DC Superhero Girls Premiere

As a fan of Lauren Faust's My Little Ponies:Friendship is Magic as well as her take on the Super Best Friends Forever, I have been awaiting the rebranding and re-imagination of the DC Superhero Girls eagerly. Through shorts and interviews, I got the sense this was MLP on steroids, a sort of Looney Tune romp through the DCU while still giving the overall empowering message that the earlier DCSHG was built on.

Last week, the premiere of the show, titled #SweetJustice hit the airwaves and I was delighted.These are sort of side-eyed versions of our superheroes and they do semi-neatly fall into a My Little Pony algorithm. Wonder Woman is Twilight Sparkle, the leader of the group. She holds the team together and wants to train them. Batgirl is the Pinkie Pie here, bringing oodles of energy and sometimes lacking a focus. Babs sometimes gets in her own way but she is utterly sweet. Zatanna is the Rarity here, a stage presence with style. She is reluctant to get into heroing but brings pinache. Bumblebee is the Fluttershy, timid to a fault with power that reflects her lack of confidence. Supergirl is clearly the Rainbow Dash, an act first, rough and tumble with a heart of gold, counterculture tomboy. Which, I guess, makes the vegan and pacifist Green Lantern the Applejack. (Okay that last one is a hard fit.)

Of course, this is an origin story so we hear how the girls meet and become a team. There is a fight between them, a classic comic trope. We get a good look at all their personalities. And we get a glimpse at a possible hero. And there is a ton of fun and laughs. There might even be a few references for old-timers like me hidden in there.

This being a Supergirl blog, I'll say I was delighted with her characterization. I often describe Supergirl as fierce in her pursuit of justice. This Kara is that times 10. And her desire to be outside the mainstream, probably because of the known difficulty with her relationship with Kal, puts this outside of the norm for the character. But her actions speak loud. I think I am going to love this Supergirl. And I think I will be laughing with her too.

On to the synopsis/review.

The setting for the show is Metropolis High. We hear immediately that Superman is the hero of the city but perhaps the place is too big for just him. The news report of a new 'Wonder Woman' shows Diana fighting a monster.

Then we get a commercial by the youngest mega-billionaire on the planet Lex Luthor, promoting his new VR goggles. Cue the foreshadowing! VR goggles today are the equivalent of a cough in movies from the 40's. They are never innocent and always mean doom.

What I liked about this is we see how teen Lex has a tween sister ... Lena, looking entirely bratty in her school uniform and scowl.

I am amazed at how mainstream Lena is!

Babs Gordon has moved to Metropolis in the middle of high school, just when she was getting into a groove back in Gotham. She'll need to find a new 'team' to bond with but worries how that will all work out.

As she enters, we see our other heroes and get a glimpse of their abilities. Zatanna teleports her backpack to her. Jessica talks to Hal about the Corps. Bumblebee dumps her backpack out, showing her gadgets. And Kara slams her foster parents car door so hard that it crumples.

The idea that Kara's guardians are new-age, 'be the best you can be', loing providers is fantastic material to be mined later. How can this heavy metal Kryptonian live with these overly empowering hippies!

The Danvers are in another non-comic medium as Supergirl's parents. These are amazing days!

Babs realizes she is among 'supers' and wants to meet them privately. So she arranges a food fight in the cafeteria.

With the food flying, the other students quickly point out our heroes as the perpetrators. They are all thrown into detention.

There they are joined by Diana who had been wandering the streets, 'cutting the first day'.


Regal and demanding, Diana talks to the group about winning The Contest and heading to man's world.

This being the first time heroes meet, another fight ensues. This time Supergirl and Wonder Woman square off. Initially Diana's training allow her to dodge the super-barrage but finally a right jab lands and Diana crashes through the wall. Diana fans don't worry. She bounces back and punches Supergirl's face repeatedly, pounding her through the floorboards. The room gets torn up and it GL has to use her ring to separate them. It is only with Zatanna's magic are they able to put the place back together.

Yes, Supergirl is quick with a punch. But I get the idea that this is her deal and something for her to deal with over the series.

Babs is thrilled that she has found a new set of heroes to fight with and reveals she is Batgirl.

After a quick pep talk from Diana about how she will train them to be an elite force (all to the absolute starry eyed pleasure of Babs), the group reluctantly agrees to join.

Each have a reason to not want to however and this is worth following.
Kara always gets in trouble.
Zatanna wants to be a performer.
Jessica is a pacifist.
Bumblebee lacks confidence.

It will take ... well ... magical friendship to keep them together.

So why not start out with a makeover for Diana. She can't walk around in her gear all the time.

Heading to the store, each girl tries to force her style on Wonder Woman. Kara brings leather. Bumblebee brings something unassuming, etc.

Finally, Zatanna uses her magic to bring the perfect outfit, nerdy and preppy and chic.

I do wish we got subtitles for Zatanna's spells. Despite multiple listenings, I can't decipher any of them.

We then get to the mandatory training sequence.
On the school roof, each reveals what they can do. Initially Kara again says she doesn't want to be a hero but Diana gives her motivation, throwing Babs over the side.

We get a classic shirt rip.
We get a classic 'you've got me, whose got you' pose.

I'll take it!

Then more training, this time in a junkyard where Diana sets up mannequins to represent innocent bystanders.

The girls all have skills but they aren't polished.

For example, Kara is able to bash the falling tower of junked cars. But she doesn't block the pieces so many mannequins are squashed and crushed.

It is clear the team will need to train and work together.

But we also get to see them grown as friends outside of training.

At the amusement park, we see 'stranger in a strange land' Diana get wrapped up in the cheese from her pizza. We see the group riding a carousel. And we get the near mandatory photo booth scene.

After a good session, they even introduce Diana to the wonders of ice cream. A mere touch to the tongue transports her to a magical place (Equestria?) and makes her a ravenous sweet tooth.

This whole 'fish out of water' Diana will bring a lot of humor to the show. She misunderstands idioms and is new to all this. In fact, Babs keeps rattling off the rules of being a teenage girl to her.

And great to see Barry Allen as the whiz kid soda jerk.

The ice cream parlor is demolished by tiny city worker robots who claim the place has been scheduled for demolition. Despite trying to save the place, the girls aren't quite ready to fight an army. The whole place crumbles and the girls end up arguing among themselves. Even when Babs shows that the robots are from Lexcorp, suggesting a Luthor plot, it can't bring them back together.

They all go their separate ways, regretting forming the team in the first place.

While Babs and Diana try to figure out next steps, Hippolyta shows up. Babs has the best line of the show saying Hippolyta looks like a 'final boss' from a video game. Awesome.

While it turns out that Diana did win the contest, she entered without telling her mother she was (that is classic comic history!). She drags Diana away to be brought back to Themyscira.

It looks like our team is dissolved even before it began.

At her home, Babs gets a call from one of her old squad in Gotham, Harley Quinn.

But Harley has to cut the conversation off when she hears sirens. Hmmm, looks like this Harley is a villain.

And I like this as a possible point for the future. Perhaps had she stayed in Gotham, Babs would have fallen in with the 'wrong crowd'?

The conversation spurs Babs into action. Everyone else might not want to be a hero but Diana did. She begs the other girls to join her to rescue Diana from her mother.

Hippolyta won't let her daughter go easily so another fight ensues. This was my favorite Supergirl moment in the show. Being dragged around by her ear like a toddler, Supergirl suddenly remembers she can do something about it and gives the warrior a left cross sending her off into the ocean. Laugh out loud funny.

Finally Diana stands up to her mother and says she is staying. She needs to bring their message to man's world.

Heading back to the mainland, the girls see that the Luthor robots have been ripping apart the fun parts of the town like movie theaters and ice cream shops. The amusement park is next.

The drones are lead into battle by a giant robot piloted by Lena!

She gives a great if odd tween villain monologue. She hates teenagers and their 'cool' attitude. So she used Lex's VR goggles to brainwash the teens into inactivity with memes. Then she destroyed all the cool hangout joints. Soon the teens will retreat to a VR world leaving the city to be run by the kids.

I love Kara's deadpan line about that being the dumbest plan ever.

I also love Lena's cotton candy view of a world run by kids with old school games like jump rope and hoops being pushed along by sticks. What is this, the 1930s?

It galvanizes the group who give us a great team shot, poised for action!

All right, they defeat the robot in a weird way, plugging in an amplifier known to short things out into Lena's power core. Babs has to jigger the amp to short circuit. Bumblebee has to get the wire inside. Diana, Zatanna, and Green Lantern have to run interference.

That leaves Kara to deliver the power chord!

Boom.

Perhaps even better than Lena's tantrum over losing is seeing Mama Luthor come and scold her!

Hmmm, I guess it would be a little dark to have Lex have killed off his parents.

That said, when Lex sees the Super Hero Girls getting all the applause and adulation, he furrows his brow.

Perhaps, like in the comic, he needs to be the top dog and won't like this group at all.

Hmmm ....

The show ends on a great note.
Babs has converted the basement of the ice cream shop (the place is called Sweet Justice) into a headquarters where each hero has her own little corner.

And there first victory headline is on the wall.

How fantastic is that!

I loved it.

The voice actors all do a great job here.

I did mention the adult jokes stuck in for the parents. The LexBots have dialogued lifted straight out of ED-209 in Robocop. The amp that Babs reconfigures goes to 11, like the infamous one in Spinal Tap.

Add to that the  DC lore like the Danvers, Hal, Barry, Hippolyta, Zatara, etc and you have a fun romp.

I almost feel like this is going to be the love child between Teen Titans Go! and the old DCSHG. Sure the message of being yourself, being confident, and caring for each other will be there. But there will be more action and more humor.

Bring it on!

What did you guys think?

Posted in: Reviews