It was established that the government project that created her was part of a long-running collaboration between the U.S. military and major corporations to secretly experiment on metahumans and alien technology. An early version of Project Cadmus existed in the wake of Superman's attempted invasion of Earth while under Darkseid's control, producing the metahuman teenagers of the Royal Flush Gang and the creature Doomsday that fought the Justice Lords. The Justice Lords' attack gave Cadmus renewed focus under Amanda Waller, as the government realized it had no way to counter an attack by the Justice League should they go rogue, and led to the creation of Galatea and the Ultimen.