Batgirl. She is smart, no thong, her stories don't revolve around her love life, and is in the bat-family.

Anything with Kitty Pryde (not Ultimate x-men tho... too adult).

You know, I thought about Batgirl, but I've personally never read much Batgirl (I'm mostly a Marvel guy with soft spots for the Flash, Captain Marvel, and Green Lantern) so venturing there would be unsteady ground. However, if the New 52 Batgirl is appropriate, that may work. I myself have fallen in love with the New 52 Flash. Has anyone read it?

And I never did think about X-Men, which is funny because they probably have some of the more stable female characters, but again I'd have to find a good introductory point as to not leave them totally confused.

Cooking Mama

As cliche as it may sound, Wonder Woman is the perfect comic example of female empowerment and strength, to me at least.

As a staple of the series, she represents true womanhood, being both mentally and physically strong, highly intelligent, compassionate, nurturing, accepting, and boasting a large case of common sense, something we men often lack. lol

Wonder Woman is definitely a comic I'd want my daughter to read.

My 7 year old niece idolises Harley Quinn and Catwoman, which I know probably sound like weird choices, but she's different reasons for loving both.

For Harley, what she admires about her is her sense of humour and upbeat attitude (despite being a hardcore psychotic). For Catwoman, she admires her smarts, her toughness, and her independence. For 7, she realises that both women behave and dress in a manner that real women don't, so she doesn't take their image or criminal activities too seriously, but she respects the fact they're able to hold their own with men.

I'd recommend Oracle, Batgirl, Wonder Woman or even Rogue, Storm and Jean Grey if you were to look for more child friendly heroes though ;)

Any recommendations as far as specific issues? Because I'm worried that my preferences will sort of seep in. I mean, It's fairly easy to know what a little boy would like because I was one; Captain Marvel will always hold a special place in my heart because he was my first favorite Super Hero. But when I was that age, except for an early and not fully understood attraction to Poison Ivy (DON'T JUDGE!), I never really paid much mind to the female characters. So I don't really know what to look for in that age bracket for a 10-12 year old girls.

Actually Harley, Ivy and Catwoman were really popular with young girls because of Batman:TAS. They were funny, badass and relatable.

And Harley is alot more psychotic in the comics, quite different from TAS.
(murder, selling out a blind fugitive girl for money...)

What I can give advice upon is what NOT to buy from certain heroines:
The new 52 in DC has seen Barbara Gordon return to being Batgirl which IMO was a bad move, furthermore, her character is written in a way that, how should I put it, is a lot more shallow compared to Oracle.

Mary Marvel, avoid the Countdown series at all costs, where she becomes evil for the sake of evil. Wonder Woman should be avoided when dealing with the series Act of God. Thanks Linkara!

The Bat family has good female characters in the proper hands. Cassandra Cain the second Batgirl is an excellent read, albeit not a role model perhaps (read why). That is until DC decided to dick her over.

Stephanie Bro wn (Spoiler, Robin, Batgirl) is funny, humane and is also hated by DC to great extents. The Catwoman series is good too.


HOWEVER if you want a very good female read, then Neil Gaiman's Death is the character you seek. Check The High Cost of Living, which is an excellent comic book novel. Probably my favourite female in comics.

If you can find collections of the Darwyn Cooke/Ed Brubaker early-mid '00s Catwoman, that probably has to come with strong recommendations. Might want to check the content, but I think it's relatively safe for a 10-11 year old. The very best of the character, without the double-D pin-ups other versions are associated with.

It's a male dominated story and of a particular timeframe and mindset, but if you're looking for a good dose of Wonder Woman with an interesting (and safe) story wrapped around it, you might like to investigate DC: The New Frontier. Then again, maybe that's just an old comics fan hoping for a young reader with a sense of history. It's a great Wonder Woman (one of the best that springs to mind), but you get a heckuva lot of other stuff with it. If you're pushing a gender agenda, you might be disappointed by that (im)balance.

It's not really my intention to divide things by gender, trust me it would be a hell of a lot easier to give them a few issues of Cap, but they are very much girly girls, which sort of worries me. A lot of the girls I knew in elementary school who played princesses and always wore dresses and acted very girlish became stuck up bitches and sluts in high school.

I guess Power Girl out of the question

That has to be the most unintentionally hilarious comic book panel ever.

That is so not right.

Believe it or not, this is worst



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Anyway, jokes a side. I would say give Marvel's runaways a try