Natasha Irons

Natasha Irons is a fictional

Natasha Irons is the daughter of John Henry's brother, Clay, and Clay's wife Blondel. She is introduced in the first issue of Steel's solo series, where she is initially portrayed as being 13. Like the rest of her family, she knew about Steel's secret identity all along. Contrasting sharply with her brother Jemahl, Natasha is shown to be very level headed and practical. By issue #14, she is shown to be working (presumably as an intern) for a U.S. Senator. She appears to have aged forward to be about 16 somehow. Nat is a supporting character throughout Louise Simonson's run on the series. She is kidnapped by Hazard and Steel has to rescue her. She also uses the drug Tar to help fight at her uncle's side briefly. She is later kidnapped by the villain Plasmus and apparently kills him by shattering once Steel froze the villain (although he later turns up alive). Natasha was devastated at the loss of her beloved great-grandmother, Bess Irons, but is the only one of her family who stays with Steel when he moves to Jersey City (see the

With Christopher Priest at the helm of Steel starting with #34, Nat was radically altered. She was transformed into a more stereotypical modern teenager with a flippant attitude. All trace of her previous work for a U.S. Senator was never referenced. During this time she also meets and befriends a teen named Paul Tomlinson, whom she dubs "Boris". Her father also makes a return as the villain Crash. When an assassin named Skorpio poisons Nat, Crash has to turn himself in so that he can give a blood transfusion and save his daughter. He is never seen nor heard from again.

Nat later goes with Steel to Metropolis when he opens up Steelworks there. She becomes his assistant, even reprogramming Superman's Kryptonian robot Kelex to speak hip hop slang. She continues to be friends with Boris, who visits from Jersey City.^[2]

The new Steel

When the Entropy Aegis of

As part of the Superman/Batman "Public Enemies" arc, false news of Batman and Superman's capture by the forces of President Lex Luthor is leaked to draw out their various associates into attacking the White House. Cir-El, Natasha, Krypto, Superboy and the Batman Family do exactly that. Natasha is neutralized early in the incident, staying back to try to rescue Cir-El and Superboy from a crushing deathtrap. Instead, Batman saves them.

Natasha is briefly seen in a cameo role during the events of "Infinite Crisis".

Operating as Starlight

In 52, Natasha has a violent falling out with her uncle John, over John's disgust over what he feels is the self-absorbed narcissism of the DC Universe's superhero community. When Natasha discovers that the Teen Titans (whose roster was devastated by the events of Infinite Crisis) are holding an open call for new members, John forbids Natasha from going and instead insists she continue the clearing out debris from the battle of Metropolis. When Natasha refuses, John dismantles her armor, and she is left powerless. John also makes it clear that she will have to build her own armor if she wants to be a super-hero.^[4]

Soon, Natasha attempts to rebuild her armor, with little success. When she learns that John had his DNA rewritten by the exo-gene, Natasha wrongly assumes John chose to have his DNA altered and snaps.^[5]

After a fierce argument with her uncle, Natasha applies for Luthor's "Everyman Project" and becomes one of the first official subjects.

Steel and the Teen Titans launch an attack on LexCorp and manage to rescue Natasha. However, Lex stripped her of her Starlight powers.[10] Later, she is seen escorting Luthor into custody, wearing a new set of armour made for her by her uncle.^[11] The duo restore Steelworks, and Natasha is later seen, during the World War III assembling a nanotech payload missile to fire over Black Adam, although the missile is stolen by Booster Gold.^[12] Natasha survives the battle, and resumes working at Steelworks.

Operating as Vaporlock

The new