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Tee Franklin, the first Black woman to be hired as a writer for Image Comics, has now extended her talents to the DC Comics Universe. Following her work on the ongoing Harley Quinn: The Animated Series – The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour, she has also contributed a story to the new one-shot Tis the Season to be Freezin’, which involves the highly-respected hero Vixen and the Super-Pets.
Speaking to CBR, Franklin discussed her new project and revealed what makes Vixen her favorite DC superhero. She weighed in on what it was like to write the Harley Quinn comic and how that led to her story in Tis the Season. She also recalled how she adopted the personalities of the Super-Pets in a fun and interesting way, explained why Ace sees Batman as his partner, not his master and more.
CBR: What can you tell us about the projects you’ve done for DC Comics?
Franklin: I started Harley Quinn: The Animated Series – The Eat. Bang! Kill. Tour this year, and it has just been an amazing ride. I absolutely love the show, and at the beginning of this year, I was asked if I wanted to pitch for the series. I did the pitch and didn’t think anything of it, but here I am! A year later and we’ve got six issues done. I love Harley, I love Ivy and I love the show. I never thought that I would be able to do something like this, and it’s amazing.
I remember getting an email that asked me about writing Vixen and the Super-Pets. I literally screamed out loud because Vixen is my absolute favorite character. I was really that excited.
Why is Vixen your favorite character?
When she first came out in the 80s, I was like, “Oh wow, she looks like me!” She’s got these cool powers where she can mimic any animal. And she’s a model! Seriously, what is there not to love about Vixen? I got to write her four times this year (she appears in issues #4-6 of Harley Quinn: The Animated Series) and I couldn’t be happier.
Your story in Tis the Season to be Freezin’ features Vixen and the Super-Pets. What challenges did you encounter in writing a story in which the cast is primarily made up of animals?
It was so hard to choose which of the Super-Pets would be the one to save the others because they’re all so much fun. I mean, what is there not to love about Plastic Man’s bird Flexi? It’s a plastic bird! There is so much fun in this story, and I wasn’t sure how to play it all out. Of course, Superman’s dog Krypto could have handled the situation by himself, but I didn’t want to default to him.
Ultimately, I decided to use Batman’s dog Ace since he really has no powers just like his “partner” (not his master, mind you, which he made perfectly clear), and it came out great. You can easily tell that Ace was trying to be Batman. He wanted to take the lead, but Vixen insisted that he go and help the bystanders who were in danger. This created a fun dynamic of him being irritated in a way that strongly mimicked Batman, and it came out just great.
It was a great touch to have Ace see Batman as his partner as opposed to his master. What led to you including that in your story?
I felt like Ace sees himself as Batman’s equal. He’s nothing at all like a Robin. He’s a part of Batman, and Batman does not get to “own” him. He believes that they are partners and they fight crime together. That line is a manifestation of how Ace feels, and I felt that it embodied his personality perfectly.
There’s a whole line of Super-Pets books and I was reading a lot of them just to get their personalities down. They get to basically do the same thing as the Justice League, but on a kid’s level. I just aged them up a little.
How were you first exposed to the Super-Pets?
Pretty much through my kids. I knew about Ace, Krypto, Streaky and Bebo, but I didn’t learn about the others until I did the story for Tis the Season. There are a lot of Super-Pets out there! It was a bit of a challenge to choose which ones to use for the story. Yancey [Labot] drew the heck out of these characters! Flexi is just the cutest.
Other than the Super-Pets story in Tis the Season and the Harley Quinn series, do you have any other projects in the works for DC Comics?
I was a part of Round Robin, but my project was one of the ones that was not selected. I can’t say which one it was, but if you know anything about who I am, you can probably figure it out. I don’t know what DC’s plans are for the future, but if they involve Vixen they can always call me!
Do you currently have a relationship with Milestone?
I don’t really know anybody over at Milestone. I know they had the initiative that ended last month. I just had too many projects on my desk to take the time out to write and submit the story they wanted, and I’m bummed because I really tried to work it all out. But now that I’m branching into TV, I have a bit more time if anyone over there is interested!
“The Syphoning” by Tee Franklin, Yancey Labat, Tony Avina and Taylor Esposito appears in Tis The Season To Be Freezin’, on sale now from DC Comics.
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