One of the best things about Wonder Woman featuring in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice – as well as finally the character finally making it to the big screen and having her own movie on the way – is the influx of Wonder Woman merchandise on the shelves.
The latest example arrived on our doorstep the other day. Superhero Duplo is relatively new to the brand, the LEGO line designed specifically for young children – typically 1½ to 5 years.
For some reason this set is called Batman Adventure, despite the fact that as well as the aforementioned Wonder Woman, and the caped crusader, it also features Superman – the third part of the Justice League trinity brought together in Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.
What instantly drew me to this set was the inclusion of Wonder Woman, and she is probably the best served character of the set. While Batman has a basic Batboat, and Superman no vehicle at all, Wonder Woman comes with a pretty cool bike. The dudes have individual cloth capes though.
The scenario of the set is a wonderfully whimsical one – a cat’s in distress on the Gotham City river, and our trio of heroes have to save it from its makeshift raft around a working bascule bridge.
While my daughter at age 4 is getting towards the tail end of Duplo’s suggested age, she loves the study large sized bricks. Having access to these characters in Duplo form is another great way for her to indulge in imaginative play with these heroes. While I have always encouraged her to engage with Wonder Woman, my daughter is also a big fan of Batman and Superman too.
The character design is in keeping with the existing Duplo style, and thankfully at odds with the seriousness displayed in Batman V Superman. In this set, the trinity of heroes that form the Justice League really look like Super Friends.
Why so serious? The happy Duplo Super Friends are at odds with the deathly earnest look of the movie Justice League trio.
The beauty of Duplo set is that my daughter can follow the simple printed instructions herself without my help, an important aspect of development. There is of course the free play and imaginative aspects that follow.
This is a fun set, and perfect for young superhero fans or any little kids you want to introduce these iconic characters to.
However, Latino Review reports that this may not be the case – that she may in fact be playing Barbara Gordon, aka Batgirl. The character was previously seen onscreen in the critically mauled Batman and Robin, played by Alicia Silverstone.
What do you think? Would she make a good onscreen Batgirl?
DC Super Hero Girls, A New Super Hero Universe Designed Just For Girls
Superheroes are for boys. That’s a fact. What’s also true, but less accepted, is that superheroes are for girls too. So it’s great that DC and Warner are acknowledging this with their new project ‘DC Super Hero Girls’.
As the geek dad of a little girl, trying desperately to introduce her to alternatives to Disney Princesses and the like, I know how difficult it is to find appropriate content and merchandise featuring female superheroes, so when I first read about this I was excited. It features teenage versions (hence justifying the ‘girls’ tag) of Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Batgirl (who were in my Top Five Awesome Alternatives to Disney Princesses). The likes of Harley Quinn, Bumble Bee, Poison Ivy, and Katana will also be involved. The target audience is girls age 6-12.
Finally, we have a big media corporation acknowledging what we keep banging on about – that there is an untapped market of girls who love superheroes. Glancing at the artwork, I thought how refreshing to see a group of female characters for girls in dynamic action poses, rather than the passive imagery that usually adorns apparel and accessories in the ‘pink’ aisle.
But taking a closer look at the artwork, I started to have some doubts. I realised that they all look like generic Disney Princess clones, which potentially alludes to the marketing intentions of those involved – going after Disney’s share of the girls merchandise market. If they do this by offering superhero culture as a real alternative to princess culture, that would be great. But if they take these superheroes too far in the direction of Disney’s heroines, it will be little more than a cynical market grab than trying to create a different offering. There are also issues of body image – while superheroes have always been visually hyper-realistic there’s a big difference between males having big abs and girls having waists smaller than their heads.
Then there’s the idea that this is being “designed just for girls”. It’s important to Include boys in anything involving female superheroes, so they understand from an early age that this genre is for girls too. I still read of boys telling girls that they can’t be into superheroes/Star Wars, only boys can. Subdividing the genre to create a girls only space clearly doesn’t promote inclusion.
The involvement of Barbie manufacturer Mattel is another worrying sign. While it’s worth noting they’ve said they’re making “action figures”, not dolls, this is the company that has presented a narrow view of femininity with Barbie for decades. If you want to see the kind of female superhero THEY think little girls want to play with, look no further than their recent Barbie superhero Super Sparkle, a pink and glittery princess who gets super powers from being kissed by a magical butterfly.
You can bet Mattel have noticed that Wonder Woman, as well as being a superhero, is also a princess.
There’s also the mention of LEGO, and “their experience and success engaging girls”. This can only be alluding to their LEGO Friends brand, the popular but divisive line of LEGO for girls, a pink and pastel gender ghetto that exists away from the rest of LEGO’s creative construction toys. A dedicated girls LEGO implicitly defines the rest of to as for boys. I worry the same thing could happen here. And that they’ll make a superhero spa playset.
And finally, they’re not even superheroes! They’re called ‘Super Hero Girls’ not ‘Superhero Girls’. The cynic in me suspects the thinking is that superheroes are for boys, but these ‘super heroes’ are for girls.
Am I being overly pessimistic? Probably. I would love this to be awesome. In a time when female superhero characters such as Black Widow, Gamora, and Big Hero 6’s Go-Go and Honey Lemon are routinely removed from merchandise, a new female superhero range is great. There’s no way they can ignore the female characters when they’re ALL female! So we should get a viable alternative to the pink & pastel shimmer & sparkle female characters of the moment. I hope that the cartoons, books, and comics provides wonderful character led tales of action, adventure, and inspiration with a diverse range of female superheroes (and villains). The lead writer of the project is a woman, Shea Fontana, so we’re not simply getting a male idea of what they think little girls like.
But ultimately, the reason I want my daughter to be exposed to female superheroes is to offer her an alternative to the current mass market merchandise targeted to girls. If DC Super Hero Girls is simply a cynical way to combine aspects of Disney Princesses and Barbie in order to get a piece of the existing ‘girl’ market, then it’s no real alternative at all.
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I’d love to know what you think about this ‘DC Super Hero Girls’ line.
