Vixen (CW Seed) review

So, with the Flash and Arrow successes for the CW, they decided to take on another DC property, Vixen. Now Vixen isn’t really all that active in comics as of the New 52. She had a brief stint in the Justice League International where she was rendered comatose and her most recent mention was as potential recruit for the main Justice League. I’ve been reading the league since the DCYou and I can tell you she’s not currently a member as they’re more interested in other elements such as the dynamic with Lex Luthor as a member, the ongoing war between Darkseid and the Anti-Monitor and the various players assembled for that, not to mention the new Power Ring.

But I’m going off track. What I’m saying is, Vixen is not a high profile character among the likes of Green Arrow and the Flash. So this may be an odd choice but her power-set is largely magic based, a portion that has not really been explored before, so there’s opportunity for it. This is done is animation as opposed to live action and it’s honestly not something I have a problem with. Given Vixens power-set of calling upon powers of the animal kingdom it would take a lot of special effects to put this into motion in live action, and whilst they have managed to do a lot with the special effects in the Flash, Vixen is a different game entirely.

But of course animation isn’t cheap and the CW knows that Vixen doesn’t have the fan-base of Green Arrow or the Flash. So these animated shorts provide a sort of test run for the character, giving the basics of the character, adding some cameos from Arrow and the Flash whilst also providing a decent flowing narrative.

Because of the shorts only being 5-7 minutes long, I didn’t see the point in reviewing them individually. So let’s dig into Vixen and see whether the CW really has something here.

So the premise, Mari McCabe is a girl struggling with her identity. Her step-father gives her a gift from her mother: a necklace that turns out to be a magical totem that grants her the abilities of certain animals. She tries to use this to find out more about her past and ends up finding she may have been better off not knowing.

I’ll say this, for a relatively minor character, this could’ve been far worse. It’s good, but I’d struggle to call it great for reasons I’ll get to. What works is Vixen herself. Her situation is identifiable, the struggles real enough, her answers interesting and naturally she kicks ass.

Her nemesis in this one is a tad on the generic side, but there’s only so much you can expect out of this format. Episode 5 deals with most of her backstory whilst also giving answers for Mari in a two-birds for one stone kinda way and for the story, it works. Her motivations aren’t entirely clear but there’s enough that I’m not fazed by it.

There is plenty of action and this is where the animation excels, the animation is very good generally and its brilliant showing off her powers and abilities in a way live action would be far more restrictive over.

There really isn’t much to say about supporting characters that I remember from this, other to say they were fine. Again, we didn’t see too much of them because of other elements of the plot taking out attention.

The biggest issue this series is, ironically, the inclusion of the Flash and Arrow. The scenes are largely padding in a show that was limited by time as it was, and whilst it’s nice to see the Flash and Arrow fight against her the fights don’t end up going anywhere because neither the Flash or Arrow have any justified motivation for coming after her.

After the same action scene between the 3 of them shown twice, we also have a bloated epilogue tacked on just so Vixen can get her name. Steven Amell and Grant Gustin reprise their roles here which helps maintain a sense of unity between them but to be honest their line-reading is stilted and it’s not helped by them having sub-par dialogue. I get why they’re there, it helps build the notion of a shared universe and provides some star power to a lesser known hero but their presence detracts from the plot rather than enriching it.

Felicity and Cisco also appear in brief cameos, their energetic personalities translating much better into animation but their appearances are brief and largely forgettable.

The tone of the series is all over the place, comedy is often kinda forced (especially the banter between the Flash and Arrow) and it doesn’t often occur outside of those scenes making them feel even more out of place.

It also suffers from the limitations of its format. Cliff-hangers are brought in at the end of each episode, some of them resolved in the most hackney of ways (in episode 4 our Villain tells her henchmen to kill Mari, and Mari is at her mercy by the cliff-hanger, in episode 5 she’s dragged Mari all the way to Africa and then proceeds to try and kill her again) a 40 minute single episode might’ve been better for it.

Overall it’s good, the plotting is solid but the padding is high leading to underdevelopment in certain areas, an inconsistent tone and cliffhangers galore

Rating 6.5/10

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Images used in this review are from Vixen and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use