The Crimson Fox

This is the first in an educational series which I will call "Comic book characters whom you may not be a fan of, but you should be."

I will begin with a character who recently made her long-awaited (by me) return to comics in the pages of DC's Green Lantern. I am referring to the pride of the nation of France, the Crimson Fox!

Now, when you think of France, what comes to mind? Laetitia Casta, Catherine DeNeuve, Bridget Bardot, the Statue of Liberty...

See a pattern?

It is only right that the single greatest French super hero is a babe. Yes, I admit it, as a young dude I actually had a crush on this character. Well, the concept of her. She was everything that was exotic and cool about France. Plus, I had this massive crush on this real-life French chick at the same time, but that never panned out after a few dates. Reality never matches up to fantasy (or wouldn't until years later, but that's another story, and to be honest - none of your damn business!).

Anyway, back to the Crimson Fox. The D'Aramis twin sisters were created by Keith Giffen, JM DeMatteis and Bart Sears, and they made their debut in the pages of Justice League Europe #6 in September of 1989. And yes, I said sisters. The Crimson Fox was the super hero ID of Vivian and Constance D'Aramis, who ran the French pharmaceutical corporation Revson. They set out to avenge the deaths of their parents, and from taking their cues from the American hero, Batman, they became Le Renarde Rousee, or the Crimson Fox.

As for establishing a secret ID: well, the sister's realized that it may be a bit obvious for a known public figure to disappear at odd times, and that it would be exhausting to run their company and adventure as the Crimson Fox...so they did what was obvious and staged the death of one of them. Constance drew the short straw, and the sister's proceeded to share the lives of Vivian D'Aramis and the Crimson Fox. A perfect secret ID.

The Crimson Fox eventually joined the JLE and remained a member for some time until a great Crisis occurred - The Crisis of Lame-Ass Writing. In the heydey of 90's shock value killing, an idiotic decision was made to kill off Vivian D'Aramis. I'd go into details of the story, but it was written so incredibly piss-poorly that I have spent years blocking it from memory. Constance continued on, but what made this character unique was killed by the greatest villain of all - bad writing.

Constance would also be killed off later in the pages of James Robinson's Starman. The issue in question has the distinction of being the only bad comic ever written by James Robinson. Seriously - it was one of those lame-ass attempts to make a villain look "bad" by killing off a bunch of heroes to prove just how "bad" she was. Constance, along with Firestorm, Blue Devil and Amazing Man were killed by the Mist. God, that issue sucked donkey balls. The definate nadir of an otherwise amazing comics series.

The universe has righted itself a bit in recent months, as the character of the Crimson Fox has returned in the pages of Green Lantern, which is in my opinion, one of the best series DC has going right now. It might be a new character, but there were enough subtle hints that told me that it could be our D'Aramis' sisters returned to us. After all, they know a thing or two about faking their own deaths!

Come on, now! Jason Todd came back, why not the original Crimson Foxes?