dcwomenkickingass:

Lauren Faust spoke with io9 yesterday about the one minute shorts she’s doing for Cartoon Block’s DC Nation. You should go read the whole thing, but here are some highlights. First on Supergirl and Batgirl as characters:

In terms of reinventing these characters, she built on what she’d seen in the comics, and embellished on it. For example, she imagined Supergirl as out to prove herself. Everybody in the world knows who Superman is, but not everybody knows about Supergirl. And even though both Kryptonians have the same powers and com e from the same place, everybody treats Supergirl like “chopped liver” compared to the celebrated Kal-El. “She doesn’t get the same amount of attention” as her cousin, notes Faust. “If you were going to apply that to a real teenage girl, she’d probably be pretty mad. She’s really got something to prove.”

Meanwhile, Batgirl is sort of the ultimate fangirl — Barbara Gordon grew up watching her dad work with Batman, since she was a little girl, and she’s looked up to him as a hero. “She’s a geek,” says Faust. “She’s dreamed about being a superhero throughout her whole childhood, and now that she’s a teenager and she’s got this mantle, she’s finally getting her chance.” So all three girls are eager to be heroes and to prove what they can do. Faust came up with a lot of backstory for all three characters, although it may not really be featured that much in the shorts.

I, for one, would love to read those backstories. But the thing that struck me the most was Faust’s discussion of the relationships of the characters:

And unlike some other depictions of superpowered teens, Faust sees these characters as real friends who “are supportive.” There will be three supervillains featured in the series, but the focus will really be on the three girls who are friends with each other and their relationship, and how much fun they have being superheroes. Often when you see young girls depicted on television, they’re more competitive — but here, the emphasis really is on these girls being B.F.Fs.

This, to me, is so important. This competition is part of so much of how we see teen girls portrayed. Superhero women being supportive and fun? I can’t wait.

The shorts are only a minute a piece, but my hope is that they’ll expand. Certainly there is some support for this. The last time I looked the io9 story had over 100,000 likes on Facebook.

And Faust has shown she can tap into other demographics with her female positive comics. I’m just wondering what dudes will call themselves? SBFFronies?

Perhaps Faust’s track record will convince DC to create a comic based on this or at least a digital comic like the one that’s featuring …. coming in… I hope to tell you more soon!

Anyway, here’s the BFF’s together.

Babs, you’re giving me the diabetes.