THE history of the American superheroine. The Supergirls a cultural history of comic book heroines asks whether their world of fantasy is that different from our own. Are the stories of Wonder Woman s search for an identity or Batwoman s battle for equality also an alternative saga of modern American women? NPR says . . . as it delivers its clear-eyed critique of the way mainstream superhero comics have alternatively eroticized or deified female characters The Supergirls gleefully celebrates the medium itself in all its goofy glorious excess.