Vixen Appreciation 2021

[LordAllMIghty]

I want DC to have at least one black female led title (that wasn't shared), preferably Vixen, and I want writers who actually want to explore her powers and her as a character and superhero. I want her to be written like she's the Iman of the supermodel world, with the charisma of Eartha Kitt with the set goal of her having her be on Storm level status as a superhero, b/c no matter how you feel about her, Ororo for a lot of people, is the only black female superhero they can name.

I need it and we're never gonna get it at this rate.

I want this too. I would love for her to have her own book but I could also go for her in a good team book, I would love someone like Peter Davis to write her in a team setting and give her some good character development.

Think about it, other than some cute power tricks, Vixen character-wise hasn't really done anything. There hasn't been any character development on Vixen in years. Damn near nothing since the new 52 has started...she is almost a blank slate.

Hell, I just took 30 minutes trying to figure out what kind of personality she has...lol

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Doing a chronological read through of Vixen's appearances. Up until this point, I've only read her appearances in Yale/Ostrander Suicide Squad, McDuffie's JL run, Vixen: Return of the Lion mini, Justice League of America Rebirth: Vixen, Truth & Justice, JLU and some of it's tie in comics and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. I'll be re-reading and re-watching that stuff too while I make my way through Vixen's catalogue.

I'm using these sites to help me navigate through her appearances:

https://dcuguide.com/w/Vixen_(Mari_McCabe)_Chronology
https://www.comicbookwire.com/reading-order/dc/vixen/

Feel free to recommend anything I missed or any hidden gems I should keep a look out for.

I'll be posting my thoughts on this thread as I go on.

Action Comics #521 (1981)

-Written by Gerry Conway, the story begins with Vixen hijacking a truck full of furs and driving them into the water to ruin them. True to the cover, we are led to ask 'is she a hero or a villain'. During this attempt, Conway quickly establishes that Vixen is powerful enough to hurt Superman and escape from him.

-On the next page we are told that the guy selling the furs, Mordecai Mule, may not be a good guy. Selling fur maybe legal but how he got them could be illegal.

-We cut to the WGBS HQ where Clark's boss Morgan Edge (this was the era Clark was a news anchor and not a reporter) sends Clark, Lana and the team to India to cover a story on poaching. This is due to recommendations from Edge's friend Solomon Samuels. The latter is dating supermodel/business woman Marie McCabe who is shown to be the person pulling the strings behind the scenes. Like Iman she is a supermodel turned business woman. She reasons that nobody would connect the Solomon's supermodel girlfriend with Vixen while on the trip. This shows that Mari doesn't always direct approach, she is willing to pull strings from behind the scenes and use people's own assumptions about her to her own advantage.

-On the trip, we learn that the guy who was telegraphed to be a villain was a villain. Superman confronts Vixen and we learn that her powers come from the animal totem. Mordecai was strapped for cash, Vixen poured oil on fire by destroyed his shipment so he would come to India personally to push his hunters to do more poaching but would be exposed by the American reporters she sent over. This reminds me of a Leverage episode.

Vixen and Superman have a classic team up, Superman stops a herd of elephants while Vixen wraps up Mordecai and his crew and leaves Clark with a note.

-The comic alternates between calling her Lady Fox and Vixen. Though I'm not sure if it's because they hadn't decided on a name yet or if 'Lady Fox' was her original name and Vixen was just a title like 'Dark Knight' or 'Caped Crusader'. She's also wearing a fox mask in this story and her colour scheme is yellow and blue as opposed to the now classic orange and yellow. The mask, while based on a fox, kind of remind me of Anubis. I wonder if this was intentional? Vixen's hair also straight and reddish in this story, very different from how she is depicted today.

-Overall, it's a solid intro to the character, providing a one off story setting up some foundational elements while leaving some mystery for later. Vixen is a bit like a female Batman, she's rich, she's got connections, she pulls strings to get what she wants (but for a good cause), she's fine with fooling people into thinking she's just a pretty face and not a fighter and she disappears after getting the job done.

DC Comics Presents: Superman & Vixen: #68 (1983)

-Written by Gerry Conway with art by Curt Swan. This comic felt like it could have been an episode of Superman: TAS.

-The opening page shows Vixen standing atop the Daily Planet in front of a moonlit background before she leaps from the skyscraper and lands on Superman's back. Conway describes Vixen as thus: "Born in one world, torn from it by war, raised in a land where dreams become reality--daughter of many mothers, inheritor of the sacred Tantu Totem--VIXEN".

The description mirrors the recap of Superman's origin and it sounds like Conway has Vixen's backstory figured out.

-The plot revolves around Vixen searching for the nephew of one of her photographers. We get our first insight into Vixen's character when she explains that she is an orphan and because of that she cherishes her friends and their families as if they were her own. Vixen's past trauma explains why she isn't directly open up to people and her indirect approach to problem solving seen in the previous story and from this story onward. Coming back to the plot, Vixen took her photographer's nephew named Kip to an arcade where the kid won a high score on a game but then disappeared after a blinding flash of light. So she and Superman team up to find Kip and they got to Jimmy Olsen for help since he has been investigating similar disappearances.

-The villain of this piece is nothing to write home about: he is an insane former general who owns a video game company and is kidnapping kids who achieve the almost-impossible high score on his video game so he can feed off of their psychic energy to boost his own.

-Superman and Vixen follow two separate leads to the bad guys HQ. Vixen is ambushed and hooked up to the psychic machine which is certain to kill anyone.

-Superman arrives but is temporarily stunned by the General's psychic blast. For those keeping up with Vixen's feats: she resists the psychic energy from the machine by channeling the power of a bull elephant (surprising everyone at present) then she takes the same psychic blast that Superman did but manages to crawl over and shut down the machine before it killed the kids. Superman himself was only stunned for less than a minute as he got back up and did short work on the General while Vixen stopped the machine. Either way, it establishes that Vixen is on the same level as someone like Superman. You hear about it but it's nice to know that this was intended from the very beginning.

-Story ends with Vixen revealing that her power comes from the magic totem and that she can channel the power of animals through it. Then she runs off leaving Supes with more questions than answers. Story ends on heart warming with Mari hanging out Kip (photographers nephew).

Next up: Justice League Detroit.

Looks good to me. Her JLA: Detroit runs was where I fell in love with character.