Natasha Irons is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by Louise Simonson and Chris Bastista, first appearing in Steel (vol. 2) #1 (February 1994). Since the character's creation, Natasha has since become a reccurring supporting character of both Superman and the original version of Steel within their respective comic book series.
The character is recurringly portrayed as a super-genius and the niece of John Henry Irons, a fellow genius within the Irons family. Although both mainstream continuities feature different backgrounds, both include her as the daughter of the criminal Crash (John Henry's brother), who is depicted as either a crime boss or criminal weapons dealer in advance technology. She works as an assistant alongside her uncle for Steelworks, a technology company based in Metropolis, and operates as the second Steel. She is often also depicted as a public superhero and a member of Team Superman while having served in several superhero-based teams. At times, Natasha has also adopted different codenames; following her transition into an artificial metahuman from Lex Luthor's Everyman Project, she originally used the Starlight codename but following a change in power set, she instead assumed the name Vaporlock.
The character has made several appearance in media, including ' where she is voiced by Cree Summer and is portrayed by Tayler Buck in the television series Superman & Lois, where she is renamed Natalie Lane Irons and is made the daughter of John and Lois Lane from an alternate universe.
Natasha Irons debuted in Steel (Vol. 2) #1 (January 1994).
The daughter of Clay and Blondell Irons as well as the sister to Jemahl Irons, she is a member of the Irons family and initially has a vested interest in both dancing and medicine.
In her earlier appearances in the second Steel series written by Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove, she is aware of her uncle's identity as Steel and supports him and becomes involved in numerous conflicts in relation to gang and drug-related conflict surrounding the Irons family as well as the re-emergence of John's former employers, Amertek Industries, who is revealed to manipulate both Jemahl and having sold John's past inventions to the gangs.
During Christopher Priest's tenure as writer of the second Steel series, Natasha is portrayed more stereotypical modern teenager with a flippant attitude. During this time, she meets and befriends a teen named Paul Tomlinson, her father becomes the villain Crash, and a series of tragedies follow the Irons family when John's identity as Steel becomes public, wherein rivals and past adversaries targets the family and leads to the death of Natasha's grandmother and the family faces harassment despite several attempts to relocate. While her relationship with John is tested in wake of their grandmother's death, they reconcile.
Nat later travels with Steel to Metropolis when he establishes Steelworks. She becomes his assistant and succeeds him as the superhero Steel after he is injured in battle. Although reluctant, he allows her to operate under the codename and gifts her with an even more advanced set of armor. One of her earlier adventures as Steel includes a team-up with Cir-El and Traci Thirteen to battle Japanese vigilante Byakko and protect Superman from her mystical-based abilities when he is injured.
During the events of 52, Natasha's relationship with John is tested once more due to his disapproval of her activities both personal and as a superhero, culminating to his interference costing her an opportunity to join the Teen Titans and having been made to attend summer school instead of a science colloquium due to having a poor grades in one subject despite passing all others.
After a fierce argument with her uncle, Natasha applies for Lex Luthor's "Everyman Project" and becomes one of the first official subjects. When John, looking for Natasha, threatens to kill Luthor at a Lexcorp party, Natasha appears, along with a team of super-powered people in Luthor's employ, and beats him severely. From that point, she is estranged from her uncle, who makes numerous attempts to contact her, which she rebuffs. Gifted with new skills, Natasha is given the codename Starlight. While in battle, she witnesses her friend Eliza Harmon (Trajectory) killed by Blockbuster. Natasha is finally contacted by John on New Year's Eve, who forces her to rethink everything that Luthor has told her. After the "Rain of the Supermen," in which Lex Luthor deactivates the powers of each Everyman hero outside of Infinity, Inc., Natasha realizes that her uncle was right all along. She then begins working as a double agent within Luthor's organization. However, she is found out and beaten by Luthor, who has acquired superpowers.
The Infinity, Inc. series reveals that the Everyman Project has had a lingering effect on its subjects. Natasha gained the ability to transform into living gas, although she has difficulty controlling it. Her uncle suggests she adopt the codename "Vaporlock." In the final issue of the series, the members of Infinity Inc. are held prisoner in the Dark Side Club. By the end of the Terror Titans miniseries, they are released thanks to Miss Martian.
After being released from the Dark Side Club, the members of Infinity Inc. take new names and infiltrate a government project named Project 7734.
Natasha is not sure whom to trust as part of Project: Breach (the brainwashing of Captain Atom). She visits Earth to tell Jimmy Olsen, who has been looking into Project 7734, about Captain Atom and leaves just before Jimmy is found and shot by . In the Captain Atom back-up story in Action Comics, Captain Atom remembers who he is, revealing his real name and rank along with the "Codename: Captain Atom".
In the years following the New 52 which retroactively rebooted the mainstream universe and during the DC Rebirth initiative, Natasha's background and history undergoes significant changes with some similarities to the past continuity.
In this continuity, Natasha is also cast as the eldest daughter of Clay Irons and a scientific genius who has a close relationship with her uncle John and his girlfriend, Lana Lang, whom she views as an aunt. The pair often looked after Natasha and young Ezekiel in their father's stead, all disapproving of his criminal career as "Crash". When her father scams Skyhook, Metropolis's demonic boogeyman, to fund Natasha's scientific endeavors, Ezekiel is kidnapped and her father is arrested and sent to prison. Skyhook remained at large and her brother's missing person case remains unsolved, with no details known of what happen to him afterwards. At some point, she also attended college at a young age, dated sorceress Traci 13, and began assisting John and Lana in their superhero personas as Steel and Superwoman.
During the Superwoman series, Natasha develops a new suit to assist Lana's newfound powers following absorbing strange energies from a deceased version of Superman (seemingly the New 52 Superman) upon his death and assists both Superwoman and Steel while being reacquainted with former girlfriend Traci 13 and adopts the Steel codename. Natasha and John later hunts Skyhook when her father escapes from prison and begins hunting him himself. As the Irons family are drawn to the conflict for revenge, Lana's relation with them is tested when she works to uphold their moral stance against killing.
She later joins the Titans and meets her great-great-uncle, John Henry Jr.
In her initial portrayal in the 1994 Steel series, Natasha is the eldest daughter of Crash, a crime boss who first began as a gang member and mob enforcer. Her younger brother is Jemahl. She is described as a high-school student with an interest in arts and medicine, being a caregiver, ambitious and clever. Over time, the character's intelligence was heighten to be similar to her John Henry's and eventually made a hero. The character was changed to be a super-genius since a young age. Later cited as being one of the smartest people on Earth, Natasha is the eldest daughter of the criminal Crash, a weapons dealer whose actions caused the disappearance of her younger brother (renamed Ezekiel) causes complications and allows for John Henry and Lana Lang to be her surrogate parents. She often acts as assistant for her uncle's company, Steelworks, and concurrently as the second Steel. She is depicted as older, having graduated from college at a young age. One source placed her age at around nineteen.
Initially, the character was heterosexual and had several male love interests, including Conner Kent and the second Skyman. Following DC Rebirth, the character was made homosexual and had several female love interests, most prominently with Traci 13.
Natasha was originally a student who held an interest in medicine, dance, and politics. Later, she is instead cast as a genius knowledgeable in several scientific fields although she specializes in engineering and computer science, using her expertise to fashion high-powered powered armor that grants her super powers.
Natasha's character also has had super-powers several times; she was granted superhuman strength due to the drug known as "tar" for a short time although it would make her have fits of rage. For a time, Natasha also developed super-powers due to her participation in Lex Luthor's Everyman Project to become an artificial metahuman. Her initial powers granted her superhuman strength and endurance, flight, and the power to control light and solar energies. Later developments following Luthor's deactivation of the treatment instead granted her new powers as a side-effect, allowing her her to shift into a gaseous form at will.
An assistant of her uncle at Steelworks, Natasha also has access to advanced technology: