5 Reasons You Should Care about... Vixen

The CW recently announced it was developing an animated series about the DC superhero Vixen for its Web-content hub, CW Seed. The series would be in the same continuity as its live-action Arrow and Flash series. In related news, the CW is considering adding a third live-action DC show, possibly starring Brandon Routh (Superman Returns, Zack & Miri Make a Porno) as the Atom. Which means my hopes for an Ambush Bug show remain a dream deferred.

Anyway, in the pantheon of DC’s super friends, Vixen isn’t exactly Big 7. So here’s a few fun facts and some recommended media consumption.

She’s kinda like Shazam for animals: When Billy Batson yells Shazam, he inherits the powers of the ancient gods. When Mari Jiwe McCabe touches the Tantu totem around her neck, she channels the powers of any number of animals, from the mass of an elephant to the speed of a cheetah to the regenerative abilities of lizards and worms.

Her first appearance was shelved for three years: Vixen, created by Gerry Conway and Bob Oskner, was to be DC’s first major black female superhero and was to start off in her own series in 1978. Her title and many others fell victim to a wave of cancellations known as the DC Implosion, and that series never saw the rusty metal of a spinner rack. So her first appearance became 1981’s Action Comics #521.

She’s been a member of the Justice League: Vixen joined the league in the mid-1980s, when the team featured an obscure lineup that included Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Zatanna, the Elongated Man, Gypsy, Vibe and Steel. Conway, Vixen’s creator, was responsible for this era. She also featured in a post-Infinite Crisis league that included Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Black Canary, Red Arrow, Red Tornado, Hawkgirl and Black Lightning. Vixen would at one point lead the team. In the New 52, Vixen was a starter member of the since-canceled Justice League International.

She’s been a member of the Suicide Squad: Thanks to the upcoming movie no longer starring Tom Hardy, the Suicide Squad is like Hansel – so hot right now. Vixen joined the team of mostly villains during the original John Ostrander run after some of her modeling colleagues were killed by drug smugglers. She briefly dated one of the squad’s members, Bronze Tiger.

She’s dated Green Lantern: In Justice League Unlimited, Mari was involved with Green Lantern John Stewart. One of the show’s running subplots was a love triangle among Vixen, Stewart and Hawkgirl, Stewart’s previous girlfriend. That triangle became a square when Hawkman arrived on the scene.

Read this: Vixen: Return of the Lion, a five-issue 2008 miniseries written by G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel).

Watch that: Justice League Unlimited. Vixen appeared in five episodes of the 2004-06 series, voiced by Gina Torres (Firefly). Episodes include “Grudge Match,” in which female superheroes including Vixen, Hawkgirl, Huntress, Black Canary and Wonder Woman are mind-controlled into doing battle for the delight of supervillains; and “Ancient History,” in which the Shadow Thief reveals Hawkman and Hawkgirl to have been lovers in a past life, only for past-Hawkgirl to have had an affair with past-Stewart.

Dan Grote has been a Matt Signal contributor since 2014 and friends with Matt since there were four Supermen and two Psylockes. His two novels, My Evil Twin and I and Of Robots, God and Government, are available on Amazon.

TV’s Flash: The Hero We Need and Deserve

“Flash > Gotham. Discuss. Show your work.”

I posted that thought to Facebook last week, not sure whether I was being crazy or not, but, thankfully, my friends, a League of Extraordinary Gentlenerds to be sure, backed me up. In fact, amid our discussion, Matt gave me the title for this column.

A couple weeks back, we wrote about the premieres of Gotham and Agents of SHIELD, but we skipped the debut of The Flash two weeks later.

Then last week, I found myself watching the fourth episode of Gotham and being self-conscious of how much I was frowning. Something was bothering me, but I wasn't quite ready to articulate it.

Then I watched the second episode of The Flash the following night, and I figured it out:

I'm enjoying The Flash A) much more than I thought I would, and B) more than Gotham.

I did not see that coming.

In fact, were it up to me, I wouldn't have watched Flash at all. My wife (@HillaryGrote) threw it on the DVR on a whim. I had no interest, as I'm not a DC guy and I already wasn't watching Arrow, though it’s on my list of things to eventually get around to on Netflix.

But I'm not here to tear down Gotham. That's not what this blog is for. That's what comment sections are for!

Instead, let's talk about what The Flash is doing right. (Warning: I am NOT a Flash expert, so I’m writing solely within the context of the TV show.)

-They have fun with his powers. Having super speed allows Barry to heal quickly. In the second episode, Flash has fainting problems, not because some unseen enemy is sapping his powers, but because he needs more food to sustain his rapid metabolism. In the third episode, a suited-up Flash confronts the Mist at Iron Heights Prison and blurs his face so his dad can’t see him.

-The show isn't afraid to do cheesy villains, like a live-action Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Flash is known for his rogues’ gallery, a colorful assortment of villains with less than fear-inducing names. Just in the first episode, we got the Weather Wizard, Reverse Flash and a hint that Gorilla Grodd may feature in a future episode. Episode four introduces Captain Cold, played by Prison Break’s Wentworth Miller. It’s nice to see some new comic book villains get the live-action treatment, because honestly, how many more live-action Catwomen or Green Goblins do we need?

-The relationship between Barry and Detective West gives me the warm fuzzies, and yeah, that’s probably partly because my dad was a police officer for 27 years. There really isn’t a father figure-son relationship this healthy in any of the movie/TV superhero joints I’ve seen this side of Uncle Ben. It helps that Jesse L. Martin is no stranger to playing a cop, having spent about a decade on Law & Order.

-The low-hanging-but-still-brilliant casting fruit that is John Wesley Shipp as Barry's dad, Henry Allen. Shipp played the Flash on CBS for 22 episodes from 1990-91, and he played Dawson's dad on the late-’90s teen drama Dawson’s Creek, back when the CW was still the WB and its mascot was a singing frog.

-Tom Cavanaugh (Ed, the Mike and Tom Eat Snacks podcast) makes a great big bad as Harrison Wells, the scientist who mentors the Flash but manipulates events behind the scenes to fulfill Barry’s destiny and fakes being in a wheelchair like a true goldbricker (seriously, where’s Walter Sobchak when you need him?). There's a long-game here that's more than just “eventually Batman will show up.” Setting up STAR Labs as a metahuman prison in the third episode is a nice escalation of Wells’ arc, creating a Central City Arkham that will clearly suffer a breakout at some point, probably around the end of the season. That said, did anybody else think the hallway leading to the particle accelerator beneath STAR Labs looked a little too much like the hallway leading to Cerebro in the X-movies?

-A superhero in a red costume making jokes, enjoying his powers and fighting colorful villains? If I close my eyes tight enough, it's like Spider-Man got a TV series. Grant Gustin certainly looks like an American Andrew Garfield. He’s even got the notorious Parker Luck: The woman he loves (Iris West, with whom he grew up after his mom was murdered, so OK, maybe that’s kinda creepy) loves someone else, he’s chronically late to crime scenes despite his super speed, and for all his power he can’t bust his dad out of prison. Yet despite all that, the show never feels like it exists in the same dark universe as David S. Goyer. This is the DC I want my son to see when he's ready for the live-action stuff.

-Superhero team-ups. The premiere gave us a scene with Green Arrow (Stephen Amell), tying Flash into that other CW DC hero. The third episode introduced, via flashbacks, Robbie Amell (yes, relation) as Ronnie Raymond, the original Firestorm, who apparently was “killed” in the same STAR Labs accident that gave Barry his powers. Looking forward to the network digging up another Amell to play Red Tornado in a future episode.

For more on the Flash in general, read Matt’s write-up on Mark Waid’s defining run on the book during the Wally West years. Waid is currently doing gangbusters on another red-suited hero, Daredevil. 

Dan Grote has been a Matt Signal contributor since 2014 and friends with Matt since there were four Supermen and two Psylockes. His two novels, My Evil Twin and I and Of Robots, God and Government, are available on Amazon.

All the News That Excited Me From San Diego Comic Con

So, like all comic fans, I spent this weekend waiting on bated breath for announcements from Geek Mardi Gras, better known as San Diego Comic Con. And, like most comic fans, I wasn't able to attend. So I relied on sources from around the internet to give me all sorts of cool announcements. And if you aren't one of those people who kept refreshing their browser all weekend, well, here are a handful of announcements that got me excited.

-Ok, I'm going to get one of the biggest reveals out of the way first. The first official image of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman from Superman v. Batman: Dawn of Justice. At first blush, I wasn't sure if I was impressed. The muted color palette isn't something I'm a big fan of, and is something that I wasn't in love with when it came to Superman's costume in Man of Steel. But since the whole image seems muted and sepia toned, I moved past that and looked at the costume and the image itself, and she looks wonderful (pun intended). She's regal and tough, but not masculine, which is exactly how I picture Wonder Woman. I can't say anything beyond that about the movie, but at this point, my excitement is increasing for DC's big universe builder.

- And while on the subject of DC on film, the announcement that Ra's al Ghul will be the big bad for season three of Arrow is big news for me. Ra's is a villain with a lot of possibility for interpretation, and the producers of Arrow have said they don't want to compete with the vision from Batman Begins, so they're going at him from another angle. Arrow has been consistently enjoyable since the beginning of the series, and has been slowly building a mythology, with the League of Assassins a large part of that. That slow build will hopefully pay off with Ra's making an appearance. Oh, and Brandon Routh appearing as Ray Palmer, better known as the Atom, is exciting too. From appearances in other genre shows like Chuck, it's clear Routh is a stronger actor than Superman Returns showed, and I think he'll be a great addition to the world of Arrow.

- Marvel has been making a lot of announcements the past few weeks that, in a bygone era, would have been Comic Con announcements, things like the new female Thor and Falcon becoming Captain America. And while the announcement of a new series that brings the characters from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. into the Marvel Universe isn't on par, PR-wise, with that one, the series being written by modern comics legend Mark Waid, whose Daredevil is still in my top three current Marvel titles, and drawn by a big name artist doing series of done-in-one-issue storieis pretty darn exciting. I think I've made it clear in the past how much I like one off stories, both as a fan and as someone who likes being able to hand any issue of a series to a customer and say, "Here, try this," so if this has the same feel as Warren Ellis's similarly formatted short run on Secret Avengers, than I'm in for it.

- Now, onto another Marvel announcement that I've been mulling over since it came out. As a Star Wars fan, I've been waiting to see what Marvel is going to do now that they have the comics license. And with the announcement of three Star Wars series, it's pretty sweet; Jason Aaron and John Cassaday on Star Wars (set in between episodes 4 & 5), a Darth Vader series from Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca, and a Princess Leia mini-series from Mark Waid and Terry Dodson. While I'm a little disappointed and not surprised that all these books are clustered around the classic trilogy (disappointed because there's a ton of other times to play with that won't impinge on the new trilogy, not surprised because this is the most profitable era for Star Wars publishing), I can't argue with the creators. I've already talked about Mark Waid, and Jason Aaron is a writer I've written about plenty. It's the Vader series that has me most curious. Larroca drew some great space stories during his tenure on the X-Men books, and drew plenty of high tech and armor during his time on Invincible Iron Man, so I think he's a good fit. But it's Kieron Gillen that has me very excited. A writer who does great character work as well as high concept sci-fi (see his short lived S.W.O.R.D. series), he was one of Marvels' stable of writers I thought would best fit Star Wars, so I'm pleased to see that he's getting a spot right out of the gate.

- On a note that is tangentially comic related, the Star Wars book panel announced a novel based on an unproduced Star Wars: The Clone Wars script featuring two characters who had a very heavy presence in Star Wars comics. Asajj Ventress was created for the initial Clone Wars short cartoons and was defined during Dark Horse's Clone Wars comics. Quinaln Vos was created by John Ostrander for his run on the prequel set comics, and is my favorite EU comics character (and second favorite EU character of all, right behind Grand Admiral Thrawn). These are two characters of mixed morality who are haunted by their past. They're an interesting pairing that has minimal interactions in their past (and none in the new official canon). I'm happy that these two great characters aren't being forgotten with the focus on the new future.


- DC didn't make many announcements this year, instead focusing on creators expounding on the upcoming work we've already heard about. There was one really cool bit of art shown, the map of the Multiverse devised by Grant Morrison for his Multiversity series (track it down somewhere where you can get better resolution than I can provide). And after I recently talked about Batman '66, I would have had to mention the digital publication of an adaptation of a lost episode, even if it wasn't written by legend in the annals of the bookstore, the comic shop, the Hollywood studio, and the courtroom, Harlan Ellison, and feature the first '66 appearance of my second favorite (pun not intended this time, but willingly accepted) Bat villain, Two-Face.

-Finally,  Image Comics and Dark Horse Comics announced twelve new series each, and there are some from both companies that I'm looking forward to, but two really jumped out at me. As a big fan of the B.P.R.D. and the whole Hellboy universe, it's cool to see the creators that Mike Mignola has brought to work on those books do other work, and two of these series feature that talent. John Arcudi, regular co-writer on B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth, and James Harren, who has worked on his share of arcs on that title, give us Rumble from Image, featuring a scarecrow barbarian. And Tyler Crook, previous regular artist on B.P.R.D. and who drew the excellent Bad Blood mini-series from Dark Horse earlier this year, returns to that publisher, this time teaming with Sixth Gun and Helheim writer Cullen Bunn for Harrow County, a spooky tale of a girl with strange powers in a haunted wood and a town that seems to want her dead. I like Bunn's superhero work for Marvel, but when he's doing his creator owned horror books he dazzles, and Crook is the perfect artist for something like this.

And as one final, non-Comic Con related note, friend of the blog Michael Calia, one of the guys at the Shut Up Kids podcast (celebrating fifty episodes this week), who writes for the Wall Street Journal, wrote a piece for their Speakeasy blog about what to do if you're a first time shopper in a comic shop, and yours truly is quoted, so go check that out too!

A Busy Week for Comics on TV

So, this past week we saw the debut of two TV series (one a series premiere, one a season premiere).

I thought season two of The Walking Dead was not as strong as the first one. What should have been one arc in a season with multiple acts took up much of the season with very little payoff. And I think the series, and new showrunner Glen Mazzara, wanted to address that right off the bat. The teaser for the debut episode, "Seed" was silent, with the survivors making their way through a house, killing some walkers (although in all fairness since they're already dead, I don't know if there's a better term then killing), and digging for supplies. There's no excessive talking here, no hemming and hawing; it's all action. And I think the destroyed walker count in this one episode exceeds the entirety of last season.

Not to say that the whole episode is action. There's still the strife in the Grimes family, with Lori unsure about where she stands with her husband and son. Daryl continues to walk along the outskirts of the group, taking part in the action but not in the day to day life. Rick is acting like a leader, giving orders and holding the responsibility close to him. And, hey, even T-Dog is doing stuff. The episode felt balanced, giving something for all the members of the cast something to do.

The prison is an excellent place for the survivors to go, with its high walls and strong defenses, and has a creepy air that works well for a zombie story. As the survivors attempt to clear the prison of its dead inhabitants, the darkness and winding corridors add a level of claustrophobia and intensity that you didn't get in the more open expanses of the farm.

The highlight of the episode for me was the first full appearance by Michonne, the sword wielding zombie killer played by Danai Gurira. She only had a couple scenes, but her sword play and total badassery made me happy. Michonne has been a favorite of mine in the comic for a long time, and she has been translated to the screen perfectly. Her scenes with Andrea show her to be caring as well as a hardcore killer, and she walks around with chained zombies, so I couldn't ask for more.

As for where I feel the season is going, well I doubt I could be happier. The appearance of the prisoners makes me a little nervous about the expanding cast size, but we'll see where that goes. Seems like Herschel will be picking up some of the plotlines that were left in the void by the early death of Dale, and I like how tough Maggie is getting; it seems she might be picking up some of the tough female character quotient left by Andrea not being as tough as she is in the comic.  Michonne and Andrea are looking like they/re going to be running into the Governor and Woodbury first, so I'm curious to see where they go and how they meet up with the rest of the survivors again. This was a good episode with a lot of promise; I hope the series continues on this path.

I admit to going in to Arrow, the new series featuring Green Arrow, with a bit of trepidation. Superheroes and TV don't always translate. And while at times Smallville, the CW's previous DC Comics adaptation flew like Superman through the skies, there were times it moved much more slowly and felt like a show that would be on the same network as Gossip Girl and 90210; lots of angst and not a lot of superheroics. I also know Green Arrow can often be presented as Batman-lite, and frankly he was in his early days in comics; he had an Arrowcar and Arrowcave, for pete's sake!

Fortunately, the series premiere did a lot to alleviate those fears. The pilot if both full of action, good character beats, and some knowing winks to the comic reading audience. The pilot starts out with Oliver Queen, the man who will become Green Arrow, being saved from the island he has been stranded on for the past five years. He returns to Starling City, where he begins taking up his quest to right the wrongs of his corrupt mogul father by taking out a list of men who are equally corrupt. He's not the same bleeding heart liberal he is in the comics, but he is looking out for the little guy.

Stephen Amell does an excellent job as both Oliver Queen and his mysterious alter ego, who does not have a name in the series yet. He plays the cocky, arrogant rich guy one moment, and the intense vigilante the next. It's interesting that the series creators chose to give him a family, a mother and sister. This does a nice job of separating him from Batman. He is not an orphan, but has these connections that give him something else to fight for. Whoever Amell's stunt double is also does an impressive job. The way he moves and the way he fights aren't like you usually see among TV and movie superheroes. His movement over rooftop isn't acrobatic, but more like an animal stalking it's prey, moving on all fours, and his fighting style involves arms and legs, choking out his enemies instead of trying to knock them unconscious with fists.

The other members of the cast also do an impressive job. Oliver's mother and sister, played by Susanna Thompson and Willa Holland respectively, both have their rich affectations but are hiding secrets. Colin Donnell plays Tommy Merlyn, Ollie's ne'er do well best friend. He seems like a wastrel, and something of a slick operator, but comic fans will recognize his last name and know that he has a future in villainy. But the highlights of the supporting cast are the Lance family. Laurel Lance, Ollie's once and probably future girlfriend is played by Katie Cassidy, of Supernatural and Harper's Island fame. Here, she is a crusading attorney working for legal aid. She serves as a voice the down to earth and the common man in Ollie's world of privilege. She doesn't take any of Ollie's arrogance, and puts him in his place, even though she doesn't realize most of it is an act. Hopefully, we'll watch her transition into her own heroic identity before the series is over. Her father, Detective Quentin Lance, is a tough cop who seems to be a good cop in a corrupt town who also has his problems with the rich Queen family. He is played ably by Paul Blackthorne, a favorite actor of mine best known for playing Harry Dresden on the shirt lived television adaptation of The Dresden Files.

There were several clever references for the DC buff to pick up beyond Merlyn's appearance. On the island where Ollie is found, a mask that belongs to Deathstroke the Terminator is seen. The head of security of Ollie's target is Dracon, a villain created by Judd Winick during his run on the comic series. And two incidental characters are named Diggle and Grell after creators who have a history with Green Arrow in the comics.

I was interested to see that the creators of the show have no problem with having Ollie take the life of a villain. Ollie snaps the neck of a thug who discovers the new uncanny physical skills he picked up on the island, and he seems to have no problem slinging arrows that seem to put goons down for good. The comic Ollie isn't a killer, and the couple times he has killed have taken their toll on him. However, I accept that this works within the world of the show; the Oliver who came off that island is a predator hunting game that is deadly. He feels he needs to put them down before they do the same to him and others. How this will affect him, and his perception by the public and the police, is something I hope the series addresses.

All in all, I think Arrow has some promise. There are some mysteries laid out that I'm looking forward to seeing payoff, and the cast does a good job. We'll have to wait and see if the series winds up going on for years like Smallville, or folding like Birds of Prey did after a short time. Early signs point to a longer run, and I will be staying tuned for it.

On a final note, this past weekend, Cartoon Network decided to preempt it's DC Nation block of cartoons in favor of reruns of other cartoons. Until January. Young Justice, part of that block, is probably the best action cartoon on TV today, and the successor to the great Timmverse DC Comics cartoons of the 90s and early 00s. I would suggest if you are a fan, to tweet @cartoonnetwork with the hashtag #DCNation to let your voice be heard. I know, serious first world problem here, but still, you don't stand between a man and his cartoons.