Book and Movie Reports by Ed

Book Report: The Supergirls, by Mike Madrid This book traces the history of female super-powered characters from the 1930s to today. It's a remarkable fact that, although society has tended to deny power to women, women with amazing powers began to appear shortly after the introduction of Superman and Batman. Indeed, as the book points out, female superheroes have often been role models for girls and women, representing in many cases women having powers beyond men and women triumphing over men. One theme of the book is how this image of power has changed as the roles of women in society have changed. Madrid has done a remarkable job in reconstructing the early history of female superheroes, considering that most of the original stories have been out of print since the 1930s and 1940s. At first, these characters were simply adventuresses and female detectives, but it wasn't long before women with genuine superhuman powers began to appear and gain popularity. This isn't d