Queen Clea
Golden Age
### Golden Age

[thumb\|left\|150px\| The [Golden Age](/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Comic_Books "Golden Age of Comic Books") Queen Clea in *[Wonder Woman](/wiki/Wonder_Woman_%28comic_book%29 "Wonder Woman (comic book)")* (vol. 1\) \#28, April 1948; art by [Harry G. Peter](/wiki/H.G._Peter "H.G. Peter").](/wiki/File:Queen_Clea_by_Peter.png "Queen Clea by Peter.png")
As Queen of a crumbling [Atlantean](/wiki/Atlantis_%28DC_Comics%29 "Atlantis (DC Comics)") outpost named Venturia, Queen Clea enslaved the men of her realm and amused herself by putting many to death in gladiatorial combat. Wanting to extend her rule, Clea repeatedly attacked Venturia's flourishing sister city of Aurania, though unsuccessfully. Despite this failure she expanded her ideas towards domination over the entire lost continent of Atlantis. In 1944, it was said that Queen Clea reigns over Aurania \- and it is possible that she has been Queen for quite a long time. Though Aurania has long been overshadowed by their Venturian rival, the ruthless Clea planned and executed a surprise attack that caught the Venturian military cold, and Aurania conquered and occupied Venturia. No explanation is given for this switch.

Venturian queen Eeras managed to flee and went to the surface world where she adventured for some months, trying to find some sort of weapon to repulse the Auranian. She focused on a chemical invented by one Van Vlek; working the trail to that secret formula she ended up in Dakar where she met American military intelligence agent Steve Trevor. Pooling their resources they secured the whole formula, and Eeras asked Trevor to fly her to Atlantis on his way back to the US. Trevor, who assumed that she was a lunatic, accepted; not expecting to fly into an actual access to Atlantis he had to land in less\-than\- perfect conditions and they were captured by Auranian troops.

[Wonder Woman](/wiki/Wonder_Woman_%28Earth-Two%29 "Wonder Woman (Earth-Two)") came to the rescue, forging an alliance with Queen Eeras as both an Amazon and an American. Clea was, of course, busy throwing Trevor into the arena to fight prehistoric boars; Wonder Woman fought everybody off and Eeras successfully used the "devitamizer" derived from the Van Vlek formula to make all Auranians present collapse.

The Auranian prisoners recovered, and Clea had her daughter Ptra replace her as a prisoner \- which was facilitated since the Venturians kept their prisoner in an iron mask that allowed her to eat and drink but prevented her speaking. Clea covertly rebuilt Aurania's power. Probably inspired by Eeras's previous strategy, she formed a band of Auranian pirates who attacked surface world ships \- using blasts of air from the volcano to soar on parachutes and board nearby ships, sword in hand.

Clea was especially interested in getting herself some of the bigger, stronger and smarter manlings of the surface world, and soon struck a deal with a ship full of German prisoners who were being deported to America for farm work. As the German soldiers, equipped with local swords and shields, attacked the Venturians, Clea personally sneaked behind enemy lines to get the "devitamizer" that had previously felled her, then brought down the Venturian forces and Eeras. Thankfully Wonder Woman, Steve Trevor and the Holliday Girls were present to investigate the fate of the kidnapped American sailors. Wonder Woman and Eela were gassed and Wonder Woman was bound with her lasso, then the two women were covered with iron. Despite it being three inches thick, Wonder Woman broke free and freed herself and other prisoners. They freed everyone, then captured Clea and Ptra.

Queen Eeras, being reluctant to execute prisoners, agreed to hand Clea and Ptra over to the Amazons. The incorrigible Clea soon managed to escape, when fighting Octavia, daughter of Eeras when Wonder Woman wanted her to play bullets and bracelets with her. She fired early, grazing Octavia's skull, then knocked out Wonder Woman from behind. She bound the girls, and with her prisoners returned to Atlantis. However, when she landed in Atlantis, she discovered that there had been a revolution and that the inept manlings had taken over thanks to surprise and a stockpile of captured surface world weapons which had not been used by the more traditionalist female rulers. Wonder Woman and Octavia escaped and made contact with Steve Trevor and the Holliday Girls, who had been flying nearby looking for them. In the meanwhile Clea managed to convince the stupid manling king to let her rule but it was too late, and her manlings were dispersed by the Holliday Girls. Clea was captured anew and again imprisoned by the Amazons.*Wonder Woman* \#8 (March 1944\). DC Comics.

Some months later, the Saturnic slaves\-driver Eviless escaped from her cell on Paradise Island and assembled a gang of prisoners, called Villainy, Inc. Clea was a part of it. Villainy, Inc. did take over Paradise Island, but were soon repulsed by Wonder Woman. Still, Clea took Giganta with her and managed to flee \- and they stole a huge chest filled with Amazon jewels, too.

Clea tried to anonymously buy a submarine from Steve Trevor to return to Atlantis (why she needed a sub is unclear, possibly she wanted the weaponry on board), but Trevor recognised her and played along to capture her. He was knocked out by Giganta, and Clea and her aide decided to capture the Holliday Girls and maybe Wonder Woman to force him to give them a submarine. This sort of worked, and they forced Wonder Woman to steal a US Navy sub for them \- but Clea and Giganta were recaptured before their sub could fully dive, and reimprisoned by the Amazons.*Wonder Woman* \#28 (March 1948\). DC Comics.


How do Wonder Woman and Queen Eeras work together?