Beware Spoilers Ahead!

My reviews do contain spoilers about the main stories but I do attempt to keep them at a minimum. I will not reveal any major plot points or twists unless stated at the beginning of a review.

Sunday 22 May 2016

DC Super Hero Girls #1


DC Super Hero Girls is written by Shea Fontana, art and letters by Yancey Labat, colours by Monica Kubina, and published by DC comics. I picked up DC Super Hero Girls #1 at Free Comic Book Day.  It came out of the "kids box" choices and honestly, don't kill me but I wanted to cut it up and make badges out of it because I thought the designs of the characters were so cute. I thought I should probably at least have a quick glance through before I started the chopping and was presently surprised by the quality of the comic, so much so that it has been saved from my badge maker..... For now.


Super Hero Girls takes place in a universe where both superheroes and villains attend Super Hero High. They train in superhero related classes such as sparring in Coach Wildcat's P.E. class, Super Suit class with Mr. Crazy Quilt, all overseen by Vice Principal Grodd and Principal Waller. The first issue follows Supergirl as she worries about finals and a problem that all high schoolers face, bullies. Supergirl begins to panic about her final examinations and runs away to her Uncle Johnathan and Aunt Martha's house and confides in them about her fears as they encourage her to head back to school. On her way back to school Supergirl is attacked by an unknown assailant who is also going after the other super hero girls.

Being for kids the characters are not exactly full of depth and personality, nor do I think we are going to be seeing things such as Harley Quinn's abusive backstory. That being said I feel sometimes it's appropriate to forgo things like this when the comic is aimed at children. The comic includes well known characters such as Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Supergirl, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy and some less known characters such as bumblebee and Katana. There are some fantastic little Easter eggs in the comic such as Comet Supergirl's horse in her Krypton flashback, Batgirl's personal computer is called Oracle, teachers being older heroes and villains such as Gorilla Grodd, Amanda Waller, Wildcat and Crazy Quilt and many well loved characters making appearances as background characters.

A huge and constantly debated issue in comics is its representation of women, especially in regards to unrealistic body shape and unnecessarily revealing costumes. Despite that, DC Super Hero Girls has done a fantastic job of making the characters and their costumes recognizable without having them over sexualised or inappropriate for children. The characters are made to look more like teenagers, without the ridiculous breasts or micro waists that plague their grown up counterparts. Their costumes are still clearly recognizable, but made not only more casual with things such as hoodies and sneakers but far less sexualised than their other series.

While DC Super Hero Girls is for children it is pretty enough and has enough Easter eggs to keep adults helping their children read it interested. It is a great starting point for children, especially little girls, to begin reading their first comic with well known and popular characters and as a bonus you can get dolls and action figures with these awesome kid friendly costumes.

I give DC Super Hero Girls #1 3 out of 5 super heroines.

Find out more about DC Superhero Girls here and order yourself a set of dolls here or at Target.