Vixen, Season 2 Review: More Animal Fighting!

Vixen, Season 2: Trial By Fire

I didn't know Vixen even got a second season in cartoon form! Well, better late than never, right? It's a bit surprising considering how apparently Vixen was supposed to be in Legends of Tomorrow's second season, but at the last minute was swapped out with, well, her predecessor and ancestor because the actress had other commitments. But apparently voicing a cartoon is a lot easier than acting for, like, a year as a show regular, so we've got this. 

It's actually a very simple story, running a total of just shy of 30 minutes. It's a definite improvement over the first season, mostly due to not having to spend half of it showing Vixen fighting Green Arrow and the Flash (as cool as that scene was) and introducing Vixen as a character with the second half a very rushed introdump and climax about the origins of the totems of Zambezi. Here, we have a more paced-out story, and we finish most of the introdump in the first minute or so. Professor Macalaster (a.k.a. douchebag from the first season that sold Vixen out to her evil sister) gives a speech about there are five totems of Zambezi -- Vixen's animal totem was one of a set, with the other four representing the four classic elements of air, water, earth and fire. 

The episode wastes no time in showing that the fire totem is brought into a museum by the professor, who is just begging for the totem to be stolen. So on a night while Vixen is out helping Flash and Firestorm deal with the freaking Weather Wizard (and get knocked out, so we never see the end of that fight), someone steals the fire totem. 

That someone is Hugo Strange a mister Jones, who sells it to the villain of the episode, Benatu Eshu, a warlord from Zambezi masquerading as a diplomat, who immediately dons the fire totem and fries the jewel thief. Vixen comes into combat with Eshu, which leads to a pretty sweetly-animated action scene that would be hard to pull off well in live action. Vixen manages to get away from Eshu, and later seeks help from... Professor Macalaster, and then her wounded sister Kuasa, both of whom villains from her first outing as a superhero. Honestly, she's just asking to be stabbed in the back, isn't she? Kuasa reveals that Eshu is the man who destroyed their village and killed their mother, and agrees to help Vixen out in hunting the water totem. 

Of course, the inevitable backstab happens, and Kuasa unleashes the water totem and escapes from Vixen... but gets taken out by... Black Canary and the Atom! Because, yeah, Vixen brought insurance. The fight quickly delves into a punch-out against Eshu as he arrives full of vengeance, and we get a four-on-one fight as Vixen, Kuasa, Black Canary and Atom head off to fight Eshu. The little guest stars don't exactly distract that much because Canary and Atom aren't in the fight for too long, and Kuasa gets absolutely murdered... despite the totems supposedly being of equal power? I guess she's just weakened?

Of course, Vixen defeats Eshu by drowning him in the river, before summoning all the powers of the animals to destroy the fire totem, and the season ends with Vixen answering the call from Green Arrow, Flash and the rest in dealing with an unseen threat in Coast City.

It's overall a pretty fun little outing, a far more focused -- if predictable -- story. Eshu doesn't have much in lieu of motivation, with the 'I killed your mama' thing kind of tacked on as a simple reason for them to fight even more, but he's got a very memorable voice if nothing else. Vixen herself is pretty fun as always, if a little flat... and while the show probably could've used a few less guest stars, it actually functions more as 'Vixen with guests' instead of 'Vixen, Green Arrow and Flash' which was how it felt in its first season. Pacing's a little off, and honestly the Weather Wizard bit was unnecessary as all it did was to give Firestorm and Weather Wizard a brief cameo because the cutaway from Vixen getting knocked out and Vixen waking up in the hospital was an awkward one, and I honestly think that the Weather Wizard bit could've been moved elsewhere in the season, namely as the big crisis that everyone's gathering to handle. But eh, as far as these things go, it's a pretty cool story, if nothing remarkably groundbreaking.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Benatu Eshu is an original character to the series whose name is derived from the African trickster god Eshu. He's apparently appeared in the comics as an enemy of Firestorm of all people? Huh.
• The existence of all the characters assembled here -- Jefferson Jackson as Firestorm instead of Ronnie Raymond, Black Canary still being alive, both Firestorm and Atom still active as heroes -- places this as happening before the first season of Legends of Tomorrow. So between Flash's S02E04 (Jax's debut) and before Flash's S02E08 (the buildup to the beginning of Legends of Tomorrow).