Vixen
Vixen, Art by J.G. Jones.
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Action Comics #521 (July 1981)
Created by	Gerry Conway (writer) Curt Swan (artist)
Characteristics
Team affiliations	Justice League Suicide Squad Checkmate Ultramarine Corps Birds of Prey
Abilities	Vixen possesses the innate power to mimic the abilities of any animal. The Tantu Totem increases her mimicking range and protects her mind from overwhelming animal instinct. Image File history File links Vixen_JLoA4. ... J. G. Jones is an American Comic Book artist. ... DC Comics is an American comic book and related media company. ... In comic books, first appearance refers to first comic book to feature a character. ... Cover of Action Comics #1, which featured the debut of Superman. ... Gerard F. Gerry Conway (September 10, 1952 - ) is an American writer of comic books and television shows. ... Curtis D. Swan (born February 17, 1920 in Willmar, Minnesota; died June 16, 1996)[1] was an American comic book artist, best known for his work on the Superman comics spanning three decades. ... For the animated television series, see Justice League (TV series) or Justice League Unlimited. ... Suicide Squad is a name for a number of fictional organizations created for and owned by DC Comics. ... Checkmate is a fictional covert operations agency within the DC Comics universe. ... The International Ultramarine Corps is a team of superhuman characters created by Grant Morrison for DC Comics. ... If you are looking for other meanings of the term, refer to Bird of prey (disambiguation). ...

Vixen is a fictional character, a superhero in the DC Comics universe. She was nearly the first black 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 (it was subsequently printed in Cancelled Comics Cavalcade.) Her first appearance distributed to the public was in Action Comics #521 (1981). Alice, a fictional character based on a real character from the work of Lewis Carroll. ... For other uses, see Superhero (disambiguation). ... DC Comics is an American comic book and related media company. ... Cover to the History of the DC Universe trade paperback. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The DC Implosion is the informal label for the dramatic number of sudden cancellations among DC Comics publications in 1978. ... Cancelled Comics Cavalcade was a tongue-in-cheek publication reproduced in the offices of DC Comics in very limited quantity following the DC Implosion in 1978. ... Cover of Action Comics #1, which featured the debut of Superman. ...

Fictional character biography

In ancient Africa, there was a legend that the warrior Tantu asked Anansi the Spider to create a totem that would give the wearer all of the powers of the animal kingdom, if they would use the power to protect the innocent. As shown in the pages of Animal Man, it is possible that the "Anansi" who Tantu met, may have been a member of the alien race who gave Buddy Baker the ability to tap the Morphogenetic field. This field allows Buddy to imitate the abillities of nearby animals. According to the Animal Man series, Mari’s Tantu totem may tap into that same field. Tantu used the totem to become Africa’s first legendary hero. The totem was later passed down to Tantu’s descendants until it reached the McCabes. A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... Anansi is one of the most important characters of West African lore. ... Animal Man (Buddy Baker) is a fictional DC Comics superhero. ... A totem is any entity which watches over or assists a group of people, such as a family, clan or tribe (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary [1] and Websters New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition). ...

Growing up in a small African village in the nation of M'Changa, Mari Jiwe McCabe hears the legend of the “Tantu Totem” from her mother. Sometime later, Mari's mother is killed by poachers and she is raised by her father Reverend Richard Jiwe, the village priest. Reverend Jiwe himself is killed by his half-brother (Mari’s uncle) General Maksai. Maksai wants the Tantu Totem, which Jiwe had been in possession of.

Vixen meets Superman.

She moves to America, where she establishes an identity as Mari McCabe and gets a job as a model in New York City. She uses her newfound wealth to travel the world. On a trip back to Africa, she comes across her uncle and takes back the Tantu Totem, using its power to become the costumed superhero Vixen. Image File history File links Vixenfirstapp. ... Image File history File links Vixenfirstapp. ... New York, New York and NYC redirect here. ...

Fighting Crime

After this, Vixen made only two appearances as a solo crime fighter: once fighting poachers in India^[1] and then against the techno-psycho criminal, Admiral Cerebrus.^[2] In fact, she was a reluctant hero until the Justice League of America was reorganized by Aquaman. She applies for full-time League membership and is accepted.^[3] During her time with the JLA, the totem is taken from her by General Maksai, who still sought its power.^[4] The totem would only grant its full power to those who would use it to protect the innocent, and it causes Maksai to be transformed into a raging beast. Maksai dies in battle with Vixen.^[5] Vixen continues with that particular incarnation of the JLA until two members were killed, Steel and Vibe and it was disbanded by the Martian Manhunter.^[6] The Justice League is a DC Comics superhero team. ... Aquaman is a fictional character, superhero in DC Comics. ... Martian Manhunter is the superhero alias of Jonn Jonzz, alternately known as the Manhunter from Mars, a fictional comic book superhero who was created by DC Comics. ...

Around this time, Vixen teams up with Animal Man again. She travels to his suburban house with knowledge of a mysterious murderous force. Animal Man's own powers have become affected because of this force, as he finds himself unable to correctly access the right powers. Animal Man (Buddy Baker) is a fictional DC Comics superhero. ...

Suicide Squad

Main article: Suicide Squad

Vixen returns to modeling; but a Caribbean photo session turned violent. Mari’s colleagues were killed by drug smugglers. She appeals to the government, who turn the matter over to the Suicide Squad. She goes undercover to capture the drug kingpin Cujo, who had been revealed by footage shot during the shoot. Along with Captain Boomerang and Black Orchid, she destroys the operation, but not before she loses control and kills the criminal kingpin, too. Revolted by what she had become, she agrees to work with the Squad until her animal instincts could be curbed.^[7] She works with the Squad for some time, again seeing more teammates and friends killed. When it was disbanded for a year, Mari returns to modeling and even launches a successful line of clothing. Her failed romance with Ben Turner (the Bronze Tiger) makes Vixen decline an offer to rejoin the Squad. She realizes Turner needs mental support; she reluctantly returns and serves through the end of its existence. She ultimately gives up on a future with the Tiger, sensing that he would never admit to needing help.^[8] Suicide Squad is a name for a number of fictional organizations created for and owned by DC Comics. ... George Digger Harkness and his son Owen Mercer, both known as Captain Boomerang, are fictional characters in the DC Universe. ... Lets us talks some realities here before we get into the fictional works here. ... Bronze Tiger (Ben Turner) is a fictional character in the DC Universe. ...

Other adventures

After the Suicide Squad's heyday, Mari continus to do undercover work. She is drafted for at least one mission for Checkmate (the Squad's brother organization). ^[9] At some point, she signs on to work with Oracle's Birds of Prey. She goes undercover to investigate a strange "superhero" cult, where the leader was using mind-control. The Huntress tries to help her and is nearly killed. Vixen regains her senses and used the stubbornness of a mule to hold back the mind-control of the cult leader. She and Huntress then rescue the other brainwashed heroes.^[10] Checkmate is a fictional covert operations agency within the DC Comics universe. ... Barbara Babs Gordon is a fictional character appearing in DC Comics and related media, created by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino. ... If you are looking for other meanings of the term, refer to Bird of prey (disambiguation). ... The Huntress is a fictional character in the DC Universe. ...

Vixen may still have trouble controlling her animal side while using the totem, as witnessed when she worked alongside the Flash to stop Gorilla Grodd.^[11] She also serves on one mission with the Justice League Task Force^[12]; came to Wonder Woman's aid during a battle with Circe^[13]; and helps her former JLA comrades protect Lex Luthor (JLA/JSA: Virtue & Vice). She then joins the loose-knit Ultramarine Corps^[14] until they moved on to another universe.^[15] She also manages to remain active in the fashion industry. Justice League Task Force is a western Super NES and Sega Genesis tournament fighting game developed by Blizzard Entertainment and published by the now-defunct Acclaim. ... For other uses, see Wonder Woman (disambiguation). ... Circe is a fictional character in the DC Comics universe, centered in the Wonder Woman title. ... Lex Luthor is a fictional supervillain and enemy of Superman in the DC Comics Universe. ... The International Ultramarine Corps is a team of superhuman characters created by Grant Morrison for DC Comics. ...

Infinite Crisis

Main article: Infinite Crisis

After the murder of Sue Dibny in the Identity Crisis miniseries, Vixen rejoins her Justice League colleagues. She is present when the original Firestorm dies during a battle with the Shadow Thief. Vixen adopts a new uniform in Infinite Crisis #7, it is similar to the one worn by her television counterpart on Justice League Unlimited. Infinite Crisis was a seven-issue limited series of comic books published by DC Comics, beginning in October of 2005. ... Susan Sue Dearbon Dibny is a fictional character from DC comics. ... This article is about the DC Comics series. ... This article is about the Ronnie Raymond/Martin Stein version of Firestorm. ... Shadow-Thief is a DC Comics supervillain and a recurring foe to Hawkman. ... Infinite Crisis was a seven-issue limited series of comic books published by DC Comics, beginning in October of 2005. ... Justice League Unlimited (or JLU) was the name of an American animated television series that was produced by and aired on Cartoon Network. ...

One Year Later

Main article: One Year Later

Vixen is tricked into battle in Hub City by a currently intelligent Solomon Grundy (whose rebirth came with increased intelligent). The totem is essential to Grundy's plans: he intends to use it as a catalyst to merge his perpetually reincarnating soul with the shell of the Amazo android, and thus gain further power. Grundy uses the totem to increase the metahuman mimicking abilities of Amazo. Without her totem, Vixen finds that her innate connection to the "Red", the 'essence' of animal life', is falling apart. She manages to 'lock onto' the totem, but her mind becomes lost in a flock of migrating birds. After mimicking the abilities of a young boy, Vixen manages to regain her mind and quickly fly to New York to retrieve her totem. Vixen literally drops into the JLA battle against Amazo. After the villains are subdued, Vixen becomes a charter member of the newly revamped Justice League of America. One Year Later event logo. ... Hub City is a fictional city in the DC Comics universe. ... Solomon Grundy is a DC Comics character, a large, strong zombie supervillain. ... Amazo is a fictional android from DC Comics. ... For other uses, see Android (disambiguation). ... For the animated television series, see Justice League (TV series) or Justice League Unlimited. ...

Powers and abilities

• Vixen possesses the innate ability to make direct contact with the Earth’s Morphogenetic field, which is sometimes known as the Red. This contact with the Red allows Vixen to mimic the abilities of nearby animals, by simply focusing on a specific animal’s abilities and then drawing it directly from the field. Her natural range for mimicking these abilities is about 150 feet. Vixen wears a mystic artifact called the Tantu Totem, a fox-head shaped talisman given to her ancestors by the African trickster god Anansi. It was previously thought that the totem was the source of her powers but according to Justice League of America #5; it merely prevents her natural link to the Morphogenetic field from overwhelming her mind. It is assumed that the totem also increase her range for mimicking the abilities of animals, as she has been known to mimic the abilities of animals on the other side of the world. Currently, she seems to have to call out the name of the animal she wishes to draw power from in order to use that power (such as saying "cat" before she could use the agility of a cat).

• So far Vixen has been able to use: the telepathic and physical abilities of Gorilla Grodd,^[16] the flight of a hawk, the swimming ability of a dolphin, the speed of a cheetah, the echo-location of a bat, the wall-crawling of a spider, the jumps of a cricket, the constriction of an anaconda, the strength of a bull elephant, the senses of a wolf, the agility of a monkey, the debilitating shock of an electric eel, the regenerative abilities of earthworms,^[17] and the ability to spit venom like a spitting cobra. She has even been shown to be able to channel the powers of extinct animals, such as the saber-toothed tiger, and domestic animals like the Doberman pinscher.
• Vixen’s claws are particularly sharp and tough, enabling her to rend through a variety of substances, such as fabric, wood, even soft metals and cinder block with ease. Her claws are magically enhanced and have drawn blood from individuals who are considered highly durable like Geo-Force and Pre-Crisis Superman.^[18][19]
• Occasionally, she has been known to physically transform into animals—for example, she has shapeshifted into a wolf, a great horned owl, and a cougar. Whether the creators of that story intended to give her this ability, or they just were not familiar with her abilities has not been established. The totem also allows her to heal bruises and wounds within seconds by simply touching it.^[20][21] In JSA Classified Vixen assumed the gills, fins, and lack of eyes of a blind cavefish and later shapeshifted into a humanoid wolf (retaining the cavefish's blindness). She has also demonstrated the ability to hold onto the Morphogenetic traits of all the animals in a forest.^[22]

• It is unknown what would happen if Vixen tried to use her magical abilities on an alien animal, or if she would gain access to the morphogenetic field of another planet.
• While the full extent of Vixen’s control over the morphogenetic field is unknown, she has on occasions drawn pure energy from it and displayed this energy as a force field and energy claws.^[23] While in cooperation with Animal Man and the woman known as "Tristess", she helped to create an entire universe.^[24]
• One apparent drawback of Vixen’s powers is that she is not always able to control the inputs from the morphogenetic field. Sometimes, she has absorbed unwanted animal behavior, such as instinctive rage. The longer she stays in contact with the morphogenetic field, the less human and more animal she seems to become.^[25]
• After being forced to tap into the human template as a matter to purge herself from pure animalistic sensations, Vixen is as now left with a crippled connection with the morphogenetic field, unable to reach any animal except the human animal. However, she can mimic metahuman powers, as Jay Garrick's speed, Geo-Force's earth-based powers, Black Lightning's elemental control and the Kryptonian super powers of Superman. ^[26] However, her abilities are not only limited to that of metahumans, as she was able to duplicate Red Arrow's archery skills and even Green Lantern's ring in a recent issue of Justice League of America, suggesting that she has gained powers similar to that of Amazo.

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Morphic field. ... Anansi is one of the most important characters of West African lore. ... Gorilla Grodd is a fictional character appearing in DC Comics, primarily as an opponent of The Flash. ... Genera Accipiter Micronisus Melierax Urotriorchis Erythrotriorchis The term hawk refers to birds of prey in any of three senses: Strictly, to mean any of the species in the bird sub-family Accipitrinae in the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis, and Megatriorchis. ... For other uses, see Dolphin (disambiguation). ... This article is about the animal. ... For other uses, see Spider (disambiguation). ... Subfamilies See Taxonomy section Crickets, family Gryllidae (also known as true crickets), are insects somewhat related to grasshoppers and more closely related to katydids or bush crickets (family Tettigoniidae). ... For other uses, see Anaconda (disambiguation). ... Genera and Species Loxodonta Loxodonta cyclotis Loxodonta africana Elephas Elephas maximus Elephas antiquus † Elephas beyeri † Elephas celebensis † Elephas cypriotes † Elephas ekorensis † Elephas falconeri † Elephas iolensis † Elephas planifrons † Elephas platycephalus † Elephas recki † Stegodon † Mammuthus † Elephantidae (the elephants) is a family of pachyderm, and the only remaining family in the order Proboscidea... Binomial name Linnaeus, 1758 Range map. ... Type species Simia paniscus Linnaeus, 1758 Species Ateles paniscus Ateles belzebuth Ateles chamek Ateles hybridus Ateles marginatus Ateles fusciceps Ateles geoffroyi Spider monkeys are New World monkeys of the family Atelidae, subfamily Atelinae. ... This article is about the animal. ... For the LPG album, see The Earthworm (album). ... Juvenile Red Spitting Cobra, Naja pallida Red Spitting Cobra Spitting cobra refers to any one of several species of cobras that have the ability to spit or eject venom from their mouth when defending themselves against predators. ... Species Smilodon californicus Smilodon fatalis Smilodon gracilis Smilodon populator The large extinct cats known as smilodon lived approximately 3 million-10,000 years ago in North America and South America. ... For the movie called Dobermann, see Dobermann (film). ... For other uses, see Shapeshifting (disambiguation). ... Binomial name Linnaeus, 1758 Range map. ... Binomial name (Gmelin, 1788) Distribution Subspecies see text Synonyms Strix virginiana Gmelin, 1788 The Great Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus, is a very large owl native to North and South America. ... For other uses, see Cougar (disambiguation) or Puma (disambiguation). ... Animal Man (Buddy Baker) is a fictional DC Comics superhero. ... Metahuman is a term to describe superhumans in the DC Universe. ... Jay Garrick is a fictional character in the DC Comics Universe and the first Flash. ... Geo-Force is the superhero alias of Brion Markov, a fictional character from DC Comics. ... For references to Black Lightning in the work of William Golding, see Pincher Martin. ... Superman is a fictional character and comic book superhero , originally created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian artist Joe Shuster and published by DC Comics. ... Amazo is a fictional android from DC Comics. ...

Other media

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

In “Faster Than a Speeding Vixen,” Vixen is a Caucasian android with super strength, super speed, and the power to fire explosive energy blasts that was created by Lex Luthor’s son as part of the first of a plot to break up Lois Lane and Clark Kent. Vixen was played by actress Lori Fetrick. She is portrayed as a corrupt vigilante, and bears very little resemblance to her comic book counterpart. Lex Luthor is a fictional supervillain and enemy of Superman in the DC Comics Universe. ... For the Dutch girl group, see Loïs Lane. ... For other uses, see Clark Kent (disambiguation). ...

Justice League Unlimited

• Vixen has made numerous appearances on Cartoon Network’s Justice League Unlimited animated series. Voiced by Gina Torres, Vixen first appeared on the episode “Wake the Dead.” Her first scene was on the catwalk and she was later revealed to be Green Lantern’s girlfriend, to the jealousy of his former lover Shayera Hol, who still harbored strong and perhaps requited feelings for him.
• Though not a regular on the show, Vixen was later featured in “Hunter’s Moon,” where she, along with Vigilante, came to terms with Shayera Hol’s actions in the Thanagarian invasion of Earth. They even established a friendship of sorts. In another episode, she and Shayera are teamed up with Black Canary and Huntress in a forced (and unsuccessful) battle royale against the powerhouse Wonder Woman. As the series ended, John Stewart and Vixen were a couple, though the durability of their relationship is called into question by the creators’ post-show comments and the existence of a future son, Warhawk between Shayera Hol and John Stewart.
• On Justice League Unlimited, Vixen is apparently unable to fly, but can adjust her mass to that of larger animals (like an elephant), and land on an opponent with the weight of several tons, while retaining her normal shape.

For Cartoon Network outside of the United States, see Cartoon Network around the world. ... Justice League Unlimited (or JLU) was the name of an American animated television series that was produced by and aired on Cartoon Network. ... Gina Torres (born April 25, 1969) is an American television and movie actress. ... John Stewart is a fictional comic book superhero in the DC Universe, and a member of the intergalactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps. ... Hawkgirl Hawkgirl appears in the animated Justice League series on Cartoon Network. ... Vigilante is the name used by several fictional characters appearing in DC Comics. ... Thanagar is a fictional planet in the DC Comics universe. ... This article is about Earth as a planet. ... Warhawk. ...

References

External links

• The Unofficial Vixen Biography
• Unpublished Vixen #1 from Cancelled Comics Cavalcade
• Vixen—JLA Watchtower Profile
• Vixen—Blacksuperhero.com Profile
• Vixen—JLU Profile (World’s Finest)
• Vixen—JLU Profile (Burning Knights)

See also

• African characters in comics