Natasha Irons

Natasha Irons is a superhero in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Louise Simonson and Chris Bastista, first appearing in ''Steel'' (vol. 2) #1 (February 1994). Since the character's creation, Natasha has since become a reoccurring supporting character of both Superman and the original version of Steel within their respective comic book series, notably sharing the codename Steel after the original becomes injured.

The character is portrayed as an engineering and computer genius and the niece of John, a fellow genius within the Irons family. Although both mainstream continuities feature different backgrounds, both includes her as the daughter of Clay Irons (the brother of John and criminal known as Crash) and becomes close to her uncle, often working as his assistant for Steelworks, a future technology company based in Metropolis. In current mainstream continuity, she serves as a public superhero and member of the Superman Family and several other superheroes groups such as the Titans and the Justice League. She is also one of the chief love interest of sorceress and fellow superhero, Traci 13. Prior to ''The New 52'' reboot, the character gained super-powers in the 2006 limited series '' 52'' from Lex Luthor's Everyman Project for a time. She originally used the codename Starlight but following a change to her powers, she instead assumed the name Vaperlock.

The character has made several appearance in media, including '' Superman: The Animated Series'' where she is voiced by Cree Summer and is portrayed by Tayler Buck in the television series ''Superman & Lois,'' where she is renamed Natalie Lane Irons and is made the daughter of John.

Publication history

Natasha Irons debuted in ''Steel'' (Vol. 2) #1 (January, 1994).

Fictional character biography

The daughter of Clay Irons and Blondel as well as the sister to Jemahl, she is a highly intelligent member of the Irons family similarly to her uncle and initially has a vested interest in both dancing and medicine.

In her earlier appearances in the second ''Steel'' series written by Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove, she is aware of her uncle's identity as Steel and supports him and becomes involved in numerous conflicts in relation to gang and drug-related conflict surrounding the Irons family as well as the re-emergence of John's former employers, Amertek Industries, who is revealed to manipulate both Jemahl and having sold John's past inventions to the gangs.

During Christopher Priest's tenure as writer of the second ''Steel'' series, Natasha is portrayed more stereotypical modern teenager with a flippant attitude. During this time, she meets and befriends a teen named Paul Tomlinson, her father becomes the villain Crash, and a series of tragedies follow the Irons family when John's identity as Steel becomes public, wherein rivals and past adversaries targets the family and leads to the death of Natasha's grandmother and the family faces harassment despite several attempts to relocate. While her relationship with John is tested in wake of their grandmother's death, they reconcile.

Nat later travels with Steel to Metropolis when he establishes Steelworks. She becomes his assistant and succeeds him as the superhero Steel after he is injured in battle. Although reluctant, he allows her to operate under the codename and gifts her with an even more advanced set of armor. One of her earlier adventures as Steel includes a team-up with Cir-El and Traci 13 to battle Japanese vigilante Byakko and protect Superman from her mystical-based abilities when he is injured.

Becoming Starlight and Vaperlock

During the events of '' 52,'' Natasha's relationship with John is tested once more due to his disapproval of her activities both personal and as a superhero, cumulating to his inferencing costing her an opportunity to join the Teen Titans and having been made to attend summer school instead of a science colloquium due to having a poor grades in one subject despite passing all others. She eventually joins Lex Luthor's Everyman Project, gaining super-powers and joining a new version of Infinity Inc as Starlight in opposition to her uncle, following learning of undergoing the treatment (unaware it was done without John's consent) despite his negative views of the superhero community and denounced him as a hypocrite. She becomes a double agent within Luthor's organization before he discovers and ousts her.

In ''World War III'', Natasha creates a nanotech missile to attack Black Adam. ''Infinity, Inc.'' reveals that the Everyman Project gave Natasha the ability to transform into living gas. Following this, she becomes Vaporlock and helps Steel rescue civilians in ''Reign of Doomsday''.

DC Rebirth

In the years following the New 52 which retroactively rebooted the mainstream universe and during the DC Rebirth initiative, Natasha's background and history undergoes significant changes with some similarities to the past continuity.

In this continuity, Natasha is also cast as the eldest daughter of Clay Irons and a scientific genius who has a close relationship with her uncle John and his girlfriend, Lana Lang, whom she views as an aunt. The pair often looked after Natasha and young Ezekiel in their father's stead, all disapproving of his criminal career as "Crash". When her father scams Skyhook, Metropolis's demonic boogeyman, to fund Natasha's scientific endeavors, Ezekiel is kidnapped and her father is arrested and sent to prison. Skyhook remained at large and her brother's missing case remains unsolved, with no details known of what happen to him afterwards. At some point, she also attended college at a young age, dated sorceress Traci 13, and began assisting John and Lana in their superhero personas as Steel and Superwoman.

During the ''Superwoman'' series, Natasha develops a new suit to assist Lana's newfound powers following absorbing strange energies from a deceased version of Superman (seemingly the New 52 Superman) upon his death and assists both Superwoman and Steel while being reacquainted with former girlfriend Traci 13 and adopts the Steel codename. Natasha and John later hunts Skyhook when her father escapes from prison and begins hunting him himself. As the Irons family are drawn to the conflict for revenge, Lana's relation with them is tested when she works to uphold their moral stance against killing.

She later joins the Titans and meets her great-great-uncle, John Henry Jr.

Powers, abilities, and resources

In most depictions, Natasha possess no inherent superhuman abilities and posses a genius-level intellect in both the fields of engineering and computer science, using her expertise in order to fashion super-powered, armored suits. This super-suit, known as Chrome Armor, is semi-sentient and can change configurations to afford various protections and manifest at will. It can also grant superhuman strength, durability, and flight. Like her uncle, she also often wields a large kinetic hammer as her weapon of choice, in which is configured for relatives of the Irons family.

Prior to the New 52, Natasha gained metahuman abilities due to her participation of the Everyman Project, granting super-powers to non-metahumans with an artificial metagene or unlocking their latent potential. The initial treatment first granted her superhuman strength and endurance, flight, and the power to control light and solar energies. These abilities later faded following Luthor's deactivating of the artificial metagene but the treatment's side-effects granted her new powers in which allows her to shift into a gaseous form at will, manifesting from a psychological fear of the prospect of her uncle abandoning her.

Other versions

* Natasha Irons / Steel appears as a background character in ''Kingdom Come''.
* An alternate timeline version of Natasha Irons appears in '' Flashpoint'' as a member of the Brazilian Army who fights Nazis.
* An anime-inspired Natasha Irons / Steel with superhuman intelligence appears in the '' Ame-Comi'' series.
* A teenage version of Natasha Irons appears in ''Superman Family Adventures'' as a friend and classmate of Jimmy Olsen.
* An adult version of Natasha Irons / Steel appears in ''Multiversity'' as a member of the Justice League of Earth-16.

In other media

Television

* Natasha Irons appears in television series set in the DC Animated Universe (DCAU). Introduced in the '' Superman: The Animated Series'' episode "Heavy Metal", voiced by Cree Summer, Irons later makes a cameo appearance in the ''Justice League'' episode "Hereafter". A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
* A character based on Natasha Irons named Natalie Lane Irons appears in ''Superman & Lois'', portrayed by Tayler Buck. This version is the daughter of John Henry Irons and Lois Lane from a parallel Earth ruled by Kryptonians. After Superman kills Lois, Natalie helps her father build an exo-suit to avenge the latter. At the end of the first season, Natalie unknowingly travels to the main universe. Afterward, she begins dating Bruno Mannheim's son Matteo and joins the Department of Defense Academy. In the fourth season, she takes on the codename "Starlight".

Miscellaneous

* Natasha Irons appears in ''Justice League Unlimited'' #35.
* Natasha Irons / Steel appears in ''Injustice 2''. This version succeeded John Henry Irons as Steel after he was killed in the Joker's destruction of Metropolis.''Injustice 2'' #10 (November 2017) Following the downfall of Superman's Regime, Natasha helps Batman's Insurgency restore world peace.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irons, Natasha
African-American superheroes
Characters created by Louise Simonson
Comics characters introduced in 1994
DC Comics characters with superhuman durability or invulnerability
DC Comics characters with superhuman strength
DC Comics female superheroes
DC Comics LGBTQ superheroes
DC Comics metahumans
DC Comics shapeshifters
Fictional characters with energy-manipulation abilities
Fictional characters who can change size
Fictional characters who can manipulate light
Fictional hammer fighters
Lesbian superheroes
Steel (John Henry Irons)
Superman characters