The unfortunately named Justice League of America: Vixen Rebirth #1 was released last week. Telling the story of how celebrity supermodel Mari McCabe returned to her superheroic persona, Vixen, it's a solid book with some great art by Jamal Campbell.

However, it's not clear how this Vixen relates to the New 52 version, Booster Gold's teammate who was nearly killed in Justice League International #6.

The New 52 incarnation of the Justice League International appears to have existed in the Rebirth Universe, at least according to Green Lanterns #9. Yet Justice League of America: Vixen Rebirth gives the impression that Vixen is a new superhero on the scene. How can both of those stories be true in a shared universe?

In an interview with Matt Santori at Comicosity.com, Vixen Rebirth co-writer Steve Orlando said that so far as he's concerned, "All of [Vixen's] appearances happened." That's a great thing to say to the press to ease Vixen's worried fans, but unless you make it explicit in the comic itself, it doesn't matter. For example, an artist could claim that he thinks Booster Gold is a Canadian citizen, but until he commits that idea to continuity, Booster's published history as an American citizen must still take precedence. (Once again: no comic DC has ever published indicates that Booster Gold is any nationality other than American.)

I appreciate that from a marketing and story-telling position, it can be an advantage to ignore what came before — especially when what came before is a confusing mess after years of unending and unexplained continuity revisions. The down side of any reboot is that it damages existing fans' relationship with a character they thought they knew.

"Continuity" is really just another word for "character development." Without it, we might as well be reading about different characters with similar tastes in fashion.

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When reading Justice League International #2, I noticed something about Booster Gold's new teammate Vixen that is perhaps best summarized by Grey Scherl in his review of the issue for Comics Nexus:

Vixen is a complete and utter waste of a character who is here, quite literally, so she can point at a screen and describe it as her "Native Africa". Yeah. Vixen made the team because she's African, and that's her characterization. I'd probably be offended if I cared at all about the character, but I don't, so I'm not.

Otherwise, Sherl's review is very positive, giving the issue a rating of 8 out of 10.

To be fair, the series has been pretty up-front about the fact that most of its members were selected to meet United Nations quota. Add to that the fact that there have only been two issues of the new JLI so far. There's still plenty of time for Jurgens to develop the character, so maybe this criticism is unfair.

However, this brings us to the point I wanted to make, the point that many of us fans of the former DC Universe are still struggling with: how much of the personalities of the characters we love is still intact in the DCnU? Sure she looks pretty much the same, but it's been two months, and fans of Vixen still have no idea how the DCnU Vixen compares to their beloved DCU Vixen. Other than Batman and the Green Lanterns, that applies to most other characters int eh DCnU.

Until we get answers to questions like that, there is going to be some concern and resentment from fans about the new paradigm of the DCnU.

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