Saturday, October 31, 2020

Scott's Take: Brave and Bold! Female DC Super Heroes Take On The Universe by Sam Maggs


Brave and Bold! Female DC Super Heroes Take On The Universe by Sam Maggs and numerous artists who are credited in the back pages. This book highlights the various DC female superheroes based on four categorizations: compassionate, bold, curious, and persistent. The book highlights female superheroes of various backgrounds that exhibit those traits. The foreword for the book is written Gail Simone who is famous for her stories in the Batgirl franchise and for being one of the most prominent female comic book writers at DC Comics.

 

The author includes commonly known heroes such as Batgirl, Supergirl, Wonder Woman among others as well as other heroes like Fire, Ice, Bumble Bee, Spoiler, Lady Blackhawk and more. Of course, even in a book this detailed, there are several female heroes left out. Those not included are mostly female superheroes who operate in countries outside of the USA, appear in the Legion in the DC future, as well as Platinum of the Metal Men. Also, Dreamer, Alex Danvers, and Sara Lance of the television shows in the CW DC Universe are not included and they are not part of the DC comic book universe.

 


The table of contents is split in the aforementioned categories with each female superhero appearing in only one category regardless of how strong she is in the other categories. The author did not choose to have the order appearance in each category mean anything in terms of how strong the female character is in the category nor did the author make the appearance alphabetical. Each character is given a short bio along with an iconic quote. The small box labeled “Data File” consists of a few cool facts about the hero who is also depicted in artwork.  With over 40 female superheroes discussed in the book there should be at least one hero that appeals to the young reader.

 


This is a fun book for kids that showcases the large amount of female heroes that exist in the DC universe. I would recommend this book for middle schoolers or mature elementary readers because the origins of some characters might be uncomfortable to explain to a child. For example, Mera was raised as assassin and was sent by her father to kill Aquaman. Instead, she fell in love with him and became his wife. Then there is Katana whose family was murdered by a gang. She seeks vengeance for that crime with a sword that consumes people’s souls. Inside said sword is her deceased husband who she talks to while he is stuck in a limbo between life and death. Both of these situations and several others could be awkward trying to explain that to a child. However, in other cases, they have done a good job simplifying the origins of several heroes to make the characters less complicated and lessen the traumatic origins several of the characters have.

 


With the aforementioned concerns, this is a good book for young readers who would like to learn more about the various female superheroes. At the end of the book there is a small glossary of terms and an artists acknowledgement page which includes over thirty artists. As these artists have other published projects, this page also serves as a great resource to look for artists whose work inspires the reader. Brave and Bold! Female DC Super Heroes Take On The Universe should be a fun read for many young girls who are looking for more female superheroes in their stories.

 

 

Brave and Bold! Female DC Super Heroes Take On The Universe

Sam Maggs

https://www.sammaggs.com/

DK Books

https://www.dk.com/us/book/9781465486110-dc-brave-and-bold/

December 2019

ISBN# 978-1-4654-8611-0

Hardback (eBook format available)

130 Pages 

 

My reading copy came from the Central or Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library System. 

 

Scott A. Tipple ©2020

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