A fairly obscure DC Comics character gets her time in the sun via 2017’s Vixen: The Movie. Mari McCabe (Megalyn Echikunwoke) grows up with her adoptive parents in Detroit and doesn’t know what happened to her birth family.

As an adult, Mari struggles to make her way, but she finds a greater purpose when she uses a family totem that allows her to use the powers of animals to her own advantage. Mari adopts the identity of “Vixen” and works to protect society.

In other words, Vixen provides your basic origin story, and it serves that purpose in a competent manner. Nothing about the way it explores Vixen’s roots feels especially creative or engaging, but we get the character’s background in an efficient, competent manner.

Unfortunately, “efficient and competent” becomes the highest praise I can throw at the workmanlike Vixen. While the program offers a watchable adventure, it does nothing to stand out as above average.

Not that Vixen doesn’t attempt to add sizzle to the proceedings, mainly via guest actors. Various folks from the live-action Flash and Arrow TV series reprise their roles here, and they add a little fun to the proceedings.

But just a little, as their cameos don’t contribute enough spark to turn Vixen into something memorable, and the movie’s choppy sense of story doesn’t help. Vixen entered the world as a series of short “webisodes”, whereas the film stitches them all together to form one coherent tale.

While this attempt doesn’t flop, we still can feel the semi-disconnected nature of the source components. Since these existed as brief segments, it becomes more difficult for them to connect and flow when edited together.

None of this makes Vixen a bad effort, as it gives us sporadic entertainment. However, it lacks much real verve or character, so it ends up as a mediocre superhero tale.

Vixen: The Movie appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. No issues emerged across this appealing transfer.

Sharpness excelled. The movie always came across as tight and well-defined, so don’t expect any signs of softness. Jaggies and moiré effects also remained absent, and the image lacked edge haloes or artifacts. In addition, print flaws were a non-factor and didn’t appear at any point.

In terms of colors, Vixen went with a fairly orange and teal palette. The tones looked solid within those parameters. Blacks were deep and tight, while shadows showed nice clarity. Across the board, the image worked well.

I thought the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Vixen opened up the comic book material well. The forward channels brought out the majority of the material, but the entire package added a lot to the movie. Music presented strong stereo imaging, while effects cropped up in logical spots and blended well.

The surrounds also contributed good information. For the most part, these reinforced the forward channels, but they also contributed a fair amount of unique material.

These instances mainly occurred during bigger action scenes, but they spread out in quieter scenes as well and even featured some directional dialogue. The back speakers brought out a nice sense of space and environment.

Audio quality always satisfied. Speech was warm and natural, without edginess or other issues. Music sounded lively and full, while effects displayed good definition. Those elements seemed accurate and dynamic. All of this led to a positive presentation that deserved a “B+”.

Only a handful of extras appear here, and we get a featurette called Spirit Animal. It runs six minutes, 13 seconds and provides comments from executive producer Marc Guggenheim, comic book historian Alan Kistler, and actors Carlos Valdez and Victor Garber. “Animal” gives us a few character and story basics, but don’t tend to learn a lot in this short reel.

Under Bruce Timm’s Top Picks, we get two episodes of Justice League Unlimited. The disc includes “Hunter’s Moon” (23:09) and “Grudge Match” (22:53).

“Moon” features a space-based mission that involves Vixen and others, while “Match” forces Vixen to battle as part of an all-female gladiator system. “Moon” seems lackluster, but “Match” offers a fun adventure.

As a character, Vixen seems moderately intriguing, but as a narrative, Vixen: The Movie doesn’t hold together as well as I’d like. While it brings us passable entertainment, it can’t turn into anything memorable or captivating. The Blu-ray offers very good picture and audio along with minor supplements. Vixen brings us a mediocre program.