The battle between DC and Marvel for mainstream superhero entertainment supremacy isn’t solely relegated to the confines of blockbusting major motion pictures. It’s playing out on television, too.
While ABC adds some Edward James Olmos to its Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (that’s a Marvel title) and Disney preps a $200 million New York City-based production for four upcoming Netflix series starring uncanny individuals from the junior varsity team of the Marvel universe, Fox’s Gotham (a DC title) is raking in the ratings and the CW is adding another DC property to its ranks. The broadcast network that’s aleady home to two incredibly popular television iterations of DC comics – including the very well-liked Arrow and the even more very well-liked The Flash – will soon stream an animated version of Vixen on its online video incubator, CW Seed.
Vixen is the costumed alter-ego of Mari Jiwe McCabe, an African refugee of the fictional nation of Zambesi turned international model in possession of an ancient and powerful Tantu Totem that gives its wearer all the powers of the animal kingdom one animal at a time. The hero whose last name sounds like it has some ancient Hebrew connotations was conceived by writer Gerry Conway and artist Bob Oksner, made her first appearance in a 1981 issue of Detective Comics, and has since been the titular character in a woefully few number of comic book releases.
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News broke at the recent Television Critics Association’s annual Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, CA that Marc Guggenheim – one of the writers and producers behind CW’s Arrow and The Flash – will helm the animated Vixen project, with an unannounced number of episodes set to be released sometime in the Fall of 2015. And despite the show’s cartoon nature and its online video origins, CW is promising at least some level of crossover with its current superhero roster.
