DC SUPER HERO GIRLS.jpeg

The website for the DC Superhero Girls launched during Comic-Con and I missed it for some reason. As you may recall this is a joint venture between DC, Mattel and Random house aimed at girls 6-12 that will include toys, comics, apparel, books, and Legos. The website reveals that the characters—among them Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Harley Quinn, Bumble Bee, Poison Ivy and Katana—will exist as teens in a high school setting and the character bios stress empowerment, friendship and heroism. The website is basic for now, but will expand this fall, and the girls even have their own Instagram. The complete line launches next year.

This looks cute and positive, if a bit “made in the lab.” It will certainly be fascinating to see how it rolls out and how the action figure line is received—the dearth of female action figures seems to be the last line of resistance to the integration of superhero culture, but I suspect that is ending as well.

Here’s a few of the character bios shown thus far.

wonderwomanDC SUPER HERO GIRLS.jpeg

harley quinn DC SUPER HERO GIRLS.jpeg

8 COMMENTS

  1. I’m very excited to see this beginning to move forward. The mash-up of super hero costumes with street clothes is appealing, too. I write Batman and Superman chapter books for Capstone Books aimed at 7-12 year old kids. DC Super Hero Girls is smack dab in my wheelhouse. HINT HINT anyone from DC! ^_^

  2. Hmmm… this was announced in April.
    Publishing usually works six months in advance.
    No titles yet from Random House.

  3. I call this the Starfire syndrome. Just wait until parents of the made-for-6-yr-old-Harley-Quinn see the images that the normal comic creators are doing of these people in the main titles.

    Yes, parents were – rightfully so – horrified to find Li’l Jenny’s favorite cartoon Teen Titan was New52’ed into a poly amorous fuck toy.

    Just wait until they prime ads for Harley to drop in new kids program that coincides with the build up to the Suicide Squad movie.

    Silly but True

  4. @Silly: Mattel, Lego, and Random House apparently have no fear of cross contamination due to any “Starfire Syndrome”. I’m of the opinion that they know their niche audience better than you or I. Beyond that, I think that if a parent discovers that a more violent iteration of DC Super Hero Girl Katana or Harley is on TV in “Suicide Squad” or in a comic book to which they object, it’s the parent’s responsibility to direct their child away from it. Personally, I don’t think that a child of such tender age would even recognize Super Hero Girl Harley or Katana as “Suicide Squad” Harley or Katana. And I would hope said child was not watching “Suicide Squad” in the first place.

    I’m very glad to see the creation of a DC Super Hero Girl franchise and hope that it progresses and succeeds and expands to include other female heroes and villains. As a writer I can see the possibilities of fun, adventurous stories. As a consumer, I want to collect absolutely everything!

  5. I think this is great, more so as I recently became a father to a little girl this year.

    That said, I’m not too crazy either about the school setting. It feels like a corporate decision where they think this is the only way to appeal to young girls, rather than just have superhero stories with these characters.

    We will have to wait and see. Until then DC already has a number of superhero board books for younger children staring female superheroes.

  6. Matthew… it’s difficult to have superhero stories with teens… it’s the whole “child endangerment” criticism which Batman gets with Robin.

    You can do that sort of thing with the Superfriends, even Batman Adventures, because they are adults dealing with less evil villains, almost like Scooby-Doo. … Oh. Hmm.

    The school setting does allow for conflict and resolution, similar to the “now you know” era of syndicated cartoons. As for the school trope, it works for monsters, wizards, Avengers, princesses, Gotham, X-Men, extraterrestrials, spies, evil geniuses…

  7. Hmm. No mention that Harley is psychotic. She’s just fun, unorganized and unpredictable.

    Torseten Adair says: “it’s difficult to have superhero stories with teens… it’s the whole “child endangerment” criticism which Batman gets with Robin.”

    I guess those 1930s “Terry and the Pirates” comics, where teenage Terry Lee is firing guns and throwing hand grenades, wouldn’t fly today. Or those WWII-era comics where Bucky is incinerating Nazis with a flamethrower.

    http://www.comics.org/issue/3555/cover/4/

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