• The Supergirls

  • Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines
  • By: Mike Madrid
  • Narrated by: Colby Elliott
  • Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (157 ratings)

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The Supergirls  By  cover art

The Supergirls

By: Mike Madrid
Narrated by: Colby Elliott
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Publisher's summary

Comic book superheroines bend steel, travel across time and space, and wield the awesome forces of nature. These mighty females do everything that male superheroes do. But they have to work their wonders in skirts and high heels. The Supergirls, a cultural history of comic book heroines, asks whether their world of fantasy is that different from our own. Are the stories of Wonder Woman’s search for an identity, Batwoman and Power Girl’s battle for equality, and Manhunter’s juggling of a crime fighting career and motherhood also an alternative saga of modern American women?

©2009 Mike Madrid (P)2011 Last Word Audio

Critic reviews

The Supergirls is a long overdue tribute to the fabulous fighting females whose beauty and bravery brighten the pages of your favorite comics.” (Stan Lee)
“Even as it delivers its clear-eyed critique of the way mainstream superhero comics have alternately eroticized or deified female characters, The Supergirls gleefully celebrates the medium itself, in all its goofy, glorious excess.” (NPR)
The Supergirls, Mike Madrid's book about the evolution of female comic-book characters, is sharp and lively — and just obsessive enough about women who wear capes and boots to be cool but not creepy. The guy clearly loves this stuff. And he's enough of a historian to be able to trace the ways in which the portrayal of sirens and supergirls has echoed society's ever-changing feelings about women and sex. ” ( Entertainment Weekly)

What listeners say about The Supergirls

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Love For the Heroines!

If you could sum up The Supergirls in three words, what would they be?

Much Love Here.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I don't know about laugh or cry, but as one who has always admired the supergirls who often take a backseat to their male counterparts, I couldn't help but be impressed by this book. Mike Madrid has a passion for these heroines. This book is written with all the passion of a fanboy and all the class of someone who respects the audience as much as he respects the material. There's so much lost history here, this book is a must for anyone who claims to be a comic book fan.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Some Supergirls to Save the World

Respectful, informative, but often repeating information. Take that into consideration, but all-in-all a great read for a comic book fan.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

kinda unexpected

Would you listen to The Supergirls again? Why?

So much cool info. and references to writers or books that it gave me more reading material...I'm not into comics at all by the way

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Informational, But Predictably Feminist

First things first, the production quality of this AUDIO book is awful. Read in no less than three different locations, the audio quality jumps all over the place, shooting down the performance with all of the deftness of Wonder Woman shooting down a Mitsubishi Zero.
That aside, the wealth of knowledge in this book very impressive and well researched.
Before listening to this book, I predicted that there would be two overriding themes within it... and I was correct on both.
1. That the sexual qualities and sexuality of the female superheros on this book would be lauded as both Empowering and Liberating.
2. That the male readers would be shamed for noticing the sexual qualities and sexuality of the female superheros. If this book had been written in 2019 and not 2009, I suspect the author would recommend the male readers of comic books with sexy female characters turn themselves in to #MeToo for proper, global chastisement and ridicule.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A story I never considered

Good story of a side of comic history I had not considered before. When I started reading comics I mostly read male superheroes as most of the female characters just did not seem interesting. Only in the past few years I have started reading comics again and Madrid's book really shows the sexism that drives these stories.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great Overview of Female Super-Heroes

Any additional comments?

Although a bit heavy handed at times, this is a marvelous overview of the history of female super-heroes. Particularly notable is how historically that writers tend to present them to their largely heterosexual male audiences as virginal “nice girls” or overly sexualized fantasy girls (and at times both simultaneously). I enjoyed the approach of the evolution of the various super-heroines over the decades. Well done!

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Learned so much

Eye-opening and frank recounts of female representation in comics and the type of struggles that they had by decade.. couldn't put it down

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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What a history

As a fan of comics I found this book fascinating in its detailed history of my favorite heroines. The mention of my personal favorite, Supergirl, drew me to the title but it is the writers wit and research that kept my interest. I would love to hear his opinions of the rise of Marvel, Wonder Woman and the TV versions of our favorite heroines.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

For fans of super heroines

This is a history of super girls and women in comics & their nemesis bad writing. All comics writers should read this & grow wise. Readers will learn of good bits worth researching further.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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[...]Anonymous was a Woman -Virginia Wolfe

This was such a great read. I really appreciate the dedication of the author to showing the history of women in comics in an enlightening and amusing way. If ever someone asks me about female superheroes and their legacy, this is the book I'll recommend.

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