Review: DC Super Hero Girls “#DCSuperHeroBoys”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The team tries to track down a tagging crew that has been defacing the city, and their trail leads them to Sinister Slum. In a warehouse, they target a few powerful, shadowy figures who appear to be villains, but they soon discover that it is the Super Boys (aka “InvincaBros.”) All secret identities are revealed: Green Lantern is Hal Jordan, Green Arrow is Oliver Queen, Hawkman is Carter Hall, The Flash is Barry Allen, and Aqualad is Garth Bernstein, and vice-versa for the girls. They decide to race to see who will be the first to subdue the taggers but discover that the tags are actually markings used eject their power and open a large portal above the city. Zod, Ursa, and Non descend out of it — the ones who Supergirl recognizes are the villains her mom banished years ago.

Zod has come to f**k over the planet. He demands the “heir to the house of El” or else Earth will suffer. Supergirl goes to turn herself over, but Zod was actually just talking about Superman and has no interest in her. Supergirl is offended and puts off calling Superman in order to prove she’s just as good as he is. The InvincaBros leap into action, but are quickly subdued, as are the girls. Supergirl finally decides to call Superman, but he thinks it’s a prank because she’s fibbed about this before. The teams realize they need to work together to defeat Zod, Ursa, and Non. While the rest of the superheroes are fighting, Hawkman and Bumblebee go to fetch some kryptonite to weaken them. They do, and it works — Ursa and Non are sent back into the portal, but Zod is too powerful since he is a “force of nature.” This gives Aqualad a chance to shine, and he controls a hydrant’s water to knock him back into the portal, where both Green Lanterns close it. The day is saved!

Our Take

It’s important for people of all genders to have role models. Whether it’s a boy who wants to be as smart as Dipper Pines, or a girl who wants to be as funny as Mabel Pines. There’s no question that, despite the modern age’s strides towards gender equality, there are still a ton of toxic, archaic patterns that are ingrained into how we separate boys and girls. In girls’ cases specifically, it’s imperative to showcase empowering female characters that can serve as inspiration for young girls to overcome the systemic, economic, and societal gender divide. The cast of DC Super Hero Girls are great, funny, and dynamic female role models, and anyone can tell that Lauren Faust is the genius behind all of them.

However, shows that attempt to create strong female characters seem to always overlook the biggest factor in how young girls will perceive themselves: and that is how the world around these characters interacts with them. AKA — how male characters interact with female characters.

From personal experience as someone who was once a little girl, this episode could have been improved if the gender divide was never there, to begin with. While it was nice to see the “InvincaBros” accept the Super Girls as their equals by the end of the episode, it could have been more effective if there was no conflict between them at all. Basically: don’t give little girls a reason to think that they’re different, to begin with. Don’t give them a reason to feel like they have to “prove” that they’re “just as good” as a boy. No one has to prove anything at that age: we all just have to be nice to each other. If we go in making them feel 100% super, then they will be super as they grow. As a wise feminist once said: “anytime someone calls attention to the breaking of gender roles, it ultimately undermines the concept of gender equality by implying that this is an exception and not the status quo.” (Knuckles the Echidna said this.)

Other than that, it was a really colorful and cute episode. Voice acting was on-point, and so were all the animation sequences. Hopefully, there are more interactions between the supers in the future — as friends and allies.