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Mike Madrid - The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines

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Book:
The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines
Author:
Mike Madrid
Publisher:
Exterminating Angel Press
Genre:
Books / Humor
Year:
2009
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5 / 5
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The Supergirls is a long overdue tribute to the fabulous fighting females whose beauty and bravery brighten the pages of your favorite comics.STAN LEE
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 livelyand just obsessive enough about women who wear capes and boots to be cool but not creepy. [Madrid] clearly loves this stuff. And hes enough of a historian to be able to trace the ways in which the portrayal of sirens and supergirls has echoed societys 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 cant 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 iconsfrom Wonder Woman to Supergirl and beyonddelves 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.

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Table of Contents

More Praise for

The SUPERGIRLS

The Supergirls... is sharp and livelyand just obsessive enough about women who wear capes and boots to be cool but not creepy. The guy clearly loves this stuff. A-

Entertainment Weekly

as it delivers its clear-eyed critique of the way mainstream superhero comics have alternately eroticized or deified female characters, The Supergirls gleefully celebrates the medium itself, in all its goofy, glorious excess.NPR

... an unflinching look at the way superheroines have both reflected the time and mood of a nation, as well as occasionally giving life a chance to imitate art.... Exhaustive in its research, full of interesting lore and little-known details, The Supergirls is a high flying trip through comic-book history.

Jackson Free Press

Mike Madrids fast-moving, encyclopedic, and often funny Supergirls shows the authors lifelong affection for these heroines on every page. He has a great feel for the genre and its history, with evident sensitivity to issues of female power and powerlessness. The section on the She-Hulk is not to be missed!

Larry Gonick, author, Cartoon History of the Universe

Entertaining and informative, Supergirls is a breezy and thoroughly accessible history of the comic book heroine. A great resource!

Marc Andreyko, writer, Manhunter and Torso

... hopefully it will start some new discussions not just about female superheroes, but their cultural significance in American pop culture...

BITCH Magazine

There comes a time in every comic book geek slash fashionistas life when she must ask herself, What do costumes and couture have in common? The Supergirls sets out to answer that questionmaking it informative enough and providing sufficient cultural context for those who may have no prior comic book knowledge.

Worn Fashion Journal

The story of The Supergirls continues at www.heaven4heroes.com...

At EXTERMINATING ANGEL PRESS, were taking a new approach to our world. A new way of looking at things. New stories, new ways to live our lives. Were dreaming how we want our lives and our world to be

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Authors Note

Since this book is intended to be a look at the characters in American comic books, and not the industry itself, I have taken a few liberties to streamline some publisher details for easier reference.

First, DC Comics is the present day publisher of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and other well-known superheroes. DC is the amalgamation of two different publishing concerns: National Comics, which produced Superman and Batman, and sister company All-American Comics, which produced Wonder Woman, Flash, and Green Lantern. The two companies merged in 1944 to form National Periodical Publications, whose comic books bore the Superman-DC logo. The publisher was known colloquially as DC, which it later adopted as its official name. Since these business mergers are not integral to the evolution of the characters discussed in this book, I will simply refer to the company as DC throughout.

Second, Marvel Comics, which today publishes Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men, was known as Timely Publications in the 1940s, when it produced characters like Captain America and the Sub-Mariner. It later changed to Atlas Comics in the 1950s, before taking the name Marvel Comics in the 1960s. For simplicitys sake again, I will refer to this publisher as Marvel Comics only.

For my parents, who never made me throw my comic books away, & my sister Barbara, who let me read her issues of Betty and Veronica

Goddesses of Tomorrow

The first comic book that I remember owning is Superman #195, from 1967. The story was entitled The Fury of the Kryptonian Killer! Captivating imagery filled its cover. Mighty Superman was on his knees, succumbing to the effects of deadly Green Kryptonite. In the background was a tiny city in a glass bottle, and a flying dog wearing a cape. But the element that grabbed my attention was the pretty blonde girl wearing a costume that matched Supermans. I learned she was called Supergirl.

I was about six at the time, and although I didnt really understand what was going on, I had a vague idea who Superman was. Maybe my older sister or some other kids at school had given me the rundown. I was more fascinated, however, by Supergirl. She could fly and was incredibly strong, and I could tell from the way she was drawn that she was brave and noble. I thought she was great. Although I wasnt sure exactly what her relationship to Superman was, I could tell she was somehow considered inferior. And I didnt understand why.

Back in those days, comic books cost 12 cents, and my mother gave me the choice of selecting two single issues from the comic book rack, or one giant annual for a quarter. As I flipped through the titles on the spinning rack to try and make my weighty decisions, unconsciously a pattern developed. When it came to movies, my mother had once said that if there wasnt a woman in the story, nothing could possibly happen, so I guess I thought the same held true for comic books. I skipped the war comics and westerns, and wound up selecting the superhero titles with cool looking women in them. And as my collection slowly grew, I assembled a cast of these amazing females.

Other boys always thought that the women in the comic books were stupid, because they were portrayed as weak. And, of course, because you werent supposed to like girls. So there was no thought of buying a Supergirl comic, or one of that other lady named Wonder Woman who all of the other guys seemed to really hate. It didnt much matter anyway, because I never saw her comic books for sale on the racks. Male heroes like Captain America, Cyclops and Green Lantern were the powerhouse stars of superhero teams like the Avengers, the X-Men, or the Justice League. But these groups always had a token female member like the Scarlet Witch, Marvel Girl, or Black Canary to capture my interest.

Male superheroes always seemed consumed by meting out justice through violent means. The female superheroes struck me as being more interested in making the world a better place, and not just beating their foes into submission. I suppose I was drawn to their compassionate natures, just as I had been captivated by the Virgin Mary a few years earlier. To me, the superheroines were as beautiful and alluring as movie stars or the models I saw in my sisters Vogue magazines, but with a bonusthese women were powerful like men. I just didnt understand why they were never allowed to be

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