Changes: Natasha Irons (New Earth)

Natasha Irons is the daughter of John Henry Irons's brother, Clay, and Clay's wife Blondel. Like her uncle, she has an armor and goes by the name Steel. During her time in the Everyman Project, she also went by Starlight and Vaporlock.

History

Early life

Like the rest of her family, she knew about Steel's secret identity all along. Contrasting sharply with her brother Jemahl, Natasha is shown to be very level headed and practical. By issue #14, she is shown to be working (presumably as an intern) for a U.S. Senator. She appears to have aged forward to be about 16 somehow. Nat is a supporting character throughout Louise Simonson's run on the series. She is kidnapped by Hazard and Steel has to rescue her. She also uses the drug Tar to help fight at the side of her uncle briefly. She is later kidnapped by the villain Plasmus and apparently kills him by shattering once Steel froze the villain (although he later turns up alive). Natasha was devastated at the loss of her beloved great-grandmother, Bess Irons, but is the only one of her family who stays with Steel when he moves to Jersey City (see the Steel entry for more details of the Irons family).

Nat later goes with Steel to Metropolis when he opens up Steelworks there. She becomes his assistant, even reprogramming Superman's Kryptonian robot Kelex to speak with hip hop slang.

The new Steel

When the Entropy Aegis of Darkseid trapped John, Natasha designed a suit of armor that used the Aegis's power, teleported to Apokolips, and fought Doomsday with the help of Superman, Superboy, Supergirl, and the pre-Crisis Supergirl. John was too injured to continue operating as Steel. Having intended to pass his legacy as Steel on to Natasha, John made a new, more advanced suit of armor for her to use.

When Natasha heard that Superman had been injured by a ghostly ninja, she donned her armor and became the new Steel. She teamed up with Cir-El and Girl 13 to stop the ninja. During the adventure, she used her hammer to fire an electric pulse into Superman's heart to start it again. When Cir-El heard that Superman had been captured by Lex Luthor, Natasha accompanied her and Superboy to rescue him. Natasha worked with Batman to free the others when they fell into a trap.

52

Main article: 52

Natasha had a violent falling out with her uncle John, over John's open disgust over what he felt was the self-absorbed narcissism of the super-hero community. When Natasha discovered that the Teen Titans, whose roster was devastated by the battle against Alexander Luthor and Superboy-Prime, were holding an open call for new members, John forbid Natasha from going and instead demanded her continue the thankless and boring task of clearing out harmless debris from Metropolis and went as far as destroying Natasha's armor to "teach her a lesson", in terms of forcing her to build her own armor if she truly wanted to be a super-hero if she wished to defy John's bitter demands of her.

Natasha was further tormented when John forced her to attend summer school rather than a science colloquium that Natasha had been looking forward to attending for several months. (John's justification was that Natasha's inability to pass English Lit, despite making straight "A's" in all of her other classes, made her unfit to attend such an important scientific colloquium).

She attempted to rebuild her armor with little success, but when she overheard a phone message meant for John telling him that his DNA had been rewritten by the Luthor metagene, Natasha reached her breaking point regarding John's treatment of her.

Natasha applied for Lex Luthor's Everyman Project and became the first official subject of the project. When John, looking for Natasha, threatened to kill Luthor at a Lexcorp party, Natasha appeared, leading a team of super-powered people in Luthor's employ. John tried to convince Natasha to come home, but she refused and beat him as she felt that John was a hypocrite for cursing and sabotaging her dreams of being a super-hero while taking the easy way out via Luthor's metagene project, unaware that Luthor infected John with the treatment without his permission.

Luthor's team of heroes was later unveiled as the new incarnation of Infinity, Inc., and Natasha went by the code name Starlight. In this persona, she served with the team for the better half of a year, until her uncle managed to convince her that Luthor was planning something. Working from within the team, she was caught spying but was rescued by her uncle. She began working for his new company, "Steelworks", in her old suit of armor. She fought Black Adam during World War III alongside the other heroes.

Vaporlock

Months after World War III, Natasha and the other participants in the Everyman Program suffered unusual side-effects: their physiology began mutating, granting them superhuman powers which related, in some way, to the state of their mental health. For Natasha, who suffered from a fear of abandonment, this meant gaining the uncontrollable power to transform into intangible mist. Reuniting with a few other subjects of the Program, she decided to fight super-villains who got their powers from the Program. However, the team was kidnapped by Desaad (under the alias "Doctor Bud Fogel"), who convinced Gerome McKenna to betray the team. They were subsequently press-ganged into the Dark Side Club as fighters, before they were rescued by Miss Martian and Ravager.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Abilities

Martial Arts: Natasha is an excellent fighter, capable of easily taking down three cops in close combat.^[6]

Weaknesses

Power Instability: Natasha often had trouble shifting between the solid and gaseous state as Vaporlock.(Formerly)

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Natasha's Steel Armor^[7]

Weapons

Steel's Hammer II

Trivia

Natasha Irons had taken part of the Everyman Project while injected her with a serum that "unlocked" her mete-gene. This led to a number of powers that she was able to unlock such as Flight, Strength, Durability and Light-based abilities.

External Links

Footnotes

Superman Family member
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[1] 52 #9

[2] 52 #39

[3] Infinity Inc. (Volume 2) #12

[4] 52 #21

[5] Infinity Inc. (Volume 2) #1

[6] Steel (Volume 2) #45

[FiftyTwo1-7] 52 #1

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{DC Database:Character Template
-| Image                   = Natasha Irons 02.png
+| Image                   = Natasha Irons Steel 01.jpg
-| ImageText               =
+| RealName                = [[Natasha Irons|Natasha Jasmine Irons]]
-| RealName                = Natasha Jasmine Irons
+| CurrentAlias            = Steel
-| CurrentAlias            = Natasha Irons
+| Aliases                 = [[Starlight]], [[Vaporlock]]
-| Aliases                 = [[Steel]], [[Starlight]], [[Vaporlock]]
 | Identity                = Public
 | Alignment               = Good
 | Affiliation             = Formerly [[Infinity, Inc. (Everyman Project)]]
-| Relatives               = Clay Irons (father), Blondel Irons (mother), Jemahl Irons (brother), [[John Henry Irons (New Earth)|John Henry Irons]] (Steel, uncle)
+| Relatives               = [[Clay Irons (New Earth)|Clay Irons]] (father), Blondel Irons (mother), [[Jemahl Irons (New Earth)|Jemahl Irons]] (brother), [[John Henry Irons (New Earth)|John Henry Irons]] (Steel, uncle)
 | Universe                = New Earth
 | BaseOfOperations        = [[Metropolis]]
@@ Line 21: / Line 20: @@
 | Citizenship             = American
 | MaritalStatus           = Single
-| Occupation              = [[Adventurer]]
+| Occupation              = [[Student]]
-| Education               =
-| Origin                  =
+| PlaceOfBirth            = [[Metropolis]]
-| PlaceOfBirth            =
+| Creators                = Louise Simonson; Jon Bogdanove; Chris Batista
-| Creators                = Jon Bogdanove; Chris Batista
 | First                   = Steel Vol 2 #1
 | Last                    =
-| Quotation               =
+| Quotation               = We don't '''discriminate.'''  We'll use a '''hammer''' or a '''particle beam,''' whatever gets the job done...
-| Speaker                 =
+| Speaker                 = [[Natasha Irons (New Earth)|Steel (Natasha Irons)]]
+| QuoteSource             = 52 Vol 1 47
+| Overview                =  '''Natasha Irons''' is the daughter of [[John Henry Irons (New Earth)|John Henry Irons's]] brother, [[Clay Irons (New Earth)|Clay]], and Clay's wife Blondel. Like her uncle, she has an [[Steel's Armor|armor]] and goes by the name '''Steel'''. During her time in the [[Everyman Project]], she also went by '''Starlight''' and '''Vaporlock'''.
-| HistoryText             =
-Natasha Irons is the daughter of John Henry's brother, Clay, and Clay's wife Blondel. She is initially portrayed as being 13. Like the rest of her family, she knew about Steel's secret identity all along. Contrasting sharply with her brother Jemahl, Natasha is shown to be very level headed and practical. By issue #14, she is shown to be working (presumably as an intern) for a U.S. Senator. She appears to have aged forward to be about 16 somehow. Nat is a supporting character throughout Louise Simonson's run on the series. She is kidnapped by Hazard and Steel has to rescue her. She also uses the drug Tar to help fight at her uncle's side briefly. She is later kidnapped by the villain Plasmus and apparently kills him by shattering once Steel froze the villain (although he later turns up alive). Natasha was devastated at the loss of her beloved great-grandmother, Bess Irons, but is the only one of her family who stays with Steel when he moves to Jersey City (see the [[Steel]] entry for more details of the Irons family).
+| HistoryText             =
-With Christopher Priest at the helm of ''Steel'' starting with #34, Nat was radically altered. She was transformed into a "modern," stereotypical, obnoxious teenager who was obviously completely bored with life in general. She is also shown to be very flippant and sardonic. Also, all trace of her previous work for a U.S. Senator was apparently exercised from the canon. During this time she also meets a teen named Paul (who she dubs "Boris") whom she befriends. Her father also makes a return as the villain Crash. When an assassin named Skorpio poisons Nat, Crash has to turn himself in so that he can give a blood transfusion and save his daughter. He is never seen nor heard from again.
+=== Early life ===
+Like the rest of her family, she knew about Steel's secret identity all along. Contrasting sharply with her brother Jemahl, Natasha is shown to be very level headed and practical. By issue #14, she is shown to be working (presumably as an intern) for a U.S. Senator. She appears to have aged forward to be about 16 somehow. Nat is a supporting character throughout Louise Simonson's run on the series. She is kidnapped by Hazard and Steel has to rescue her. She also uses the drug Tar to help fight at the side of her uncle briefly. She is later kidnapped by the villain [[Plasmus]] and apparently kills him by shattering once Steel froze the villain (although he later turns up alive). Natasha was devastated at the loss of her beloved great-grandmother, Bess Irons, but is the only one of her family who stays with Steel when he moves to Jersey City (see the [[Steel]] entry for more details of the Irons family).
-Nat later goes with Steel to Metropolis when he opens up Steelworks there. She becomes his assistant, even reprogramming [[Kal-El (Post-Crisis)|Superman]]'s Kryptonian robot [[Kelex]] to speak with hip hop slang.
+Nat later goes with Steel to Metropolis when he opens up Steelworks there. She becomes his assistant, even reprogramming [[Kal-El (New Earth)|Superman's]] Kryptonian robot [[Kelex]] to speak with hip hop slang.
 ===The new Steel===
+When the [[Entropy Aegis]] of [[Darkseid]] trapped John, Natasha designed a suit of armor that used the Aegis's power, teleported to [[Apokolips]], and fought [[Doomsday]] with the help of [[Kal-El (New Earth)|Superman]], [[Kon-El (New Earth)|Superboy]], [[Matrix|Supergirl]], and [[Kara Zor-El (Earth-One)|the pre-Crisis Supergirl]]. John was too injured to continue operating as Steel. Having intended to pass his legacy as Steel on to Natasha, John made a new, more advanced suit of armor for her to use.
-[[Image:Natasha Irons Steel 01.jpg|left|thumb|Natasha Irons as Steel]]
-When the [[Entropy Aegis]] of [[Darkseid]] trapped John, Natasha designed a suit of armor that used the Aegis's power, teleported to [[Apokolips]], and fought [[Doomsday]] with the help of [[Kal-El (Post-Crisis)|Superman]], [[Kon-El (New Earth)|Superboy]], [[Matrix|Supergirl]], and [[Kara Zor-El (Earth-One)|the pre-Crisis Supergirl]]. John was too injured to continue operating as Steel. Having intended to pass his legacy as Steel on to Natasha, John made a new, more advanced suit of armor for her to use.
 When Natasha heard that Superman had been injured by a ghostly ninja, she donned her armor and became the new Steel. She teamed up with [[Cir-El]] and [[Girl 13]] to stop the ninja. During the adventure, she used her hammer to fire an electric pulse into Superman's heart to start it again. When Cir-El heard that Superman had been captured by [[Alexander Luthor (New Earth)|Lex Luthor]], Natasha accompanied her and Superboy to rescue him. Natasha worked with [[Bruce Wayne (New Earth)|Batman]] to free the others when they fell into a trap.
@@ Line 48: / Line 47: @@
 ===52===
 {{Main|52}}
-Natasha had a violent falling out with her uncle John, over John's open disgust over what he felt was the self-absorbed narcisism of the super-hero community. When Natasha discovered that the [[Teen Titans (New Earth)|Teen Titans]], whose roster was devestated by the battle against [[Alexander Luthor, Jr. (Earth-Three)|Alexander Luthor]] and [[Kal-El (Earth-Prime)|Superboy-Prime]], were holding an open call for new members, John forbid Natasha from going and instead demanded her continue the thankless and boring task of clearing out harmless debris from [[Metropolis]] and went as far as  destroying Natasha's armor to "teach her a lesson", in terms of forcing her to build her own armor if she truly wanted to be a super-hero if she wished to defy John's bitter demands of her.
+Natasha had a violent falling out with her uncle John, over John's open disgust over what he felt was the self-absorbed narcissism of the super-hero community. When Natasha discovered that the [[Teen Titans (New Earth)|Teen Titans]], whose roster was devastated by the battle against [[Alexander Luthor, Jr. (Earth-Three)|Alexander Luthor]] and [[Kal-El (Earth-Prime)|Superboy-Prime]], were holding an open call for new members, John forbid Natasha from going and instead demanded her continue the thankless and boring task of clearing out harmless debris from [[Metropolis]] and went as far as  destroying Natasha's armor to "teach her a lesson", in terms of forcing her to build her own armor if she truly wanted to be a super-hero if she wished to defy John's bitter demands of her.
 Natasha was further tormented when John forced her to attend summer school rather than a science colloquium that Natasha had been looking forward to attending for several months. (John's justification was that Natasha's inability to pass English Lit, despite making straight "A's" in all of her other classes, made her unfit to attend such an important scientific colloquium).
@@ Line 54: / Line 53: @@
 She attempted to rebuild her armor with little success, but when she overheard a phone message meant for John telling him that his DNA had been rewritten by the Luthor metagene, Natasha reached her breaking point regarding John's treatment of her.
-Natasha applied for Lex Luthor's [[Everyman Project]] and became the project's first official subject. When John, looking for Natasha, threatened to kill Luthor at a [[Lexcorp]] party, Natasha appeared, leading a team of super-powered people in Luthor's employ. John tried to convince Natasha to come home, but she refused and beat him as she felt that John was a hypocritic for cursing and sabatoging her dreams of being a super-hero while taking the easy way out via Luthor's metagene project, unaware that Luthor infected John with the treatment without his permission.
+Natasha applied for Lex Luthor's [[Everyman Project]] and became the first official subject of the project. When John, looking for Natasha, threatened to kill Luthor at a [[Lexcorp]] party, Natasha appeared, leading a team of super-powered people in Luthor's employ. John tried to convince Natasha to come home, but she refused and beat him as she felt that John was a hypocrite for cursing and sabotaging her dreams of being a super-hero while taking the easy way out via Luthor's metagene project, unaware that Luthor infected John with the treatment without his permission.
-Luthors team of heroes was later unveiled as the new incarnation of [[Infinity, Inc.]], and Natasha went by the code name '''Starlight'''. In this persona, she served with the team for the better half of a year, until her uncle managed to convince her that Luthor was planning something. Working from within the team, she was caught spying, but was rescued by her uncle. She began working for his new company, "Steelworks", in her old suit of armor. She fought Black Adam during World War III alongside the other heroes.
+Luthor's team of heroes was later unveiled as the new incarnation of [[Infinity, Inc.]], and Natasha went by the code name '''Starlight'''. In this persona, she served with the team for the better half of a year, until her uncle managed to convince her that Luthor was planning something. Working from within the team, she was caught spying but was rescued by her uncle. She began working for his new company, "Steelworks", in her old suit of armor. She fought Black Adam during World War III alongside the other heroes.
 ===Vaporlock===
 [[File:Natasha Irons Vaporlock 02.png|200px|right|thumb|Vaporlock]]
-Months after World War III, Natasha and the other participants in the Everyman Program suffered unusual side-effects: teir physiology began mutating, granting them superhuman powers which related, in some way, to the state of their mental health. For Natasha, who suffered from a fear of abandonment, this meant gaining the uncontrollable power to transform to intangible mist. Reuniting with a few of the Program's other subjects, she decided to fight super-villains who got their powers from the Program. However, the team was kidnapped by Desaad(under the alias "Doctor Bud Fogel"), who convinced Gerome McKenna to betray the team. They were subsequently pressganged into the Dark Side Club as fighters, before they were rescued by Miss Martian and Ravager.
+Months after World War III, Natasha and the other participants in the Everyman Program suffered unusual side-effects: their physiology began mutating, granting them superhuman powers which related, in some way, to the state of their mental health. For Natasha, who suffered from a fear of abandonment, this meant gaining the uncontrollable power to transform into intangible mist. Reuniting with a few other subjects of the Program, she decided to fight super-villains who got their powers from the Program. However, the team was kidnapped by [[Desaad (New Earth)|Desaad]] (under the alias "Doctor Bud Fogel"), who convinced Gerome McKenna to betray the team. They were subsequently press-ganged into the Dark Side Club as fighters, before they were rescued by [[Miss Martian]] and [[Ravager]].
-===Flashpoint===
-{{Flashpoint}}
-[[file:Natasha Irons Flashpoint 01.png|thumb|160px|right]]As a result of the changes to the timeline by [[Eobard Thawne (New Earth)|Reverse Flash]], Natasha Irons never had an Uncle [[John Henry Irons (New Earth)|John]] to guide her as she grew up, and never became the armoured crime-fighter known as Steel. At some point prior to the present, she decided to help lead an anarchist cell in their attempts to liberate [[Brazil]] from the [[Nazi Party|Nazis]], who fled there after [[World War II]] and took over. During the course of the fierce insurgency, she lost her right arm and had it replaced with high-tech prostheses.
-Following the [[H.I.V.E.]] Council's decision to destroy [[New Themyscira]] and [[Atlantis]] via satellite bombardment, [[Traci Thirteen (New Earth)|Traci Thirteen]] travelled to Brazil to try and recruit Natasha to help her stop her father, but she declined, declaring that the [[Amazons]] and the [[Atlanteans]] deserved their fate.
-| Powers                  =
-'''[[Everyman Project|Starlight Powers]]''': {{Formerly}} Natasha Irons had taken part of the Everyman Project while injected her with a serum that "unlocked" her mete-gene. This led to a number of powers that she was able to unlock such as:
-:*'''Flight'''
-:*'''Superhuman Strength'''
-:*'''Superhuman Durability'''
-:*'''Light Emission''': Her fists also emit large flashes of light.
-:*'''Light Force-Field''': She also can focus her light into forcefields, and trap her opponents within them, such as when she encased Blockbuster in a light energy field to prevent him from moving.
-'''[[Everyman Project|Vaporlock Powers]]''': {{Formerly}} As a side-effect of the Everyman seperimentation, Natasha developed new powers after her original ones were shut down. These powers have dissipated now.
-:*'''Flight'''
-:*'''Transubstantiation''': Could transform herself into vapor.
+| Powers                  = {{Navigation
+| title  = Former Powers
+| body   =
+* '''[[Everyman Project]]''': Natasha Irons volunteered for the Everyman Project spearheaded by the billionaire philanthropist and criminal mastermind Lex Luthor.<ref>{{c|52 Vol 1 #9}}</ref> Subjecting herself to the programs Exo-Gene experiments had the unprecedented effect of variable meta-manifestation in the host, unlocking and bestowing superpowers by supplanting an artificial meta-gene. This genetic augmentation was shortlived, however, as its effects were purposefully engineered with an off switch,<ref>{{c|52 Vol 1 #39}}</ref> and any lingering abilities brought about by remnants of the bio-mods eventually faded away with time.<ref>{{c|Infinity Inc. Vol 2 #12}}</ref>
+** {{Unique Physiology|Starlight Powers}}
+***{{Photokinesis|Solar Energy Metabolics}}: Nat's initial abilities consisted of solar and light-based energy manipulation and absorption properties. Giving her a physiological constitution comparable to Kryptonians or Tameraneans.<ref>{{c|52 Vol 1 #21}}</ref>
+****{{Energy Projection|Light Emission}}: Her fists also emit large flashes of heat, flame, and light.
+****{{Energy Construct Creation|Photokinetic Constructs}}: Using her light-based abilities, Natasha learned to create rudimentary constructs with it. Such as focusing her light into forcefields, and trap her opponents within them, like she had done to Blockbuster to prevent him from moving.
+****{{Energy Absorption}}: Natasha could assimilate energy as easily as she emitted it. Using this to absorb some of the infernos that scorched Dennis's lab during his suicide.
+***{{Flight}}
+***{{Superhuman Strength}}
+***{{Superhuman Durability}}
+**{{Unique Physiology|Vaporlock Powers}}
+*** {{Density Control|Matter-State Shifting}}: One of the side-effects of the Everyman experiments caused Natasha to develop new powers after her original ones were shut down. A lingering remnant of the experiment which initially had given her superhuman abilities.<ref>{{c|Infinity Inc. Vol 2 #1}}</ref>
+****{{Flight}}
+****{{Molecular Reconstruction|Transubstantiation}}: Could transform herself into vapor.
+***{{Intangibility}}
+}}
 | Abilities               =
+*{{Martial Arts}}: Natasha is an excellent fighter, capable of easily taking down three cops in close combat.<ref>{{c|Steel Vol 2 #45}}</ref>
 | Strength                =
+| Weaknesses              = {{Power Instability}}: Natasha often had trouble shifting between the solid and gaseous state as Vaporlock.{{Formerly}}
-| Weaknesses              =
 | Equipment               =
-'''[[Steel's Armor MK IV]] '''
+* '''[[Steel's Armor|Natasha's Steel Armor]]'''<ref name=FiftyTwo1>{{c|52 Vol 1 #1}}</ref>
 | Transportation          =
 | Weapons                 =
-'''[[Kinetic Hammer|Steel's Hammer II]]'''
+* '''[[Kinetic Hammer|Steel's Hammer II]]'''
 | Notes                   =
 | Trivia                  =
+* Natasha Irons had taken part of the Everyman Project while injected her with a serum that "unlocked" her mete-gene. This led to a number of powers that she was able to unlock such as Flight, Strength, Durability and Light-based abilities.
-| DC                      =
 | Wikipedia               = Natasha Irons
 | Links                   =
 * [[DC Comics Encyclopedia]]
-* [http://www.blacksuperhero.com/exhibithtml/detail.cfm?id=451 Museum of Black Superheroes: Natasha Irons]
+* [https://www.blacksuperhero.com/exhibithtml/detail.cfm?id=451 Museum of Black Superheroes: Natasha Irons]
 }}
 {{Superman Family Member}}
+{{Out-of-universe}}
+{{Clean Up}}
 [[Category:African American]]
 [[Category:Everyman Project subjects]]
 [[Category:Infinity, Inc. (Everyman Project) members]]
-[[Category:Modern-Age Characters]]
 [[Category:Superman Supporting Cast]]
-[[Category:1994 Character Debuts]]
+[[Category:Kon-El's Love Interests]]