I thought it was more like, she's been using it for so long or mastered her abilities to the point where she can channel it's power without being in contact with it with Anansi genes giving her a boost.
my internal logic is more like, since her family has passed down the totem through the ages, they're symbiotic relationship with it eventually resulted in them developing the same powers as the totem. So even though the totem does grant whoever's wearing it it's power, it acts more like an amplifier for Vixen and her family.
THE SIGNAL (Duke Thomas) is DC's secret shonen protagonist so I made him a fandom wiki
also, check out "The Signal Tape" a Duke Thomas fan project.
currently following:
- DC: Red Hood: The Hill
- Marvel: TBD
- Manga (Shonen/Seinen): One Piece, My Hero, Dandadan, Jujutsu Kaisen, Kaiju No. 8, Reincarnation of The Veteran Soldier, Oblivion Rouge, ORDEAL, The Breaker: Eternal Force
"power does not corrupt, power always reveals."
I found this image on Deviantart. It's by someone named Pryce14 and I love this design for Mari. It's not overly complicated, pays homage to some classic looks but still feels modern.
Correct, I think. Vixen had her power before her father was killed by her uncle.
RCO011 (1).jpg
The totem is an amplifier for her innate abilities and guards her mind.
RCO022_1583572920 (1).jpg
Last edited by LordAllMIghty; 04-08-2021 at 05:03 AM.
Some of us wait, some of us act.
Given her connection to Anansi, isn't it now possible for Vixen's family to have powers independent of the animal kingdom and the totems?
that would make sense, given the animal kingdom typically isn't Anansi's dominion or not exactly his role in the pantheon of Africana iconography. although the question becomes what kind of gifts come with being descended from Anansi. if she inherits powers more in line with Anansi's role and iconography then we start moving away from Vixen's niche, since Anansi is (in a broad sense) a god of trickery, illusion, story, things like that.
THE SIGNAL (Duke Thomas) is DC's secret shonen protagonist so I made him a fandom wiki
also, check out "The Signal Tape" a Duke Thomas fan project.
currently following:
- DC: Red Hood: The Hill
- Marvel: TBD
- Manga (Shonen/Seinen): One Piece, My Hero, Dandadan, Jujutsu Kaisen, Kaiju No. 8, Reincarnation of The Veteran Soldier, Oblivion Rouge, ORDEAL, The Breaker: Eternal Force
"power does not corrupt, power always reveals."
It could be a fun tweak to say that the Tantu totem isn't specifically tied to Anansi, despite his claims ('cause not all his 'stories' are factually true...), but that he instead stole it and handed it off to someone who he thought would piss off the original creator of it. (And said entity then challenges Mari's right to wield the totem, she passes, and it decides she's a good choice for champion, turning the joke around on Anansi. "Yeah, she's got the heart of the wild. I approve." "No wait, you were supposed to hate her and it was going to be a big thing! I spent decades setting this up!")
Or some sort of 'rewriting the story of your life' and adapting the powers of animals by 'playing their role' or 'tricking the universe' or some such lazy rationalization to unite the themes.
I sincerely hope they don't go with the latter (meaning, they probably will) but the former could definitely work; I definitely would love to see that one. I'm not super up on my Akan mythology but a quick google led me to Asase Ya who appears to be the mother of Anansi (in some interpretations) and generally like an earth mother type, fertility deity similar to Ala, Komosu (Eke), Yemoja, etc; which would explain why the totem gives Vuxen the power of all life that walks the earth. while she doesn't HAVE to his mother specifically, I think having Vixen be at the center of this familial beef between gods would be a fun way to add a little more complexity and nuance to her relationship with African gods.
now that think about it, perhaps instead of giving her Nancy powers, they could use her ancestry from Anansi as the way of explaining why her family line started taking on properties of the Tantu totem without it. like maybe as their legend grew over the ages, the homo magi/demigod physiology responds and builds her own power. i'm hesitant to allow her to grow into a god in the same way, but it could be a cool way of playing with the same ideas of deification, ancestry, faith through the lens of African mythology like Storm did; I'm thinking more legendary hero than full on deity tho. plus, since Vixen is her own brand she has room to build it to full fruition in the ways Storm can't as a character belonging to bigger franchises.
I really hope whoever is next on Vixen has a solid understanding of Akan mythology. one of my biggest concern is, will they narrow in on a specific african culture or just go the black Panther route and just hogpog different elements? i love the worldbuilding they've managed to pull together for Black Panther, but it does take from a bunch of random cultures across africa and even asian and it's largely the same african gods we see in most things. it'd be cool if Vixen's and Zambesi stick with fleshing out and building on Akan mythology as her base, touching on the more obscure elements, then have her meeting and exploring other African culture with us [readers]. less grassland and huts would be nice too.
I'm probably asking too much of DC for Vixen tho. they most likely gonna go with "oh yeah, she's just shapeshifting her soul into other animals because Anansi is a trickster god" slap a "Godmode" form from time to time to show she's descended from a god, and call it a day. smh
THE SIGNAL (Duke Thomas) is DC's secret shonen protagonist so I made him a fandom wiki
also, check out "The Signal Tape" a Duke Thomas fan project.
currently following:
- DC: Red Hood: The Hill
- Marvel: TBD
- Manga (Shonen/Seinen): One Piece, My Hero, Dandadan, Jujutsu Kaisen, Kaiju No. 8, Reincarnation of The Veteran Soldier, Oblivion Rouge, ORDEAL, The Breaker: Eternal Force
"power does not corrupt, power always reveals."
Oh yeah, if Anansi 'borrowed' the totem from his mom to tweak her nose, and she ends up approving of Mari despite him choosing her to spite mom, that's just kinda delicious god-family drama.
Agreed. I liked Black Panther, but the use of Bast and Hanuman, Egyptian and Hindu gods, for a south/central African country was just weird for me. I get how in a pre-internet world, it might have been a challenge for comic book writers to get it right, but there's just no excuse these days for not doing the research with the click of a button, if you spell 'Google.'I really hope whoever is next on Vixen has a solid understanding of Akan mythology. one of my biggest concern is, will they narrow in on a specific african culture or just go the black Panther route and just hogpog different elements? i love the worldbuilding they've managed to pull together for Black Panther, but it does take from a bunch of random cultures across africa and even asian and it's largely the same african gods we see in most things. it'd be cool if Vixen's and Zambesi stick with fleshing out and building on Akan mythology as her base, touching on the more obscure elements, then have her meeting and exploring other African culture with us [readers]. less grassland and huts would be nice too.
And if not using real world folklore, try and come up with a consistent 'fake pantheon' and not one cobbled together from disparate traditions all over the continent! Much like Marvel, with Thor's fake pantheon, they can just ignore any characters they don't want to use from real world mythology, like Bragi or Magni or Modi or Ullr.
That tracks.
I think there is a character who already answers that question:
Though he's Ghanian and not Zambezi, I wouldn't mind the two characters being related somehow. Either through Anansi by having different totems or by blood.
I bet Vixen would have found this Ted Talk to be interesting:
Black Panther - Champion of Bast
Vixen - Champion of Anansi