Meet The Fourth Member Of The Powerpuff Girls: Bliss
The Powerpuff Girls are adding more sugar, spice, and everything nice to their team. The famous superpowered trio is now a quartet, with the addition of a long-lost sister and the official fourth Powerpuff Girl, Bliss.
Returned from years of exile away from her family, Bliss is the older sister of the Powerpuff Girls, created through the same sweet and spicy combination by Professor Utonium — except with the accidental addition of Chemical W instead of Chemical X. Now, she's come back to Townsville to take her rightful place alongside her Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup.
Bliss was first teased in silhouette form earlier this month, but she finally made her onscreen debut Sunday in Cartoon Network's five-part event movie event, The Powerpuff Girls: The Power of Four.
Like her three sisters, Bliss boasts the powers of flight, teleportation, telekinesis, and super strength, but the mysterious Chemical W that she was created with caused her to lose control of her powers when she became angry, excited, or frightened. Years before Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup were created, Bliss was raised by Professor Utonium, but she fled Townsville in shame when she accidentally blew up the house after a tantrum. Now a teenager, she's returned to Townsville to be reunited with her family.
Have you seen the fourth Powerpuff Girl yet? 💜 Meet Bliss on the app: https://t.co/3qGPcvDv2o pic.twitter.com/ZCQNXy87Ms
— Cartoon Network (@cartoonnetwork) September 17, 2017
The Powerpuff Girls has dabbled with a fourth member every now and then, with the "Twisted Sister" Bunny joining the team temporarily when the exhausted girls tried to create another member to help out with their heavy workload. Another time, the girls turned town spoiled rich girl Princess Morbucks from becoming their fourth member, only for her to become one of their primary antagonists.
But most importantly, Bliss is the first and only Powerpuff Girl of color, which adds some welcome diversity to one of Cartoon Network's most beloved animated series. While this is an exciting development, it is odd that the only black Powerpuff Girl will perpetually be the odd one out thanks to her troubled backstory and her apparent connection with notorious Powerpuff villain, Mojo Jojo. Regardless of concerns that Bliss could be portrayed as the "angry black girl," it's a wonderful step forward for the animated series, which initially aired on Cartoon Network from 1998 to 2005. It was rebooted in 2016, premiering on the network on April 4, 2016.
The Powerpuff Girls: The Power of Four is available to stream on the Cartoon Network app.