Barbara Ann Minerva (Earth-5180)

Barbara Ann Minerva was a geneticist who spliced her own DNA with that of a cheetah, making her a human/feline hybrid, possessing the intelligence of a human and all of the instincts and abilities of big cats. She named herself Cheetah and became a burglar and assassin.

Early Life
Barbara Ann Minerva started her career as a geneticist working for GenTech alongside Holden Radcliffe on a research about trans-humanism, as they believed in the possibility of enhancing humanity through the splicing of the human DNA with that derived from other animals.

The Transformation
However, both enthusiasts had little to no funding from either GenTech of the scientific community, so they sought illegal experimentation. After doping and stealing a cheetah from a zoo, they sought to experiment the animal's DNA with their own inside an abandoned installation. However, a great fire occurred, and Radcliffe died after suffering a head trauma from a falling building part. Barbara became trapped inside the installation, and, desperate to survive, injected herself with the cheetah DNA.

It deeply changed her, turning her from a normal woman to a tall and feline predator, which managed to escape the installation. The transformation made Minerva stronger, but also mentally unstable, and she turned into a psychotic killer and thief.