The Great Women Superheroes

by Trina Robbins

Presents a history of comic strip heroines from the 1940s to the present

Genres: Comics, Nonfiction, History, Feminism, Superheroes, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics

207 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1996

About the author

Trina Robbins is an American comics artist and writer. She was an early and influential participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the few female artists in underground comix when she started. Her first comics were printed in the East Village Other. She later joined the staff of a feminist underground newspaper It Ain't Me, Babe, with whom she produced the first all-woman comic book titled It Ain't Me Babe. She became increasingly involved in creating outlets for and promoting female comics artists, through projects such as the comics anthology Wimmen's Comix. She was also the penciller on Wonder Woman for a time in the '80s.

Trina has worked on an adaptation of Sax Rohmer's Dope for Eclipse Comics and GoGirl with artist Anne Timmons for Image Comics.

Trina designed Vampirella's costume for Forrest Ackerman and Jim Warren.

In addition to her comics work, Robbins is an author of non-fiction books, including several with an emphasis on the history of women in cartooning.

She is the first of the three "Ladies of the Canyon" in Joni Mitchell's classic song from the album of the same name.

Trina Robbins won a Special Achievement Award from the San Diego Comic Con in 1989 for her work on Strip AIDS U.S.A., a benefit book that she co-edited with Bill Sienkiewicz and Robert Triptow.

Reviews

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Want to know about female superheroes? This book gives a run down of characters obscure and amazing. The best part of the book is the coverage of golden age characters from the 1940s. The years following 1960 were largely a disappointment according to Trina Robbins. New characters were often re-launches of old characters, with mixed success. It's important to note that the author includes only superheroes and not girl reporters or jungle girls.

Trina Robbins really loves Wonder Woman. A ton. I feel that her love blinds her to several realities but I acknowledge that her argument is stronger thanks to what she ignores. I don't care how often Billy Batson was comparably tied up in golden age comics, there are a lot of BDSM references in early Wonder Woman that cannot be explained away by the argument that it was common practice in comics at the time.

This book was published in 1996 and 15+ years of comic industry developments are not reflected in its pages. Unfortunately, several disturbing trends are just as prevalent now as when Trina Robbins observed them in the '90s. Balancing the disturbing is the explosion of independent comics and webcomics, as well as North American manga. An update to this book would be interesting.

On a side note, the scholar should fact check before quoting extensively from this book. Also, please be aware that the argument of who should be called the "first" female superhero is contentious.

An easy read with lots of pictures.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a fabulous jumping off point for anyone interested in female comic book characters. I was amazed at the number of superheroes Robbins was able to introduce and discuss in one book! In every chapter I found at least one character I had never heard of or whose comics I had never read, that I suddenly wanted to find out more about. The book roughly covers the 1940's-1990's and as the author states is not all inclusive. It would be interesting to know what Robbins would have to say about today's female superheroes and who she would choose to include if she were inclined to bring her book up to date.

[Robin Stcharles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think Trina did some great research. Some of these Women Superheroes are still active and some aren't. I still found it a great read. I started to do research on the Women's Superheroes that aren't around anymore.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know very little about the history of comics in general, so many of the superheroines mentioned here were new to me. I was really surprised to read that, in the 1940s, a number of studies showed that more girls were reading comics than boys. I was distinctly not surprised to learn that, as the number of comics featuring relatable heroines - rather than shrieking ninnies or those ridiculously over-sexualised pneumatic villains - decreased, so did female readership. I don't like reading that bullshit either. It is in fact hard to read anything when your eyes are rolling that hard. More eye rolls - none of which are directed at Robbins, who is messenger and not culprit - at the superhero teams of the 1960s, I think it was, who consistently only had one woman member and liked to present her shopping and fainting. What a shock that more girls weren't lining up to buy that!

I believe this book was first published in 1996, so the history covers about 50 years or so; I'd be interested in knowing what the overall trends have been in the three decades since. There are some fantastic modern comics written by women with compelling female protagonists out there. A lot of them, true, aren't superheroines, but then I tend to find superhero types some of the more boring protagonists anyway. This book wasn't boring, though. History rarely is.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um livro pioneiro no gênero feito por uma artista e pesquisadora também pioneira quando se trata de mulheres pesquisando quadrinhos. Trina faz uma pesquisa aprofundada na gênese das super-heroínas na Era de Ouro, reinvocando personagens basicamente desconhecidos para o público hodierno. Ela trata com profundidade também as heroínas da editora DC Comics, como a Mulher-Maravilha, a Supergirl e a anti-heroína Mulher-Gato, por outro lado, suas análises da Marvel Comics são mais concisas e au passant, deixando de vislumbrar algumas heroínas importantes como a Capitã Marvel Negra, Mônica Rambeau. E, embora a extensa pesquisa que abrange quase cinco capítulos da Era de Ouro, se comparada com as demais épocas acaba desprivilegiando-as. Temos que levar em consideração, também, que a última edição do livro é de 1996 e, portanto, careceria de revisões a várias atualizações, pois tanto o status-quo do público como das super-heroínas mudaram nesse hiato de mais de vinte anos. De qualquer forma, este livro enriqueceu minha visão sobre a representação feminina nos quadrinhos de super-heróis e foi uma leitura muito satisfatória e informativa.

[Steven Kuehn · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book and well written, but hit-and-miss in its overall coverage. Some superheroes receive more coverage than others, but it is unclear why some were singled out and others virtually ignored. Many of those mentioned hardly seem worthy of the honor. The author states in the introduction that this was not meant to be an encyclopedia, but rather a selection of "the best, the worst, the silliest, or the most interesting." While this is subjective, obviously, some of the most influential (IMO, I realize) such as Mary Marvel, Supergirl, etc. barely rate 1-2 pages of sparse coverage. And while I understand the necessity of limiting focus, I don't think her criteria for leaving out jungle queens, vampires, etc. was a good idea, as it ignored highly influential female heroes of the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages (e.g., Sheena and her many copies, Vampirella, etc.).

"Supergirls" by Mike Madrid has more detailed coverage and depth of this topic, and I feel is a much superior book. Neither book, however, fully covers the history and impact of female superheroes; that book, which will be necessity have to be a massive volume, has yet to be written.

[Gene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably more than you wanted to know, but probably should.

[Savada · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very entertaining.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of problems with this book, but before I talk about the problems I think it's very important to point out that while Trina often shoots and misses when she writes a book, she is very often shooting in an area where no other writers are aiming, and that makes her incredibly valuable. There are scores of women cartoonists who would be forgotten without Trina's historical records in such books as this one, and that makes Trina herself a treasure. Thanks, Trina.

Now, that said...she often needs to slow down in her research. Tomboy, for instance, was not a Marvel Comic's character, and there are numerous other similar mistakes throughout the book.

Also, Trina is a dedicated feminist, which is fantastic, except when she pushes the bar too far. This most often causes her problems when she upgrades women cartoonists simply because they are women, rather than for the quality of the work they produced. Worse, she often takes the erroneous stance that to push feminism is to denigrate masculinity, and often does so with a far too broad sweep of her pen. One classic example is when, in defense of critics saying that early issues of Wonder Woman have a lot of bondage, she writes it all off by saying male writers (as if they were the ONLY gender to point out the inherent bondage of early Wonder Woman comics)do not take into account that the Amazons are women, who show their emotions, and hug.

Then, she follows this with..."On the other hand, American men are notoriously afraid of being considered homosexual, and never touch each other except when playing sports."

Gee, Trina. Generalize much? And how's your "judge / jury / executioner" position working out for you? You at least seem to enjoy the job.

Secondly...you're blind. And it's not uncommon in your writings. I'm not sure WHY you decided to take a multi-page stand that early Wonder Woman comics DON'T have a lot of bondage, but the merest bit of open eye research will disprove that.

A quick flip through my Wonder Woman archives reveals two nice examples. In Woman Woman # 3, the Amazons celebrate "Diana Day" by dressing up like deer, and are then "hunted" by the other Amazons, who symbolically shoot down the "deer," tie them up, then hang them by their wrists, strip them of their deer costumes and place them (all very willingly) in giant pies, from where they must spring up on the dining table and do a dance to serve their hunters.

Gosh. No subtext there. In that SAME issue is a story of slave girls who, when freed of their chains, absolutely refuse to work or play until the chains are replaced. They LOVE being slaves. And how does Wonder Woman solve this dilemma? Is it by giving a stirring speech about freedom? Well, no. Instead, there is a panel of a wistful Wonder Woman, with birds singing in the background, and Wonder Woman is thinking, "If girls want to be slaves there's no harm in that. The bad thing for them is submitting to a master or to an evil mistress like Paula. A good mistress could do wonders for them!"

Honestly. There ISN'T any subtext there. Because it's OUTRIGHT STATED.

Ahhh...there's more, but why go on. This book is worth checking out because a lot of forgotten super-heroines get their moment in the sun, and Trina's writings, as I noted to begin with, are also always worth the price. They're a little raw in areas, but Trina is doing the industry a great service with her work.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comic books, like all other aspects of pop culture, reflect the attitudes and mores of society. Therefore, the changes in the female super heroes in the comic books over the years are what you would expect. In the physical sense they wear a lot less clothing, have (much) bigger breasts and their rears are more visible and attractive. Many of the early incarnations of the heroines were very stereotypically female, sometimes to the point of stupidity. Sue Storm, the only female member of the Fantastic Four, insists on shopping and regularly faints through effort. However, the worst case is one involving Batman, Robin and Batgirl. In the midst of a major brawl between the Batgroup and a gang of villains, Batgirl refuses to join the fight until she fixes a run in her tights. To a man (naturally) the criminals stop to ogle her leg, giving the dynamic duo an opportunity to knock them around. No wonder the level of female readership was so low.
Fortunately, everyone grew up in the liberation-tainted seventies and the female super heroes grew more powerful, less prone to act silly and gained in personality. Unfortunately, none ever seemed to catch on with the readership and the majority only had short runs.
This book, a combination of explanatory text with a large number of cartoons, takes you through approximately six decades of women heroes in the comics. You see all these changes, and quite frankly, despite my lifelong interest in comics, I had no idea that there had been so many females with super powers. I put this down to the short life as pen and ink so many of them had. Once again, I was reminded of the difficult time comic books had in the fifties. It was truly a paranoid decade where enemies of the American society were found everywhere, including on the pages of comic books. In looking through the excerpts from that era, it is really difficult to comprehend what could have been so dangerous.
Comic books do reflect the changes in society and that is no more evident than when you examine how female super heroes have been portrayed. Like their human counterparts, many of them went from ditzy sidekick to powerful, independent entities.

This review also appears on Amazon

[Chriso · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled upon a used copy of this book in the neighborhood where I worked and quickly devoured every addictive page of it. It's obviously over a decade old so there's been a lot of women superheroes introduced in the intervening years (and many existing ones endlessly revamped), but it's still a fascinating read. I especially enjoyed learning about a lot of the obscure heroines of the 40s and 50s and how often tropes like Society Gal By Day, Heroine By Night popped up. I was extra captivated by Tomboy, a young girl in a cape and a mask who was the scourge of the criminal underworld and kicked the crap out of mobsters on a regular basis with nothing more than her own physical capabilities.

Robbins definitely serves up Cultural Critique Lite and I often wished she'd delve deeper into a feminist reading or a feminist/queer/race reading of some of the characters. Still, there's some good crit going on and a lot of interesting information about the history of comic book super heroines. And, while some things never change as far as sexist portrayals in comics go, at least Susan Storm is now considered one of the most powerful heroes in the Marvel universe and isn't just cooking dinner for the guys when she isn't busy fainting from all of her Powerful Female Emotions.

[Ruth Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a FABULOUS BOOK!!!!! Thank you Trina! ;-D Onca Ray™ The Solar Princess of Compassion™ has been included in Trina Robbins' (famed Women in Comics Author / Historian), book entitled "THE GREAT WOMEN SUPERHEROES" in the 1990's chapter, as an online Superheroine! Available at book stores near you or at Kitchen Sink Press - KitchenSP@aol.com. This book is the sister book to her previous book entitled "The History Of Women in Comics". Visit and interact with Onca Ray™ The Solar Princess of Compassion, on FaceBook, see her music videos!, read her Comic Book Series, listen to her her music!!!, say hi! ... and much much more!!! Contact Onca Ray™: ruthstaylor@rogers.com or rtaylor@bell.net
... and remember! ... Yes, YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! ... Live for Tomorrow! ... Sow the Seeds of Compassion™ TODAY!!!! SHINE ON!!!

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good and thorough look at the female characters and creators of early comic books; read this for research and found myself amazed at how many characters I'd never heard of (whose adventures might have lasted 4 or less issues in the 1940's). Well worth reading.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

While informative, this book is very much a product of 1996, and Robbins' analysis of the superheroines belongs firmly in that era. Her scholarship occasionally feels questionable, but honestly that may be because I have read other, more current books on the same topic.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An impressive overview of the female superhero from the early days of comics in the 1930s to present. Very interesting read. Very recommended