Vixen (comics)

Vixen is a superheroine appearing in American comics books published by DC Comics. Created by Gerry Conway and Bob Oksner, she first appeared in Action Comics #521 (July,1981). An African superhero, she is considered one of the earliest created black superheroes in comics who was intended to have a solo title but was cancelled.

Hailing from the fictional African nation Zambesi, Mari Jiwe (later Mari Jiwe McCabe when she travelled to America) is a metahuman who inherited the Tantu Totem, an artifact that allows the bearer to channel (or enhance the power to channel) the characteristics of animals. The character's background has varied, being a descendant of Tantu, the warrior gifted the totem by Anansi, and later the aforementioned African god. While also simultaneously a fashion model and businesswoman, the character is also the superhero "Vixen" affiliated with numerous superhero teams, including the Justice League (and derivates like Justice League Detroit, Justice League International, etc.) and the Suicide Squad.

The character has been adapted in various DC Comics' related media, including the DCAU Justice League Unlimited and Injustice 2 as a alternate "skin" of Cheetah with her own lines while sharing a move-set. Two versions of the character appeared in The CW's Arrowverse. The Mari McCabe version debuted in the CW Seed animated series Vixen, voiced by Megalyn Echikunwoke, who also reprised her role in an episode of the live-action parent series, Arrow. Legends of Tomorrow introduced a World War II–era Vixen and Mari's grandmother, Amaya Jiwe, portrayed by Maisie Richardson-Sellers.

In an interview, Conway discussed his reasoning for the character's creation:

...what I was trying to address was what I perceived to be a lack of strong female leads in DC's comics at the time. Or, let me put it this way: there was an opportunity, as DC was looking for additional books. Surveying the titles that they have, it seemed to me there were some obvious openings for characters that had been underrepresented. One of them had been lead female super-heroes. They had Wonder Woman. To a lesser degree they had Supergirl, Power Girl (who I also created), and Wonder Girl. There were a lot of girls, but not a lot of full-formed adult female super-heroes operating at DC, so I wanted to create one I also wanted to create a character who was a minority, and the idea of a female Black super-heroine hadn't been played up to any great extent at that point. I think Storm (of the X-Men) was around, but I don't think there were very many other representations of that type of character in the field... She was kind of based on what we called supermodels at the time. It was a very strange social phenomenon that was starting to occur back then. You had these women who were obviously objects of the male gaze, but they were also extremely empowered. They took charge of their own image, their own business, and identity. I wanted to show that. This was the 70s, so I hope female readers today will give us a bit of a pass on this. There were not that many active role models regarding careers for women at that time where you could reasonably say: this woman would have the resources to maintain a career as a super-heroine. What were the jobs available to women in the mid- to late-70s? Clerical work. Teaching jobs. There were very few potential jobs that would provide the potential resources and money that a character like Vixen would need to carry on a super-hero career. That's a horribly sexist reality we were dealing with. Plus, she's a minority, and that adds another whole layer of disadvantage that she has to overcome. So, it was a bit of wish fulfillment (for that character, not necessarily for me as the writer), and a bit of practicality to reflect something that was real in our society, i.e. the advent of these take-charge, supermodel/businesswomen.

Vixen was intended to be the first African female DC superhero to star in her own series, but the first issue of her series was cancelled in the DC Implosion in 1978, never to be released. The story was subsequently printed in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade.

Since her debut in Action Comics, she has primarily appeared in team books, most notably various incarnations of the Justice League and Suicide Squad.

In October 2008, G. Willow Wilson began a five-issue limited series, Vixen: Return of the Lion.