Superwomen is an accessible text that can be enjoyed by both lay and expert readers. It succinctly summarizes the history and issues surrounding some of the most well-known female superheroes while having a robust bibliography and enough theoretical depth to satisfy any popular culture scholar.

ImageTexT

Insightful, sometimes depressing or infuriating, always engaging, Superwomen is an excellent addition to the world of superhero criticism.

Fantasy Literature

[A] thoughtful and timely book.

Times Literary Supplement

It most certainly fills a void as far as research concerning superwomen is concerned, both updating existing canon where characters such as Wonder Woman and Buffy are already extensively covered, but also providing insight with regards characters and texts which haven't been as widely explored such as Captain and Ms Marvel, or Batgirl. I'm certain that Superwomen will inspire future research and spark lots of brilliant discussions- there are plenty of fascinating superwomen in comics, films, cartoons to be explored.

Phd-Girl

Brava, Carolyn Cocca! In Superwomen, she delivers a comprehensive (and fascinating) overview of comics and pop culture women heroes, from Wonder Woman and the women of X-Men to Buffy and Princess Leia. Brava again for detailing the worst and the best treatment these characters have received in the hands of writers, artists, and film studios. And a final brava for showing how today, fans' reaction and feedback has influenced the positive representation of their beloved women heroes.

Trina Robbins, author of Pretty in Ink, and editor of Babes in Arms

One of the greatest strengths of this work is its nesting of the portrayal of superwomen in multiple contexts to explore how and why female superheroes are portrayed. Not content with textual analysis, Cocca explores the ideology of creators, fan reception, the effect of the movement from one medium to another on the portrayal of characters, and most significantly how the changing methods of distribution have affected who are the readers of these books, how the industry has perceived those readers, and how this has influenced the portrayal of female superheroes. …This is a very important book for comic and gender studies. It will take its place beside the work of Trina Robbins and Lilian Robinson as canonical analyses of female superheroes, and will, no doubt, be the text against which future gender and superhero studies are measured.

Matthew J. Costello, Professor of Political Science, Saint Xavier University, USA