DC Super Hero Girls - General Discussion

[MarkHB]

This is the original thread from the Supergirl forum; please use it as an all-episodes talk forum for the shorts (the longer movies like "Welcome to Super-Hero High" and "Hero of the Year" can have their own threads).

 

DC launched their new Super Hero Girls line of videos, merch, etc. yesterday.  It looks like a lot of fun for the kids, at least imho.  And no "Age of Me" in sight!

 

Official Website with character bios, etc.

 

USA Today story

 

Quote

“It’s fun for all of us to be involved in something that’s going to play into the girl-power aspect of what kids and parents are looking for,” says Diane Nelson, president of DC Entertainment and president/chief content officer of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

 

“I don’t think anyone can argue against the fact that we have the best female superheroes and characters in all of comics,” says Geoff Johns, DC’s chief creative officer and writer of Justice League. Super Hero Girls “is one of the most important things that we’ll be a part of so far since DC’s been formed. It’s a huge statement and opportunity.”

 

Brief intro: Welcome to Super Hero High!

 

[BkWurm1]

Honestly, I don't think this was what people were clamoring for when they asked for more representation - a weird cutesy younger version of women removed from their origin stories and likely subjected to high school politics aka girl drama .  Let's not even get started on the later trauma inflicted when little  Ava grows up and finds out her favorite female hero is actually a psychotic minion slash love slave of the most twisted and murderous villain of the DC universe. 

 

Sad thing is, when I was little I probably would have loved it.  But only because there just aren't many options!

Edited October 3, 2015 by BkWurm1

[tarotx]

I wonder why Canary isn't part of this? I'm going to press Geoff Johns on Twitter. Maybe I can get them to add a version of The Arrow Canary sisters ;)

Hawkgirl is there but She's listed as an other so she must be a small or limited character.

But we get the Villains listed as superheros? Sad.

[Trini]

Quoting myself from July, because my feelings are the same:

 

Yeah... I have such mixed feelings about this. I guess it's good that they are trying to reach out to/include girls (good on you, corporate conglomerate!), but on the other hand, this effort looks just like every other marketing campaign aimed at selling toys to girls.
 
I'd rather they change at the source, by making the comics more girl-friendly (or at least less girl-repellant) -- and they are with a few titles. I don't think they necessarily have to invent a new world to do what they want to do. I mean, setting them all in high school, really? Feels like a rip-off Monster High and Equestria Girls (which are probably rip-offs of other stuff).

 

Also, I'm pretty sure DC has got loads of merchandise aimed at 6-12 boys that they didn't water down.

[BkWurm1]

Girls watch comic book movies. Figure out how to market that please.

[Trini]

I finally watched that video - so, it's not just the girls, the whole DC universe is getting thrown into fantasy high school? Yeah, it's just dumb to me. But then again, I'm not the target audience. It's totally following after Equestria Girls and the like.

[BkWurm1]

The also did an incredibly cheesey Disney movie that had the children of all the heroes and villains sharing a school. At least with that the kids aren't destined to go bad.

[MarkHB]

Here's a recap of the Super Hero Girls panel at NYCC Thursday evening; I haven't seen any video of the panel online.

[MarkHB]

Still no video of the panel itself, but DC has released the videos from it on the official website...

 

Theme Song Lyric Video:

 

Episode 2: All About Super Hero High (aka "Meet the cast"):

 

I love the shade Cheetah throws when she first sees Wonder Woman, and the Easter egg (2, actually) in Diana's network password.

 

Episode 3: Roomies:

 

Really, the thing that would worry me the most about this place? Sending my kid to a school where the principal is Amanda Waller.

[Actionmage]

From MarkHB's link:

 

 

The girls of the DC Universe are taking center stage -- as teens -- in the publisher's "DC Super Hero Girls" panel at New York Comic Con.

 

First, this worries me, from a writing standpoint; teens are usually considered "girls" until they reach eighteen, where they are then supposed to be referred to as women. That characters with decades of history and presentation as women, primarily, are labelled "girls" and then "promoted" to teen status?  It pushes my buttons on how women are seen in society at large. "The girls of the DC Universe" are women being put in an AU to appeal to teens, because someone thought that the women aren't appealing enough as is and they get to throw in a few not-yet-villains to "spice" things up and bring in some of the "boys"/dads.

 

Missad was surprised to hear that girls didn’t want things that were pink or too fashion focused. They wanted authentic superheroes.

 

Because Missad, who is never identified by her job, only knows from the Girl =Pink and all girls love clothes tropes?  Glad they found out about the pink thing because a pink Wonder Woman/Batgirl/Cheetah/Hawkgirl/et. al. would be angry-making. ( Not as one-off outfits in the series or as alternate figures or tees; feel free to pink it all up if you want, just give us choices, please.) Also what does "authentic superheroes" mean? Are Harley, Ivy, Cheetah and Sapphire going to become heroes in this setting? Girls want to see heroes hero-ing, not debating which outfit to wear to school? ( And I love Jan Van Dyne, who changed outfits as often as Sneezy sneezed! But she wasn't the norm  and it was remarked on.)

Missad said one of her favorite things about the series was that it brought the whole family together. She cited dads using the show as a way to connect with their daughters using characters and a world that they love.

 

Because moms never read comic books about the cape and cowl bunch? Oh, moms and daughters are monolithic and are always  sympatico. I forgot.. I do like that dads are bonding over this, but this show isn't " a world that they [dads] love", just on off-shoot, which is fine.

 

 

Going more in depth about the relationships of the characters, Shea Fontana said that at this point in their lives, the characters aren't yet fully heroes or villains, so while they have rivalries and friendships, their relationships will develop over time.

 

 

This is why I will consider this an AU. Not that I have to have rigidly drawn lines about who's good and bad and no take-backs, but if unrepentant villains are going to just be snarky and "edgy" ( compared to the not-already-snarky heroes), then  I can deal, but it has no real connection to the DCU, for me, outside of they are characters from DC.

 

 

Lisa Yee spoke about the process of writing the Super Hero Girls novels, saying she had the luxury of adapting portions of DC canon while going in a new direction.

 

 

This could be amazing or it could be eye-rolling. Or both. I'm going to have to try one.

 

With episodes about the same running time or less than Vixen, it's hard to say much about the series so far. It's not the most horrible show on the planet. The animation is nice. It just feels like it's trying too hard, from the theme to Diana giving in to Harley's pity party with no context.

 

Is this Diana's first day? Week? She's studying for a class or test and Harley would rather do anything else.  ( Yay, STEM!)  So Diana feels bad for wanting to understand her class/ pass an upcoming test and hangs out with Harley?  Yes, not every female has to excel at STEM subjects, but this is peer pressure. It's presented as Harley being irrepressible and "cute", even though Harley clearly has no sense of boundaries ( the "glitterbomb") or people.  Either this is going to be saccharine or Very Special Episode-y, going by the two episodes above.  I also question the use of Amanda Waller as a principal. I guess because she's female and a very strong character. I think someone thought it was cute or funny.

 

I will try a couple more episodes, but I am just not sure this is as thought out as TPTB think it is.

[Kromm]

It's like they took everything good about female superheroes and removed it and just left the garbage.

 

And this is coming from someone who LOVED Gotham Girls and Super Best Friends Forever.  Those two projects took the girl characters into light jokey waters, sure, but weren't SHOEHORNED into generic High School claptrap that makes them lame and tosses them into a blender which seems to be catering to a lot of nonsense cliches about girls.

The worst part? If this succeeds it will be applied as a proof of concept to dumb down future "girl" projects. If it fails it will be projected as "proof" that girl projects don't work (and what a shoddy attempt it was won't even be remembered).

[BkWurm1]

As cringeworthy as expected. Terrible theme song. Very cute "action figures" (dolls) though they look more like Barbie wannabes doing cosplay as their favorite characters than the actual heroes.

Sigh. I can't help compare it to Young Justice. And find this utterly lacking. These aren't teens in high school. These are grade schoolers playing with dolls and pretending they are in high school.

[quarks]

Because Missad, who is never identified by her job, only knows from the Girl =Pink and all girls love clothes tropes?  Glad they found out about the pink thing because a pink Wonder Woman/Batgirl/Cheetah/Hawkgirl/et. al. would be angry-making.

 

 

With small girls, at least, I don't think this is just a superhero thing - Elsa, who wears blue, seems to be the most popular Disney Princess right now, and Tinker Bell, who wears green, is the most popular Disney Fairy.  Though I think Elsa's also the only Disney Princess who can do magic, so that might be part of the appeal.

[MarkHB]

Tania Missad's job is apparently "Director Global Consumer Insights - Girls & Games" at Mattel. They probably kept it quiet because they thought if people knew a marketing person was on the panel, no one would attend :) .

 

So far as the DC SHG project itself goes, they've basically said it's aimed at little girls (ages 6-12, and probably skewed towards the younger end of that range); it's the Disney Princess market.  I see it as an attempt to attract kids to the characters before they're old enough for the comics that are being produced today; the most-common DCU comics are rated for ages 12+, and some of them go to 15+.  In current DCU New 52 canon (AFAIK) the Joker cut off his own face and wears it as a mask; I'm not showing that to my 8yo nephew.  I personally am convinced that DC's abandoning the Comics Code in roughly the same timeframe as the New 52 launch was in no way coincidental.

 

In that regard, I see DC SHG as being set up to serve the same function for girls that Teen Titans GO! does for boys, and they've taken it so far as to go online to make an end-run around Cartoon Network's mainly-boys focus so they can get it out there. (Keep in mind that Cartoon Network is under the Turner division of TimeWarner; there's no real intersection between them and DC or Warner Bros. until you get to the top of the corporate hierarchy in Manhattan. They're responsible for their own business, not DC's.)  They're still in early setup phase, too; the lyric video gives lots of shots of what I assume are upcoming episodes, and some of those looked pretty interesting.  Is it Young Justice or the DCAU? No, but it's not trying to be, either.

[Actionmage]

In current DCU New 52 canon (AFAIK) the Joker cut off his own face and wears it as a mask;

 

If I had pearls, I would clutch 'em over that^! Jinkies, indeed.

 

I want to like this, and it could still win me over.  It isn't a horrible product, it just needs a slight tweaking ( see peer pressure to abandon studying) or follow-up on what's been shown.  I enjoyed Lil Thunder and Lightning and this seems to want to go for the same general audience.

 

It does worry me that a "Director Global Consumer Insights - Girls & Games", be it at Mattel or Lego or anywhere, publically says that she was surprised about girls not wanting pink to be a/the primary color for the project. Yes, at Mattel Barbie rules and pays the bills, but to sound like you are unaware of the not-quite anti-pink sentiment makes  this woman seem more ivory tower academic/ out-of-touch corporate person than a person whose job is to be up on "global consumer insights". My opinion on his, mileage is going to vary.

 

As long as the guys are not just there to hit on/ be hit on, I'll feel relieved. Cute guy friends are nice to have. Crushes on friends that are boys, but not boyfriends- to paraphrase Dr. Sheldon Cooper- happens.  I did find it amusing that Star Sapphire was at a shooting range/ practice area with Hal Jordan. Maybe John Stewart can be there too? 

[BkWurm1]

So far as the DC SHG project itself goes, they've basically said it's aimed at little girls (ages 6-12, and probably skewed towards the younger end of that range); it's the Disney Princess market.

 

 

Is it Young Justice or the DCAU? No, but it's not trying to be, either

 

I think my complaint is that if their target audience is 6-12 and they want them cutesy and young, then why put them in high school?  I know I'm not the target audience but I remember what I was watching at those ages and I didn't need or want that. 

[lion10]

So when do you guys think we'll see Power Girl in the series, season one or two?  And what would you guys think of the series exploring alternate universes like a Supergirl-centered "Injustice" or "Red Son (Daughter)"?

[MarkHB]

I doubt we'll see Power Girl or anything heavy-duty like AU stories soon.  Power Girl was originally created as the Earth-2 Kara Zor-El, and I doubt this show would go there or to AU's in general.

 

New "Intro to Super Hero High" orientation-style video with perhaps some more scenes from future eps:

 

[Kromm]

Is this show even supposed to make any kind of base sense at all?  I mean Wonder Woman younger makes sense.  Hal Jordan as Green Lantern but younger makes ZERO sense.  What was THIS version of Hal some boy scout out hiking when he found the dying Abin Sur?  I suppose if they bothered to explain that, they could claim it.

 

So it really is just taking badly animated versions, out of context, claiming they are "teens" and throwing shit up against a wall hoping it will stick and leave the girls viewing this to stick with DC Comics later on?

 

And the "villains and heroes all together in one school" thing irritates me in their attempt to kiddy-ize and commoditize all of this.

 

Also Wonder Woman's seeming obsession with cell phone photos. Ugh. Nice lesson to teach kids (I know she's not technically taking selfies, but it buys into that whole thing anyway).

[Trini]

Is this show even supposed to make any kind of base sense at all?  I mean Wonder Woman younger makes sense.  Hal Jordan as Green Lantern but younger makes ZERO sense.  What was THIS version of Hal some boy scout out hiking when he found the dying Abin Sur?  I suppose if they bothered to explain that, they could claim it.

 

So it really is just taking badly animated versions, out of context, claiming they are "teens" and throwing shit up against a wall hoping it will stick and leave the girls viewing this to stick with DC Comics later on?

 

Obviously, DC has a stake in this too, but, to me, this is more about Mattel trying to gain back market share lost to Hasbro (and others) which has been catching up to them. Also, I just found out (after a little Googling) that Hasbro is going to be taking over the Disney Princess brand from Mattel; so they needed to replace the girl-centric licensing deal(/money) they're losing.

 

 

In that regard, I see DC SHG as being set up to serve the same function for girls that Teen Titans GO! does for boys, and they've taken it so far as to go online to make an end-run around Cartoon Network's mainly-boys focus so they can get it out there. <...> Is it Young Justice or the DCAU? No, but it's not trying to be, either.

 

Eh... I dunno. I've only seen a little bit of TTG! (...and not by choice), but the characters/relationships seem are more or less the same as the comic versions. Teen Titans were already a team, they just made the characters/show appropriate for the age group they wanted to reach. The difference here is that Super Hero Girls seems to be taking a wide variety of characters from the DC universe, mostly ignoring their backstories/history, making them all the same age, and giving them a new history in which they all went to high school together.

 

I'd actually prefer if they did something like TTG! but girl-centric. Maybe it's just me, but I still think something along the lines of Birds of Prey could work.

Edited October 20, 2015 by Trini

[BkWurm1]

A teen version of Birds of Prey could have worked really well.

[MarkHB]

New episode:

 

[Kromm]

Ugh.

[lion10]

Is that it?  Is that one episode?  Seems more like an extended promo.  This makes me miss the original Teen Titans.

Edited October 26, 2015 by lion10

[MarkHB]

Here's something different: the site now offers a free download of the first three chapters of "Wonder Woman at Super Hero High," by Lisa Yee (PDF).  It's on one of the rotating banner panels on the DCSHG homepage.  Apparently, a related book series is coming in March.

[MarkHB]

New short is up... and if we hadn't established who the "real" villain of the school was, I think we have now,

 

[Kromm]

Why do the credits make it seem like Supergirl is the main character (she's the first silhouette PLUS she flies into the foreground and "sweeps" the credits closed), but Wonder Woman actually is?

[Actionmage]

So, let me get this straight: Red Tornado, who apparently has seen Diana fly- why else would he go on about her being a kindred spirit when it comes to flying?- doesn't suspect or can't tell that obviously something was messing with Diana's "safety belt"?  Cheetah has a note, so she's untouchable? The only one not there to fly? Whatever.

 

eta:

I read through the three chapters. Well, they are definitely aimed at "middle-graders".  There is more accountability in the book than the videos. There is an assembly and there is an incident started by Frost, but everyone has to give over their weapons and ammo due to Waller's No Weapons At Assemblies rule. Essays must be written in order to get your gear back. So there is that.

 

Still, some of the characterizations are, let's say, very different from previous iterations of Diana and also Waller. Then again, I "discovered" Wonder Woman when I was 13, so I feel strongly about how... naïve Wonder Woman is made to seem and how seemingly backwards/out-of-touch the Amazons/Hippolyta are made to seem. The basic WW origin is there, just no Steve Trevor. I like that there is a mix of reactions to Diana. I do not like that she isn't Diana, but then again, everyone is called by their powered name. 

 

I also liked the folks that were brought in to teach. 

 

Still mixed on the book. The dolls do look a bit Bratz-meets-Monster High, but they are at least better than the bitty doll with the fleshtone cloth with the printed on Wonder Woman costume I had in the 70s.

Edited November 11, 2015 by Actionmage

[MarkHB]

New video's up:

 

[Actionmage]

What I liked most about this newer episode is that there was a number of ladies included, not just Diana getting to be the focus of Harley's attention/ boredom. Plus, some of the gags were actually funny. Hawkgirl's admonition to Cheetah got me.   

 

I was glad that Diana was able to find what she did. It felt right for her. I am glad that not everyone ended up reacting the same. Some might remember to be more cautious in the future.

[MarkHB]

New episode, featuring someone we haven't seen much yet:

 

[Actionmage]

The "I'm just...disappointed" and the plant's reaction were great!

 

I enjoyed the bringing in of various fellow students and hope that continues.

 

One thing, though: Since we saw Ivy seeming to be confining her unruly "pets", why would she be jumpy? If she is still relatively neutral, keeping the plants we saw in the taped pieces away from the other students would be a good thing, right? Like I said, it was just one small, quick part of a generally fun piece.

[MarkHB]

Another new one...

 

 

Still waiting for Kara to show up, as well as Babs in-costume.

[Trini]

The "I'm just...disappointed" and the plant's reaction were great!

 

I enjoyed the bringing in of various fellow students and hope that continues.

 

One thing, though: Since we saw Ivy seeming to be confining her unruly "pets", why would she be jumpy? If she is still relatively neutral, keeping the plants we saw in the taped pieces away from the other students would be a good thing, right? Like I said, it was just one small, quick part of a generally fun piece.

 

Maybe it's just me, but I interpreted it as Ivy has been siccing the plants on people, and then swooping in to look like a hero.

[Zuleikha]

Maybe it's just me, but I interpreted it as Ivy has been siccing the plants on people, and then swooping in to look like a hero.

Yeah, I agree.

 

I want to love this series, but so far I'm just disappointed. I don't want to see superheroines doing ordinary things in a school setting. I want to see actual heroics. Super Best Friends Forever was supposed to be comedic, but it still showed the heroines being heroines. I keep waiting for one of the DC Super Hero Girls webisodes to take the heroines seriously and so far none of them do. It's all friendship and fashion.

[Actionmage]

New episode:  (Should be Episode 9- Weaponomics)

 

http://www.dcsuperherogirls.com/en-us/videos

[MarkHB]

Here it is on YouTube:

 

I hate when they seem like they're just getting started, and then it's over.

[Actionmage]

At least with Vixen, the bits added to a (largely) cohesive whole. These vignettes are okay, but they are barely snapshots of the "girls". 

 

I get grumpy because it leaves the impression that the proto-villains are just mean girls and that the proto-heroes should just shrug off whatever those kids do. I dislike it because there is hardly any push-back showing good characters coming out ahead. I said hardly.  Even Poison Ivy had folks betting that she was secretly siccing those plants on folks, when, contextually, there wasn't anything solid to base it on. ( And I wondered why Ivy was jumpy.) I want to take the mission of these shorts at face value- that they are showing little girls heroes learning how to be heroes.  Yes, you need villains if you have heroes, but the characters the more adult of us would consider villains have been said to not necessarily be villains. Yet? That's what they have been doing. Either genuinely make them friendly at the start but because of the different outlooks and opinions they "take sides", as it were, the friendships are strained or withstand the differences. There can even be in-universe reasons for these versions to become best friends.

 

Lucious' reasons for detention did not seem very Lucious Fox to me.

 

added:

I don't mind "horseplay" or shenanigans by the proto-villains; I just wish there was a slightly more even feel to these webisodes. That the heroes weren't schmucks or doormats and that reacting to the pranks wasn't considered wrong.  Imo, why else don't we get to see Barbara and the other girls doing their own pranks?

Edited January 5, 2016 by Actionmage

[Chicago Redshirt]

I haven't watched all the webisodes, but I have yet to see Supergirl outside the credits. Was it just blink-and-I-missed it? 

Edited January 6, 2016 by Chicago Redshirt

[Actionmage]

We may have seen her in the background, but no, she hasn't had a spotlight moment. We also haven't really seen Barbara or Katana, so there's that.

Edited January 8, 2016 by Actionmage

[MarkHB]

New one.. we get to see Katana, as well as a few others.

Incidentally, I looked at the Youtube page for these and they have quite a few translated versions available as well.

ETA: There's an Easter Egg in there too if you listen.

[MarkHB]

Every two weeks for these, maybe?   It's looking that way.  This one's really short... less than a minute of actual content.

 

[MarkHB]

DCSHG will be a part of Free Comic Book Day in May:
 

However, come May 7th, on Free Comic Book Day, we’ll see another piece of the universe with the DC Super Hero Girls #1, FCBD Special Edition. Written by Shea Fontana, drawn by Yancey Labat, the special edition features two stories from the upcoming graphic novel, DC Superhero Girls: Final Crisis.
 
From the book blurb: It’s the day before finals and the student body is hard at work…and nothing is going right! Wonder Woman spars with Cheetah in gym class as Batgirl and Supergirl watch from the sidelines. In the next class, the girls sit next to an empty seat. Where could Supergirl be? Don’t miss this chance to meet the students as they find out that fun, friendship, and hard work are all part of growing up!

 
Also, from the same article, "..the young reader books, DC Superhero Girls and Wonder Woman at Super Hero High, won’t be until July and March, respectively."  It doesn't say anything more about the "Final Crisis" graphic novel.

[MarkHB]

This one appears to be something of a "season" finale, and it's actually long enough to have a story!  (Love Harley's contribution, btw)

 

[MarkHB]

I just heard about this on the Supergirl Radio podcast:

 

The DC Super Hero Girls will be debuting on two new fronts in March -- on the toy aisle and in television. Warner Bros. Consumer Products and DC Entertainment have announced that an all-new animated special and the first Mattel-produced merchandise will debut with Boomerang and Target, respectively.

Target will debut a variety of DC Super Hero Girls merchandise including toys, apparel, dress up, accessories, and yes, books, beginning in March...

 

Boomerang will broadcast an all-new animated DC Super Hero Girls special in March as well, in addition to airing the animated shorts that have already been digitally released...

 

Four months after the Target debut, DC Super Hero Girls merchandise will be rolled out globally.

The original is available on Newsarama (see link) for those who wish to read more from the marketers involved.

[MarkHB]

New cartoon:

 

[jmonique]

I get what you're all saying, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE that this line has been released.

 

Is it watered down? Yes. But so was "The Super Hero Squad Show," but my nephew loved it. Ever since he could say the word "superhero," he has had a crap ton of merchandise to choose from. Spider-Man t-shirts and pajamas, Iron Man Halloween costumes, etc. But there hasn't been a non-sexualized option for my niece at all. And now there is.

 

So I'm going to go ahead and get her the Wonder Woman doll and the costume (sold only at Target, of course) and the Wonder Woman shield that also can shoot flying discs. She'll get that, and whatever dolls she wants from this line, which I find infinitely more appealing than Barbie.

Edited March 3, 2016 by jmonique

[Actionmage]

Is it watered down? Yes. But so was "The Super Hero Squad Show,"

 

There is a difference between watered down and age-appropriate, which Super-Hero Squad was the latter and not the former, as is Super Hero Girls. There were jokes for grown-ups watching and knew the history for SHS. I don't have little kids around the house, but I loved watching that show because it was funny. The bits that have been released  for Super Hero Girls seem, largely, trying too hard. I could go on, but I won't.  I just hope that the actual series is tighter, writing-wise.

 

Definitely show this to your niece and I hope she loves everything. (Seriously; the merch sitch is better now than when I got into superheroes and that is still bad.)

[Trini]

There is a difference between watered down and age-appropriate, which Super-Hero Squad was the latter and not the former, as is Super Hero Girls. ...

 

Not just watered down (which might have been a bit more tolerable), but changing all the backstories -- Supergirl and Wonder Woman did NOT go to high school together! It's something that apparently wasn't necessary for other age appropriate comic book-based shows aimed at boys.

 

I'm glad there will be more merchandise for girls, but it seems they're planning the show around the merch they want to sell, when it should be the other way around.

[Actionmage]

Not just watered down (which might have been a bit more tolerable), but changing all the backstories [snip] It's something that apparently wasn't necessary for other age appropriate comic book-based shows aimed at boys.

 

Thank you. I was trying to figure out if my problem was simply being an older fan looking at something meant for a younger audience or if I was just a grumpy old fangirl or what.

 

In Super Hero Squad, aimed at the same age, Bad Guys ( and Gals) were  bad and treated as such. If they showed that they wanted to change sides, there were trust issues, as one would expect, but it was essentially how folks were treated in the actual comics.  In Super Hero Girls, though, bad acts are treated as if they are nbd and that the person on the receiving end is wrong to be upset- it's just a joke/prank/ no one got hurt for goodness sake. Until the last "episode" ,where Wonder Woman's lasso comes into play, none of the bad acts is treated as such or the person obviously responsible faces consequences.  Sadly, this is some potential viewers' actual life. How is this helping them learn how to deal with bullies or other types of tormentors? 

 

On the other hand, the heroes are generally happy and upbeat. They aren't very daunted by obstacles and setbacks. They seem to generally be having a great time at school- watch the after-school clubs mini-sode. 

 

I just believe that you can have hopeful, super-heroic, female-led action and excitement without changing/saying you're changing characters backgrounds. Even in a high school setting.