Vixen - The Spirit of the Animal Kingdom

Creation

Vixen was created by Gerry Conway and Bob Oksner, and she first appeared in Action Comics #521 in July 1981. But here's the thing - that wasn't supposed to be her debut. 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 character was created around 1978, intended to become the protagonist of a new series and consequently the first headlining Black female character in the DC lineup. The story was subsequently printed in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade - an edition which saw only 35 copies created and was only available to DC employees purely to copyright the stories that had been finished but not published.

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."

Origin Story

Hailing from the fictional African nation of Zambesi, Mari Jiwe McCabe is a metahuman who inherited the Tantu Totem, an artifact that allows the bearer to channel the characteristics of animals. The mythology behind the totem is rooted in African folklore. In ancient Ghana, the warrior Tantu asked Anansi the Spider to create a totem that would give the wearer all of the powers of the animal kingdom, only if they would use the power to protect the innocent. Tantu used the totem to become Africa's first legendary hero.

Mari's backstory is defined by tragedy. Her mother was killed by poachers and her father was killed by General Mustapha Maksai. Her uncle stole the Tantu Totem after murdering her father, forcing Mari to flee to America. She set up an identity for herself as Mari McCabe and used her beauty to become a well-known fashion model in New York City. Later, she returned to Africa, came across her uncle, and stole back the Tantu Totem, using its power to become the Vixen.

Big Storylines

• Justice League Detroit - When the original Justice League broke up after a disastrous alien invasion, founding member Aquaman formed a new Justice League based out of Detroit, Michigan. Vixen was one of the four new members recruited to the team. This version of the JLA was tragically short-lived, as two of her teammates, Vibe and Steel, were killed in action.

• Suicide Squad - When the League disbanded, Vixen returned to modelling; but a Caribbean photo session turned violent, and Mari's colleagues were killed by drug smugglers. She ended up working with the Suicide Squad, where she fell in love with Bronze Tiger. The two of them got along quite well, with Vixen having a habit of reading and discussing poetry with the martial artist.

• Brad Meltzer's Justice League - She, along with Black Lightning (the first Black male to star in his own title), were both re-added to the JLA roster when Brad Meltzer took the helm of the series. This brought her back into the spotlight after years in supporting roles.

• Vixen: Return of the Lion - In October 2008, G. Willow Wilson began a five-issue limited series that finally gave Vixen her own book. When the Justice League uncovers the secret behind the death of Vixen's mother, this leads Mari McCabe back to Africa to find out the truth for herself.

• The Anansi Saga - Vixen and the other JLA members along with Animal Man were taken inside the Tantu Totem, where the Trickster God Anansi reweaved history and revealed his true nature. This storyline deepened the mythology behind her powers significantly.

Trivia Most People Don't Know

• Vixen's real name was originally given as Marilyn "Mari" Macabe. This was first changed to Mari McCabe in Justice League of America #234, which has since become the standard.

• Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man revealed that the Tantu Totem used by Vixen was created by yellow aliens, who are guardians of something they called the template. This connected her to the same morphogenetic field that powers Animal Man - also known as "The Red." The implication was that her totem and Animal Man's powers might share the same cosmic source.

• It was previously thought that the totem was the source of her powers but according to recent stories, it merely prevents her natural link to the morphogenetic field from overwhelming her mind. She doesn't need to wear it to use her powers—because of her training and experience, it can be miles away and she can still use everything, though this isn't something she can do for extended periods.

• When Vixen was properly reintroduced to the Justice League, she learned something new about her abilities. Out of instinct, she reached out for the first animal she could find during a case with Amazo, and wound up tapping into humans. She could temporarily mimic the powers of other metahumans.

• She has even been shown to be able to channel the powers of extinct animals (such as the saber-toothed tiger and the Triceratops), domesticated animals (like the Doberman Pinscher), and even mystical beasts (like dragons).

• In Identity Crisis (2004) she was drawn to look like Geena Davis... which is odd because Davis is not Black. According to artist Rags Morales, she was originally supposed to be based on Grace Jones.

• While in cooperation with Animal Man and the woman known as Tristess, she helped create an entirely new universe to defeat an entity called Antagon. Not many heroes can put "created a universe" on their resume.

• In the Arrowverse, Mari's predecessor and grandmother named Amaya Jiwe was introduced in Legends of Tomorrow as a member of the Justice Society of America. This gave the character a WWII-era legacy that didn't exist in the comics.