Chicks with claws = perpetual appeal

Vixen- Tigra

I should say that if DC introduced a male african character with a similar backstory to Vixen, then said character would be a natural pairing for the perpetually elusive Black Panther.

As it is, gender distinctions are inviolable. So this one does the trick, methinks.

Commonalities:
Both have been shown to be pleasure-seekers who occasionally have regressed into savage, feral states.

Differences:
Tigra is a cat lady —not, notably, in the sense of a elderly woman who lives in a stinking house with 50 tabbies, but in the manner of an anthropomorphosized feline/human hybrid. Whereas Vixen draws on the earth’s morphogenetic field to mimic any animal’s traits.

Alternate histories:

TI: Greer Nelson is a descendent of the Cat People, and as such inherits an amulet that grants her the ability to mimic attributes of various felines; as Tigra, she becomes an adventurer and eventually joins the Avengers and briefly the government agency Freedom Force. She struggles with latent feral tendencies surface from time to time.

VI: A gravely injured Mari McCabe is chosen by a mystical cult to assume the abilities incumbent on the Tantu Totem; as Vixen, she adopts extranormal attributes of a fox. She eventually joins the Justice League and later the organization’s west coast expansion team, although her latent feral tendencies surface from time to time.