For weeks now, we’ve been watching the webtoons of DC Super Hero Girls and have been asking “When the heck is Supergirl going to show up? And when is Barbara Gordon going to put on the suit and become Batgirl?!?” Well, it looks like our requests will finally be answered. Warner Brothers Animation and DC have produced an hour long TV special which will is set to premiere on Boomerang on March 19 at 10 AM (I’m assuming that it will be 10 AM since the 19th is on a Saturday). Here’s the trailer. Have a look:
THE HIGHLIGHTS (aside from the obvious two):
- Wildcat makes his debut in this series (voiced by John DiMaggio), making him among the few “normals” working at Super Hero High.
- This will be Gorilla Grodd’s first speaking appearance in DC Super Hero Girls (also voiced by John DiMaggio). Also, this will only be the 2nd time that we’ve seen him since “Welcome to Super Hero High”.
- The special’s plot involves Granny Goodness and the Furies (Hearing Granny being voiced by an actual woman will take some getting used to. I guess that I’ve just been spoiled by Ed Asner doing the voice).
- I’m pretty sure that the girl in the red outfit is Lady Shiva (I’m embarrassed to say that I thought that was Wonder Woman wearing a different outfit the first time I saw the trailer), although I have to wonder if having both Katana and Lady Shiva on the same show isn’t just a tad redundant. I know that the characters aren’t exactly the same, but they’re sort of similar.
- There were more characters besides the main 6 girls in the cast shot just before the usual title card; on the left, Frost, Cheetah, Hawkgirl and Starfire. On the right, Miss Martian, Star Sapphire, Catwoman and Lady Shiva. I don’t know if this is a permanent change or just something for the special.
OUR THOUGHTS:
- One viewer on YouTube commented “Finally, some action in this!” Is it wrong that I wasn’t missing the action? Sure, this is an hour long special, so it’s no surprise that the story is going to more plot driven than the average webisode, which is usually about 3 minutes long on average, but I actually preferred the simple plots and the lack of villains and good vs evil hero/villain battles. I’m hoping that WB/DC will reserve the action driven plots for the half hour specials and that the webisodes will remain self contained slice of life comedy focused stories.
- Side note: Could fans stop asking to see a teenage Bruce Wayne or a teenage Clark Kent on this show? Listen, I like Superman and Batman. They’re THE heaviest hitters in the DC universe, but I personally have no need or desire for either character to appear on DC Super Hero Girls, and the reason why I don’t need or want to see them here is because they’re so iconic. Those guys are such major players in the DC universe that if Clark or Bruce ever were to enter the picture, the show would immediately become all about them and the other characters would instantly be reduced to sidekick status. That especially wouldn’t be fair to Wonder Woman, the intended main character of this franchise. It’s like how Luke Skywalker’s appearance was saved for the very end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens with the promise that he’d play a larger role in the next film; it’s impossible to have Luke in a Star Wars project and him not be the main character. Supes and Bats are the same way, and having Batman and/or Superman (two guys) stealing the spotlight wouldn’t the smartest strategy for this particular project. What’s the last word of this series’ name? There ya go.
- From a design standpoint, I have to say that Martha Kent looks pretty good for an older lady.
I’ll definitely be checking this one out. I personally have no desire to see “villain of the week invading bad guy battles” on DC Super Hero Girls, but I’m going to watch anyway because we’ll finally be seeing freakin’ Supergirl and Batgirl on the show! Sign me up!
Twin Images 
I’m definitely in, though I too had no problem with the simpler, big bad villain-whomping-free shorts and hope those will continue. I’ve been waiting for Kara to show up and Babs to finally don the cape and cowl of Batgirl for a while now.
If Starfire and Miss Martian have been added to the final cast shot, hopefully this means we’ll eventually get to hear M’gann actually speak in an episode and we’ll see Kory actually use her powers in an upcoming short.
One thing, though: if you want to have an intelligent, open discussion about DCSHG, by all means stay as far away from the YouTube comments section as possible. Just yesterday, upon viewing this trailer, some poster lamented that he hoped Wonder Woman hasn’t been displaced as the lead character since this special focuses largely on Supergirl, so I made a pithy wiseguy type quip about that in all likelihood wasn’t the case. Bad idea to speak abstractly in a roundabout way on YouTube; sure enough, within minutes this kid proceeded to lose his shit and attempt to give me grief over what he THINKS I said, accusing me of “insulting DC” (which I didn’t) and “pushing my agenda” on him (which I also wasn’t doing, as believe it or not, I have no agenda regarding children’s animated web shows), then when I try to calmly explain my original point, he informs that because my response was 27 lines long (which surprised me, as I didn’t realize Buford could count) that he “wasn’t going to read my essay”.
TRANSLATION: “Reading and learning are lame! I’m not going to try to reach an understanding with a fellow human being, I’d much rather plant my fingers in my ears, ram my foot in my mouth and chant my ignorant, ill-informed dogma unchallenged! I’m not going to hear the other guy out, I’ve got more important things to do, like finding out how Elmo gets out of Grouchland!”
The following sums up my assessment of the situation perfectly:
-And the moral of this story is: never visit the YouTube comments section for any reason, ever. To quote Mr. Spock, “To expect sense from beings with such extreme points of view is not logical.”
LikeLike
Hey, Boomerang has an exclusive that’s not borrowed over from CN! It’s about time!
LikeLike
Seriously. Why even have two separate channels if they’re both going to be showing the exact same shows? And no, I’m not suggesting that the old-school CN shows should be removed. There’s plenty of room on a 24/7 channel to accommodate both old-school and original programming, just not the same new shows that are already airing on your sister channel. Sometimes I think that Boomerang should have just stayed a programming block on Cartoon Network. It would have been less hassle in the long run.
LikeLike
“Could fans stop asking to see a teenage Bruce Wayne or a teenage Clark Kent on this show?”
Agreed, least of all Bruce. I mean, come on, Batman already has his own web series, “Batman Unlimited”. We finally get a DC toon that spotlights other DC characters besides Batman, do we really want him to arrive on the scene and start chewing up scenery?
I’d also like to add to that: no more requests for the Joker to turn up on this show. That’s a great idea: add a psychotic murderer to a kids’ web series. There’s no way DC could work Joker into a kid-friendly franchise like DCSHG, not without watering the character down to the point where it would tick off DC fans. A YouTube poster suggested that he could be added as a bully scheming to cause chaos in the school, but I wouldn’t want to see that either; giving a male character that much screen time and attention would go against the point of this show: to spotlight DC’s female heroes. We don’t need all these guys hogging the limelight on a show called ‘DC Super Hero GIRLS’. Adding the Joker to DCSHG is just a bad idea, plain and simple. Though that’s just my opinion, which doesn’t carry the weight of sunlight.
LikeLike