marie of the Silver Age comic books was impressive, but still had clearly human limitations. When Worlds Finest introduced an "Earth Two" version of the character for their Golden Age throwback stories, she could inexplicably blitz and knockout the Golden Age Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman who would go on to dodge lasers by reflex after she woke up.
  • Post Crisis On Infinite Earths, Checkmate volume 2 established that Mademoiselle Marie was a code name taken by several women throughout history in France's most trying times. Many martial French women seen in DC series such as Sabine Roth, Josephine Tautin and Anais Guillot were "revealed" to have served as Mlle. Marie.
• Manhunter
  • In DC's Bronze Age, Paul Kirk was repeatedly assisted by Christine St. Clair, an unsually combative Interpol agent not content to merely direct law enforcers at crimes.
  • Manhunter: Kate Spencer has become an example of this. Add the fact that she stole the weapons and costume she wears and isn't afraid to kill anyone in her way, and you have one crazy woman.
• Mother Panic, Violet Paige, was a killer even before she was forced to fight other students, forcibly enrolled in combat training and forcibly augmented with cybernetics. She set about killing everyone who made her into what she didn't want to be, but the Batman family convinced her to be a hero rather than just butcher.
• The Movement
  • Tremor, Roshanna Chatterji, was shunned as a witch but rarely attacked due to her ability to cause earthquakes.
  • Virtue, Holly Ann Fields, can fly, become intangile, and increase her size and or strength by drawing on rage, her own or that of those of her around her.
  • Vengeance Moth, Drew Fisher, is wheelchair bound due to muscular dystrophy until she uses her Animal Battle Aura, which lets her fly, lift and toss grown men, and shoot glowing moths
  • Katharsis, Kulap Vilaysack, a police officer whose career was destroyed by slander, she traded her gun and badge for a flight harness and panabas, becoming a super villain who fought Batgirl before the Movement rehabilitated her.
• Power Company
  • Skyrocket from Super Friends was brought into the "main" DCU not as a male super villain, but as Celia Forrestal, a US Navy flight instructor who applied to be a fighter pilot as soon as women were allowed, but was rejected. Her parents were then murdered by Saint Louis terrorist cell Scorpio for their flying Argo Harness. Forrestal put it on to take them down. Her status as the other defender of Saint Louis, after Green Lantern Hal Jordan, got Skyrocket hired by the Power Company, to give them good publicity.
  • Singer, fashion model, and actress Rebecca Carstairs became even more popular when she publicly cast fire spells to help Wonder Woman fight Nekron as he attacked the US. Actually it was a homunculus named Witchfire, who was designed to look like Carstairs in another attempt by the Power Company to increase its popularity. Her fire magic was no lie, however.
  • Candace Jean Gennaro, the telekinetic street thief Sapphire, stole the elastic symbiotic "serpent's egg" body armor from the super villain Kobra, then applied for work with the Power Company, as Kobra's unending attempts at revenge made continued thievery difficult for her. She needed a new source of income, and allies that would watch her back, but she's a dedicated worker, nearly giving her life protecting company headquarters from Strike Force.
• Red Tornado
  • The original Red Tornado, Abigail "Ma" Hunkle, was DC's very first female super hero if one doesn't count the earlier comic books of National Publishing before DC split off and bought them out, and was definitely the first to star in her own comics, though she didn't headline a series or get a solo series like Wonder Woman later. She was also a Self-Parody of DC's very own super her comic books that wasn't supposed to catch on, just being a supporting character for Scribbly The Cartoonist, but despite the fact she was portrayed as buffoonish and under equipped, she defeated entire street gangs by herself and was usually set back by happenstance like splitting her pants rather than suffering traditional defeats.
  • Maxine Hunkle, Cyclone, the grand daughter of the original Red Tornado Ma Hunkle, was kidnapped experimented on by Doctor Morrow for reasons we don't know as she escaped and decided she was going to apply for the Justice Society Of America. In contrast to Red Tornado, Cyclone is so smart it alienates her from her peers and leaves her with an typical form of depression. She also has real power and knows exactly what to do with it, when Cyclone can shut up long enough to act anyway.
• Sandra of The Secret Service, AKA #37, was the National Allied Publishing comic book action girl before they started dabbling into the super hero genre, eight months before Doctor Occult, their first mystery man who could be called a super hero, which also puts her ahead of Rose Psychic, two years before Detective Comics even started and three years before Detective Comics Inc. bought out National Allied and started becoming DC Comics as we know it, four before Red Tornado, five before Hawkgirl and six before Wonder Woman. Sandra McLane was a crack shot and expert hand to hand combatant, though she slowly became less of an action girl as her series progressed.
• S.H.A.D.E.
  • The Bride is a Frankenstein's Monster who became an espionage agent to get away from marrying the original monster. Due to her conspicuous appearance, she works best as The Spy Master, but she's an excellent shot in a firefight.
  • On loan from the CIA, from Metamorpho's book, Element Girl is an experienced field operative who can stretch and contort her body well beyond human limits and alter her own molecular structure, allowing her to easily best the standard troops of most armies.
• Shadowpact
  • Enchantress was a hero who suddenly became a Well-Intentioned Extremist villain in opposition to Supergirl. Following Supergirl's death and erasure from existence in Crisis On Infinite Earths, Enchantress would gradually become a hero again and even lead Shadowpact's efforts in safe guarding the world.
  • Warlock's Daughter was originally a Robin villain, a magical Living Weapon made from a mafia princess's corpse. She proved to be less murderous than intended, however, and was fully rehabilitated by Shadowpact.
• Starfire, the "Siren of Sword and Science", is the third warrior in DC comics with the name and the first to both heroic and female. A Human Alien slave raised to be a Trophy Wife in Arranged Marriage to Mygorg chieftan Sookaroth for eighteen years, when it would be safe for her to bear his children. She escaped upon coming of age and proceeded to undergo armed and unarmed combat training before joining a slave rebellion that she eventually became leader of. She later picks up vehicular combat skills as well.
• Starman
  • Merry, Girl of 1000 Gimmicks briefly became more popular than Starman and Stripesy themselves, taking over Starspangled Comics. While Starman would regain his popularity later and Merry would fall into Comic-Book Limbo, she did basically have a "gimmick" for about every situation, including most combat scenarios, making her almost as versatile as Starman with his cosmic rod.
  • Hope O'Dare is a trigger happy police officer who will happily tackle fleeing suspects on concrete and down stairs, since she's technically not allowed to "escalate" situations. She's among the most feared residents of Opal City that doesn't have super powers or cosmic technology. The New 52 version of O'Dare did get super powers, the same reality bending darkness of the Shade.
  • Stargirl is a gymnast and kick boxer who was then semi involuntarily put through marines training by Magog. Her staff isn't quite as versatile as the original cosmic rod, but her cosmic converter belt increases all of her physical attributes, so she's no Glass Cannon either.
• Superman
  • Lois Lane is a journalist, rather than a superhero, by trade, but even in the Golden Age of comic books there were stories where she would gain super powers and fight crime. Even without them, her crusading idealism as an investigative reporter has frequently put her in the crosshairs of Lex Luthor, other corrupt elements, as well as other supervillains. In the Silver Age comic books, she became inspired to learn martial arts to impress Superman and not have to rely on him quite so often. 1986 reboot turned Lois into a Military Brat with has enough martial arts skill to hold her own in most fights long before she knew of Superman. In comic books following Crisis On Infinite Earths, she usually only needs Superman's help because she often ends up going up against aliens, mutants, and cyborgs. Lois's courage and never-ending willingness to fight for justice and make trouble for the bad guys of the DC Universe has often required that she display her mundane but formidable fighting skills.
  • Marvel Maid operates on Terra the same way Superman operates on Earth, training her cousin Marvel Man as her secret weapon the way Superman trains his cousin Supergirl. If it was a competition, Superman would be losing, as Marvel Man proves worthy of operating in public before Supergirl does, but it's not as Superman specifically sent Supergirl to meet Marvel Maid so that Kara would realize she still had some ways to go.
  • New Gods
    • Big Barda, as originally penned by Jack Kirby, was a 6'2 stack of bricks. Flashpoint altered her into a 7 foot walking tank. And her husband, Mr. Miracle, loves her that way.
    • Debuting in the misleadingly titled Jack Kirby's Fourth World, Valkyra was John Byrne's spin on a warrior New Goddess. She's the one who taught Orion, dog of war, how to fight, and was called on by High Father himself when the Source itself was under threat. The only thing that could keep her down was the Black Racer, death incarnate to New Gods.
  • While the Golden Age Earth 2 Thorn was a Flash villain turned Green Lantern foe who was out to kill Alan Scott and the children she had with him, the Silver Age Thorn was a vigilante who caught criminals who evaded police but had yet to attract Superman's attention.
  • Vixen, who infamously "debuted" in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade, made a proper DCU appearance in Action Comics 521 and has been a dependable ally to Superman ever since. Her abilities are similar to Lana Lang's as insect queen except they don't warp her body and she can channel virtually any animal, not just insects.
  • Officer Maggie Sawyer works in the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit who specifically get called to handle cases that the police would like Superman to handle when Superman isn't available. She was so combative, and an effective investigator at the same time, that Lex Luthor found the easiest way to deal with her while maintaining his plausible deniability of being a super villain was through blackmail.
  • Matrix was a shape shifting protoplasmic artificial life form created in a Pocket Dimension where Superman was dead but Lex Luthor was good and tried to create a new protector. She most commonly took the shape of Lana Lang, who was Good!Lex's girlfriend. While she initially utterly failed to stop General Zod and his minions from wiping out all life besides herself in her pocket, she resolved to make up for it in the main DCU, and embarked on a campaign to clean up outer space.
  • Maxima was originally a villain who tried being a hero to win Superman's heart, but while she was powerful, she wasn't so good at it, often continuing to put up a better fight against other heroes trying to stop her rampages than other villains actually aiming to kill her, really not getting stuff like "self sacrifice", until she finally did but died. Post Flashpoint however, Maxima, while still a parody of a superhero(X-Men's Jean Grey specifically), and not as powerful, was turned into a genuine hero who manages to take down more villains largely because she's trying harder and works better on a team.
  • DC Force, Sparx, defected from a family of super humans who shun super heroics, crossing the US-Canada border to assiste Superman or Superboy whenever she could. She has the ability to shift into a electical form that can manipulate magnetic fields, create force fields, fly, unleash shockwaves and create electromagnetic pulses to fry vulnerable machines.
  • Andrea Rojas, Acrata, a Mesoamerican Anthropologist living in Mexico City who disrupts organized crime in her spare time, having been gifted with the ability to teleport through shadows for her efforts.
  • When the Ministry of Self-Reliance(a privately financed company despite its government sounding name) lost control of yet another attempt to duplicate Superman, they reached out to the legendary Green Snake for help bringing him in. She proceeds to act as their Wonder-Woman, and is later established to be an old friend and sometimes sparring partner of the Amazing Amazon.
  • Dreamer is a Naltorian hybrid whose abilities go far beyond the standard seeing the future in REM sleep. She can enter the Dreaming associated with the Endless to escape from the physical world and "walk" through the psyches of sleepers, reemerge in their vicinties to infiltrate enemy territory, gain even more control of battlefields than usual as opposition lose consciousness, and can even choose to disturb things while she's there before emergence to sow chaos among enemies by disrupting thought processes. She can channel energy from the dreaming into the physical world to protect her allies from bullets or harm her enemies.
• Superboy
  • Lana Lang would frequently acquire super powers and use them to help Superboy/Superman, most famously in the Silver Age as Insect Queen
  • Post Crisis On Infinite Earths, Female Fury Knockout defected from the group to work as a stripper in Hawaii. When the clone Superboy moved to the state she sought him out and proceeded to train him in combat, and gradually started reforming from her own criminal ways in the process, though she had to serve a prison sentence for manslaughter before she was completely rehabilitated.
  • Aura of the Ravers can see the entire electromagnetic spectrum and create magnetic fields to manipulate ferrus metals, absorb energy among the spectrum to strengthen herself, release this energy to create shockwaves, to fly, or create force fields to protect her teammates/self.
  • InterC.E.P.T.
    • Team leader Beta Tos can protect her officers with "stellar shields", blast her foes even without a weapon, and fly
    • Ephyra, a former marine of whatever her civilization was, is a fludic being with the abilities to control other liquids, and fly
• Supergirl, being a member of the Super-family, can mix it up just as well as Kal-El, sometimes even better. In her origin story, Superman hints that she will become the world's greatest heroine.
  • In Red Daughter of Krypton she gets a Red Lantern Ring and she becomes even more badass. During that storyline she blew spaceships up, crushed whole armies and defeated eldritch abominations single-handedly.
  • In Supergirl (2016), Kara flies from Sun to Earth in a matter of seconds and wrestles a super-powerful werewolf.
  • All female characters in Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl are action girls. The two main characters Supergirl and Batgirl are the world's greatest heroes. Wonder Woman raises Supergirl, leads the Justice Society, and is the only hero whom Batgirl showed some modicum of respect.
  • In Krypton No More, Kara is perfectly willing to fight back against an Alien Invasion on her own if she must.
  • Many Happy Returns has two Supergirls: Pre-Crisis Kara Zor-El and Post-Crisis Linda Danvers. Linda becomes a mentor to Kara, who is less experienced but more powerful by several orders of magnitude.
    • The Post Crisis Linda Danvers was a demon cultist whose life was offered up by her fellow worshipers but transformed into an angel after Matrix saved her. She managed to "fool" the Spectre, swap places with the Pre Crisis Supergirl, and successfully operate in that iteration of the DCU until she reached the Anti-Moniter during the Crisis, at which point the Spectre had to switch them back because angel Linda simply wasn't strong enough to hurt him. She then became a Fallen Angel damned to hell as the Post Crisis DCU got its own Kara Zor-El, but for awhile angel Linda was a legit action girl.
  • In The Supergirl from Krypton (2004), Wonder Woman takes Kara to Themyscira with the purpose of teaching her how to control her powers and fight in preparation for her becoming a heroine.
  • In Superman: Brainiac Kara fights a legion of killer androids and stops a missile from detonating the Sun.
  • In War World, Superman needs a capable ally in order to stop a formidable machine of relentless destruction. So who is he going to call? His cousin. Supergirl is instrumental to destroy Warworld. Kal observes that Kara "has nerve enough for an army".
  • In Bizarrogirl Supergirl has to fight a planet eater alien aided by her Bizarro counterpart.
• Power Girl is an alternate universe's Supergirl, a Kryptonian powerhouse who has fought some of the worst evils of two universes, has faced several cosmic crises, and has survived.
  • Power Girl volume 2 gives her a sidekick in the third Terra, a girl from an underground city who can move rocks with her mind and uses this to help Power Girl save people and to keep enemies from killing Power Girl
  • Tanya Spears, successor to the New 52 Power Girl, is a super strong flying invulnerable Sizeshifter fast enough to intercept bullets. She cannot only increase mass but replace it when wounded.
  • Power Girl volume 3 gives her two sidekicks, turning Omen, who was previously a Damsel Errant or Mission Control for the Teen Titans who directed others towards the action, into a capable fighter herself, and also giving her back up from Natasha Irons, who uses a Steel Powered Armor similar to her father's.
  • Volume 3 also sees the Holliday Girls, a motorcycle club usually dedicated to Wonder Woman, charge themselves with the protection of Crush, a half human half immortal alien willing, and eager, to throw down with Power Girl and or Brainiac. It's more accurate to say the Holliday Girls have charged themselves with defending everyone else from Crush, who likes getting into trouble but can at least be encouraged to get into "good" trouble.
• Teen Titans
  • Wonder Girl: Donna Troy, a founding member created by accident, but basically the physically strongest, most mobile, original teammate with the most total combat experience(most varied is debatable)
  • Bumblebee, a member of the West Coast Team who built herself weapons and a super suit mostly to show that she could, then to make sure her boyfriend didn't die, and fights crime herself when she isn't developing less lethal weapons for law enforcement
  • The fourth Starfire, a New Teen Titan and another warrior princess in Friendly Rivalry with Wonder Girl Donna Troy. She is typically depicted as the physically strongest member when Donna isn't, with more inherent super powers than the rival princess regardless.
  • Raven, The Empath who was spirited away to what was supposed to be the peaceful realm of Azarath to live a life devoid of violence and suffering. Things didn't really work out that way, but Raven also has demonic powers and mostly uses them to defend Azarath and Earth, mostly.
  • Kole, an augemented human designed to survive nuclear war, can generate crystal from nuclear energy, and was further empowed by the Titan of Myth Thia. Kole was killed during Crisis On Infinite Earths then resurrected as an undead soldier to be used against the Titans, but spent most of her undeath fighting to keep Titan teams alive.
  • Subject X-24, "Rosabelle Mendez", Pantha was engineered with a combative personality along with fangs, claws, enhanced strength and agility to compliment it^note While clearly a reference to "Weapon X" Wolverine, she existed before Marvel's X-23.
  • Team Titans
    • Miriam Delgado, Mirage, can alter people's perceptions, incapacitate foes and strengthen herself by draining them of mental energy, and fire dehibiliating psionic blasts. She also has a gun with comically large clips to reduce reloading.
    • Carrie Levine, Redwing, steadily mutated into an increasingly bird like form, having already achieved winged flight at her introduction and going on to develop flesh rending talons. She also has a pistol for ground combat.
    • Tara Marvok survived having her genetic structure altered with the DNA of the first Terra who betrayed the Teen Titans, gaining Dishing Out Dirt powers but becoming unstable. Even as her "gift" was killing her, the second Terra's mind remained sharp, and she ended up dying a hero.
  • The fifth Ravager, Rose Wilson has precognition that makes even Deathstroke approach her with caution. He nonetheless kidnapped, brainwashed and subjected her to the same serum that increased his physical and mental abilities, giving her faster healing and perfect memory recall on top of it. She was also put through Training from Hell, including thirty four hour long sparring sessions, and is particularly skilled with bladed weaponry. Nightwing managed to De Program her during a mission to kill Superman with krytonite lodged in her eye socket, and she's been a mostly loyal Titan since.
  • Metallik is a mech piloted by five women at once, each with their own weaponized Powered Armor even when they can't all be in the machine
  • Toni Monetti, Argent, was a half alien sleeper agent conceived to destroy Earth's super humans ahead of an invasion. Deprogrammed, she began fighting to ensure that invasion never happened. She can convert energy into silvery plasma, giving one the impression she conjures weapons and shields out of thin air.
  • Audrey Spears, Prysm, a human hybrid with the same alien species as Argent, part of the same sleeper cell, but with the ability to absorb visible light energy, ultraviolet radiation in particular, and project it.
  • Miss Martian, an orphan from the dead world of Mars who moved to Australia, which still had life, and apprehended criminals local authorities could not deal with on her spare time. Her sensitivity to people's opinions and socially stunted nature in general made her a poor fit for the team, but they kept coming to her for help anyway until Cyborg convinced her to join.
  • Solstice, Kiran Singh, a daughter of archaeologists who harnesses the Power of the Sun to defend her parents from bandits, dictators, demons and other occupational hazards that come with the profession in the DCU. Sometimes she needs an assist from the Titans, but her Light 'em Up powers are also useful if Raven ever loses control.
• The Warlord (DC Comics)
  • Travis Morgan was a combat pilot in the Airforce, but he wouldn't have lasted a week in Sword and Sorcery world of Stock Dinosaurs that is Skartaris without the tutelage of hunter and swordswoman Tara.
  • Mariah Romanova has all the combat skills expected of an archaeologist in the DCU on top of being the Russian national sabre champion. Told of the dangers of Skartaris by Travis Morgan, she decided it sounded like a good time and followed him as he made his return
  • Shakira, in addition to having all the natural hunting and fighting instincts of a cat, has the power to transform into a human woman, allowing her to wield weapons, even slay giants.
  • Jennifer Morgan, the Sole Survivor of an expedition to Skartaris to save her father. She was captured by Deimos to be used against Warlord but freed by Ashiya on the agreement Jennifer would instruct Ashiya in science and technology as Ashiya taught Jennifer how to cast spells. Jennifer quickly surpassed Ashiya in magic, defeating her when Ashiya herself tried to kill Warlord, and Jennifer then advanced in magic on her own, becoming the most powerful sorceress in all of Skartaris.
• Wonder Woman, the archetypical comic book Action Girl. Diana of Paradise Island, later of Themyscira, was given permission by army nurse Diana Prince to use her identity to aid in her mission of catching Axis spies among the Allies. A prodigy in both Super Natural Martial Arts, and "brain power" techniques, further bolstered by an oath to Aphrodite, Wonder Woman was as wise as Athena, fast as Mercury, and strong as Hercules, later surpassing the latter two while remaining as beautiful as Aphrodite. Created for the purpose of being an inspirational action girl in 1941, she was far from the first female superhero, but the single most popular in The Golden Age of Comic Books and a true cultural icon, never out of print since the 40s (partially since DC only leased the character from her creator, later his estate, and didn't want anyone making money off of her should they stop publishing titles and the lease be up for grabs, though they've consistently published well above the bare minimum number of books).
  • Post Crisis On Infinite Earths, Amazon power no longer comes from super natural martial arts, brain power training and oaths, but from their gods gifting them new bodies that are inherently more powerful than those of baseline humans. Princess Diana is extra gifted, being born with a body that would develop Demeter's strength, Aphrodite's loving heart, Artemis's instincts, Hestia's sisterhood with fire and Hermes's speed, as she grew. Amazons, including Diana, now lacked the previous weaknesses of welding between their "bracelets" or hitting them in the back of the head in favor of simply pitting them against more dangerous opponents on a more regular basis.
  • The Amazing Amazon comes from an island full of other Amazons. The first one seen besides Diana, and second most physically capable after her is Mala, Diana's first and most competitive friend. When Keela sneaks onto Paradise Island, kidnaps Etta Candy, steals the girdle of Hippolyte, then uses the leveraged hostage and garmet's powers to defeat Wonder Woman, Mala is the one to track Keela down and steal the girdle back, leading to Keela's defeat. Mala then becomes The Jailer of Prison/Reform/Transformation Island, handling most attempted jail breaks, rehabilitating criminals and training several more women into warriors in service of Hippolyte and Aphrodite's causes.
  • Wonder Woman's mother is usually the legendary Hippolyte! In The Golden Age of Comic Books, Hippolyte wasn't quite as strong, fast or as advanced in the Amazon Arts as her daughter, but Hippolyte was in fact a far better wrestler than Diana, with far more combat experience that allowed her to take Wonder Woman in a fight handily while disguised(if Diana knew she was fighting her mother from the start, it was a different story, but still). Hippolyte's girdle was further more given a property it never had in Greek myth; The Amazons were utterly unconquerable as long as she was wearing it. This made Hippolyte a high priority target whenever someone tried to invade Ancient Amazonia, or later, Paradise Island, or take the island over from within, but very few ever managed to wrest it off of her. Most who stole of the girdle had to resort to trickery instead of direct confrontation. Even Hercules lost round one when he fought Hippolyte directly, having to get her drunk after "surrendering" before he could pull the girdle off.
    • Hippolyta of the The Silver/The Bronze Age was usually just as capable as her Golden Age counterpart. She was often portrayed as a wishy washy ruler prone to being shamed into doing the right thing by her subjects, and inspired far more rebellion than Hippolyte, but woe to the Amazon or invader who tried to forcibly remove Hippolyta's girdle, as she almost always embarrassed them.
    • Post Crisis On Infinite Earths, Hippolyta's girdle no longer makes the Amazon Nation unconquerable while she wears it; it instead boosts Hippolyta's strength, initially making her stronger than Diana, and still a close second as Wonder Woman's powers develop further. She's so effective that when sent back in time as punishment for getting Diana and Artemis of Bana-Mighdall killed, Hippolyta is able to make World War II go much smoother for the Allies by fighting off Dark Angel, an even more powerful version of Donna Troy who had been mucking up the Post Crisis timeline. She also stops the Venturia-Aurania war from ever happening in the Post Crisis timeline, and defeats Villainy Inc. all by herself. This does have the unfortunate side affect of making Villainy Inc. far more powerful when they return in Diana's era looking for a rematch with Wonder Woman, however.
    • Post DC Infinite Frontier, the company does some Canon Welding to bring the Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel comic books more into sync. That's right, we see Hippolyta Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence and become the patron goddess of a Unified Amazon Nation who defends the three tribes and the Earth in general from hostile gods and goddesses!
  • Etta Candy can't lift an aircraft carrier, outrun a flash of light or survive a warhead to the chest. She's also a four foot eleven band geek, fat and has less than ideal cardiovascular conditioning, but despite the lack of wonderful powers and having less than peak human stamina, she is still a multi sport athlete, if a gluttonous one. She's strong enough to lift adult humans larger than herself, can run for miles without stopping, doesn't mind punches that knock her teeth out, as teeth can be put back in later, and she can punch back. She's a literal cowgirl who Knows the Ropes almost as well as Wonder Woman herself and knows how to use her extra pounds to her advantage. While she gets captured as often as any Wonder Woman supporting character, Etta went for a year without being taken captive or defeated to make sure readers would take her seriously.
    • Etta zigzags depending on the era, however. While the above accurately described the Etta Candy of the Golden Age of Comic Books, Silver/Bronze age depictions of Etta Candy were a lot more passive and far less capable. Post Crisis On Infinite Earths, Etta Candy was not only a fighter again, but made taller and turned into an actual soldier to reflect the fact Wonder Woman herself had gotten taller in the Silver/Bronze age was becoming more martial following the Crisis.
    • Etta's at her most combative yet, post DC Rebirth, usually armed and ready to fire even out of uniform. She's slightly less bullheaded than her Golden Age self, but after being put in the hospital by Firestorm villain Plastique, one of the first things Etta did upon being discharged was beat Plastique down in retaliation.
  • The Holliday Girls were a pseudo sorority dedicated to Wonder Woman, put together when Wonder Woman looked up Etta Candy in Nurse Diana Prince's medical records and asked Etta to round up a hundred able bodied girls who could distract the gunmen trained on the hostages of Doctor Poison. Turns out Holliday College secretly taught espionage for Army Intelligence in addition to the maths, sciences and histories. Etta had to actively turn women away from the initial assignment. Over the years we see the college/pseudo sorority turn the meek and frightful Eve Brown into a decent, brave fighter.
  • Brenda Lee, the leader of the Holliday College Marching Band, was passed on by Etta Candy when choosing the first one hundred Holliday Girls. Undeterred, Lee formed a horseback cavalry at Bar-L Ranch, and had them surround Wonder Woman when they saw her taking "Fifi La Strange" prisoner, demanding Wonder Woman let them in her mission, whatever it happened to be. Brenda proceeds to get her entire cavalry captured, but makes up for this blunder by staging a jail break and capturing several Italian and Japanese spies by the US-Mexico border in turn. Brenda becomes a priority target of a Nazi spy in a later comic!
  • One half of the Malone Twins turn out to be an action girl. One is an actress with the screen name "Fifi La Strange", who uses her wealth and fame to attract criminals, spies and saboteurs. The other twin is a US Martial, who then switches places with the actress and arrests the offenders, brutally if they don't come quietly. The only reason they didn't wrap up the situation at Bar-L Ranch themselves is because they were simply outclassed by Wonder Woman's super human abilities and magical lasso. Nonetheless, the US Martial sister easily handles Hylo Goulash when he tries to shoot army nurse "Diana Prince" and easily escapes from Brenda Lee after Wonder Woman tasks her with guarding "Fifi".
  • In the Golden Age of Comic Books, Venus is inhabited by a planet wide kingdom that also serves Aphrodite. They don't have the Supernatural Martial Arts of the Amazons but the people of the planet are still warriors, and women of Venus have something the Amazons, and Venus men lack: winged flight! No one on the planet is more of a warrior than Queen Desira herself, who can fly while carrying men larger than herself and take out entire squads of would be invaders alone.
  • The Baroness Paula von Gunther was already a capable fighter before she defected to the Allies, personally killing or at least wounding more than a few US servicemen and evading Commander Lon Daly of US Navy Intelligence on numerous occasions, but she becomes even more effective on Wonder Woman's side after training in the Amazon Arts and gaining access to the resources of both USA and Paradise Island. While Paula is considered a bit of a nerd and weakling among the Amazons, she is nonetheless far stronger and faster than any baseline human, willing to die for her new princess, and pivotal in subduing the Mole Men when they try to literally undermine the USA.
  • Cura, daughter of Manco, Ayar of a secret four peak city in the Andes, stands at least two inches taller than Wonder Woman. While Cura doesn't have the super human abilities that come with Amazon training, she is the single strongest member of the lost tribe of Incas, can throw a spear further than any man, handle a bow as well as any boy, and is an adept sword fighter. Once Cura becomes inspired by the "savior from the gods" Wonder Woman to fight back against lying High Priest Quito, his life is basically over.
  • The elderly Dean Meg Sourpuss is just as capable in combat as the students of Holliday College, personally joining the fight to defend them from the soldiers of Queen Atomia when she invades the campus, and doing no worse than anyone but Wonder Woman herself.
  • After infiltrating "The Lost World of Manlings", Queen Eeras quickly gains a reputation for defending Russia, Switzerland and France from the shadows, and slaying those who try to betray the French Resistance to the Nazis. True, she is a giant woman from Aurania, but while unarmed she is able to disarm a soldier from the rival city state of Venturia, who are just as large as she is, and it takes four soldiers to subdue her. Not quite the One-Man Army that is Wonder Woman, nor quite as strong, but Eeras can still punch holes in stone walls, snap chains on her legs, withstand the pressure of the ocean depths, and nearly beats Queen Clea to death the second time Venturia invades Aurania.
  • Eeras's daughter Octavia is able to win gridiron football games against teams of men practically by herself once she infiltrates the "Lost World of Manlings". After being installed as Queen of Venturia by Eeras, Octavia personally puts down a rebellion lead by Sontag Henya. After renouncing the throne and being elected president, Octavia starts wearing chains on her wrists and ankles to show her submission to the will of the masses, but in this state she can still defeat the guards of Sontag Henya when Henya tries to have Wonder Woman executed for suggesting the establishment of democracy.
  • Subverted by Gerta von Gunther. After undergoing training in the Amazon Arts she comes to believe herself to be the most powerful being in existence, and not even the bracelets of submission can humble her. In the Bad Future she starts the "International Spy Ring" to undermine the nations in "World of Man" but winds up killed by a woman with no super human abilities, training, super tech or divine tools. In the better timeline, Wonder Woman wrestles some humility into Gerta.
  • Glamora Treat is more into the espionage part of assisting Wonder Woman than the combat, preferring to seduce enemies of the state, but she isn't afraid of a fight, and is one of the strongest of the Holliday Girls on account of having undergone some training in the Amazon Arts.
  • The single most martial of the Golden Age Holliday Girls was Bobby Strong. She was one of the largest, tallest members, and had a degree of training in the Amazon Arts that gave her a degree of Super-Strength. Even before Holliday College or Amazon training, Bobby had previous experience with several weapons, including firearms.
  • The people of Eveland are all space aliens and spiritual creatures who have lost all of their martial inclination and combat instincts after being transfigured into humans by Aphrodite. The lone exception is Eve Lectress, the adoptive heir to the throne who doesn't need Wonder Woman to remind her how to fight. Eve lacks the super human abilities of the Amazing Amazon, however, so she still needs Wonder Woman's help from time to time.
  • Marya "The Mexican Giant" was defending her mountain village from the banditos of Jose Pierez long before Wonder Woman dropped into her life, with Pierez having to kidnap Marya's mother to stop her. Wonder Woman putting an end to Jose's operation allows Marya to pursue higher education in Washington DC, but she still lends a hand to Wonder Woman and the Holliday Girls if she becomes aware of their activities.
  • Queen Moonbeam is more resistant to damage than the Golden Age Wonder Woman. While Diana survives bombs and such, she's still blown backwards or high into the air if she doesn't brace herself first, while Moonbeam is shown to be completely unaffected by the same weapons beyond not being able to see through the resulting smoke and dust. Moonbeam also easily subdues any invaders of her territory that she becomes aware of, but she generally doesn't act unless prompted to by her subjects, so Wonder Woman still has to do most of the work.
  • Morgana, a mood swinging witch claiming to be the daughter of the legendary Morgan Le Fay, originally menaced the classmates of Cathy Perkins and the city they foolishly summoned her into. After learning that Diana and Supergirl were chasing the same criminal she was, Morgana became the greatest ally Supergirl could hope for at the time, since Diana was depowered, quickly making short work of Zond, whose magic had previously made short work of Supergirl, but left enough of his butt for Kara to get a few kicks in before taking him away.
  • Nubia was originally introduced as the fraternal twin sister of the Silver Age Wonder Woman. Nubia had been kidnapped as a baby by Ares and raised as a weapon against the Amazons. She had all of Diana's powers, was just as skilled, and had an edge in combat because she was willing to go for the kill...except that she wasn't. All of the conditioning of Ares couldn't make Nubia into a murderer, so she fought Diana to a standstill each time before Diana removed the ring that was brainwashing Nubia, and Nubia became an ally to the Amazons of Paradise Island instead.
    • Post Crisis, Nubia has no familial relation to Diana, being a far older Amazon champion, an associate of Diana's aunt Antiope. She defended Doom's Doorway by herself from the wrong side to ensure no monsters reached the island of Themyscira, but became disgusted with the tribe living there when the punishment of forever defending the door was revoked and no one came to let her know. Her abilities are completely different, having the gift of "cold sight" from the gorgons and Thinking Up Portals from Ahura Mazda, which nonetheless compliment Diana's gifts after they iron out a few misunderstandings and work on solving problems together.
    • Post DC Rebirth, Nubia doesn't have any special abilities by Amazon standards, none as obvious as Diana's anyway, but carries two special spears, one of which is a Healing Shiv that can transform into a bladed lasso. She uses this to pacify several soldiers from a rival tribe driven mad by Chaos himself, saving the rival queen Faruka in the process. The other spear is able to disrupt the divine powers of rival pantheons, allowing her to win the day after being on the ropes for the entirety of Amazons Attack volume 2.
  • Hippolyta "Lyta" Trevor, daughter of the Golden Age Earth 2 Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor, is a prodigy in the Amazon arts. She's nowhere near as strong or fast as her mother, and she doesn't have anything like a magic lasso or invisible robot plane, but she's the only Golden Age Earth Two Amazon to master gliding on air currents, a skill previously thought unique to their Silver Age Earth One counterparts, and she was going to become the super hero "Fury" whether mom approved or not(mom was more so annoyed at Fury disrupting her Justice Society meetings, so Fury went and founded Infinity Inc).
    • Post Crisis On Infinite Earths, Wonder Woman was erased from the early 20th century altogether, not being born until after World War II. In her place was Helena Kosmatos, a Greek girl orphaned by the Nazis who was gifted power by a mythological Fury, Tisphone, so that she might avenge herself. In this iteration of the DCU, Lyta Trevor is the daughter of Helena, not Diana.
    • The New 52 Fury hails from Earth Two, again, but this time she's the daughter of Diana and the New God Steppenwolf, and she's also Donna instead of Lyta. She has New God Aero disks to fly with and a New Godly bullwhip instead of a magic lasso.
  • Post Crisis, Philippus, takes it upon herself to keep the exceptionally powerful Princess Diana in line before she kills someone or destroys the island of Themyscira. Through subterfuge, raw skill, much patience and tough love, she succeeds! Post Crisis Wonder Woman is often considered the best pure melee fighter on Earth, and the fact Philippus trained her puts her pretty high in the rankings by association. Little outside of opponents that are simply too powerful for skill to matter against, too numerous for one person, or select legendary Amazons like Hippolyta, are shown to be capable of stopping Philippus.
  • Wonder Woman's rival and foil, Artemis of the Bana-Mighdall also qualifies. She's rarely as powerful as Diana but she's a ruthless and efficient fighter in her own right, and even served as Wonder Woman for a time.
  • Wonder Girl: Cassie Sandsmark was initially Too Dumb to Live, but after Wonder Woman saved Cassie from herself, Sandsmark came into some real power and gradually became competent in addressing threats to Gateway City. Pre Flashpoint she got some training from Artemis while Diana was indisposed. Post Flashpoint, she had to learn how to fight the hard way. Regardless, she wound up leading her own team, Young Justice, and becoming a member of the Teen Titans, succeeding Donna Troy.
  • Hellenders
    • Marcia Hargis, Shock Treatment, serves as the bodyguard of Nathaniel as he investigates demonic activity. She can absorb large voltages of electrical energy, dischage the same over long distances, shift into electrical energy to do things like travel across powerlines and achieve forms of flight.
    • Henrietta Jessup, Sojourner, a security guard fired for protecting a cemetary she wasn't assigned to, proves to be a skilled pilot, and gradually grows into a warrior with the team.
    • Talk show host Parker Lyle proves better at killing demons than some of the Hellenders.
  • Wonder Girl: Yara Flor was put on the fast track to becoming this trope by Hera, who ordered the various Gods of Mount Olympus to train her in everything from philosophy to warfare, so she could become her perfect champion.
  • Wonder Woman (Cloonan and Conrad) closes on The Reveal that Wonder Woman's daughter in this iteration of the DCU will not be Lyta Trevor, but Lizzie Prince, who will form a new team called "Generation S" with Batman's son, Damian Wayne and Superman's son Jon Kent, and wield three "lassos of fate" at once. Even before her teenage years she was already capable of taking down Killer Croc with a single strike, without any kind of combat training, though her Super-Strength is offset back a much lower amount of Super-Toughness, as she gets knocked out falling off a kanga.
• Young Heroes In Love
  • Monstergirl is an alien with the ability to shape shift into other aliens, as well as compress herself to "shrink". While she mainly uses this a for flirting, foreplay and sex, once she learns to take more than two forms, she remains a super her, helping to liberate the states of Connecticut and New York when they were taken by super villains.
  • Bonfire can generate fire, raise temperatures, and bathe areas in nuclear radiation. She can boil large bodies of water and melt glaciers, but is mostly into protecting things, and her suitor Frostbite can keep the damage to everything she doesn't want to burn to a minimum
  • Zip-Kid is another Sizeshifter who can't change shape like Monstergirl but can grow and shrink to far greater degrees, and the smaller she gets, the faster she goes. And she can fly, and shoot laser beams. She was waiting for something to use all her powers on without feeling guilty
• Young Justice
  • Arrowette is the daughter of the Silver Age Miss Arrowette from Worlds Finest, and routinely patrols the highways and byways catching criminals in net arrows, to try and bring awareness to her mother's legacy. This endeavor has gotten her beaten up several times and even shot, but she self medicates and gets right back on the street.
  • Empress was granted powers based on the Loa of Vodoun religion, but couldn't think of anything to do with them until she saw Arrowette catch a shoplifter and decided to join her anticrime campaign. She's only scratched the surface of her potential, being mostly limited to Mind Control, teleportation and deflector shields, but that still goes a long way, and she's a good enough with staves, escrima sticks and swords to impress the Female Furies, despite them being physically stronger and faster than she is
  • Secret is the ghost of a girl murdered by a super villain. She was captured for study by the Department of Extranormal Operations, freed by Young Justice, and decided to do all she could to keep them from becoming ghosts as well
  • Jinny Hex, distant descendant of Jonah Hex, was assisting the police with violent criminals days after graduating high school, before she discovered Jonah Hex's trunk full of exotic weaponry and joined Young Justice.
• Zatanna Zatara was a seemingly unremarkable girl in Hawkman who was on a search for her Disappeared Dad. Turns out her father was the Golden Age spell caster Giovanni Zatara from Action Comics, he had a very good reason for his absence, and has since taught Zatanna everything he knows, from stage magic tricks to actual magic that involves making virtually anything happen by saying words backwards. She possess a hat and wand which further supplement her spells, and is a master of martial arts and escape artistry who isn't automatically helpless if her magic is no longer an option.
  • Before Zatanna can learn from her dad she's nearly finished off by her Starter Villain, Allura. Luckily for the Zataras, Allura has a twin sister, who is able to hold her off until Zatanna can fight her own battles. And considering neither Giovanni nor Zatanna ever permanently defeat Allura, it's no small feat.
  • Zatanna's friend Marsha isn't as powerful, but still leads a coven of witches that defend San Francisco, and personally gives her life before that of her followers to give Zatanna enough time to whip up a spell to defeat the demon Xaos, destroyer of Atlantis.
  • Rhiannon is an arachnid creature who takes the form of young girl "Misty Kilgore" to gain Zatanna's assistance while Rhiannon searches for a way to restore her true power and retake her kingdom. Despite the deception, Rhiannon appreciates the help and readily risks her life for Zatanna's, or taking those of Zatanna's assailants if it comes to it.

Additions after collaborations and acquisitions

• DC lost the license to print Jimmy Wakely comics in 1952, but retained the right to publish Sheriff Katherine, better known as "Kit Colby" because she was equal to the Real Life US Army officer Kit Carson.
• DC bought the rights to many of the Quality Comics properties in 1956...
  • Phantom Lady
    • Sandra Knight was started in the Police Comics series a little before Wonder Woman. She did not have superpowers, but she did have a gun that suppressed light, and a good right hook. DC added the addition of special goggles to help her better see through the darkness she brought.
    • Post Crisis On Infinite Earths, Sandra Knight is succeeded by savate kick boxer Delilah Tyler in Action Comics, who used duplicates of Knight's equipment to beat up criminals blackmailing her father in Washington DC and found herself facing a seemingly never ending crime wave from there, consistently winning until her death in Infinite Crisis.
    • Stormy Knight was the pampered daughter of a senator who couldn't get comfortable with the fact the world was always on the brink of collapse, inventing "dark light" bands that let her teleport, turn intangible, create illusions and become invisible, so that she could do something about it.
    • New 52, Jennifer Knight was a reporter being hunted by the Bender crime family for knowing too much. She was gifted black light bands by Doll Man, who could no longer use them on account of his decreased size, and used them to fight back.
  • While the Miss America of Marvel Comics was far more popular than the Quality one, it should be noted the DC acquisition was the older version who was far more powerful than Marvel's to the point it's speculated that's why she was less popular. Regardless, she was tough enough to take a torpedo, strong enough to divert the course of one with her bare hands, had telekinesis, teleportation, the ability to rearrange molecules, size shifting, retrocognition, and magic that could turn images into animate objects. There was seemingly nothing Miss America couldn't do besides cure her decade of sexism, and there wasn't really any hope for anyone intent on fighting her.
  • After watching Doll Man risk his life for five years of publication time, his girlfriend Martha Roberts learned how to tap into his molecular compression powers, being able to increase her strength by twenty times at the cost of giving up surface area. She proceeded to fight crime as Midge and as Doll Girl.
  • Freedom Fighters
    • Post DC Rebirth, Human Bomb gets a sidekick in Cherry Bomb, who has to wear a containment suit to prevent her from accidentally killing people with her explosions. It allows to volutarily do damage too, and is bullet proof.
    • Red Bee also gets a sidekick in the post DC Rebirth comic books known as Ladybug, who can fly like her namesake, shrink to the size of one, and retains her full size strength while shrunken.
• In 1972, DC attempted to revive some of the Fawcett Comics characters they helped drive into obscurity with their litigation
  • Shazam!
    • Captain Marvel's sister Mary Marvel is one of the oldest comic-book heroines, being created in 1942. Endowed with god-granted strength, speed, invulnerability, wisdom and flight, Mary was indisputably her universe's strongest girl (before it was merged into the DC Universe's main Earth), and she was popular enough among readers to headline her own book, Mary Marvel (1945).
    • Isis already got her own televised spinoff from Captain Marvel's live action series, so it only made sense that she'd become a Canon Immigrant in the comic books too. She fought a wild variety of threats in her short run from common crooks to muck monsters to tin pot dictators to evil sorcerers to space aliens, usually outsmarting them but sometimes just beating them into submission.
  • Bulletman
    • Bulletman's wife, Bulletgirl, who wears a replica of his anti gravity helmet, has the same bullet proof personal force field, took the same super strength serum, and is able to put up a fight against the Seven Deadly Enemies of Man.
    • Bulletman and Bulletgirl have a daughter who goes by Windshear. While she gets her name from the Milestone character who wasn't part of the DCU yet, she uses the same equipment as her parents, having none of her namesake's powers. Still, she able to use that gear to save the Marvel Family after they lose their powers and are at the mercy of the villain Chain Lightning.
    • Lance Harrower was goaded into touching a biological weapon known as a "smart metal" that binds to collagen by fake super hero Sally Sonic, who told him it would give him the same powers as Bulletman. It suffocated him to death, as she intended, but Lance's wife Alix survived the smart metal infection when it spread to her and gained super powers that mimic the effects of Bulletman's equipment. Taking on the alias Bulleteer, Alix was content to simply assist firefighters and work as a bodyguard but ended up fighting several super villains, as Sally Sonic kept trying to have her assassinated, upset one of the Harrowers survived her "prank". Turns out Alix was unknowingly an other worldly Barrier Maiden whose powers combated and assimilated the smart metal.
  • Post Crisis On Infinite Earths, Spy Smasher gets a female successor that has all of his hand to hand combat skills combined with the firearms skills of his wife, Eve Corby(who had the abilities to be an action girl but was content to be a nurse and secretary). She's still little match for the Batman family members in a fist fight, but she's Deadshot's equal in a gun fight.
• DC gained ownership of some of Charlton Comics' characters in 1983
  • Sarge Steel
    • Bess Forbes was initially just Sarge's Girl Friday secretary, but over the course of the series she learns to fight and even kill people, though she doesn't like it.
    • Cindy Carson, Mentalia, has telepathy that allows her to silently and fluidly coordinate with the other Sentinels, and, when faced with a robot, develops telekinesis to fight it.
  • Judomaster
    • Suzikawa had the same sensei as the Judomaster, and she was an active fighter against her own government, helping to keep Imperial Japan from spreading to as many Pacific islands as they could while the Allies focussed primarily on Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
    • The female Judomaster Sonia Sato of Birds of Prey, Justice Society and JSA All-Stars, has an ability that is described as "casting an aversion field", which basically means that if she wants to avoid being touched, she will avoid all attempts to touch her, no matter how fast, calculated or concealed, until she wants to touch. The only way to hit an evasive Judomaster is with an attack that simply has too much surface area to leave her with any room to dodge it, and even then, there's the chance she might toss an object, lunge with a choke or throw a very un judo like maneuver, like a punch, before her enemy can do anything.
  • Captain Atom
    • The first Captain Atom's sidekick, Nightshade, came into the DCU with him. Her skills and darkness powers proved just as useful in as her original setting as she became a key member of Shadowpact.
    • Bombshell was a Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb created using the same procedure that produced the second Captain Atom and Major Force. She was intended to destroy the Teen Titans, Jericho and Raven in particular, and nearly succeeded before being overwhelmed by sheer numbers. After an assassination attempt on her by Deathstroke's Titan's East team, however, Bombshell decided throw her lot in with the Teen Titans instead.
  • Peacemaker's secretary Nora O'Rourke was a combative police officer in Ireland and for the FBI in the US prior to taking the job, which she got by intimidating every other applicant into opting out before getting into a fight with an assasin, which she won with nothing more than a black eye. She suffered from chickification, post Crisis On Infinite Earths, however, when she wasn't written out of Peacemaker stories altogether.
  • Blue Beetle was not a series known for female heroes of action. DC set out to change that
    • Red Beetle made her case for joining the Justice Society by charging into a battle they were having with Doctor Chaos, to help turn the tide in their favor. Burning buildings, natural disasters, dangerous criminals, that all gets her excited, monitor duty she resents. Her suit and gadgets are all replicas of Ted Kord's, except they're not blue
    • Xiomara Erazo, Yellow Beetle, Dynastes, was a teacher from El Salvador who was taken control of by the Horizon scarab Ohm-Ecs, sworn enemy to Reach scarabs like the one used by/using Jaime Reyes, and she proved to be physically stronger than he under its control. Erazo was able to convince Ohm-Ecs that Reyes and Khaji Da were more valuable to them as allies than corpses
    • Roma Jurado Lopez, Green Beetle, Nitida, also controlled by a Horizon scarab hell bent on destroying Khaji Da and it's host. She specializes on both protective force fields and, alternatively, destroying everything in her general vicinity. She's also able direct her scarab's wrath away from the Reach defector.
• Milestone Comics at first remained a separate setting when leased to DC, but many of the characters were integrated into the DCU when Milestone went into dormancy 2008.
  • Blood Syndicate
    • Sara Quinones, Flashback, can fly and rewind time by three seconds, which is a lot of time when paired her brother Fade, who can also fly, phase through matter and has a danger sense.
    • Shen Hsien Pu Kwei, or Kwai, daughter of the Jade Emperor, a hired gun with a shape shifting suit that can maifest weapons, and Super-Strength, including super strong prehensile hair, and can fly
    • Brickhouse lost most of her memory from the big bang, including her memories of how to fight, but she gained super strength, Super-Toughness and is willing to learn as she helps Blood Syndicate take down SYSTEM, which had been exploiting bang babies such as herself before she broke free
    • Bad Betty's entire skeletal and muscular systems have been replaced with superior synthetic parts while her skin and brain have also been augmented as far as safely possible. She was originally bullet proof and as strong as ten men, but has steadily gotten stronger, has effortlessly precise aim with fire arms and develops specialized gadgets as needed
    • Aquamaria can't stay on land very long before she evaporates and has to wait to condense, but her ability to alter water temperature can be used to hold that off, or to boil her enemies alive, or freeze them.
  • Rocket found the super powered alien Icon, built a kinetic energy controlling belt out of his space craft, and convinced him to become a super hero with her as his sidekick. She also got him to return to being a super hero after he temporarily gave up on Earth while Icon's enemy Oblivion was still at large, by fighting Oblivion in his absence
  • Tiffany Evans takes advantage of her slight frame and short stature to pack as much armor and fire power into her vehicles and weapons as possible. Her signature creation, the Technique suit, was designed to defeat the super hero Hardware, but she switched to his side after learning her employers were criminals Hardware was steadily exposing. Still, she was able to fight Hardware to a standstill twice
  • Shadow Cabinet
    • Kahina Eskandari, Iron Butterfly, a Palestinian given the ability to psionically manipulate metals. She works with Shadow Cabinet in exchange for chances to avenge those who did not survive the experiment, such as her panets. She can also harness magnetic fields to convert electrical energy into concussive kinetic blasts.
    • Isadora Wellington-Smythe, Iota, an international thief based in Australia who turned to Shadow Cabinet when her husband used their shrinking abilities to become a tinpot dictator. Most of her stolen items remain on her person, their mass dimensionally displaced until they are microscopic, including a wide variety of weapons and weaponized vehicles she can enlarge at any moment.
    • Valerie Kameya, Blitzen, has to actively hold back to avoid killing people with her Super-Speed, her girlfriend, Gerri Brauer, Donner, has the same issue, though more so from her raw strength.
    • Stella Maxwell, Starlight, a mathematician who saved astronomer Michael Merriman from his own tachyon telecope, and was rendered radioactive, emitting wavelengths from the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Hardware hit a roadblock in treating her, so Dharma took over on the condition she fight his enemies. She's mowed down armored soldiers on land and brought down satellites in orbit.
    • Windshear was mentioned but kept off panel for ten months before finally being shown to be comparable to Ramjet, and thankfully for the hero, on his side. She is highly resistant to being cut and burned, and can also produce tornado force winds.
    • Gloria Mundi has the experience of a thousand dead races, psychokinesis, and the ability to gain yet more experience by draining souls
  • Catholic Girl is primarily a detective and researcher, but if a ciminal proves unruly or a subject proves to be a threat in need of immediate containment, she has several divine gifts ranging from Light 'em Up, to force fields, to super strength and flight, such that she can even keep up with the technologically enhanced Xombi
  • Kobalt and Clover have no super human abilities, but did not let the Big Bang spreading them among Dakota's criminal underworld hinder their vigilante activities. Kobalt's sidekick is no less of a fighter than he is, with Clover more often acting alone to prove it
  • Static
    • Apurna Chawney, Narnie, is raw kinetic energy, possessing sapience but lacking a solid body of her own, instead inhabiting her sister, Bina, AKA "Plus", who uses Narnie to create quite literal force fields people cannot pass through, to strike from a distance, and even fly.
    • Dusk's vigilante activities are a source of inspiration to Static, as she lacks any Big Bang gifts like he does and isn't even particularly well armed beyond her bullet proof shield, but nonetheless patrols the streets of Dakota and usually wins the fights she gets into.
• WildStorm being sold by Image didn't result in DC getting all the characters or using all those they got but...
  • WildCATs
    • Post Flashpoint, the kherubim's Coda were established to have a rivalry with the Themyscira tribe of Amazons, having occupied their original territory for a time in antiquity and Zealot, their most noteworthy warrior, leading a successful incursion onto their island in the modern era. Luckily for the islanders, she and they are still more focused on fighting daemonites.
    • The Void has become increasingly inhuman, to the point she was reduced to the upper half of a skull floating over a manikin body. Nonetheless she's still more female than male and more than a match for Wayne Industry's security forces.
    • Voodoo's original story in the WildStorm comics was overtaken by an evil clone the daemonites found more controllable. Voodoo wasn't let off the hook however, as the Black Razors conscripted her for the purpose of stopping her duplicate. She's proven sufficient in this and many other unwanted, dangerous jobs.
    • Maxine Manchester, Ladytron, a soldier who lost her arm and leg, got drunk, and woke out in a lab to find herself converted into a nuclear powered cyborg. She can crack metal with her screams and unleash electromaginetic pulses if mechanical foes aren't stopped by that.
  • Stormwatch
    • Jenny Sparks is mostly a Post Humous Character, since as the spirit of the 20th Century, her time was long up when Flashpoint happened. Still, she's got an entire miniseries dedicated to the fact she was the only one who could stop Captain Atom in the merged setting before her scheduled demise.
    • Jenny Quarx/Jenny Quantum, spirit of the 21st Century who can do almost anything she can think of, so long as it is rooted in theoretical physics, is far more versatile than the Shock and Awe of Sparks.
    • Victoria Ojuku N'Gengi, Flint, is so strong she can break a man's back with the wind from the blows and decapitate baseline humans with direct strikes. She's also fast enough to grab most projectiles out of the air and generally immune to most forms of physical damage. Her skin will even adapt to molecular acid, though she'll still need to heal from the initial burns.
  • The Authority
    • The Engineer can rapidly synthesize just about anything so long as she has the necessary components for it, including weapons. If any human technology is designed to be remotely operated or automated, she also has the ability take control of it. Being mechanical, she's also repairable, and she's able to be backed up digitally, thus she's not too scared of taking damage
    • Gen¹³ didn't make the cut, post Flashpoint, but Rainmaker did. She mostly wants to be left alone with her worshipers in Coral City, but will turn her Power of the Storm on whoever she is told is a threat to her home and followers
  • As of the New 52, Caitlin Fairchild was a scientist turned into a pawn of a Killer Robot that was slain by Deathstroke the Terminator. However, there have since been a series of clones also calling themselves Caitlin Fairchild that have been far more heroic and not so easy to kill. The first of these was initially a pawn of Harvest in his anti Superboy/Teenager/Homeless campaign, but she realized she was being used and became instrumental to Harvest's downfall. Another of these is a loose affiliate of the Wild C.A.T.S. who often saves them when they get in over their heads.

Transplants from initiatives and imprints

• Naomi McDuffie, the first person on her planet to be born with super powers, immediately triggered a civil war between those who wanted to kill her and those that wanted to exile her, both for the purpose of preventing her from becoming an action girl who would threaten their ways of life. The side in favor of exile wins, and it doesn't work, as she lands on Prime Earth DC and quickly seeks out Superman once she discovers she's as different as he is. He quickly takes her to the Hall of Justice, and she's soon accepted into the Justice League.
• Galaxy: The Prettiest Star, born a Cyandii prince, transitioned into a princess. Her gender affirming celebration was spoiled by the Vane Hive Mind annihilating her world, so the exiled royal began training in gravity manipulation, light generation, heat draining, electrical discharges, sonic attacks, transference of kinetic energy and energy signature detection, to prevent the loss of more planets.
• Amanda Waller, unlike most on the list, is at most a Badass Normal with no special abilities other than brute intellect, enough Heroic Willpower to break a Green Lantern ring and guile. She's well past her prime, black, fat and menopausic. She's the mistress of the Suicide Squad and not even the Bat crosses her lightly. And no, she's not hiding behind superpowered operatives - old and slow she might be, but she's still skilled to the point she can lead her team on site and carry her own weight and canny and strong enough to go toe to toe with Granny Goodness and walk away. She needed the aid of a boom tube and was in need saving by Big Barda, but few of the New Gods have had the pleasure of smashing Granny in the face, fewer baseline humans still.

• DC Extended Universe:
  • Diana of Themyscira/Wonder Woman, of course. She's introduced in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, where her major contribution to the film is to jump in during the climactic fight scene where she holds her own against Doomsday at least as well as the similarly-powered Superman. Later on, she's one of the Justice League's best fighters.
    • Wonder Woman introduces the rest of the Amazons, a literal Amazon Brigade of Action Girls, including her mother, Hippolyta and her aunt, Antiope. They also appear in both versions of Justice League. The latter films also have the goddess Artemis during the battle in ancient times against the armies of the New Gods, in which she shoots divine arrows that are powerful enough to down spaceships. Wonder Woman 1984 has her fight less like an ancient warrior and use her lasso and deflecting bracers more.
  • In Suicide Squad, there's Katana and Harley Quinn (although Harley blurs the line between this and Dark Action Girl).
  • Aquaman and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom have Mera, a Lady of War, who kicks butt and control water.
  • SHAZAM! and SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods have Mary and Darla, after Billy shared the power of SHAZAM with them.
  • Birds of Prey introduces the titular Amazon Brigade, feating Action Girls Black Canary, the Huntress and Harley Quinn. Subverted with Cassandra Cain however as unlike the comics, she's just a teen girl who doesn't do any fighting.
  • The Flash has the alternate Kara Zor-El/Supergirl, who has the same powerset as Superman, albeit less combat experience.

Shared universe settings

• Arrowverse
  • Arrow: A number of examples-the Huntress, both versions of the Black Canary and Shado.
    • There's also trained assassin Nyssa al-Ghul, and Diggle's special forces/ A.R.G.U.S. field agent ex-wife/current-girlfriend/wife again Lyla Michaels.
  • The spinoff-series Vixen, The Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow bring us Vixen and Hawkgirl as heroes, and villains from the setting have included China White, Plastique, Killer Frost, Trajectory, Peek-a-Boo, Isabelle Rochev/Ravager, and Cupid.
    • Vixen sums up the subject in her introductory live-action scene when she takes down a group of heavily-armed mooks one by one:
    Last mook standing: Why don't you come out and fight like a man?
    Vixen: How about I kick your ass like a woman?
    • And the count continues with Artemis, Jesse Quick, Thea Queen/Speedy, more introduced metahumans...at this point, it seems like anyone who tries to attack a random woman in the Arrowverse runs a high-risk of getting their ass handed to them by the sheer number of butt-kicking women there are.
  • Batwoman:
    • Kate is quite skilled in combat.
    • Ryan's a martial artist who takes up the Batwoman name and mantle.
  • Supergirl:
    • The main character -Kara Zor-El/Kara Danvers alias Supergirl- is the world's strongest and most powerful woman. An important subplot deals with her becoming a hero and learning what it means while she kicks butts.
    • She's aided by her adopted sister Alex, who kicks much butt as a DEO agent, and they've run into multiple female alien threats, not to mention superpowered humans Livewire and Silver Banshee. During the crossover with The Flash when Supergirl and the Flash faced off in a fight against the latter two, Barry joked they would settle this like women.
    Barry: "What? There's more of you than there is me."
    • Nia also turns into one upon discovering her powers and becoming Dreamer. She is taught how to fight, not only with them but by martial arts.

Stand alone series

• Smallville: Lois Lane, probably helped by her Military Brat status. Most of the female superheroes (like Black Canary and Supergirl) obviously qualify as well. Tess Mercer after her Heel–Face Turn, as did Chloe Sullivan after she Took a Level in Badass.
• Titans (2018): Any woman who is part of the team, can and will kick your ass, whether they are an alien Warrior Princess, an Amazon, a McNinja metahuman, a human-demon hybrid or a Badass Normal.
• Wonder Woman from Wonder Woman (1975). At the time, an action girl was such new ground for broadcast TV that the producers had huge concerns about how the audience would react if a woman was punched by a man in prime time. This ended up making Wonder Woman even more of a badass since the result was that they decided her opponents would be so physically overwhelmed by the Amazon Princess that they would rarely even land a punch before she beat them.

• Batman: Wayne Family Adventures: Even in a wheelchair, Barbara Gordon (Oracle) can still kick ass.

• Beware the Batman: Tatsu Yamashiro/Katana's definitely a mite more on the morally grey side than the more traditional Batman sidekicks, especially considering that she isn't afraid to kill.
• Batman: Caped Crusader
  • Renee Montoya is a trained and highly dedicated police officer, perfectly capable of holding her own in either a gun or fistfight.
  • Barbara Gordon may not be a costumed hero like Batman (yet, at least), but she's still very much capable of defending herself. She manages to put up a very good fight against one of the hitmen sent to assassinate her and always has a pistol on the ready in case trouble arises. She also flattens Corrigan with a single well-timed punch. Having a trained police commissioner for a father may have something to do with that.
• Creature Commandos (2024): The Bride of Frankenstein fight with Circe and many past bouts with Eric show that she's a very experienced fighter.
• Hawkgirl and Wonder Woman, Justice League. In Unlimited we gain Huntress, Black Canary, and Vixen.
• Teen Titans (2003) Starfire and Raven are particularly awesome cases, as well as pretty much any female "Honorary Titan," such as Terra or Bumblebee.
• Artemis, Batgirl, Wonder Girl, Zatanna, Miss Martian, Bumblebee, and Rocket in Young Justice (2010). Wonder Woman and Black Canary also appear in the show, as well as a minor character named Sam.