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| Baroness Paula Von Gunther | ||||
| Real name | Paula Von Gunther | |||
| Debut | Sensation Comics #4 (April 1942) | |||
| Created by | William Moulton Marston Harry G. Peter | |||
| Affiliations | Wonder Woman Gestapo | |||
| Abilities | Brilliant strategist and scientist; Amazon training; A.R.G.U.S. training | |||
| Played by | see In other media | |||
Baroness Paula von Gunther battled Wonder Woman as her first recurring arch-nemesis and, eventually, her closest ally.
Baroness Paula von Gunther originally debuted in Sensation Comics #4.
History[]
Pre-Crisis[]
Golden Age[]
Baroness Paula von Gunther first appeared as a foe of Wonder Woman. She battled the Amazon numerous times as an agent of the Gestapo. She murdered many individuals, kept a small group of women as personal slaves, tortured them routinely, was for a time the leader of all Gestapo operations in the United States, forced American citizens into becoming Nazi spies, and once tried to monopolize America's milk supply so that its people would have weak bones and fall before the stronger-boned Nazis.
Von Gunther was finally captured and revealed that she had worked for the Nazis because they held her daughter Gerta captive. Von Gunther reformed and pledged her loyalty to Wonder Woman after Gerta was rescued. Von Gunther even put her own life in peril to save Wonder Woman from a burning munitions plant, suffering third-degree burns and a horribly scarred face.
Von Gunther went to trial, but Wonder Woman acted as her defense and got her off. Murder charges had to be thrown out on double jeopardy, because Paula had previously been tried, convicted... and executed for that crime (Sensation Comics #7). Wonder Woman also dramatically revealed Paula's scarred face to the jury, which was moved by Paula's heroic self-sacrifice and acquitted her of the remaining espionage and sabotage charges. (Wonder Woman (vol. 1) #3.)
Paula returned to Paradise Island with her former slave girls and her daughter to live and undergo Amazon training. Queen Hippolyta molded fine features on Paula's face, which the goddess Aphrodite blessed and magically converted into Paula's new face.
Paula became the Amazons' chief scientist, spending part of her time on Paradise Island and part aiding Wonder Woman from a hidden underground laboratory beneath Holliday College. Her daughter Gerta also was a scientific savant, although her experiments sometimes led to accidents that needed Wonder Woman's help to fix. Gerta's enlarging ray, for example, was instrumental in helping Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor return to human size after escaping Atomia's atom world, but also accidentally unleashed the menace of the Bughumans.
Silver Age[]
Her Earth-1 counterpart differed only slightly, as Baroness Paula von Gunta. The Earth-1 von Gunta appeared in Wonder Woman (vol. I) #163 and 168, before presumably following a similar path as the Earth-2 Paula and moving to Paradise Island to become an adopted Amazon and chief scientist.
The Earth-1 Paula was asked to replace Hippolyta as Amazon queen during a coup d'état, which was abruptly ended when goddess Kore appeared to enlist the Amazons in a battle against the Anti-Monitor during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Post-Crisis[]
Following the events of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, it was revealed that Baroness Paula von Gunther fought Hippolyta during the time-traveling queen's World War II adventures as Wonder Woman.
This Von Gunther was a mistress of the occult and became the human host for the evil wandering spirit, Dark Angel. Dark Angel became a dedicated foe of Hippolyta and was inadvertently responsible for the origin of Donna Troy.
Donna Troy was able to defeat Dark Angel, and at some point Dark Angel separated herself from von Gunther. The Baroness was last seen living among the Amazons.
Eventually it was revealed that Dark Angel was not a mystical spirit but an extant multiversal doppelganger of Donna Troy.
It is not yet known how, if at all, the continuity-altering events of Infinite Crisis altered Paula's history.
Rebirth[]
A new character by the name of Paula Von Gunther would be introduced as a young child. She was the descendant of a band of all women warriors called the Valkyries that had tried to invade Themyscira thousands of years ago, although by the present day Paula's parents where part of a band of terrorist Neo-Nazis which were defeated by Wonder Woman and her allies in A.R.G.U.S.. After finding the infant Paula, Wonder Woman decided the child should be adopted by another family under the name Helen Paul so that she would not be brought up with the legacy of her parents hanging over her head. Paula would go on to become and A.R.G.U.S. agent, motivated by Wonder Woman's actions, while Diana frequently had doubts about lying to Paula about her parentage she continued to believe it was the best thing to do for Paula's sake.
When A.R.G.U.S. was attacked and destroyed by the villian Leviathan Paula would find out about that Wonder Woman had lied to her about her true origins. She would be visited by the ghosts of her Valkyrie ancestors who claimed it was her destiny to hunt down the Amazons and Wonder Woman had covered up Paula's history out of fear that she might killed her. The ghosts led Paula to Norway where she uncovered the 'Spear of Gurda', the weapon of the Valkyries' founder that battle the Amazons. Upon touching the spear Paula was filled with visions of her ancestors memories particularly their arrival at Themyscira which was peaceful until the Amazons attacked them without motivation. Paula resolved to defeat Wonder Woman by forming 'the Four Horsewomen' out of women that had been created to defeat the Amazon heroine.
Paula manged to recruit the villains Devastation and Armageddon to her cause with relative ease and brought the golem Genocide to life with her own blood meaning she had control over it. Devastation and Armageddon were then sent to recruit the forth and final Horsewoman, Donna Troy, but she refused and the duo were defeated by her. Meanwhile Paula transported Wonder Woman to her base in Norway and battled her, accusing her of covering up her heritage and the Amazons attack on the Valkyries. Paula revealed that Genocide was currently launching an attack on a portal to Themyscira in Boston, killing Wonder Woman's allies that were defending the portal, she offered to call of the attack if Wonder Woman helped her cross over to Themyscira but she refuse and so Paula fled collapsing the base atop of Wonder Woman although she would be rescued by Donna Troy.
Despite Wonder Woman refusing to help, Genocide manged to force entry to Themyscira allowing her and Paula to attack the Amazons. Dianaand Donna followed closely with Donna teaming up with the Amazons Nubia and Maggie to defeat Genocide while Diana tried to help Paula come to her senses. Diana was eventually successful in persuading Paula that neither of them truly knew whether it was the Amazons or the Valkyries to blame for their feud, and that neither of them had to be weighed down by their ancestors choices. Paula yielded, allowing Donna to destroy Genocide, and agreed to be held on Themyscira so that she could find reformation.
Powers and abilities[]
Pre-Crisis, Paula von Gunther had no super powers but was a skilled hand-to-hand combatant.
Post-Crisis, von Gunther was empowered when possessed by Dark Angel, who had vast powers and was able to perform a variety of feats including mind control, altering her size, teleportation and altering the time stream.
Rebirth, von Gunther possessed no natural superpowers but had exceptional hand-to-hand and ranged combat skills from being a top A.R.G.U.S. agent, after finding the Spear of Gurda she would also gain the expertise of the millennia of Valkyrie Warmasters that wielded the Spear before her.
In other media[]
See: Baroness Paula Von Gunther (Christine Belford)
Baroness Paula von Gunther was one of only two enemies from the comic book to appear on the Wonder Woman television series. She was played by Christine Belford.