Louise Simonson - DC Comics Covergirls

This morning I was looking through a 2007 coffee table book, DC Comics Covergirls by Louise Simonson.  My wife came into the room, shook her head, and said, "your Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition for geeks."  Which...isn't entirely wrong.  As artist Adam Hughes unapologetically reminds us in the foreword, "sex sells."  And that applies to comic books as much as it does to beer.  So from the very early days of DC Comics, women have played a prominent role on the covers of the comic books, even if their actions within the pages of the same comics haven't been quite as prominent. 

Longtime DC and Marvel Comics writer Louise Simonson has taken the last seven decades of DC Comics books, gone through and pulled the most interesting, salacious, horrifying, and hilarious covers that have put these women at the front and center.  Organized into six chapters devoted to Wonder Woman, Lois Lane, Supergirl, Gotham Girls, Vertigo and the New Generation, they've found something for everyone, and have also provided a great history lesson for how women are treated in American society.  Not just the fictional worlds of Gotham City and Metropolis, but the real world that is looking for role models, for heroes, and for stunning villains too. 

Wonder Woman gets the most pages, which is fitting for the world's first female superhero.  Simonson provides an ongoing narrative for each of the characters, explaining decade by decade what happens to these women, what outside influences were impacting the comic books, and how the artists and writers chose to react to them.  For Wonder Woman in particular, there's an interesting tension between portraying a strong woman--an Amazon--without making her either asexual or emasculating.  She should be beautiful enough to be worshipped, but realistic enough to emulate.  She went from being frequently portrayed in bondage in the 1940s to being more of a role model for women and girls in the 1960s, to losing her powers and costume completely in the 1970s, before Lynda Carter revived the character and pushed her back to the forefront of the DC Universe.  She's been a Greek Goddess, she's been a Justice League leader, and in bizarre twists she's even been her own sister.  For each age, she's represented a kind of ideal woman, and the forty pages devoted to her are the best in the book. 

Lois Lane and Supergirl are both treated as what they are--supporting members of Superman's cast.  Lois Lane is unique among superhero girlfriends in that she had her own very successful comic book which ran for over a decade; in these pages she frequently gained temporary superpowers, married Superman in dream sequences, and had adventures of her own.  She's held up as being an example of an independent woman, and yet there's no other female character in comics so defined by her relationship to a man.  She's always "Superman's girlfriend" first and foremost, and everything else is secondary to that.  She makes an interesting contrast to the other heroines here, but her lack of a costume and her constant scheming to get her mitts on the Man of Steel gets old after just a few pages.  Supergirl's covers run in a similar vein, but she at least has a costume that goes through variations and provides a little more interest.

The Gotham Girls chapter is the other highlight of the book, with looks at Batgirl, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and other heroines and villains that hang out in Gotham City.  The multitude of beauties here makes the chapters more interesting, and Simonson's commentary on each of their origins and changes through the decades manages to be concise but thorough.  For a long-time reader, there aren't many surprises, but she was even able to set me straight on a few continuity issues, and gave some insight on what inspired certain changes in the comic books. 

The other chapters are shorter, and are devoted to more modern comic books, and DC's non-superhero imprint, Vertigo.  Because I don't read those books, and I'm really more of an old school fan, these were skimmable pages with ocassionally interesting artwork, but it was mostly realistic, mostly dull, and a bit bloodier and more graphic than the superhero chapters of the book. 

This oversized, 200+ page hardcover book is a great gift idea for fans of DC Comics.  It's filled with girl power, but also with frequent silly, sexist reminders about the road we've come down.  If you're interested in anything from fashion to women's rights, it's more than just a comic book, it's a textbook.  With really hot girls in it.