Smooth as Steel

Ever since The New 52 DC Comics has been ignoring one of the most memorable features of their universe: Legacy. Batman, The Teen Titans, The Flash, so many other characters lost a lot of respect when DC Editorial chose to ignore their previous histories and alter the families of so many heroes. One such family altered was The Superman Family. Luckily, DC Comics new "Rebirth" event seems to be bringing "family" back to The DC Universe. This week's Z-Lister is a member of the Superman Family, her name is Natasha Irons.

Created by Louise Simonson and Chris Batista in "Steel Vol. 2 #1" in 1994, Natasha Irons is the niece of John Henry Irons (the C-List superhero known as Steel). Early on Nat was shown to be an intelligent young girl and was one of the few members of the Irons Family to support John. When writer Christopher Priest wrote for the book in "Steel #34" Nat's established personality was dropped and her established history was ignored, she was written as the stereotypical teenager and was given a boyfriend to further the normalcy of her character. Her father Clay became a villain named Crash and fought John/Steel a few times, however Nat was soon poisoned by another villain and to save her life  Clay turned himself in to the police and gave her a blood transfusion.

Steel is later captured by the villain Darkseid and Nat dons a temporary suit of armor, teams up with the Superman Family and saves her uncle. Due to the experience John takes a break from being Steel and passes the mantle on to his niece with a new Steel armor as a gift. As Steel, Nat would team up with Traci 13 and Supergirl/Cir-El to save Superman from a "ghost ninja". Nat even uses her hammer's electric discharge to restart Superman's heart. How symbolic.

When John returns to being Steel he sees the superhero community has become more narcissistic and forbids Natasha from joining The Teen Titans because she has been neglecting to help clean up destruction caused in Metropolis by superheroes. Reminds me of when parents tell their kids they can't go play outside until they clean their rooms. Oh, who am I kidding! Kids don't go out and play anymore. Anyway John takes Nat's armor away and she gets so mad at him she joins Lex Luthor's "Everyman Project" which Luthor creates to equip citizens with superpowers. Nat gains super strength, flight and solar projection and takes the name Starlight. When Steel goes to one of Luthor's parties demanding his niece back, Nat joins several other Everymen in beating the tar out of Steel. After Luthor deactivates the powers of every Everyman outside of the team he's created-which causes superpowered people to fall out of the sky-Nat sees the error of her ways and reunites with uncle. She begins acting as a double agent against Luthor, but she is beaten by the then-superpowered Luthor and held captive. Steel and The Teen Titans rescue Natasha and Lex Luthor is arrested. Though her powers are taken away, Nat rejoins her uncle's company Steelworks.

The residual effects of Luthor's Everyman Project leave the power of vaporization (the ability to turn into gas) in Natasha and she decides to join the team Infinity Inc as Vaporlock. Though her new adventures would see her fighting conspiracies and even Doomsday, Natasha would still be considered an upstanding hero.

One of the more obscure members of The Superman Family, Natasha and her uncle John show a more human, more common approach to being a superhero. Sometimes it's not always fighting bad guys, sometimes it's fighting the people you love because, well, families argue. Families have different ideals. But at the end of the day-despite the mistakes made-family sticks together. Family forgives. Natasha made some bad choices, and maybe John did too, but I still love the genuine relationship between these two. In a world where a man in a red cape can move planets it's refreshing to see a more realistic side of the superhero lifestyle without it being too dark. This is realism with charm, with heart. These characters-at their brightest-are an example of why I love comic books. Because they are just as much about characters as they are about adventures and action. If The Superman Family will truly regrow in DC's current comic universe, I hope to see Steel and Natasha return to glory as well.

Thanks for reading.