The Early Days of Vixen

Vixen has made the transition from comic book hero, to animated character, and finally, thanks to CW's Arrow (as played by Megalyn Echikunwoke), to a live action character!

It's been a long trip for the mystic hero, and let's take a quick look back to where it all started!

Cancelled Comics Cavalcade

Vixen #1 was suppose to come out on August 8th, 1978 (to be cover dated November, 1978, written by Gerry and Carla Conway, with art by Bob Oksner and Vince Colletta)....but that was the year of the DC Implosion, wherein DC cancelled many titles in production (including Prez, Shade the Changing Man, Black Lightning, Steel the Indestructible Man, Kamandi, the Secret Society of Super-Villains, issues of Showcase with Deadman and the Creeper...and the fated to not be published Vixen #1!

The contents of those books, and a few others ended up in two volumes of the Cancelled Comic Cavalcade, with the uncolored and unfinished pages to Vixen #1 (with only text for its last page) in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2 of Fall, 1978!

Action Comics and DC Comics Presents

Still, DC eventually found a home for Vixen, premiering the character in a 4-color comic, this time, owing her rescue to Superman, and appearing in Action Comics #521 (July, 1981) in "The Deadly Rampage of the Lady Fox" by Gerry Conway, Curt Swan and Frank Chiaramonte, with model Mari McCabe using the mystic powers of her Tantu Totem, chasing animal poachers like the Mule from Africa to Metropolis and back again!  Vixen returned to pair with Superman again, facing off against the mental powers of Admiral Cerebrus in "Destiny's Children" in DC Comics Presents #68 (April, 1984) by Gerry Conway, Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson, but more was afoot for the lady with animal powers....

Justice League of America

Vixen joined the Justice League of America as it restructured after an alien invasion, and moved to Detroit in Justice League of America Annual #2 (1984, by Gerry Conway, Chuck Patton and Dave Hunt).  What eventually came to be known as the Motor City Justice League included older members Aquaman, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man and Zatanna, and added a new Steel (grandson of the original Steel, who supplied them their HQ, the Bunker, in Detroit), Vibe and soon after, Gypsy.

More on the rest of the team here....and Vixen served this new Justice League well, working with them from Justice League of America #234 (December, 1984) through the Crisis On Infinite Earths (and a JLA/JSA team up with Infinity Inc. that also reached into Infinity, Inc. #19 of October, 1985), until the end of the first Justice League of America with #261 in April, 1987 (coinciding with the first two issues of the Legends mini-series of 1986, which led to a new Justice League....and Suicide Squad!).

Suicide Squad

Vixen took some time off, working on her modeling career....but trouble followed her around, and with Suicide Squad #11 (March, 1988 by John Ostrander and Luke McDonnell), saw drug kingpins attacking the beach where she was working!  Vixen then worked with the Suicide Squad (which was also getting help from Speedy/Roy Harper, who was working with the government at the time to stop drug pushers), and joined the team in the next issue after stopping the kingpin (and witnessing a battle between Nightshade and the Enchantress...).

Vixen served well in the Suicide Squad, and soon formed a bond with Ben Turner, the Bronze Tiger, one of the too few good guys that held herd on the villains (like Deadshot, Count Vertigo and Captain Boomerang) that the Suicide Squad used for their missions.  Vixen worked with the team until it reorganized with Amanda Waller going to jail in Suicide Squad #39 (March, 1990), and occasionally returned to help the team after that (though under protest, not wanting to work with Amanda Waller, and now on the outs with Ben Turner), including battles against Kobra and his cult (and with a new costume), as well as during Wonder Woman's War of the Gods. 

On Her Own

While working with the Suicide Squad, Vixen met other heroes, helping Animal Man define himself in Animal Man #10 to #12 (April to June, 1989)...


...as well as the Wally West Flash (fighting Gorilla Grodd) in Flash #45 to #47 (December, 1990 to February, 1991).

Vixen soldiered on as a frequent guest star in the DC Universe, returning to help the Martian Manhunter, Dolphin, Maxima, Wonder Woman and Gypsy in Justice League Task Force #7 and #8 of the 1990s, joining Checkmate to help against a new Hawk and Dove in the Hawk and Dove mini-series of 1997/1998, working with the Ultramarines in JLA #26, helping Wonder Woman and many female heroes defend Manhattan during Circe's attack in Wonder Woman #174 and #175 of 2001, working with the Birds of Prey (including Black Canary and the Huntress) in Birds of Prey #69 to #73 in 2004...

....and popping up here and there to finally resettle for a time in the Justice League of America with its relaunch, in Justice League of America #1 (October, 2006), along with Arsenal (Roy Harper), Black Canary, Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders), Black Lightning, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and Red Tornado, along with the DC trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, serving with the team through the Blackest Night event (where she faced former members lost in her original Justice League membership).

Best of all, Vixen was finally able to get her own series (though only a 5 issue mini-series) entitled Vixen: Return of the Lion, which ran from December, 2008 to April, 2009, written by G. Woodrow Wilson, with art by Cafu, dealing with Intergang, animal poachers and mystic menaces in Africa. 

It might have taken over 30 years, but Vixen finally got her own title, and that is good!

Steel, A Patriotic Comic Book Hero!

“The lights are going out…and a great darkness is descending on the world.  America will soon be the last bastion of freedom.  That’s why I’ll go on fighting the forces of fascist tyranny until the day I die!  That’s why I became Steel!”  – Hank Heywood.

That’s the mission statement of the hero who premiered in Steel, the Indestructible Man #1 (March, 1978, by writer Gerry Conway and artist Don Heck).  Hank Heywood was just a Princeton biology student, on tour in Europe in 1939 with his mentor, Dr. Gilbert Giles, discussing their bio-retardant formula that would allow surgical replacement of damaged limbs and organs….and the pair were witness to Nazi brutality.  This so shook young Hank, that after returning home, he informed his fiance, Gloria Giles (the doctor’s daughter) of his need to enlist in the Marines and help convince America to prepare to fight the coming war in Europe.  While training, Private Heywood stumbled onto some Nazi saboteurs, and while he tried to stop them, they blew themselves up and severely injured Hank.

When Hank awoke, he convinced Dr. Giles to use the formula, in combination with steel alloy tubing to replace his crushed bones, micro-motors in his damaged joints and a new artificial lung to replace his burned one, all under regrown skin thanks to the formula.  The doctor wanted to keep the success of the operation a secret and Hank agreed, being rebuilt better than before, and didn’t tell Gloria.  Private Heywood was reassigned duty in the Marines as a desk jockey, but Hank wanted to do more for his country.  Hank fashioned a flexible steel alloy suit for added protection, and labeled himself Steel, the Indestructible Man.  With his new strength, speed, endurance and toughness, he then decided to arm himself (sadly, breaking the law to get advanced weapons from the Westchester Federal Armory), where Steel faced more saboteurs directed by Baron Death…but, this time, Hank, in his costume identity was victorious against them.

Soldiering On

Over his next four issues, Steel faced the Mineral Master (a Dr. Moag, who stumbled onto the “Omega” field, which he was immersed in, and changed the doctor, and allowed him a mastery of minerals), Sledgehammer (Emil Sledgeski, a Chicago mobster with half-ton hands that allowed him to toss Steel around), the Gadgeteer (Col. Roger Romaine, an army engineer who thought the army needed more inventions but struck out on his own as a thief and fought Steel with an ultra-sonic stunner, a prototype laser, and an auto gyro), and the Marsh Monster (and his brother, hiding out in the swamp with a few deadly secrets with the Hawk brothers).

Steel fought these menaces with a modified flare gun (his flash gun, to blind his foes), an anesthetic dart rifle (which fired mercy bullets to stun his foes) and a modified mountain climbing pike to allow him to cross long distances (by grappling between buildings)…all with his other enhanced abilities, to keep fighting for his country.

A Bitter Ending...Almost

It wasn’t easy for Hank, as Dr. Giles collapsed from a heart attack (brought on by stress, and the realization that Hank had gone against the doctor’s wishes becoming Steel), and Gloria grew more distant from Hank as his fervor to fight the forces aligning against America grew.  Though, with the last published issue, (#5), Steel had retrieved more of the bio-retardant formula (needed by himself because of injuries he suffered in an explosion caused by the Gadgeteer and to aid Dr. Giles recovery), Steel faced the worst doom of all, cancellation!  This, thanks to the DC Implosion…a collapse in the comic market that doomed many titles.

Still, even that couldn’t hold Steel down, as DC published what would have been Steel, the Indestructible Man #6 in the second issue of the Cancelled Comics Cavalcade (though only in photocopied black and white), and Roy Thomas used most of the story (with slight redrawings by Jerry Ordway, and a few changed words and missing pages) in All-Star Squadron #8 and 9 in 1982.  Here, we learned Dr. Giles recovered and told Hank he knew that Hank was Steel…and issued an ultimatum, that he should give up being Steel or leave his fiance, as the doctor wouldn’t have her engaged to an “overzealous, patriotic fool”.  Hank then left Gloria, and ended up in London, and got an assignment from Prime Minister Winston Churchill to kidnap Adolf Hitler!  Steel went behind enemy lines in January, 1940, realized he may have taken this suicide mission a little too easily (perhaps because he did not want to live without the love of Gloria) and ended up being captured and tortured in a Nazi concentration camp (where he  inadvertently allowed the Nazi super-menace of Baron Blitzkrieg to be created).

I Shall Return

In the updated parts of All-Star Squadron #8 and 9, we found Steel in Canada, saving Churchill again (this time after Pearl Harbor and the USA getting involved in what would be World War II), and how Baron Blitzkrieg planned to use Steel to kill Churchill and then President Franklin D. Roosevelt!  The All-Stars helped save the Allied leaders, and FDR even rechristened Hank as Commander Steel, and Hank joined the All-Star Squadron soon after in January, 1942.  Sadly, Steel found his mentor has passed away and Gloria had blamed Steel for his death, and moved on, marrying soldier Brad Farley, who was shipping out to Europe.  Commander Steel had a few adventures with the All-Star Squadron (included a team-up through time, meeting the Justice League and Justice Society in Justice League of America #207-209 and All-Star Squadron #14-15, where they faced time-foe Per Degaton and the evil Crime Syndicate of America…and this reunited Commander Steel with his original creative team of Gerry Conway and Don Heck, at least for the JLA issues, wherein he teamed with other Conway creations Firestorm and Power Girl!).  Gloria even returned into Hank’s life, telling him of how her husband disappeared on a mission in Europe, and Hank, still in love with her, did the right thing and headed to Europe to save Brad Farley.

But, in another twist, in All-Star Squadron #50, Commander Steel did free Brad Farley in April, 1942, but thanks to dimensional stresses caused by the Crisis on Infinite Earths, ended up on Earth-1 (from his home on Earth-2), in April, 1942, where there were no super-heroes yet (as the Justice League of America had yet to be), so he retired for a time, concentrating on making a new life for himself without Gloria, and saving his country by beating the Nazi menace.  Commander Steel lost his mentor, his girl, and even his world, and he soldiered on…for his country!  That’s a super-patriot!

Commander Steel had a legacy, and that…can be looked at on a future date!