Only one or two of the Super-women represented here [in The Superhero Women] could qualify as independent, liberated, untraditional heroines. Lyra the Femizon, for instance, is a princess who lives in a future world where women rule and, yet, she must fall in love with a man "with fire in [his] veins" in order to become "a woman—fulfilled." The concluding line in the episode: "What good is a kingdom … which has no king." Although all the heroines possess unusual powers and physical prowess, the dialogue, plot, and especially the artwork (the women are generally described as gorgeous or luscious) all too often fall into the same clichés and stereotypes that Lee asks readers to believe no longer exist in the merry Marvel comic book menage.

Cyrisse Jaffee, "Books for Young Adults: 'The Superhero Women'," in School Library Journal (reprinted from the March, 1978 issue of School Library...