Wonder Woman vs. The Cheetah: Visual Analysis

Most of you are probably wondering why I uploaded a general picture of Wonder Woman and one of her villains, The Cheetah. Yes, I agree that Wonder Woman is just fighting her enemy, but there is much more to this picture then just the fight. All of the different shapes and sizes give more emphasis to what is occurring in the scene. Take this picture for example, look at the jagged lines in Wonder Woman's lasso or the sharp,pointed edges of Cheetah's claws. In Molly Bangs book "Picture This," she mentions that "We feel more scared looking at pointed shapes" (25).  Do you agree? I certainly do; because of Cheetah's pointed claws, you can see that Wonder Woman is leaning back as far as she can in order to stay away from the claws that could easily stab her.  Now look at Wonder Woman's lasso, these jagged lines could possibly indicate something similar to thorns or spikes that could harm The Cheetah.  Also, the white lines going across Wonder Woman's chest indicate how fast Cheetahs claws are moving as she is trying to scratch Wonder Woman.  

Now, look at the position of Wonder Woman and The Cheetah. Both of these women are placed purposely in the center of the image.  Bang says that "The center of the page is the most effective 'center of attention’" (22). Right when you look at this picture, I'm almost positive that you are not looking at the edges, but at the center of the image.  The center of the image shows Wonder Woman with her lasso, trying to defeat Cheetah because the illustrator wanted the struggle between the two of them to be the "center of attention." Also, the two are surrounded by "empty" space to indicate that, in this image, they are the only two that more or less "exist" in the world right now.  The white space draws your focus to them, and them only.

Okay, so now that I have gone over the visual analysis, you are probably wondering “what does this have to do with the relationship between the two of them?” Well, look at the conversation between the two of them. Wonder Woman refers to Cheetah as “Barbara,” which most likely means that they know each other outside of their super-life.  Also, look at Wonder Woman’s facial expression - she looks frightened, yet sorrowful.  Wonder Woman looks as if she is struggling to not fight Cheetah, but she probably does not have a choice.  This picture is somewhat ironic because just by the look on Wonder Woman’s face and her dialogue, you can indicate that their is more than just a hero/enemy relationship.