So, my best friend (who, it must be noted for the record, is basically a real-life Captain America, except he doesn’t need the crutch of a super-soldier serum) bestowed upon Leia this cool book:
Obviously, I wholeheartedly approve. My daughter is fated to grow up to be a superhero, after all, so it’s just as well she begins her studies young. 1 I’m glad there’s a book like this for her, to reinforce that girls kick ass.
However, I have a few nerdly bones to pick with it. First of all:
Um, no. Last time I checked, “healing herself and other people” does not number among Hawkgirl’s powers…unless you count basic first aid as a superpower, in which case, just call me Gauze Man. Hawkgirl’s powers, in fact, are best described as:
- Can fly. Like, fast.
- Can bash people’s heads open with medieval weaponry (cf. the mace she carries in this very shot).
- Can always find Hawkman after reincarnating.
I don’t know where this healing nonsense came from. (And apropos of nothing, I vastly preferred it pre-Crisis, when she was Hawkwoman.)
Secondly, there’s this page:
Excuse me? Is someone afraid that Marvel will sue if a DC character uses her actual name? She’s Mary Marvel, folks, not just plain ol’ Mary. “Mary” might help you with your homework. “Mary Marvel” will dropkick a globe of supervillain-containing Suspendium into the upper atmosphere, demolish a nuclear-powered robot from the future, rescue a cat from a tree, and still have time to help you with algebra before the bell rings to end study hall.
I give the folks at Downtown Bookworks high marks for inculcating in our young lasses the important urge to dress in outlandish garb and promote the greater good through fisticuffs, supernatural apparel, and sonic screams, but beg them to get their facts right. The next generation of geeks, nerds, and fanfolk deserves no less!