Created by: Louise Simonson, Chris Batista, Jon Bogdanove
1st appearance: as Natasha Irons- Steel (Vol 2) #1, February 1994; as Steel- Action Comics #806, October 2003; as Starlight- 52 #21, September 2006; as Vaporlock- Infinity Inc. (Vol 2) #8, June 2008
Nationality: American
Aliases: Steel, Starlight, Vaporlock
Team Affiliations: Infinity Inc., Team Superman
Legal Status: no criminal history
Height: 5’2” Weight: 108lbs
Eyes: Brown Hair: Black
Relatives: Clay Irons (father), Blondell Irons (mother), Butter (grandfather), Bess (grandmother, deceased), Jemhal (brother), John Henry Irons (Steel) (uncle)
Powers: As Starlight-superhuman strength, flight, increased durability, increased endurance, emits light burst from fist and is able to focus light into forcefields; As Vaporlock- able to transform her body into gaseous substance
Weapons: As Steel- armor boots her strength to superhiman levels, rocket boots allow for flight, armed with energy and projectile weaponry, armor can grow up to 60ft; original Entropy Aegis armor also allowed for teleportation and fired purple energy blast from her hands; Wields a hammer similar to her Uncle’s (increased force when thrown), hammer fires EMP blast and generates powerful electric and magnetic fields at her command (she once started Superman’s heart with an EMP blast), when placed on the ground the hammer connects with Earth’s magnetic field and cannot be moved except by her or one of her relatives
Biography
Early Years
When John Henry Irons returns to his hometown, he moves in with his family, which includes his niece Natasha, the daughter of his brother Clay. Natasha was a bright and level-headed thirteen-year-old who adored her Uncle John Henry and just like the rest of the family, knew his secret identity as Steel. She manages to get a job as an intern for a US Senator around the age of 16 and also manages to be involved in her uncle’s adventures; having been rescued from the likes of Villains such as Hazard and Plasmus, and even once being addicted to the drug, Tar. When Steel’s identity is made public, the repercussions were serious for her family, and she lost her grandmother in the wake of it. In the aftermath, she moves with her uncle to Jersey City, and while there is reunited with her father, who unbeknownst to her or her uncle was a hitman/villain now named “Crash”. When the assassin Skorpio, whom Steel was battling at the time, poisons Natasha, it is her father who turns himself in to give her a blood transfusion. When her uncle relocates to Metropolis, she comes, also. Upon opening up his new company, Steelworks, she becomes his assistant. She takes it upon herself to reprogram one of Superman’s robots to speak slang.
The New Steel
When Natasha’s uncle fell on the Entropy Aegis of Darkseid; a set of armor made by Darkseid originally for Superman but taken by John Henry Irons; Natasha design a suit of armor which was powered by the Aegis tech, and with the help of Team Superman, traveled to Apokolips to get her uncle. Upon her uncle’s return, he made a new, more advanced set for Natasha, as he had planned on passing the Steel legacy on to her anyway. While in the new armor, Natasha teams up with Cir-El and Girl 13 to help Superman against a ghostly ninja and helps rescue him.
52
When her uncle becomes disillusioned with the behavior of his fellow superheroes, she and her uncle have a major falling out when she wanted to join the Teen Titans squad which had been decimated. This results in her getting her armor taking away and dismantled. She attempts to build her own suit but fails at it. When she overhears a phone message confirming her uncle’s DNA had been rewritten by the Luthor metagene she is angered. She joins Lex Luther’s Everyman Project as its first candidate and gains superpowers. She is given the codename “Starlight” and becomes a member of Luthor’s Infinity Inc. squad. When her uncle threatens to kill Luthor, his squad of super-powered people intervenes. John Henry tries to convince his niece that Luthor and the project cannot be trusted and there had to be a catch. Natasha, feeling her uncle was a hypocrite for not wanting her to be a superhero while gaining powers himself (even though unbeknownst to her though he was an unwitting victim of Luthor), and beat him up. He and Natasha become estranged from that point. After serving with the team for several months, Natasha witnesses one of her friends killed which prompted her to reach out to her uncle and reevaluate her decision to stay with Luthor’s team. When Natasha witnesses Luthor deactivate the powers of the Everymen with the exception of the Infinity Inc. squad, she realizes that her uncle was right all along. She begins spying on Luthor’s operation, but is found out by Luthor, and is beaten by him. Her uncle along with the Teen Titans attacks Lexcorp and rescue Natasha, who had been stripped of her powers. Steel gives Natasha a new set of armor to use, and they take Luthor down. Natasha rejoins her uncle and they rebuild Steelworks.
The New Infinity Inc.
Months afterward, Natasha along with some of the other Everyman project participants who had their powers deactivated, started experiencing a side effect from the treatments. Their physiology began to change, and they gained a new set of superpowers. The participants join together to fight supervillains, taking the name of Infinity Inc. once again. The team was kidnapped and held hostage by the Dark Side Club and was rescued by Miss Martian and Ravager.
