It also doesn't hurt that several cast members from both shows reprise their roles for the web series. Stephen Amell's Oliver Queen and Grant Gustin's Barry Allen have been featured prominently in the marketing for Vixen, and both play a fairly significant role in the first few webisodes. If anything, my fear was that these two heroes would overshadow Mari's origin story and personal journey. That hasn't been the case so far. Both Barry and Ollie have a logical reason for being involved. Furthermore, their presence allows Mari to test her fledgling abilities in a way that wouldn't really be possible if she were merely butting heads with gangbangers.
On that note, the production values are surprisingly good for a web-based project like this. In terms of animation quality, the series is more or less on par with DC's recent direct-to-DVD projects. The animation is fairly static when it comes to conversation scenes or shots of characters calmly walking, but it really stands out during the action scenes. I don't want to say the action on this show couldn't have been done on a live-action series - The Flash was surprisingly robust when it came to conveying Barry's powers or characters like Gorilla Grodd - but it would have been a tall order to fill. Seeing Mari cut loose and channel the strength of a charging elephant or the flight of an eagle is easily the highlight of the series.The voice work is a little more spotty. Megalyn Echikunwoke (The 4400) does a good job as Mari, portraying her as hardened and tough without overplaying things. Neil Flynn (Scrubs) is great as her father. Oddly, it's the established characters that sound the most flat. Amell's Ollie, Gustin's Barry, and even Carlos Valdes' sound a bit stiff and lifeless compared to their live-action performances. I definitely don't get the impression that the dialogue was recorded with all the actors in the same room.
The 30 minute total running time isn't a huge amount of space to work with when it comes to establishing a new character and her origin. So far, Vixen is doing a good job of working quickly and efficiently. The writers are quickly able to establish Mari's troubled history as a foster child and her relationship with her foster father without dwelling too much on the past. The limited space becomes more of a problem when it comes to her powers, however. No sooner does Mari discover the mystical nature of her necklace than she's wielding it like a pro and making mincemeat of her enemies. Its hard to fault the writers too much considering there just isn't time for a fully developed origin saga, but it does make you wish they had an extra 10 or 15 minutes to work with.
Time will ultimately tell how well the series makes use of its limited space. An overarching threat does begin to coalesce by the fourth episode, but it's not particularly well developed at that point. Vixen stands out less because of her supporting cast or city and more for her personal qualities. In terms of powers, motivations and personality, she's a much different hero from the Flash, the Arrow, Firestorm or the other heroes introduced so far. In that sense, the web series is already a solid success for The CW. Fans of Arrow/Flash or the Vixen character in general should definitely give the first episode a try. It's not as if the five-minute serialized format requires a huge commitment.
The first episode of Vixen will premiere on CW Seed on Tuesday, August 25, with new episodes following every Tuesday. Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.