Vixen season 2 review (CW Seed)

Vixen, whilst not a perfect series by any means was a good introduction to her character and good enough that she made a few appearances in live action and her mother is now a regular on Legends of Tomorrow. Also, a second series of web-shorts have been released further exploring her character. So, did it offer any improvements, let’s take a closer look

Vixen season 2 focuses on the lost totems of Zambezi, turns out Vixens totem was only one of 5, the others controlling air, water, earth and fire, cue Captain Planet and/or Avatar reference here. The fire totem is discovered and because people in Detroit are kinda stupid it’s placed in a museum with a lot of public attention, of course it’s stolen within a few days.

The thief is direct rip-off of the Hugo Strange Design from Young Justice, just FYI but anyway, our main villain of the season, Benatu, gets possession of the Totem and has no problem with handling Vixen in a fight.

One of the bigger problems with this season is the fact that the totems are supposedly equal in power and yet there are several occasions where fire is demonstrated to be superior to the other totems.

Seeking help, Mari turns to the only expert she knows, her sister Kuasa, who was the villain in the last season. Turns out that Benatu was the one who destroyed their village. She agrees to help them find the water totem to stop him and is eventually convinced to help. Joining along for the ride for no adequately explained reason are Laurel Lance and the Atom. I’d say this takes place sometime during season 4 pre-Legends of Tomorrow.

Tone wise, this season is more consistent than the last one and it also helps that Flash and Arrow are relegated to only appearing in one episode this season, and at the end. I’ve said before that neither actor was able to give a great performance and sadly that remains the case here. In fact the first episode where Vixen joins up Firestorm and the Flash to confront weather wizard is arguably the weakest episode of the season. Weather Wizard suddenly is able to make water fists. That’s not whether and he doesn’t have the water totem, then that might’ve been clever. It doesn’t help that the fight doesn’t get any on-screen resolution.

But that episode aside, they seemed more focused on their plot this season and it really helped the flow. Also, the cliff-hangers, whilst still present for obvious reasons are better resolved, aside from the one I just mentioned. The animation is as good as last season, aside from the weird design of Laurel.

On that note, I will add that the short run time really hurts the concept as many elements feel rushed as a result. I would’ve hoped for more closure on certain elements that I won’t spoil here. Also, it means that Vixen’s step father, Chuck, barely gets any screen time whatsoever.

I feel this is a slight improvement over the first season, it’s more focused on being its own thing rather than part of a shared universe and its tone and pacing are better. It still has a few issues but without changing the format, it’s a part of the show

Rating 7.5/10