A couple of weeks ago I blogged about my dislike of things being aimed at one gender over the other when the target audience is so young. It's something which seems to have struck a chord with many parents – both those with sons and daughters. I wasn't going to let whether or not my kids fit into the desired gender demographic stop me from reviewing something which I thought they were going to enjoy though so I was intrigued to see what Little Miss C would make of the DC Super Friends Magazine which I mentioned in my original post as being aimed at pre-school boys.
Basically, our view is that if they're only aiming it at boys then they're missing out on a larger potential market!
DC Super Friends is all about super heroes – Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman, Robin and friends – and their fight against the baddies – Lex Luthor, The Penguin, The Joker, Mr Freeze, Two-Face and The Riddler. The magazine itself is the classic well tested mix of stories, craft activities, colouring pages, puzzles, educational activities and a free toy on the cover – a pair of plastic communicators with interchangeable pictures of the superheroes on them. The only thing that it didn't have was any stickers which is often a popular part of all magazines that I buy for LMC. Maybe this sticker addiction is a girl thing though?
LMC really enjoyed sitting down and reading it with me after pre-school one day. We read the stories, completed the maze puzzles, did some role playing with the communicators whilst we tried to rescue her teddy bear from the baddies and also made a Batmobile together.
There was certainly nothing in what we read and did that didn't appeal to this little girl and that sentiment was certainly echoed in the reader's pictures that were included in the magazine. I realise that as this is a first edition these will have been either done by magazine staff's children or something similar, but I found it quite amusing that in a magazine where such a fuss had been made about it being aimed at boys, two of the three pictures included were attributed to girls!
If you've got a super hero fan in your house (regardless of their gender) I think they'd really enjoy DC Super Friends.
Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of issue 1 of DC Super Friends for the purposes of this review. Issue 1 came out on 19 September and is available in supermarkets and newsagents. For subscription offers take a look here.
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