I'm a bit of a comic fan, so I'll offer my input; but you might not like what I have to say. While I'm not a Wonder Woman expert (I don't like her and generally prefer Supergirl), I've read enough stuff featuring her and the Justice League to have some idea of her powers. I apologize in advance for the following wall of text.
Disclaimer 1: Superhero/superheroine powers are wildly inconsistent from writer to writer, so take all this with a grain of salt.
Disclaimer 2: I'm talking about modern day comic book Wonder Woman (as in last 20 years or so), not stuff from the 50s or the TV show.
Modern day comic book Wonder Woman has no weaknesses.
None. She has a ridiculous number of strengths, but there's no kryptonite or anything that will drain or remove her powers. Some of those strengths include:
- Super strength: All versions of wonder woman at least as strong as Hercules. All versions are weaker than Superman, but it's close. So the lower limit of her Strength is Hercules, and upper limit is Superman. She is stronger than Supergirl (it pains me to say that); in fact, she is the strongest female heroine in the DC universe.
- Nearly Invulnerable: She is not quite as invulnerable as Superman. She is all but completely invulnerable to bludgeoning attacks. Bullets from very high power guns can cause her minor bruises and cuts (they might break her skin but not muscle tissue). Of course, she can just deflect bullets with her braclets. Many versions of Wonder Woman heal rapidly. She can withstand space, deep water, extreme heat and cold, etc. without trouble. She has an extremely high pain threshhold and endurance.
- Flight: She can fly. (Really old school versions could not fly)
- Speed: If she wants to, she can move and super speed, up to about half the speed of light. This is clearly not Flash level, but still far faster than most heroes.
- Reflexes: Can use her superhuman speed to deflect bullets, laster beams, etc. with braclets.
- Senses: Super sight ansd hearing. Her brain can process information extremely fast as well.
- Wisdom: Very high wisdom and intelligence, especially in military tactics, military stretegy, and languages. Unlike many ryona stories, she's not a moron. (That said, she's certainly not Batman, Brainiac, or Lex Luthor level)
- Combat Skills: All versions of Wonder Woman have excellent fighting skills. She is probably the best close combat fighter (from a pure skill standpoint, as in being knowledgable and capable in a vast number of martial arts) in the entire DC world.
Anyway, there's more but you get the point. She's ridiculously powerful. To be honest, most ryona stories I read with her are either total bullshit, or based on the much weaker TV version of Wonder Woman. (That's understandable though, since more people are aware of the old TV show.)
Note that the above applies to comic book WW from the mid 80s until about 2010. The comic has been rebooted since then, so I'm not sure is she's still that powerful.
"Among the things the Nazis used on her were chloroform and poison gas. Her enemies also occasionally stole away her belt (leaving her without her super strength), her lasso, and her bracelets (leaving her defenseless against gunfire), but Wonder Woman always recovered the stolen component by the end of the episode."
In the television series, her magic belt allowed her to retain her powers when she was not on Paradise Island; removing it weakened her."
Yeah, this is from the TV version of WW. In the comics, taking her belt does absolutely nothing. Hell, some versions of her costume don't even have a belt. She can kick your ass while naked just fine. I really think they just added the belt thing to add more peril to the TV show.
Without her bracelets, gunfire might hurt her but not really injure her seriously. (I suppose if you had enough guns firing for a long enough time... death by a thousand cuts, as the saying goes.) However, some older versions of Wonder Woman go berserk when the bracelets are removed, making her 10 times stronger (so that's not a good plan either).
Gas and poison are always inconsistent in comics. She can hold her breath for hours at a time. Nevertheless, certain gasses or poisons might work.
"Her powers would be removed in accordance with "Aphrodite's Law" if she allowed herself to be bound or chained by a male.
This is from the older comics (way before 1985, so long before I started reading them). I haven't seen anything like this mentioned in the last few decades.
Still, it could be useful for a ryona story. The tough part, of course, is getting her bound in the first place.
As for the stories meepmeep posted:
The superheroine central one was complete nonsense. It really had to nerf the heroes badly in order to work.
The one with Tam-ra was a lot better, in that at least the opponent was another Amazon. I'm assuming that Wonder Woman was not able to use her powers in the fight (I'm guessing the belt was switched), or assuming that Tam-ra had comparable powers to Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman would have put up a
much better fight than that. The best melee fighter in the world (man, woman, or alien) just doesn't go down that easily.
I do really like the idea of a younger, stronger Amazon rising up to take her place, though. I could suspend my disbelief long enough to enjoy the story.
And finally, to answer the original questions:
Was there ever a Minotaur type villain?
I'm not sure. There was a villain named "Minotaur" according to the Wonder Woman villains list on wikipedia. He didn't seem to be a major villain.
How can her super powers be removed or used against her? It seems difficult to defeat someone you can throw through a brick wall, and she gets up and shrugs it off like it tickled. So there has to be a way to hit her and make it count.
It wouldn't even tickle.
Ryona Options:
0) Base your story on the TV version like everybody else. This is by far the easiest option.
1) You could use a villain that's explicitly more powerful than her. There aren't many, but they exist. Darkseid, Doomsday, Genocide, and Bizzaro come to mind. You could also turn a hero bad or have them be on opposing sides (both sides thinking they are doing the right thing. fights between heroes happens all the time in comics. Like in the Avengers movie). In that case, you could have her fight Superman or somebody.
2) You could use several weaker-but-still-strong-enough-to-hurt-her villains at the same time. Cheetah, Poison Ivy, Giganta are examples. Perhaps your minotaur could fall into this category (or any greek monster like a medusa might work too).
3) You could use greek gods, like Ares or Hades (major WW villains), or demigods like Hercules. This is the route the current comics seems to be taking.
4) There's no obvious way to take away her powers, but that doesn't mean you can't make one up. Her powers come from the gods, so you could have them take them away (perhaps as a test or something). For example, her flight and speed are a gift from Hermes, her strength and durability come from Demeter, etc. Alternately, you could have some villain invent some new drug or gas capable of weakening her temporarily. Or whatever. Note that in all cases she's still the most skilled melee fighter in the world - but without her powers it's possible to put her out of her weight class.
5) She is resistant to magic, but not invulnerable to it. Illusions and enchantments are a common way to deal with powerhouse superheroes.
6) and last but not least:
the use of her own lasso by a male opponent both to sap her of her powers and render her completely subservient to the man's whims. How convenient that a superheroine utterly destroyed through bondage happens to carry a length of rope around with her at all times!
The lasso might work, actually. It does not sap her strength. However, it is indestructible. If she were tied up by it, she could not break it. Again, good luck taking it from her and tying her up with it. But it would lead to some interesting bondage ryona if done successfully. In some versions of WW, the person tied up by the lasso is even forced to obey commands (altough it is not clear if this is a power from the lasso or Wonder Woman).
The Earth-Two version of Wonder Woman is much weaker (altough still stronger than the TV series version).
Finally, you could wait for the Wonder Woman movie, and set her power level based on that. I wouldn't hold my breath though. There's been talk of a WW movie since 2001.
