Marvel Fearless and Fantastic!: Female Super Heroes Save the World

by Sam Maggs

Women can save the world. More than 50 incredible female Super Heroes from the Marvel Comics universe inspire women of all ages to be powerful, passionate and persistent.

This beautiful collection profiles dozens of aspirational female comic-book characters, all of whom use their strength, intelligence and courage to help others. Fierce fan-favourites such as Captain Marvel, Gamora and Storm feature alongside little-known faces from all corners of the Marvel comic-book universe. Young girls will also discover modern, diverse heroes they can relate to and look up to, including America Chavez and Kamala Khan. Fearless and Fantastic! is the ultimate tribute to Marvel's most powerful women and a treasured gift for comics fans, old and new.

Illustrated with stunning comic-book artwork, each short biography is carefully curated to focus on the character's abilities and achievements. This book for girls and women of all ages will create new fans of comics, as well as inspiring comic-book creators of the future.

Genres: Marvel, Comics, Fantasy, Graphic Novels, Feminism, Young Adult, Superheroes

128 pages, Hardcover

First published December 18, 2018

About the author

SAM MAGGS is a bestselling writer of books, comics, and video games, including Marvel Action: Captain Marvel, The Unstoppable Wasp: Built on Hope, Tell No Tales, Con Quest!, and Marvel's Spider-Man PS4. A Canadian in Los Angeles, she misses Coffee Crisp and bagged milk. Visit her online at sammaggs.com or @SamMaggs!

Reviews

[Kristi Housman Confessions of a YA Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have only been reading graphic novels for about a year now and this is the book I needed before I started.  Fearless and Fantastic if full of information about the female super heroes in the Marvel universe.  



This book features the characters most of us know.  Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Storm, Gamora, etc.  But it also features lesser known super heroes.  The ones that aren't in the popular movies.  Characters like Ms. Marvel (my favorite), Squirrel Girl, Dazzler, and Mockingbird.  Each character has beautiful artwork, information about them/their history, and some of their friends and allies.  This is the perfect book for someone just starting to read Marvel comics.  I was able to learn more about their backstories that I missed in the graphic novels I've read.



I gave this 4  1/2 stars.  The only thing I wished was for a bigger book.  I would have loved a couple pages for each hero along with another page or two of photos.  This was a quick, easy read that has already helped me out.

[Jena · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute little reference book that lists out several of the Marvel super heroes and explains a bit about their backstory. Each character has two pages dedicated to them - a full page color artwork and a full page writeup. This is clearly aimed at someone who has seen the Marvel movies and now wants to learn more about a favorite character in the comics. This would make a fantastic most ages gift for someone who is in that position.

As someone who has read some Marvel comics, I still got use out of it. There were several newer characters I hadn't heard of before, and it also helped me brush up on existing characters since Marvel & DC are a minefield of ever-changing backstories. This makes a nice bookshelf or coffee table book for a comic fan.

A few things I wish this book would've included would be when the character was created, names of the artists and a quick "recommended reading" list. It would've been really cool to point to some specific comics new readers should check out for each character, instead of you having to do that heavy lifting yourself.

Overall, a nice reference and a cute gift idea.

[Christine Spoors · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the recent Marvel news from D23 finally pulled me out of what I’ll call a “post Endgame Marvel slump” and so when I saw this book in Waterstones I just had to pick it up. A book all about the gals of the Marvel universe?? That’s exactly what I needed!

I really liked the author’s writing and felt like each section gave us a good snippet of each character’s life. It was great to see some favourites like Black Widow, Mockingbird and Captain Marvel in there, but I was also introduced to a whole bunch of characters I’d never met before like Snowguard, She-Hulk, America Chavez, IronHeart and Karolina Dean!

Definitely recommend to any Marvel fans, it’s also such a gorgeous book to own, filled with art!

[Namratha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I am still flying high on the Captain Marvel movie-induced awesomeness, this book seemed like the perfect pick-me-up-and-gobble-up-in-a-flash kind of read.

The hardbound beauty acts as a showcase and a gateway to the fabulous, feisty, fearless, determined, intelligent and empathetic women of MARVEL. With big names like Captain Marvel, Kitty Pryde, Jean Grey, Maria Hill, The Black Widow to niche favourites like Shuri, Nico Minoru, Jessica Jones, Gamora, Pepper Potts to the slightly obscure (at least for me) but equally potent superheroines like Singularity, Aurora, Spectrum and many many more, the book sets the stage for you to revisit your personal heroines and discover many more magnificent ladies out there in the MARVEL Universe.

With gorgeous, full-page artwork, this book is a definite keepsake.

[Heatherblakely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick disclaimer: I'm friends with Sam but will try not to let that influence my review.

3.5, rounding up. Sam does a good job of picking a well-rounded group of women, with a range of races, sexualities, and ability, as well as different types of thinkers and leaders. Sometimes the writing is a little dry, but there are a lot of characters I want to read about now because Sam made them sound intriguing. And I was reminded of several comics I need to pick back up.

[Shirley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not only really nice looking, but also super helpful when I try to talk about comics with friends who don't know the characters.

[Tim Roast · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given the success of the Marvel films in recent years, and my daughters and I love those, there a plethora of Marvel related goods out there these days. This book is another book looking at the Marvel characters (see, for example, "Marvel Avengers Ultimate Character Guide" or "Marvel Avengers The Greatest Heroes: World Book Day 2018"). This time though the book is only looking at the female characters, "the inspiring female Super Heroes of Marvel Comics".

Altogether there are profiles (with these histories following the comic stories I believe, not necessarily the film versions) for 54 characters spread across four chapters "relating to personal qualities: determination, daring, compassion and curiosity". Each profile is across a double page with a beautiful, full-page colour image of the character (as it is from Marvel you would expect the art to be visually-stunning as standard, and it is, although Marvel-geeks may say that the artwork has been recycled from the archives), then a page of text with the character name across the top, a quote of theirs (for example "Be unique because you are unique!" by Firebird, or "We are a team. We are friends. We are heroes. And it is time we save the day." by Singularity), a couple of paragraphs on their history, and a bit at the bottom called "Friends, allies and role models" that references other characters in the book that this character has related with.

There are characters recognisable from the films, e.g. Storm, Jean Grey and Rogue from X-Men, Black Widow and Pepper Potts from the Avenger films and Gamora from Guardians of the Galaxy, and other characters that maybe you haven't discovered yet, for example Moon Girl who seems to be bookish and smart and of school age and someone my eldest daughter might relate with most out of the characters here.

It is great that these characters are collected here so that girls have a (hard-back) book of heroes for them. It does beg the question though why, with all these female characters in the Marvel canon, has not one of them had a film dedicated to them yet (although it seems Captain Marvel is due to be released in 2019). We'd had Captain America films, Iron Man films, Thor films, but have had to wait thus far for the female hero solo film.

Anyway the 2-page character histories can be easily looked up as there is a contents page, and they can be quickly digested plus they are visually appealing. This is a good introduction to the female Marvel Super Heroes, with many of them exhibiting a lot of inspiring qualities that might make them role model material.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fearless and Fantastic is divided into four categories - determination, daring, compassion, and curiosity - and each section explores several female superheroes from Marvel Comics that highlight these qualities. There were some characters I was already aware of and even knew a bit about before starting this, but there were also quite a few that I had never heard of. I really enjoyed reading about all of them and even discovered several characters that I would love to learn more about in the future.

This book offered a fantastic overview of the female characters of Marvel, although I would have loved for it to have included some suggestions of starting points for the various comic series they feature in. Nevertheless, it was a wonderful read that provided a great insight into the characters it included.

Rating - 4/5
★★★★

There is also a link to this review on my blog here!

[Amy!]

For the superhero fan who wants to learn more about the women heroes. They have included a good range of heroes, from really well known to more obscure. I was happy to see how many non white, non straight women they included, and I appreciated that each character page includes who her friends are.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this so much. How did they make it so readable and fun and also helpful? I think it would be good for someone just starting out (although maybe a little overwhelming), for a huge comics nerd, or anybody in between. I knew the characters & backstories mostly, but it was still so fun to read/review/learn more. There were maybe 2-3 women I’d never even heard of (Toni Ho! How did I not know you!) and another 2-3 who is heard of but had no idea what their (current) origin story was. I love how it says who their friends & allies are! I love how positive it is! Also you can totally tell that at least 1 of the writers is queer bc it just coolly and casually mentions it the character has a gf or identifies as gay or whatever, just slips that right in there. I love it. And the art is gorgeous. They did a great job choosing definitive, great, representative and also diverse art for all the characters.

My only complaints are that there aren’t captions giving info on/credits for the artists, and there aren’t suggested reading lists/where to start lists or even the name of the title(s) they’re currently appearing in, not even in the back/appendix. I assume that these are Marvel’s decisions and maybe they thought it would make it more accessible for younger readers, but it feels weird to see all this cool art and not be able to look up the artists. Like what are you supposed to do, google “gorgeous comic art of scarlet witch” and hope it comes up??

[Kai Charles(Fiction State Of Mind) · Rating 5 out of 5]

DK has picked a wonderful time to create a compendium of Marvel Comic's Fun, Fearless, and Fantastic female characters. I have always loved Marvel and Dc comics but the Women of Marvel have always resonated strongly with me, mostly because of the several WOC among them. Not only could I see myself but also personality traits of several women in my life.

This book is not only informational, but an artistic love letter to Marvel's ladies all illustrated in poses of empowerment. This is a must have for Marvel fans old and new, a great reference source for fans old and new.

[Mary Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really cute a very informative book. Many of these heroes I was familiar with or had heard of in passing, but I was delighted to be introduced to several I had never heard of. As always, DK has created a stunningly beautiful and engaging book that both entertained and I formed.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview book to read with my daughter to highlight characters she knows and loves as well as other great lady heroes she might get intrigued by and want to read more.

Frankly, I'm dying to sit down and read Unstoppable Wasp with her as Jan is an old favorite and Nadia is fast becoming one as well.

Wish there was a good omnibus collection of Monica Rambeau stories, as she's a character I love but who has rarely been used to her potential since Roger Stern stopped writing her.

[Jen Potter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good way to find new books to read. Lacking information about the artist/creators of each character.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 3 out of 5]

273 - 2020

[Chrissi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive guide to some truly badass ladies!

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brief, entertaining bios of many of the best-known and most visible Marvel ladies. I wish there had been a little more information on their personalities, but overall a decent introduction for those of us who have trouble keeping track of everyone.

[Danni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually a kids book but bloody hell there are some amazing female superheroes in the marvel universe!

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of comic book characters to engage the reader's interest. Beautifully illustrated, diverse backgrounds and divided into Sections of determined, daring, compassionate and curious.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yay women empowerment. Yay diversity. Beautiful artwork too.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this so much! All the characters depicted are shown in all their strengths of various kinds, their sisterhood with other female allies and friends, their superheroics, and their stunning costumes, none of which are objectifying in the least (what a refreshing experience!) The only thing I wish this book had is a concordance or bibliography, even, with where the authors got their source material on each hero from - with so many different universes within Marvel and so many different publications in all types of media, a guide for those who'd like to know more about a particular superhero would be great!

[Bokkjellden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Denne boka fant jeg under hyllerydding på jobb, og jeg måtte åpne den med engang. Marvel har ikke bare produsert mannlige superhelter, og her serverer Maggs over 50 kvinnelige superhelter og deres superkrefter. 🦾 Vi får alt fra kjente helter som Captain Marvel og Black Widow til mindre kjente som She-Hulk og Mockingbird. Skulle gjerne hatt litt mer historie, som f.eks. første opptreden o.l. Likevel, jeg tror jeg må finne frem Marvel-filmer i helga!

[Artemis Crescent · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun and colourful info book containing one-page details (yeah, admittedly not nearly enough, but still) about each of the various sorts of superheroines to have come out of Marvel. A few I'd never even heard of, and a few more I'm pleasantly surprised ended up here, like Mary Jane Watson! She deserves the spotlight and appreciation, alongside Pepper Potts, Nadia Van Dyne, Mockingbird, Ironheart, Dazzler and Singularity.

No predominantly-known villainesses are included, such as Mystique, Emma Frost, Lady Deathstrike, Hela, Psylocke, and Black Cat (the latter two not so much, being more antiheroines..?). Sadly, Angela (Aldrif Odinsdottir), Domino, Rachel Summers, Cassanda Lang, Elektra, Polaris, Nebula, X-23 aka Laura Kinney, and most of the female New Mutants are not included in the book. But most shocking is the absence of Invisible Woman aka Susan Storm, who is in fact Marvel's first ever superheroine. What the actual hell there!

A few heroines being placed in either the Determined, Daring, Compassionate and Curious segments of the book are rather iffy, too. All of the fantastic and marvellous ladies and girls possess all of these qualities to some degree - the author says as much in the introduction - and the creative decision to prioritise one over another when it comes to certain characters isn't always accurate, or true to who they are. Like, I'd put She-Hulk in either the Determined or Daring chapters (like there's much difference between them anyway) - she's not merely a 'Curious' type!

But regardless, 'Marvel Fearless and Fantastic!: Female Super Heroes Save the World' is a great tome for any superheroine fan.

My everlasting, fangirl favourites are Captain Marvel, Spider-Woman/Gwen Stacy, Ms. Marvel, Valkyrie (Brunnhilde), Nico Minoru, Jane Foster, MJ Watson, Squirrel Girl, Shuri, She-Hulk, and the criminally underrated and overlooked Kitty Pryde! Follow-up faves are Storm, Hellcat, Gertrude Yorkes, Mockingbird, Rogue, Jean Grey, Pepper Potts, Singularity, Karolina Dean, Nadia Van Dyne, and Ironheart.

Final Score: 4/5

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was excited to see this book but underwhelmed to receive it. Most DK books are much larger and longer than this one--their Lego books are taller and wider with at least twice as many pages; and Spider-Man: The Ultimate Guide is 6 cm taller, 6 cm wider, and 40 pages longer.

The entries within this book are all very short and illustrated with a single image (and, sometimes, not a *good* image--it's not clear if the person who drew Jessica Drew meant to parody the brokeback trope or if they're unaware of it but in any case, with *that* curve on her spine, Spider-Woman should be in the emergency room).

DK books usually illustrate each entry with several pictures, all with their own captions. For instance, in their Spider-Man book, the Spider-Slayers (who are not terribly important in the Marvel universe or even in Spider-Man's own story, all things considered) have a main entry which is 220 words long. There is a central picture with seven insets around the two-page spread, and the various captions add up to another 420 words (all told, almost twice the length of the main entry, and this isn't counting any of the dialogue in the word balloons). So that's eight images and 640 words on a minor part of Spider-Man's story.

Compare this to the entry on Jean Grey (one of the most important figures in X-Men history), who gets one single image with 203 words of coverage.

On the whole, this book gives the impression of a lazy cash in rather than the usual careful, loving , attentive tribute you see in DK books. Points for trying, I guess, but this book was a missed opportunity.

[Rayjan Koehler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad.. Gives a little more information than what you can find on the back of trading cards on the Marvel Collect! App by Topps..

For me I have not read a lot of superhero comics-- so I've missed some of these entirely. Sorry Weird War Tales & to a lesser degree Archie really stole the stage for my teen years! lol Mostly read Wonder woman, Batman, and Deadpool (I know he's not really a hero but I think you get the idea) though-- so a lot to read from both D.C. & Marvel yet.


Could be better though if there was more information on the heroines, and some suggestions on some anthologies to read or something. I did read 1 of the runaway books back in the day though I had forgotten the name of the series, and (hopefully) my comics that got put into storage when i was away at school have not been stolen. Let me get back on track though. 😅


I think the information given wouldn't really be anything new to a diehard marvel reader/fan, but probably a decent start for someone who has never read the comics that has been enjoying the movies and/or shows on Disney+.


My cover is different than the one shown here, but the inside should be the same anyway. I wouldn't be reading this yet, but I got this with 2 other books as a Christmas present-- so I had to read it at least once before the year is over. Heh...

[McKenzie Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

For more reviews, check out my blog: Craft-Cycle

Awesome collection featuring some amazing superheroes. Each hero is given a one-page bio that includes origin story and powers as well as other pertinent information such as friends, allies, and role models. Each also has an illustrated portrait, most of which are absolutely stunning. I especially loved Singularity's. I also really liked the focus on females. In the bios, various men are mentioned in relation to the female heroes, but there is definitely an emphasis on females empowering each other.

It was so interesting to read up on well-known superheroes as well as heroes I was unfamiliar with. The only thing I was missing in this collection was a first appearance section. This information is easily found online, but it would have been nice to have the information provided in the book as many of these heroes do not have their own self-titled comics. I will definitely be seeking out some graphic novels featuring the heroes in this book.

An informative, beautiful, and empowering book that features a diverse range of Marvel superheroes.

[alana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great introduction to the many women of Marvel comics. Readers familiar with the MCU alone will recognize many characters from Avengers, Black Panther, Guardians, SHIELD, and X-Men, but the short bios provide glimpses of crossovers and connections not yet revealed in the movies. I was surprised how many women have led the Avengers and other groups! Some characters I'm hearing about for the first time. Several appear in recent Marvel titles which is great for new readers who fear getting started on a deep decades-long backstory to understand a character. I only wish there were a resource list for each character so readers could find specific, easily available issues and trades with the various plotlines referenced in the profiles. There are so many fun things mentioned, and it would be great to get the whole story. Maybe in the next edition! I also wish the portrait of each woman stated the artist and in which comic the image first appeared. This book screams "present for young Marvel fan."

[Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun little guide about the female superheroes Marvel rarely puts into their movies.

In all seriousness, this guide is really good. The artwork is amazing and the little bios for each character are pretty interesting. For once it wasn't totally filled with characters I already knew about and actually led me to discover some I had never heard of before. Particularly the women of colour. There are so many ladies who aren't getting the love the deserve and it made me a little angry, and quite honestly determined to find all their comics and read them myself. When people don't talk about them, these characters fall to the wayside and that is beyond sad.

[Fats · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a kid, I often felt vulnerable and powerless in the world - the very opposite of what I found in female Super Heroes. Instead their stories were epic and empowering, dangerous and daring - and ultimately - their stories changed my life. - Kelly Thompson

DK Publishing has done it again! This collection is a nod to the ass-kicking, intelligent, and brave female super heroes in the Marvel Universe. It has great art and presents a good variety of female super heroes from different teams (such as S.H.I.E.L.D., Runaways, Generation X, Mighty Avengers, and A-Force) and agencies (like Knightwing Restorations Ltd., Heroes for Hire, and Patsy Walker Temp Agency).

[Yoonmee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fearless and Fantastic!: Female Super Heroes Save the World! By Emma Grange, Sam Maggs, and Ruth Amos. This children's book profiles more than fifty female super heroes. Each profile features a full page of artwork and another page with a quote and a bio. Divided into four sections based on personalities -- determined, daring, compassionate, and curious -- this is a wonderful book for fans of Marvel comics. It's technically a children's book, but I'd say it would work great as a coffee table book for adults, too. I loved learning about so many rad, female super heroes. Some of my new favorites include Silk, America Chavez, Ms Marvel, and Moon Girl. Check it out at your local library!