The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines
Mike Madrid
Language: English
Pages: 334
ISBN: 1935259032
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
“A thoughtful, comprehensive history of women in comics . . . The Supergirls gleefully celebrates the medium itself, in all its goofy, glorious excess.” —NPR “Best Five Books To Share With Your Friends” citation
“Sharp and lively—and just obsessive enough about women who wear capes and boots to be cool but not creepy. [Madrid] clearly loves this stuff. And he's enough of a historian to be able to trace the ways in which the portrayal of sirens and supergirls has echoed society's ever-changing feelings about women and sex.” —Entertainment Weekly
Has Wonder Woman hit the comic book glass ceiling? Is that the one opposition that even her Amazonian strength can’t defeat? Entertaining and informative, The Supergirls explores iconic superheroines and what it means for the culture when they do everything the superhero does, only in thongs and high heels.
This much-needed alternative history of American comic book icons—from Wonder Woman to Supergirl and beyond—delves into where these crime-fighting females fit in popular culture and why, and what their stories say about the role of women in society from their creation to now, and into the future.
Mike Madrid is the author of Divas, Dames & Daredevils: Lost Heroines of Golden Age Comics (forthcoming from Exterminating Angel Press in October 2013) and The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines, an NPR “Best Book To Share With Your Friends” and American Library Association Amelia Bloomer Project Notable Book. Madrid, a San Francisco native and lifelong fan of comic books and popular culture, also appears in the documentary Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines.
flying off the stands, as DC struggled to retool their strong Amazon princess’ image for more conservative times. The Super-Girl story was meant to test readers’ reaction to a female joining the Kryptonian clan. The response was favorable. An adult Superwoman may have been too threatening to young readers, and perhaps to Superman himself. So, a teenage girl with a demure persona became a better choice. So, in 1959, Superman met the hyphen-less “Supergirl from Krypton.” Superman investigates a
Supergirl! “I needed a super-wife... you’re too ordinary, Lois...and you have no super-brains...you’re not very pretty...frankly, you’re the last girl I would want to marry!” an amused Superman confesses to a shattered Lois. A cruel Supergirl captures Lois, intent on placing her into suspended animation for a thousand years. Superman comes to his senses and saves the day, and readers learn that Supergirl had succumbed to the always-unpredictable effects of Red Kryptonite three days earlier.
counterparts. When they aren’t fighting crime, the heroines enjoy stereotypic feminine pastimes like going to tea, shopping, or reading fashion magazines. Marvel’s premier team, the Fantastic Four, was formed when a daring quartet of adventurers launched themselves in an 109 THE SUPERGIRLS experimental rocket in order to beat “the commies” into space. Disaster strikes when the ship is belted with cosmic rays. After the foursome crash to Earth, they find themselves drastically altered.
heroes and their powers. However, it seemed that people were prejudiced against 115 THE SUPERGIRLS mutants—individuals born with powers through a genetic twist. Lee and Kirby’s new group, the X-Men, were mutants, the socalled “Homo Superior” who were the next stage of evolution, and genetic heirs to the world. The X-Men were named after their mentor, the telepathic Professor X, and because of the fact that they had ex-tra powers. The X-Men made their debut in 1963, the same year as Dr. Martin
Note ii Goddesses of Tomorrow iv 1940’s: A Secret Life 1 The Queen & the Princess 31 1950’s: The Girlfriends 53 Supergirl and the Ballad of American Youth 79 1960’s: The Modern World 101 Girls Together (Outrageously) 133 1970’s: Sirens & Suffragettes 145 Wonder Woman’s Extreme Makeovers 183 1980’s: The Dark Road 219 Sex and the Single Superheroine 245 1990’s: The Babe Years 269 Heroine Chic 287 2000 and Beyond: Mother Love? 301 Acknowledgments 316 Index 317 A A A