Review: DC Super Hero Girls Webisodes 4-6
Due to the DC Super Hero Girls shorts only running a few minutes each, I’m reviewing them in sets of three. When the series premiered about two months ago, I reviewed the first three shorts, and now that webisodes 4-6 are available both on the DC Super Hero Girls website and YouTube channel, it’s time to take a look back at them! Spoiler Warning: There isn’t much to spoil, but I feel obligated to advise that I won’t be holding any information back in reviewing these.
Next: #4: Crazy Quiltin'...
Webisode 4: “Crazy Quiltin'”
This short was significantly shorter than two most recent ones, and it revolves around Wonder Woman having an assignment to create a super-suit for herself. Now, this doesn’t really make sense, because all of the heroes at Super Hero High are already wearing their traditional costumes, but I suppose I can get past that by assuming that the class is meant to prepare them for a costume upgrade they could have to make in the future. Harley Quinn actually does point out that Wonder Woman already has a super-suit, but Wonder Woman tells her that she needs a new one. I’m also not really on board with villains in this series being portrayed either not as villains at all or simply as troublemakers. In this instance, Crazy Quilt is teaching the class Wonder Woman is taking.
Bumblebee, Katana, and Harley Quinn assist Wonder Woman in creating her new costume, but it’s not shown which one they conclude on. I don’t know if this was an intentional allusion, but one of the suits that Wonder Woman tries on is fairly reminiscent of her costume in Frank Miller’s Dark Knight universe. If that was intentional, props to whoever’s idea it was. I also want to point out that this webisode holds a little bit of relevance right now, as a photo surfaced recently of Megan Gale in her Wonder Woman costume from the cancelled Justice League: Mortal film, and people have been comparing it to Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman costume. This fourth short gets three batarangs out of five. It could’ve benefited from being a minute or two longer, and the fact that there was no conclusion with Wonder Woman actually choosing the final suit was a bummer. It was the first webisode in the series that didn’t feel like it was just meant to introduce us to these versions of the characters though, so it gets a little slack for treading new waters.
Next: #5: Power Outage...
Webisode 5: “Power Outage”
Here’s a second webisode in a row focused on a particular class, this time “Fliers’ Education”, taught by Red Tornado. There was actually some pretty cool action in this one as the super heroes went through a training course featuring solid obstacle bars, lasers, and goo-guns! They even wore “safety belts” while flying through, so yeah, it was quite clever. On Wonder Woman’s turn, Cheetah (who has a doctor’s note so that she can sit the class out) sabotages Wonder Woman’s safety belt, causing her to miserably fail the exercise. Again, seems a little too benign for something Cheetah would do, but that is clearly the direction the show is going. Well, Wonder Woman is embarrassed at first, but Bumblebee lifts her spirits, and all is well. This is probably my favorite webisode of the series so far, and I’ll reward it with five out of five batarangs. It definitely had the action, and I’m always a fan of seeing heroes doing training (Batman Unlimited did a particularly good job showcasing that as well). It also gave me hope that this show will have continuity (unlike Teen Titans Go!, which is targeted at a similar age group) by featuring Wonder Woman wearing a new costume that concludes the story from the fourth webisode! And finally, it gets a couple of bonus points for a Barbara Gordon cameo.
Next: #6: Fall Into Super Hero High...
Webisode 6: “Fall Into Super Hero High”
Harley Quinn is supplying the antics in this one. She hosts movie night for some of the other students, but it is a box office dud. It’s just a reel of all the different students humiliating themselves in one way or another. Wonder Woman is seen failing her flying exercise (hooray for continuity again!), Poison Ivy’s plants attack her, and the funniest part is Killer Frost’s pizza freezing to her tongue — admit it, that’s the kind of thing we all wonder about. Understandably, the audience members are quite fed up with Harley for curating this movie, and that irritation is augmented when she accidentally uploads the video online and it goes viral. Wonder Woman evades the conflict for everyone by laughing about the situation, saying that her mother would “flip her bananas” at the sight of the video, as Amazonian princesses can’t show their failures. This was a pretty good short as well. Not quite as good as webisode five, but I’ll give it four batarangs out of five. There was another Babs cameo, but I’m hoping she gets to play more of a role later on. I think the series is focusing a lot on Wonder Woman right now, as she is the featured character in the first DC Super Hero Girls novel series. It was also a good thing that this short ran slightly longer.
Next: First Three DC Super Hero Girls Shorts Now Up
Now that the series has gotten going, I feel like I can say that it seems to be headed in the right direction. A large cast of characters is being explored, the animation and voice-acting are both solid (shout-out to the quintessential Beast Boy actor Greg Cipes), and the stories have good messages. Let me know in the comments which of the newest shorts was your favorite and why. And be sure to keep it locked to Caped Crusades for continuing coverage of DC Super Hero Girls and for all your Batman news!