Your next Faustian contract?

So now that MLP is ending how about them DC Super Hero Girls. I had no idea this was even a thing outside of some vague awareness of terrible online animation, but Cellspex in her latest video pointed out this is a thing. Binged it pretty hard over the weekend and it's good!

Not perfect though.

You can watch all the shorts which I think I liked more on a constant livestream on youtube and the actual episodes are also findable. There is also pretty much zero discussion I could find out there so thought I'd say a few things about it here.

Love DC stuff that a thousand bad films or lacklustre live action seasons could never extinguish so that plus Faust, M.A. Larson, and Tara Strong was something I was ready to hook right into my veins. As Cellspex pointed out the characters are reeeeally familiar to the pony meaning that if you're into MLP this is very easy to get into.

Generally all the girls are great. The unholy fusion of Pinkie Twi that is Batgirl is a lot much but I found her fine outside of maybe a few moments. Green Lantern girl is a really on the nose environmental vegan evangelist who wouldn't have been out of place in the 90's Captain Planet. The show plays her both as a someone in the right and heroic for taking a stand but then will also have her as a joke to point and laugh at which is a bit dodge. Supergirl though is just exceptional being a genuinely fresh take on the character and nicely flawed but not to the point of being obnoxious. Wonder Woman, Zatanna (needs fishnets dangit also young John Constantine cause amusement), and Bumblebee are all totally solid.

Villains are mostly spot on. Lex Luthor is incredible in his one short appearance immediately selling himself as competent, confident, and smart enough to know when not to be villainous while also clearly paying attention when he might want to be later. Catwoman is if anything even more competent being able to go up against a super powered alien and believably come out on top with a wicked mix of smarts and agility. Giganta is an idiot bully, but well that's true to the character and they can't all be standouts.

Harley is also kind of there though her alter ego being best friends with Babs is a really nice touch. I do like that they're appear to be setting that up with the other heroines and villains too which is a nice dynamic and does something fun with the secret identities. Harley's short with her fighting with Poison Ivy over a remote is just wonderful with an amazing elbow drop. I also dig her getting her modern look in her secret identity while uses her classic TAS look when she goes villain.

I do have one concern. Okay two as the intro song is painfully bad, but leaving that alone for a more serious one is it's got a bad case of girl's show 'boys are dumb and smell'-itus.

It was one of the things that made MLP so refreshing that Spike only occasionally came off as the butt of the jokes and genuinely he seemed a decent little guy. There was also supporting characters like Big Macintosh and Fancy Pants who never threatened to take over the show and were there being good ponies. Yes, there was Snips and Snails who were pretty bad. Thankfully they were barely in it outside of being used for the odd gag and Boast Busters which has way more problems before you even got to those two. Hell, Snails would end up being the legit best thing in a later episode which I'm still amazed about.

Here alas pretty much every male superhero is Snips and/or Snails. Risk of this turning into a 'what about the mens' still let's see if I can dance around that particular minefield. I don't want this show to be about male superheroes. Been very well served on that front and I'm entirely happy for this show to give some love to some often neglected heroines.

Don't get me wrong Steve Trevor as a slow but sweet pretty boy is fine. Hell, was pretty damn funny, used well and not exactly inaccurate. I can also deal with Hal Jordan: terrible narcissist as I can see the character from the comics if I squint. He's also got perhaps my single favourite laugh out loud line in the entire show so far so very much a point in his favour. Aqualad being pathetic is an oooold dead horse but he's barely in it outside of one short.

Robin though? Making him a cruel bully along with being a joke is just no. So very very no. Not even Jason Todd at his worst would act like this.

If you have to pull others down to make your heroes look better then it feels very artificial if not an outright cheat. If you're up against rubbish obstacles it doesn't make your heroes look good as if they win it's too easy and if they struggle then what does say about them? Just look at early Voyager with the Kazon to see how badly that can work out.

It also makes Batgirl look worse as that means the Batman she idolises is a Bat who not just tolerates but chose such a shitty partner which makes her dreams seem silly if not outright stupid. I'm sure that's not the intent but I wish they'd thought about this a bit more rather than going for the easy boy=bad antagonist route. I also worry that it's not the best message to send to young girls that boys are shitty shits only to be tolerated at best rather the benefits of everyone lifting each other up to make everyone's life better.

Wouldn't it work so much better to make Robin awesome and so Batgirl has to really push herself to be even better than that and earn her place on Team Bat? Feels a bit like the CW Supergirl, which while I often like, it bringing in Superman to have him go on and on about how much weaker he is than her felt badly off as a whipping boy to make her look better even If I really did for the most part otherwise like his portrayal on that show.

Ignoring that little bugbear the writing is mostly decent. The animation is endlessly joyous, and it's even on occasion got some not at all bad superhero action. Mainly though it really is often very funny and if you want to give this a chance that's very much the selling point here.

So yeah I reckon that it's worth giving a go if you are in the market for a new little girls show.

Edit: As an additional thought though I can't see it having anything like the same kind of fanfic potential as MLP regardless of how similar the characters might be.

There's just none of the worldbuilding that made the pone so amazing to explore and build upon. It's also dang funny already making it hard to do better on that front by going comedic and/or wacky. Of course there's always shipping. Even there though I can't see much in the way of potential, and I used to be a full time shipping goggles wearer to the extreme.

Comments

[Psykosis]

Seconded. Not perfect, but overall pretty fun

[ForSpite]

Robin though? Making him a cruel bully along with being a joke is just no. So very very no. Not even Jason Todd at his worst would act like this.

Yeah, that particular bit of character assassination bugged me when I heard about it and has made me hesitant to try the series further (I've seen a short or two).

I might go deeper, since you seem to be saying the rest is okay, but that's bullshit.