Xena first appeared on the Hercules: The Legendary Journeys television series, (in the episode The Warrior Princess airing in March 1995), as a seductive but treacherous warlord.

Two more episodes during the May 1995 TV sweeps presented her evolution from a villainess to a friend and ally of Hercules. Viewer interest in her was so high that shortly afterwards she became the main character of her own spin-off series Xena: Warrior Princess,  and the two series quite often played back to back.

Ironically though, her character was originally obsessed with defeating Hercules and thus obtaining his title as the greatest living warrior, she never did defeat "Zeus' Favorite Son". As a matter of fact, Hercules was the one credited with pointing her down the path of redemption when he beat her in combat and showed her that selfishness and greed were not the way to live.

In her own TV series, Xena set out to redeem her murderous past by fighting against tyranny and evil and protecting the innocent and weak.  I personally caught the show after it had started and began watching the rerun episodes to catch up. A lot of her past would remain obscure, but flashbacks would open up new chapters in her past as she revisited the people or areas again.    

For those interested in Xena comic books from Topps in 1997-1998 or Dark Horse 1999, we have several listed in our eBay Featured Store. Xena was published as mini-series by Topps, while Dark Horse published one unlimited series.