Wonder Woman is widely regarded as one of the most compassionate and caring heroes in DC Comics canon. Reinforced by her stellar solo movie, Wonder Woman has the impression of being one of the most optimistic and hopeful heroes ever, eclipsing every Superman. This impression isn't misguided. Wonder Woman’s defining trait is her empathy… at least most of the time. While Wonder Woman is usually viewed as the beacon of virtue, she’s not always on the up and up. There have been multiple times where through mind control, alternate universe versions and even split-second brutal actions, Wonder Woman has become one of the biggest threats of the DC Universe.

You don’t get to be the literal Goddess of War, without getting some blood on your hands. Wonder Woman isn’t alone in this distinction. Batman and Superman too, have turned to villainy more than few times, even in the main DC Universe. Yet there’s something about an evil Wonder Woman that’s scarier and more threatening than any moment of moral uncertainty for her male counterparts. You don’t want to mess with Wonder Woman on the best of days. Yet if there’s something not perfectly alright going on with her mind, everyone should run for the nearest bit of cover.

15 DCEU ABANDONMENT

It's already been confirmed that Wonder Woman 2 is going to be set in the '80s. This means there’s a chance then that the sequel will explain or make sense of where Diana is, emotionally and physically, in Batman v. Superman. Yet as things stand now in the DCEU, Diana doesn’t look too great. According to Batman in Justice League, for nearly 100 years Wonder Woman stepped away from humanity. She did nothing to help with any global problem until Lex Luthor created Doomsday. Wonder Woman neglecting humanity isn’t, by any definition, actively malicious. Diana didn’t do anything, but that’s precisely the problem. From World War I to 2013, Wonder Woman has no known public persona. If the DCEU’s history is anything like the real world’s history, Wonder Woman sat out on the Holocaust, the War on Terror and Apartheid.

In any of those conflicts a demi-god would’ve been enormously helpful to lend a hand but Diana seemingly did nothing.

If Wonder Woman did really step away from humanity entirely (and wasn’t doing anything secretive and important) it would be understandable. Diana really doesn’t owe humanity much of anything. The first Wonder Woman move did a tremendous showing the love (and subsequent pain) that Steve Trevor brought to Diana’s life. Yet even if it’s understandable or sympathetic, being able to stop all wars (and not doing anything) is villainous.

14 THE DARK METAL WONDER WOMEN

It might be expertly scripted by Scott Snyder and beautifully drawn by Greg Capullo but "Dark Nights: Metal" is one of the DC Comics’ weirdest event stories in recent memory. Although the specifics are much, much more complicated, "Dark Nights: Metal" sees the main universe get over with the Justice League’s counterparts from the Dark Universe. As the name implies, these alternate versions are not the most reasonable or kindly. The main perpetrator of the "Dark Nights: Metal" event is a character named Barbatos, a Dark God who shares an uncanny resemblance to Batman. Still, Wonder Woman repeatedly takes center stage, and since the Dark Universe deals a lot with gods and medieval warfare, it ends up being a natural use of Wonder Woman’s many talents.

It takes a while for the Dark Universe’s versions of Wonder Woman to appear in the story. Yet in the penultimate issue of the mainline saga, the Dark Wonder Women do show up. They’re exactly as terrifying and threatening as one would think, and two versions, in particular, are heavily featured. One appears to be very similar to Diana, taking some inspiration from when the character was a Star Sapphire. The other is a mix of Wonder Woman and Cheetah, being just as violent and vicious as them both, and these Wonder Women were put at the head of an army from the Dark Universe. Although Diana defeated said army, including her evil “clones,” it wasn’t without a lot of effort and help.

13 WEAPON OF MASS COMMUNIST DESTRUCTION

Red Son is one of DC’s best Elseworlds story and manages, at the same time, to be a solid Superman tale too. For those who are unaware, Red Son imagines a world where Superman fell (not in Kansas) but in Soviet Russia and becomes a part of the Soviet Propaganda machine. Anything noble about the Man of Steel is slowly corrupted. But Superman isn’t the only member of DC’s Trinity who appears in Red Son, as alternate versions of Wonder Woman and Batman are also introduced. While Red Son still ends up being a good Superman story, despite the darker bent, the same cannot be said of Wonder Woman, who ends up getting used and abused by the Soviet nation and Superman.

She’s treated as a weapon, repeatedly and very little of her morality is present.

Red Son Wonder Woman is hopelessly in love with the Soviet Superman -- she’ll do anything for him while he pretty much uses her as blunt object. When Wonder Woman sacrifices part of her powers for Superman, her affection for him turns to hate and she becomes a bloody and vengeful leader of the Amazons. Wonder Woman eventually leads a force against Superman, working with the President of the United States, Lex Luthor (and is quickly defeated). It’s far from the most nuanced or interesting version of Wonder Woman, yet on her own or under Superman’s thumb, Red Son Wonder Woman was huge threat to the DC Universe.

12 THE CRIME SYNDICATE TERROR

The only reason that this Wonder Woman ranks so low on the list is because she’s not actually Wonder Woman. As a member of an evil version of the Justice League, this Earth-3 version, otherwise known as the Crime Syndicate, is one of the more famous examples. The Crime Syndicate were first introduced in 1964 and were meant to be the bizarro world of DC Comics (although not literally since there is an actual Bizarro World). Earth-3's Crime Syndicate was the reverse of everything normal in the DC Universe. This “Justice League” were a group of villains who ruled (and destroyed) their world with an iron fist, with the Superman analogue is Ultraman, the Batman doppelganger is Owlman and Wonder Woman’s evil self is Superwoman.

Superwoman isn’t Diana Prince. Instead she’s an alternate universe Lois Lane but in every other aspect she’s Wonder Woman. She has nearly all the same powers as Wonder Woman (although sometimes she has heat vision) and she wields her own golden lasso, although Superwoman’s rope isn’t a Lasso of Truth but a Lasso of Submission. Barbed and deadly, the rope makes anyone obey and be devoted to the wielder. Whatever her name may be, inside outside of costume, Superwoman is what would happen if Wonder Woman lacked all morality. She has the same wiles and empathy for others, but uses it for dark gain.

11 BIZARRO HATE BIZARRA

Speaking of Bizarro World, it does, in fact, have its own Wonder Woman. Bizarro is mainly known for “gifting” the world, Bizarro Superman. He's the Superman with the flaky skin whose the polar opposite of Superman in every way, including a speech pattern than makes any degree of sense. Even though the most sensible option for the Bizarro version Wonder Woman would be for her to be named simply Bizarro Wonder Woman or Loser Lady, neither is true -- the Bizarro Wonder Woman is Bizarra.

Bizarra, like many evil Wonder Woman versions, is in love with her version of Superman.

However, Bizarro only has eyes for his Lois Lane. At least, DC is consistent with Diana being scorned by Lois. However, Bizarra is still a founding member of the Bizarro Justice League and is just the opposite of her normal self in every way -- this includes being at all capable. Bizarra can rarely do anything right but in a way, that stupidity does make her more dangerous. She has all the strength of regular Wonder Woman but none of the finesse or know-it-all to use it. She revels in torture and eventually became part of the Monarch’s army. Monarch was the corrupted Captain Atom and used Bizarra's talent to hang another supervillain from the neck until he expired.

10 INSIDE THE HEART OF DARKNESS

Throughout her history, Wonder Woman has been mind controlled a fair few times. One of her greatest villains, after all, is Dr. Psycho, a telepathic monster whose as evil as he is short. Dr. Psycho has been known to possess Wonder Woman, and several of her allies and villains, a fair few times. Yet one of the scariest Wonder Woman possessions had nothing to do with Dr. Psycho.

In the Justice League cartoon, the League encounters a purple gemstone. While that doesn’t sound very threatening, the League soon discovers that this gemstone is an artifact known as the Heart of Darkness. It contains the souls of a race of humanoid snake-like creatures and it can be used to possess anyone who touches it and Wonder Woman is the first to fall to the Heart of Darkness. Under its control, she slowly begins to corrupt the rest of the League until only The Flash is left. Since Justice League was, ostensibly, a show for children, the evil League never gets too far. The Flash obviously saves the day and no innocents are ever harmed. Yet even on a small scale, the possessed Wonder Woman was a scary sight to behold. Especially since in the background of the episode, Glorious Godfrey was preaching on TV that it was only a matter of time until all superheroes turned on humanity.

9 MEET MY CRAZY WONDERFUL SISTER

Diana Prince isn’t the only person whose ever held the Wonder Woman mantle in the DC Universe. Her mother, Hippolyta has served as Wonder Woman for a time and her "twin" Donna Troy took up the mantle. However one of the weirdest and most violent women to take up the Wonder Woman crown was Artemis. The switch from Diana to Artemis as Wonder Woman happened in the '90s when Queen Hippolyta received a vision that Wonder Woman would die. Fearful for her daughter’s life, The Queen decided to hold a contest to determine a new Wonder Woman.

Artemis, one of the fiercest of the Amazons, dethroned Diana and became one of the most unforgiving Wonder Women ever.

Artemis never stepped quite in the role of villain. Yet she was Diana's equal in every way, except she lacked all warmth. It’s safe to say she was more of an anti-hero than a real villain. However, Artemis’ main method of “helping” as Wonder Woman had a lot more to do with a closed fist than an open hand. As Wonder Woman, Artemis was more likely to make men fear her than revere and respect her. She received the title to save Diana’s life but Artemis might’ve ended up doing more harm to Diana’s reputation than good.

8 A THREAT TO FREEDOM

Whether it’s because most superheroes got their start in the WWII era or it’s just easy, comics seem to be obsessed with creating Nazi version of famous superheroes. Whether it’s Hydra Cap or even the Arrowverse’s Earth-X, nearly every hero has a Nazi double and Wonder Woman is no different. Sadly, there’s been multiple version of the Axis Justice League. They were first introduced in the '40s as the Axis Amerika. However, the Axis Amerika were just generic Nazi supervillains, with no real connection to other heroes. It wouldn’t be until the '00s where they were renamed the JL-Axis that a little bit more creativity was used.

First introduced as a cameo in the "52" event, The JL-Axis were exactly what you’d imagine from a Nazi Justice League: they were created by Adolf Hitler, after he won WWII, and were his agents of destruction. The Wonder Woman counterpart was named Brundehilde, and instead of being tied into Greek mythology, Brunehilde was a product of Norse Gods. This is vaguely insulting to Nordic people but Norse mythology is closer, geographically, to Germany. Interestingly, like Bizarra, Brunehilde was eventually recruited by Monarch. Brunehilde joined Monarch’s army and was serious threat to the entire DC Multiverse. Until, just like her master, she was defeated.

7 MILLER'S MAN-HUNTING WOMAN OF WONDER

Frank Miller does a lot of things as a comic book writer and artists. Creating an interesting or kind Wonder Woman isn’t one of them. Miller has a very specific view of Wonder Woman and it’s not a favorable one. Miller has rarely wrote Wonder Woman, being focused more on Superman and Batman. Yet on the occasions he has been behind the Amazon, Miller’s Wonder Woman is an unholy terror. Miller’s main interpretation of Wonder Woman exists on Earth-31, otherwise known as the Dark Knight Returns Universe.

This Wonder Woman is one-dimensionally violent, hates all men and just regularly trounces over everything in her way.

During The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Wonder Woman is “reluctantly” drafted by Lex Luthor. Wonder Woman becomes one of Lex’s agents and is responsible for holding together the regime Lex sets up on Earth (eventually Batman, because he’s Batman, destroys it). Wonder Woman’s problem with being under Lex’s thumb must have to do with him being a man because she clearly doesn’t mind the violence. Miller’s Wonder Woman has killed, without pity, flies off the handle at the slightest provocation and heavily implies she’d like to see all men in chains. The big events in the Miller’s Dark Knight universe is the battles between Superman and Batman. However, Wonder Woman really does seem like the bigger villain and threat than Superman.

6 DEAD LANTERN'S PARTY

One of the big events in Geoff Johns’ seminal Green Lantern run is "Blackest Night". Teased for years, "Blackest Night" sees the birth of the Black Lanterns. They are the darkest of the Rainbow Corps, in tone and color, and they basically amount to the DC Universe’s version of zombies. "Blackest Night" sees nearly every hero who died come back to life, which is pretty much everyone, and turn into Black Lantern -- Wonder Woman is one of such victim. Before she’s eventually turned back to the light, literally, Diana causes quite a bit of destruction.

Like a lot of Black Lanterns, the destruction of Wonder Woman is be contained by the other, not undead, heroes. Black Lantern Wonder Woman mainly fights with Mera, Aquaman’s wife. Mera manages to hold her own against Diana, even stabbing Aquaman’s trident into Wonder Woman’s chest at one point. However, being a Black Lantern there’s nothing that can really stop Wonder Woman. Mera puts up a good fight but the only thing that saves Mera, and the rest of the world, from Black Lantern Wonder Woman is the intervention of the rest of the Rainbow Corps. Every Lantern deputizes another hero on Earth and Wonder Woman is drafted into the Star Sapphire. The power of the Star Sapphire fights the Black Lantern and Wonder Woman is returned to her proper self.

5 DARKSEID, I DON'T FEEL SO GOOD

There’s something about a universe wide event that convinces DC that Wonder Woman needs to turn into a killing machine. Granted, most of the time these spurts of violence are completely against Wonder Woman’s free will. During "Final Crisis", easily the most insane and convoluted of DC Comics’ big events stories, Wonder Woman is once again controlled by a force that dominates her. Rather than become a Black Lantern, Diana was infected with the virus Morticoccus -- a nonsense disease created by DC Comics but its side-effects are no-joke.

Morticoccus infects the host body instantly and turns them into an animal-like creature.

Darkseid, as Darkseid is wont to do, used Morticoccus to build a new army of Furies among DC heroes. Wonder Woman, under Morticoccus, lead these new Furies but she was joined by Giganta, Catwoman and Batwoman. Enslaved to Darkseid, Wonder Woman became his loyal servant, infected others with Morticoccus and stripping them of their powers. Eventually Wonder Woman, and everyone else, was freed when The Ray (of all heroes) traced the Metron symbol on Earth from space. Yet that wasn’t until Wonder Woman had to pay a heavy price, including riding a gigantic pit bull looking animal like a horse.

4 BARRY ALLEN'S BIGGEST MISTAKE

Though a relatively recent addition to the DC Universe canon, The Flashpoint universe has become one of DC’s most famous alternate realities. This is due, in large part, to the significance that Flashpoint has to the canon. When Barry Allen ran back in time to save his mother, it created a ripple effect throughout time and Flashpoint was born. This story has been adapted into the TV series, an animated movie and is even part of the reason why the DC Universe rebooted in the New 52. Flashpoint, whatever the quality of the story, is very vital to the overall saga of the DC Universe. It also provided one of the scariest and most vicious versions of Wonder Woman ever created.

In origin, the Wonder Woman of Flashpoint isn’t too different from the main universe. The two start to differ though when an adult Wonder Woman encounters Aquaman. The two join together to defeat a threat and strike up a forbidden romance, which all ends with Wonder Woman killing Aquaman’s wife, Mera. Mera is Flashpoint Wonder Woman’s first major kill of an innocent but she’s not the last. Aquaman and Wonder Woman go to war with one another and destroy most of their world in their wake. The Flashpoint universe is a hellscape of violence and war, with the main culprit behind all the main mayhem being that universe's version of Diana.

3 SPEEDSTER HUNT

The next villainous Wonder Woman isn’t a brand new version but rather a continuation. During the summer of 2015, DC launched the event "Convergence". It was a lot like DC Rebirth, only a lot slower, more confusing and with hardly any lasting effects. However, one of the highlights of "Convergence" is that there were various two-part comics that told the stories of various heroes in DC history. "Convergence" revisited heroes from all eras of DC Comics, including ones that no one longer seemed canon. One example was a story involving a pre-New 52 Wally West and his young children, Iris and Jai. In the story, Wally and his kids were trapped under a dome in Keystone City. They become separated from their wife and mother, Linda, but that’s only the start of their problems.

Shortly into their forced imprisonment, Wally and his kids start being hunted by the Flashpoint Wonder Woman.

The actions of Wonder Woman in this short story make her seem positively sane in "Flashpoint" and in that story she was crazier than several barrels of cats in heat. Diana becomes convinced that Wally and his offspring need to die and she hunts them relentlessly. Wally and his kids manage to defeat the evil Wonder Woman, with some help from speedster turtle Fastback. Still the genocidal Amazon nearly adding more infanticide to her killing resume with Iris and Jai.

2 THE GENERAL OF THE REGIME

The selling point of the Injustice Universe, which was created for the 2013 video and its sequel, is that it’s a world with an evil Superman. Injustice: Gods Among Us opens with Superman being tricked by The Joker into killing his wife Lois Lane and their unborn child. The horrific act causes Superman to kill The Joker and pretty much every villain (or hero) who looks at him out of the corner of their eye. Superman is the starring baddie of Injustice but he has some nuance to him. Injustice Superman can be reasoned with and that’s part of the reason why he teams up with Batman during Injustice 2 to stop an invasion from Brainiac. Superman’s right-hand-woman, Wonder Woman is not nearly as complicated. Injustice Wonder Woman is rage-fueled monster who kills, stabs and yells at anything in her path.

She’s a horribly shallow character and the Injustice universe gives her barely any motivations for her actions, at least within the games (the tie-in comics do show off a different side to Wonder Woman). Everything that this Wonder Woman lacks in complexity she makes up for in brutality. In power level, Wonder Woman is still below Superman. However, when it comes to judging the most vicious part of the Injustice Universe, Wonder Woman comes out on top.

1 THE SNAP HEARD ACROSS THE WORLD

The most outrageous act of Wonder Woman can’t be attributed to any alternate universe version or even a clone. This act of violence, in the build-up to the event "Infinite Crisis", was all Wonder Woman. It also nearly destroyed her relationship with Superman and Batman. For a few years Maxwell Lord was the main adversary of the Justice League. He took over Batman’s Brother Eye program and tried his hardest to make himself the ultimate authority on Earth.

Lord didn’t just want to destroy Justice League, he wanted make them obsolete and control them.

Lord’s schemes hit a boiling point when he found a way to take over Superman’s mind. Superman became Lord’s own personal army. Lord used Superman to viciously attack Batman. In Wonder Woman’s mind there was only one way to deal with the problem. Wonder Woman snapped Lord’s neck (on national TV) horrifying the nation, including Superman and Batman. Wonder Woman clearly had her reasons for killing Lord. In fact, there’s probably more than a few fans who would agree with her actions. However, Wonder Woman’s choice to kill Lord turned her into the pariah of the superhero community. She broke trust with the Big Blue Boy Scout and the Dark Knight as they worried there was nothing Diana wouldn’t do. They were wrong, of course, but perception is everything.