The modern incarnation of Giganta possesses the superhuman ability to increase her physical size and mass, effectively transforming into a giantess.

[2] This power-set was not a feature of her Golden or Silver Age comic book appearances, but was rather introduced first on television as part of the character's adaptation for Hanna-Barbera's 1978 Saturday morning cartoon series Challenge of the Superfriends.

She was played by trans actress Aleshia Brevard in the 1979 NBC live-action Legends of the Superheroes TV specials, in which the character was paired with the Atom (actor Alfie Wise) for a comedic tell-all interview about their supposed "odd couple" romance.

Several years prior, actor Mickey Morton donned a gorilla-suit to play a version of the character (called "Gargantua") in a 1976 episode of the ABC TV series Wonder Woman.

In animation, Giganta has been played by voice actors Kimberly Brooks, Grey DeLisle, Ruth Forman, Jennifer Hale and Vanessa Marshall.

In her first appearance, written by Wonder Woman's creator William Moulton Marston, Giganta is a gorilla who Professor Zool mutates into a human.

In an ensuing struggle with Wonder Woman and her allies, Giganta foments a savage revolution, leading a group of prehistoric “cavemen” in an attempt to conquer civilized society.

His characterization of Giganta blends the misconception that early humans directly descend from modern apes with the colonialist conflation of pre-civilization and amorality.

After several clashes with Wonder Woman, Giganta became a member of Villainy Inc., a team of supervillains consisting of several other foes of the hero, including the Cheetah, Doctor Poison and Queen Clea.

Though Giganta was initially absent from this revised set of storylines, she eventually returned to the continuity in 1998 in a story by Wonder Woman writer/artist John Byrne.

[3] This version is Doris Zeul, a human who transferred her consciousness into the body of a gorilla named Giganta and later into circus strongwoman Olga.

Now possessing a magically-endowed ability to increase her size and mass, Zeul embarked on a campaign to bring down Wonder Woman, a project which would lead her to join Villainy Inc.

Storylines in The All-New Atom and Secret Six focus with some humor on Zeul's attempt to juggle a legitimate career in academia with a side-hustle as a villain-for-hire, as well as more seriously on the history of the chronic degenerative illness that led her to seek to transfer her consciousness.

[2] Desperate to return her mind to a human body, Zeul the gorilla abducts a comatose circus strongwoman named Olga with size-changing abilities[10] through unknown means (though Olga was comatose due to a mysterious shaman) and uses the machine to successfully transfer her mind into that body, keeping the villain name "Giganta".

[11] Villainy Inc. is defeated by Wonder Woman, but Giganta is subsequently seen as a member of several criminal groups, including the Secret Society of Super Villains.

[13] When Diana Prince noted that Giganta's intellect reduces as she grows in size,[14] compelling the villain to become less rational and more prone to violence, she was corrected by her colleagues in the Department of Metahuman Affairs.

[17] Infected and controlled by M'Nagalah, the monstrous Cancer god, she was sent to seduce and capture Ryan Choi, the new Atom, in the process even going so far as to swallow the miniature hero alive (he escapes, and also discovers that she has a tongue piercing[18]).

Now free of M'Nagalah's control, a seemingly repentant Dr. Zeul retains her position at Ivy University and has approached Ryan for a second chance, despite the bizarre circumstances of their first meeting.

[2] Giganta is also a member of Libra's Secret Society of Super Villains, during the Final Crisis and is shown as a thrall of Darkseid alongside several other super-powered women.

Mellower than in her appearances in the All-New Atom series, she seems to accept and respect the shortcomings brought by their different lifestyles, going so far as to help Wonder Woman in a mission, reasoning that, with Ryan being a superhero, they should both be used to putting their heroics in front of their private lives.

She is last heard covering Dwarfstar's mouth with duct tape to stifle his screams, telling him that she plans on keeping him alive so that she can prolong his suffering.

In the revised comic book line, Doris Zeul gained her abilities from radiation treatment intended to treat a rare blood disease.

When fighting vampires alongside Pandora, she grew to eight-feet tall with her strength and durability enhanced to the point where its fangs cannot pierce through Zeul's skin.

[40] Giganta possessed no size-altering power, instead relying upon enormous natural strength (enough to shatter a stone statue[41] and throw a school bus[42]) and a double-headed axe to fight.

She dressed in Amazonian battle-garb decorated with leopard print, in a callback to her original costume, and stood over six feet tall.

[46] Conversely, in Hal Jordan's miniseries, Giganta appears in her traditional costume, and is capable of growing large enough to grasp and crush fighter jets in her hands.

When she is about to kill Hal while he struggles to control his damaged plane, Giganta is shot in the eyes by Carol Ferris, collapsing and playing no further role in the fight.