It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superhero Barbie

We thought she was a superhero already, but now she’s taking the job literally—in Princess Power, Barbie is donning a cape and mask and taking flight.

Princess Power is a whole thing, including dolls, animated shorts, online games, the whole works. In the animated shorts, Barbie goes for a more subdued look and goes around using her estimable powers of flight and friendship to make days a little brighter (I’m assuming the crime fighting happens off-screen). In Super Sparkle doll form, though, Barbie goes all out with a hot pink dress and pink and purple sparkly cape. There’s even a Ken reporter doll to really round things out.

Anyway, this whole thing apparently came about because Mattel did a survey and found out that girls like princesses and superheroes equally, so they made Barbie into a princess superhero. I’m not sure a study was really necessary, but hey, whatever you need to do to arrive at the obvious. You could just look at the world of comics if you had any doubt!

The Princess Power site is live now, and you can buy the Barbie Super Sparkle doll from that site for $20.