Amaya Jiwe is a former member of the Legends and the Justice Society of America known as Vixen. After witnessing the death of her boyfriend, Rex Tyler, she decided to align herself with the Legends to get their assistance in her mission to hunt down the mysterious time traveler who killed Rex. She is also the grandmother of Mari, the Vixen of the present, and Kuasa. However, due to the remaining Legends preventing this reality, she never died. During a mission to the Caribbean, she was known as the Dread Pirate Jiwe. After Mallus was defeated, Amaya decided to leave the Legends and return to her village at her proper point in time. She is also the ex-girlfriend of Nate Heywood.
Amaya Jiwe was born in Africa in the Zambesi Village. As a child, Amaya wanted to be a police officer despite female law enforcement being generally unheard of. She also read about Chicago in the 1920s from several of her mother's magazines, and wished to see it.[1]
In her adulthood, Amaya was given the Anansi Totem, which gave her the ability to channel the power of any animal in existence. This item had been previously used by her mother and her grandmother.[2]
World War II
In the 1940s, during World War II, Amaya was recruited into the Justice Society of America, a secret organization dedicated to opposing the Nazis and to join the Soviet Union and the United States. While serving, Amaya would grow very homesick and often worry about the safety of her village without her there to protect it.[2]
Despite the JSA's discouragement to fraternize with teammates, Amaya and the teams' leader, Rex Tyler/Hourman, fell in love and planned to leave the JSA once the war was over. While on stakeouts, Henry Heywood/Commander Steel would sing for the team and often tried to get Amaya to sing along, with no success. Amaya also became close with Todd Rice/Obsidian and unlike most of civilization at the time, she didn't look down upon him for being homosexual.[3]
In 1942, the JSA discovered several individuals, the Legends, posing as OSS agents and confronted them. They claimed they were trying to protect Albert Einstein but the JSA were unconvinced. They also claimed to know about Rex Tyler though he'd never mentioned him which they stated was due to time travel, but a fight broke out soon after. Vixen engaged Sara Lance/White Canary and swiftly overpowered her, while other JSA members took down the other individuals. In their headquarters Hourman observed the captives arguing over their predicament in custody, but he claimed to have never met them before. Vixen suggested imprisoning them in Leavenworth. Vixen and Steel visited the captives but Nate Heywood was able to confirm he was Steel's grandson, confirming their claim as time travelers. The team was brought to Hourman and told him how they met in 2016 but Hourman, as he hand't lived through these events yet, didn't believe them. Upon learning that Baron Krieger had been spotted in Paris, Vixen volunteered to fly ahead and record Krieger's movements. Amaya attended a club but was surprised when Ray Palmer/The Atom joined her in a dance and informed her that a timeline change would result in all the JSA members being killed, but Amaya suggested that it could've been caused by the Legends instead. When Ray punched a Nazi officer, Amaya joined in the counterattack until the JSA arrived.[4]
Aboard the Waverider, Amaya then suggested to the rest of her team that having the Legends as backup might help, as well as keep them out of trouble. When Gideon provided a map of the Fontainebleau Forest, Amaya quickly recognized it, noting Krieger's men were studying it earlier. Vixen later told Ray that her cover was blown and she could never go undercover in Paris again, and expressed her opinion that he wasn't really a hero given that he wears a suit rather than having powers.
After tracking down Krieger the JSA and Legends attacked his convoy and stole the amulet he'd obtained. However, Krieger used a super serum and became stronger and the two were left unconscious, and apprehended by Nazis. While Ray offered to help Krieger make more serum in exchange for their safety. Shortly after the JSA and Legends attacked the compound and Ray used this chance to attack the captors, allowing himself and Vixen to free themselves. In the hallway Vixen and Ray ran into Mick Rory/Heat Wave and White Canary, who returned Vixen's amulet, and they escaped the compound. After retrieving the amulet the JSA parted ways with the Legends and returned to their headquarters. Later the night however Vixen found Hourman dying and he told her his final words "time traveler" and died in her arms, much to her heartache.[4]
Following the Legends
Believing that Mick was responsible for killing Hourman, Vixen snuck on board the Waverider and incapacitated most of the Legends and attacked Mick. Before she could kill him, Nate, who had recently become a meta-human after Ray injected him with Krieger's serum to save his life, knocked her out. She was placed in the ship's jail chamber. After a discussion of her motives with Sara Lance, she decided to temporarily join the Legends on their travels, hoping to find the rogue time traveler that has been responsible for Rex's death, as well as multiple historical aberrations. On her first mission with the Legends, Amaya traveled to Feudal Japan, where she and Sara fought to protect the village of Yamashiro family from the devious Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu.[2]
The Legends then tracked an aberration in 1863, caused by a time pirate's bioweapon. When Union spy Henry Scott was killed by a horde of Confederate zombie soldiers, Jax and Amaya snuck onto the Collins Plantation to complete his mission. Jax got caught, so Amaya went in to rescue him and Collins' slaves. Although the slaves were skeptical of a breakout, Mary recognized the Zambesi totem and put her trust in Amaya, with the other slaves following suit. Amaya led the slaves to safety in the midst of an attacking zombie horde. When she regrouped with Jax, they looked onto the plantation burning down before leading the freed slaves to General Ulysses S. Grant's camp.[5]
Soon after their victory in 1863, the Legends tracked another aberration, this time in 1987. Intent on seeing what had happened to the Justice Society, Amaya decided to take Nate along in order to familiarize her with the time period. Once they arrived, they found it to have been abandoned and desolate, only to be then attacked by a mysterious figure. He reveals himself to be Todd Rice/Obsidian, Amaya's old teammate, who then revealed the fate of the organization.
Amaya saying goodbye to her old friend Obsidian.
After the trio discovered a bomb in the White House, Rice went in pursuit of the man responsible, Damien Darhk, but is severely wounded after Amaya is targeted. Todd was healed, and Amaya suggested that he come along with them, but he told her that he had someone in his life now and said not be afraid to find a life outside her duties. After saying her goodbyes to him, she told Nate about his grandfather's singing voice.[3]
Shortly after stopping the bomb, an aberration caused by the attacks of a man called Quentin Turnbull is tracked. It's revealed that he wanted to stop the US Army by blowing up a train that was to bring them to the West, as well as being in possession of dwarf star alloy. Along with Mick, Amaya was assigned to discovering any information about Turnbull, before Jonah Hex then decided to personally take him in. After Nate was severely injured, Amaya and Mick fled to the mine and managed to stop it, despite Turnbull's forces upon them. She then had a heart-to-heart talk with Mick over taming the animal within him.[6]
The team was later called to late 2016 due to an aberration caused by the arrival of alien life on Earth known as the Dominators. Amaya was left along with Nate to take care of the Waverider, while the others were summoned to helpi out with the situation back on Earth. After Ray, Sara, Oliver Queen, John Diggle, and Thea Queen made their way out of the aliens' mothership, Nate and Amaya managed to save them from the army of ships that had been trailing behind them. Amaya was then deployed thereafter to Oregon in 1951, along with Mick, Nate, Cisco Ramon, and Felicity Smoak, to interrogate one of the Dominators on their intentions to invade Earth. However, before any kind of action could be taken, the trio from the Legends team were tranquilized by a group of men led by a mysterious figure.
Amaya standing with the rest of Earth's heroes ready to stand against the Dominators.
They were eventually saved by Cisco and Felicity, before everyone ultimately chose to save the Dominator, with the intent to reveal that meta-humans were innocent of causing harm. When it's revealed that the alien invasion was the fault of both Cisco and Barry Allen, Amaya joined the rest of the group in fighting off the Dominator army. After winning the battle, she was honored by the new U.S. President, along with the other heroes, for their courage and later united in celebration before returning to their normal lives.[7]
The Spear of Destiny
Shortly after their triumph over the Dominators, the team tracked yet another aberration to 1927. After Prohibition agent Eliot Ness was found to have been a target of Al Capone's time-travelling allies, Amaya was deployed with the rest of the team (with the exception of Sara and Mick).
Having heard stories from her mother over the beauty of Chicago in the 1920s, she was able to enjoy the scenic view before being distracted by the news of Ness' capture. The team was then able to intercept Capone's men and Amaya then dove to rescue the almost dying Ness and found him to be breathing. Sara and Martin Stein were then captured later at Capone's club, worrying the rest of the team. Soon after Capone's location was tracked and both Stein and Sara were rescued, Rex's killer followed closely disguised as Stein himself into the Waverider. Amaya then told Mick how her motives for going after the speedster weren't for vengeance but justice; however, their conversation was short-lived after Mick saved Amaya from the speedster's path. With Amaya having taken an anti-speedster weapon and Rory tricking the speedster into grabbing the Askaran Amulet, Rex's killer then held her at his mercy before he was forced to flee the ship. With gratitude, Amaya later gave Mick a gift of liquor from Capone's warehouse and kissed him on the cheek as a symbol of their bond.[1]
Nate was working late into the night trying to find more information about the medallion but his work had kept both Amaya and Ray from sleeping. He told them that he was trying to find out what their enemies were up to and dubbed them the Legion of Doom. Amaya looked at the diagrams of the medallions that he had and matched them up to see that they were one and the same. Nate then realized that the medallion was the key to locating the Spear of Destiny which had the power to re-shape reality. She went with the team when they detected an aberration in 1967 that was linked to Darhk and Merlyn. They ran into Rip Hunter on a film set but Darhk and Merlyn began to attack to try and take Rip but he was arrested. Sara, Mick and Stein managed to go and get Rip back though his mind seemed to have been reprogrammed.
In the Waverider's library, Amaya seemed to realize that Ray and Nate seemed to feel different and were losing touch with their scientific and historical expertise respectively. They then saw that Rip's movie producer was George Lucas and both of them knew the name but couldn't remember why. Amaya then learned that they had caused an aberration where George Lucas quit film school and didn't make the movies that inspired both Ray and Nate. She along with the two of them went to find Lucas and encourage him not to drop out of film school but Darhk and Merlyn arrived and took them prisoner. They learned that George Lucas had the spear fragment that Rip had but had thrown it in the trash. They were then taken to the city dump and were forced to look for it. They found the spear but knew they would be killed if they handed it over. Amaya then tried to help Lucas be inspiring him to go back and make movies and he shouted that what he wanted to do with his life was direct.
Amaya renewing Lucas' inspiration for film making fixed the aberration and when the rest of the team arrived, they were able to push the two former league assassins back and steal the medallion from them. However, the speedster arrived and turned the tide of the battle. Rip tried to distract the Legion by pretending to have his memory back, but the act was quickly seen through. They then watched as Rip was captured in the chaos. Amaya checked the timeline and saw that all of Lucas' films were back. Nate and Ray then invited her to have a movie night with them as they watched George Lucas' films.
When the Legion of Doom rewrote reality Amaya and Sara were under the employ of Damien Dahrk as his hitmen, the pair of them having killed all of Star Cities vigilante's including The Green Arrow, Spartan, Black Canary, Artemis, Wild Dog, Ragman, Felicity Smoak and even The Flash.
The pair were eventually freed from their mind control and worked together with the rest of the Legends to undo the Legions nightmarish reality. During a battle between the Legends and the Legion Amaya came into possession of the Spear of Destiny and began to use it to rewrite reality to the way it was supposed to be however she was brutally frozen to death and shattered by Snart before she could finish the incantation.[8]
After the Legion were defeated and returned to their own time periods with their memories wiped Amaya was reunited with Nate and the rest of the Legends. She decided that whatever destiny had in store for her back in 1942 could wait as, due to having a time machine, she could return whenever she wanted without harming the timeline.[9]
Return to 1942
Not long after defeating the Legion, because of the manner in which they had done so, the Legends discovered that they had accidentally broken time, with multiple anachronisms existing throughout Los Angeles and the timeline at large. They were nearly attacked by a displaced T-Rex when it was sent away through a time portal made by Rip Hunter. He explained that he had established a new organization called the Time Bureau and they were at work clearing out the anachronisms. He then relieved the Legends of their duties. Amaya went to Central City with Nate and lived with him for a while until his birthday. When Nate left to pick up some donuts for them, she had seen a news report of her granddaughter Mari being caught on camera in Detroit. She then left Central City without a word to Nate and traveled to Detroit to see her. She witnessed Mari save five people in the span of one night who was unaware that her grandmother was watching. Amaya then went to find Rip Hunter and learned that Mari still existed because time hadn't solidified but if she stayed too long in 2017 then she would vanish. Amaya then asked him to send her back to her village in 1942 to prevent that.
At some point during her acting as the guardian of her village it came under attack by a group of poaching soldiers. Using her apparently increased powers she conjured the spirits of several animals to savagely kill the attackers, smiling as she did so.[10]
Return to time travel
Sara uses a jump ship to visit Amaya seeking her out, since the anachronism in 1870 turned out to be a sabertooth tiger. Amaya was reluctant to return as she knew at times she lost control and let her totem overtake her, though she eventually agreed. She then reunited with Nate. However, things are salty between them. Declining to talk to her, Nate ended up passing out in the cargo bay, where he was found by Sara, Mick, and her. After finding Ray and Jax dressed as conjoined twins in the circus tent, she and Nate attempted to free them, but were in turn captured by Barnum's troupe. While in captivity, Nate expressed how mad he was at her for leaving him on his birthday to go back to Zambesi. Amaya revealed to Nate that she had gone to Detroit to see Mari first before going to Rip to send her back to 1942 to prevent Mari from disappearing.
When the crowd began to lose interest in the performance, Barnum coerced Nate into "steeling up" by first threatening him, then Amaya. Barnum then shot Nate multiple times despite Nate's protests, angering Amaya to the point where she attacked Barnum, driving him out of the tent. Before she could kill him, Nate talked her out of it, reminding Amaya about her past with the JSA. They made their way back to the Waverider, where Amaya revealed to the Legends her lack of control over her powers. They told her that they would support her and help her get back on track, leaving Amaya to conclude that they were right, then opting to stay with the reformed team.
In 2042 Amaya meets another totem bearer and protects her from a water witch. After talking with one of her ancestors Amaya is lead to believe she's meant to be Zari's mentor and convinced her to join the team, explaining how her amulet was, in fact, a totem, while offering herself to teach her how to control her powers.
Zari was in her room cleaning when she was approached by Amaya. Amaya wanted to talk with her about her totem but Zari was short with her about it. When Amaya pointed out that it was her brother's legacy, she angrily pointed out that she didn't want to talk about her brother especially when she and the others were telling her that she couldn't save him even though she now had a chance to. This ignited her totem that seemed to resonate with Amaya's and she explained that the reason she hadn't returned to Zambesi was that the two of them were connected. They then went to the bridge where she met Rip Hunter. Rip Hunter explained to them that he was on the hunt for an evil being by the name of Mallus and the vampire attacks were connected to him.
When Nate had been kidnapped by Sir Henry Stein, Zari went with the team to infiltrate the Order of the Shrouded Compass and rescue him, as well as find the rogue vampire. She infiltrated the club with the team and she was asked to sit for a seance with Nora Darhk. Zari's disbelief was evident to her and she told Zari that she too was a skeptic before she realized her power. Nora then went into a trance and Zari heard her speak out in her brother's voice. Zari then heard her younger brother say that it was her fault that he died as she didn't protect him and had run away. Zari tearfully tried to plead to her brother but Amaya broke the seance up. Back at the ship, Zari told Amaya that she did indeed run and left her brother to be killed by A.R.G.U.S. She also didn't want her totem anymore as it was a reminder that she should've died that day, not her brother. However Amaya told her that she was chosen by the totem and maybe it was her mission to stop a dystopian future she lived in from ever happening.
When most of the heroes were on Earth-X, Amaya along with the rest of the Legends rescued the rest of the heroes who were trapped in the S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator. She later joined Team Flash, Team Arrow, and the rest of the Legends and helped them repel the Earth-X Nazi forces.
Return to Zambesi
Original timeline
At a later point, Amaya returned to 1942 for good and went on to have a daughter, Esi, who then had two daughters, Kuasa and Mari, the latter of whom also becomes a superhero known as Vixen.[11] Amaya was murdered in 1992 by Benatu Eshu along with her son-in-law[12] so she wouldn't stand in his way of destroying Zambesi Village in search of the Anansi Totem.[13]
Current timeline
After the Legends altered the timeline to save Zambesi in 1992 in order to stop Mallus, they created a new timeline where Amaya and Esi stopped Eshu, and Kuasa, and Mari went on to share the Anansi Totem and the mantle of Vixen.[14]
Legacy
Though they didn't show it at first, Amaya's retirement from the Legends had a lasting impact on the team. Her breakup with Nate was a factor that ultimately led him to return to 2018 for a brief leave of absence and eventually retire from the Legends after becoming adjusted to the Time Bureau.[15]
A few months after Amaya returned to 1942, Ray met and became close to the shape-shifting fugitive Charlie during a mission in 1970s London. Ray told Charlie about Amaya, referring to her as the team's "moral compass". In a desperate attempt to prevent Zari and Constantine from sending her to Hell, Charlie used this to her advantage, transforming into Amaya herself, complete with an Anansi Totem replica. This prompted the Legends to instead imprison Charlie on the Waverider while preventing her from using her powers, leaving Charlie trapped in Amaya's form.[16] Eventually, after giving the Legends insight on a shtriga in 1990s Maine, Charlie was released and decided to become a full-time Legend on the terms that she would never be imprisoned again.[17]
Amaya is a brave and selfless person who is willing to do whatever it takes to protect people. However she can be aggressive and ruthless to her enemies and those she sees as threats to humanity in general, suggesting that they lock the Legends in the darkest hole in Leavenworth and throw away the key for impersonating OSS agents. She is, for the most part, very professional, to the point where she will let unfortunate incidents slide to focus on the mission. However, she can be reckless when someone she loves is hurt or dead, as evidenced by the fact that she stowed away on the Waverider and nearly killed Mick Rory due to incorrectly assuming that he had killed Rex Tyler, indicating a tendency to be impulsive and ruled by emotions like anger on occasion and even have no remorse to hit an elderly person like Martin Stein. After she has cooled down, she decided it would be better for her, as a hero, to arrest the man responsible instead of killing him, demonstrating that she is a self-aware person with good intentions. She is also perfectly willing to admit her faults when she knows she is wrong.
Amaya as Vixen.
"Getting stuck on past mistakes only takes focus off the primary goal at hand."
Like most of her team, she didn't think highly of the Legends at first due to perceiving them as being less professional than the JSA, and she even bluntly told them she wasn't impressed with their ship and that Ray wasn't a hero due to his reliance on a suit to defend innocents. However, later on, when Ray sacrificed his chance of having real powers to save Nate, she admitted that what Ray did was heroic, even if she maintained that he wasn't a "super" hero. Out of all the Legends, Amaya respected Sara for her combat skill and was the least impressed by Ray, whom she saw as relying on his suit for power, and Mick, whom she saw as a thief and a criminal; despite this initial impression, Amaya has since warmed up to both and have come to see them as allies. While in the Civil War, she showed great sympathy for the slaves and wanted to help them even if it didn't follow history, proving that she was capable of great compassion. Over time, Amaya seemingly has more friendly with Mick after several instances where he had demonstrated heroic actions and also for saving her from and nearly catching Rex's killer, presenting him with a gift of liquor stolen from Al Capone's warehouse and giving him a kiss on the cheek, winking at him and telling him he isn't a bad guy.
For a time while helping the Legends she was very secretive about her personal life seeing fraternizing as unprofessional given her experience with the JSA, something Nate Heywood picked up on. However, after a talk with an older Obsidian in 1987 Amaya became more friendly and open about her past, even sharing stories of Nate's grandfather with him. After talking with Courtney in year 507, Amaya decided to live more than just for her mission, to which she has gained open feelings towards Nate.
After the Legends were temporarily disbanded and Amaya return to her proper timeline, with the knowledge of her homeland and people's future fate, Amaya adopted a more vicious nature to her. Determined to protect her home, she showed no mercy to anyone who would endanger Zambesi Village, taking a seemingly sadistic pleasure from killing the would-be attackers.
Powers and abilities
Powers
"This totem harnesses the ashe, or the--the life force, of the animal kingdom. It was passed down to me from my mother and from hers before that."
Amaya's animal empathy allowed her to communicate with all sorts of animals, including dinosaurs like Gertrude.
Powers via Spirit Totem: All of Amaya's powers come from her totem, which allow her to harness the life force of animals, in essence harnessing their abilities.
Animal empathy/communication: By manifesting the spirit of the tyrannosaurus rex, Amaya can communicate with other t-rexes and understand their emotions and body language.
Avatar projections: Amaya can manifest solid energy constructs of the various animals of nature that are able to physically intact with the world, acting as soldiers to aid her.
Night vision: Through the spirit of a nighthawk, Amaya can see in the dark; this allowed her to spot Obsidian even after he used his powers to block out the light.
Shield projection: Amaya can manifest a solid shield through the power of her totem.
Superhuman agility: Through the spirit of the dolphin, Amaya becomes extremely fast and agile in water.
Superhuman strength: Through the spirit of a gorilla, a rhinoceros, an elephant and a dinosaur, Amaya becomes incredibly strong; while harnessing the spirit of a lion, she is able to unleash powerful clawing-strikes that can launch an armored foe far away. Harnessing the spirit of the elephant allowed her to plow through the Dominators relatively easily. However, Amaya's superhuman strength is inferior to Nate Heywood's, even when she channel the spirit of a gorilla; as the latter overpowered her relatively easily.
Thermal insulation: Through the spirit of the seal; Amaya is unfazed by freezing temperatures.
Totem connection: The totem connects to other totems when in the presence of them.
Underwater breathing: Though the spirit of the dolphin, Amaya can breath underwater or at least hold her breath for an extended period, like a dolphin does.
Wallcrawling: By manifesting the spirit of a spider, Amaya can defy gravity, and crawl along walls and ceilings.
Master hand-to-hand combatant/Martial artist: Amaya is a fifth-degree black belt;[4] this training has allowed her to easily defeat Nazis and even hold her own against Sara Lance for a time, although Sara had the edge and Amaya had to use the spirit of the gorilla to defeat her. With help from Nate Heywood, Amaya was also able to overpower Malcolm Merlyn and pickpocketed him to get her totem back before using the spirit of the gorilla to defeat him. Amaya even managed to easily defeat the immensely skilled Freydís.
Master knife wielder/Knife thrower: In Amaya's attempt to kill Mick Rory, she was able to strike with deadly accuracy using a cooking knife, during which she also demonstrated the ability to seamlessly switch the knife between either hand; she would have successfully used these skills to disable the team had Nate Heywood not manifested his steel form and made himself impervious to her assault. Amaya also demonstrated the ability to throw shurikens with pinpoint accuracy, as seen when she threw one into Mick's sandwich to give him proof ninjas existed.[2]
Expert markswoman: Presumably taught during Amaya's time with the JSA, she is highly trained in the use of firearms; such as handguns, as seen in the reality created by the Legion of Doom.[8]
Expert swordswoman: In Feudal Japan, Amaya was able to fend off a squadron of elite samurai with a katana alongside Sara. Amaya also defeated multiple dark knights in the battle for Camelot, and was also able to briefly duel both Damien and Nora Darhk. Amaya also fought on par against and soon defeated Edward Teach twice in a sword fight.
Stealth/Infiltration: Amaya is proven to be very efficient in tracking and gathering intelligence on suspects without being detected. During her mission in Paris, Amaya was able to work undercover while raising no suspicion until the Legends interfered.[4] During her revenge-fueled attack on the Legends, she was able to silently sneak onto the Waverider, where she systematically subdued the entire team before engaging Mick.[2]
Weaknesses
Spirit Totem: While Amaya's spiritual connection with the necklace prevents others from using the totem so long as her bond is stronger. Unlike her granddaughter, Mari; the necklace has not bonded with Amaya so it can be removed from her neck against her wishes, rendering her powerless.
Former weaknesses
Lack of control: After Rip Hunter took her back to 1942, Amaya returned to Zambesi, using her totem to protect the village. However, it was later revealed that whenever she tapped into the Totem's powers, Amaya felt as if the animal was in control rather than herself, causing her to turn unnecessarily violent. However, after drinking tea concocted from a special root from her village, Amaya received a vision of one of her ancestors who explained why the Totem's power is increasing; a threat more powerful than anything she'd previously encountered was coming, and Amaya should trust the totem rather than resist its increased power. With her ancestor's encouragement, Amaya soon regained control over her powers.[18]
Some of the things Amaya enjoyed about the future were cheese puffs and sports bras.[14]
Captain Jiwe Spice Rum
While helping Edward Teach/Blackbeard locate the Earth Totem, Amaya became known as "Dread Pirate Jiwe", leaving considerable influence on the 17th century pirates and folklore to the point of having a drink named after her in the place of Blackbeard.[19]
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