Let's get this right out front. DC Super Hero Girls, as the title implies, is aimed at pre-teen girls, and there's not just the series of webisodes, also available On Demand (check with your cable provider), but there's a series of novelettes, which are being collected into a trade paperback by DC, coming in June. And, yes, there's also a toy line.
Basically, it's this. Many of DC's female crime-stoppers, anti-heroines, and villains, are enrolled at Super Hero High, which, you might say, would be DC's equivalent to a certain Marvel school in Westchester County. Each webisode clocks in at about 2-4 minutes each, so they fly by. Literally.
In the opener, Wonder Woman arrives on campus, and, out of respect to faculty, turns in her shield to principal Amanda Waller.
Yes, Super Hero High is co-ed. Beast Boy looks more like his DCU counterpart, but sounds the same as he has in animated form for the last 13 years. As I've written elsewhere, when I was first introduced to him 36 years ago, he was using the handle, Changeling, before going back to Beast Boy, which was his original monicker when he was in the Doom Patrol in the 60's. Yep, he's been around that long. A refreshing change is that this Beast Boy is the same playboy I remember. DC Comics artists started giving him the pointed ears in the books a few years ago in the wake of the first Cartoon Network Teen Titans series. Hal Jordan, Wonder Woman, and others have been de-aged to fit into the storyline, which is fine when you're trying to introduce these characters to a new generation and let the kids grow up with their newly discovered heroes.
More minisodes to come, and the 2nd season begins online next month.
Rating: A-.
15 comments:
And I thought DC Comics was a men's franchise.
DC's done girls books before. Romance comics as recently as the 70's.
DC Super Hero Girls is a conscious attempt to get young girls interested in comic book super heroes. It's not romance oriented. Rather, it serves as an introduction for girls to the franchise. Basically, it's Warner Brothers and DC's attempt to cash in on the success of Mattel's Monster High.
Also, as I once mentioned in my blog, DC stands for "Detective Comics", therefore, when one refers to the franchise as "DC Comics", they're calling it "Detective Comics Comics", which is a tad redundant.
"And I thought DC Comics was a men's franchise."
That's precisely the stereotype that DC/WB wishes to squash with this initiative. Like Goldstar noted, DCSHG is an attempt to introduce the young ladies to the DC Universe, and I for one welcome that. Like Marvel's Super Hero Squad, projects like this can be seen as a gateway to comics'; if kids become interested in kid-friendly properties like these at an early age, then they'll be more opt to latch on to the harder, more mature stuff when they get older.
Comics aren't just for men; they're for anyone who likes comics.
I was going to reference Super Hero Squad in the review, but since that show is built around a whole city, not a high school, there is a difference or variation on the concept with what is really a superior product.
@Goldstar: Considering DC now refers to itself as DC Entertainment, maybe it won't be so redundant after all going forward.
What I didn't mention, because I haven't seen all of season 1, is a wish for the Wonder Twins to turn up, and hopefully treated better than they were on Teen Titans GO!.
I've caught all of the webisodes up to this point, as well as the 60-minute Super Hero High special which aired on Boomerang 2 Saturdays ago; no Zan or Jayna appearance yet, but maybe the Twins will turn up in season 2. Given how respectfully the boys are treated in this series (e.g. Beast Boy here is a funny guy without being reduced to a total moron like in the 2003 Teen Titans show), I'd like to think this crop of writers will/would avoid the usual unfunny string of "Zan is useless" jokes.
I was checking Kids On Demand looking for the 1 hr. special, but got the webisodes instead. Crossing fingers for the Twins, especially if Jayna is her usual slender, sexy self. When the Twins appeared on TTG!, they'd been reduced down in size just a wee bit, which didn't look right.
I would love to see Hasbro do something like this with Transformers.
Two words, Steven: Wishful thinking. Just can't see that with the Transformers.
No feasibility, that's why.
Feasibility? What is that?
In other words, the format wouldn't work for the Transformers.
How would that not work for Transformers? Is it because DC is a unisex franchise and Transformers is a boys franchise?
You're dealing with two completely different concepts.
It could still happen.
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