Black Superhero: Vixen

It's not hard to find heroes who are black women. But, it's hard to find heroes who are black women that have fleshed out backgrounds. There's tons of black women who are heroes but it seems like nobody besides storm gets any shine. Because of that they're left with vague back stories. Then a lot of them get left in limbo like Kid Quantum II or so many others. However in the last few years one black woman not named storm has stepped up and gotten some shine. However, not all of it has been nice.

Vixen: Mari Jiwe McCabe

Let's just do it now. Let's look start by looking at Vixen in New 52. She was recruited to Justice League International out of Africa. She is a friend of Batwing as both Vixen and Mari. On her first mission she gets caught in an explosion and is forced off the team due to injury. The next time she's seen it's as a possible Justice League member on Cyborg's list. That's Vixen in New 52. Would you like to look at her Pre-Flashpoint history? Yes, of course you would.

Mari was was born in Africa. As a girl her mother always told her the story of the ancient African Warrior Tantu. He asked the Anansi spider for the power to use abilities of all the animals in the world. The spider created a totem that allowed this as long as you were using the power to protect the innocent. This totem was supposedly passed down through time until it reached Vixen's family. Of course she believed the totem was fake because she hadn't seen anyone use it. She just enjoyed the story and thought nothing more of it.

One day her mother died while trying to stop a group of poachers and she was raised by her father. Eventually her father was also murdered. This time the murderer wasn't foreigners but her own uncle. He wanted the totem, that still had not been used. He took the totem and Mari moved to America to clear her mind. While in the states she became a model. Young Lupita. While on a modeling trip to Africa she met her uncle again. She took the opportunity to steal the totem. To her surprise the legends were true and it actually did give her powers. She took the name Vixen and began fighting crime in the United States or wherever her modeling took her. She became well known, not for being the greatest but for teaming up with just about everyone.

Did you know the Justice League took applications? I didn't. Apparently all you have to do is fill out an application. She filled it out and was assigned to Justice League Detroit alongside Vibe, Steel, Elongated Man, Zatanna and Gypsy. Occasionally Batman, Aquaman or Martian Manhunter would check in on them since it was a relatively young team. Eventually the deaths of Vibe and Steel caused Martian Manhunter to shut the team down.

Afterwards Vixen took a break from modeling. She was modeling on a cruise ship, at some point she left and took a break. When she returned her friends had all been murdered by a drug cartel. She stormed the ship and killed them all. She felt guilty about this and didn't want to be a hero anymore.

She was offered a role on The Suicide Squad. Made up of mostly villains and she accepted because she felt like a villain. While on the team she fell in love with Bronze Tiger. He managed to convince her that she wasn't wrong for killing the people and she stopped hating herself. Once she was seeing clearly again she left and went back to the Justice League.

Later she realized that Bronze Tiger wasn't a bad person but he's crazy. He needs help, he's a psycho. This lead her to rejoin the team. Her main goal was trying to convince Bronze Tiger to seek mental help. She realized he would never admit to it and left. (It was a good story about how the black community stigmatizes mental health. His problem is that sometimes he goes into another world. Not literally but in his mind. It's your guess at to his disorder he has.). To her credit she's the only hero I can think of that joined the Suicide Squad and she did it twice.

During her time with the Justice League of America. Her powers began to act strange and she sought out Animal Man for help because he had the same issues in the past. They were both sucked into the totem by Anansi. He eventually fixed their powers but he altered the timeline so the Justice League was never formed. She threatened to destroy the totem, thus destroying Anansi as well. This made Anansi reveal it was a test and that he would need her later. He then restored everything to normal.

Eventually she was forced to resign from the Justice League due to a broken leg, however after healing she continued as a solo hero across the globe. The original story would have had her going back to Africa to start her own Justice League but you know, reboots and all that.

Abilities and Equipment

• Tantu Totem
• Allows her to use the abilities of any animal

You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
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