A round of applause for Angel Face, the newest menace on Bash Street. The cartoon-strip character, a rival for Dennis the Menace, began appearing in the Beano last year but will now join the new television adaptation. According to Mike Stirling, editor-in-chief of the Beano, Angel is "a powerful female figure who shows that girls are every bit as badly behaved as boys". Hurrah! But wait, there's more: "Dennis and Angel face sometimes team up and cause mega-mischief." Amazing! Anything else? "Unlike Dennis, Angel Face manages to get away with things because she flutters her eyelashes and is the headmaster's daughter." RECORD SCRATCH. Oh.

Angel Face is not entirely new to the Beano – back in the 50s she was a blonde girl with big eyes and a polka-dot bow – but this latest incarnation nods to a multicultural and somewhat feminist modernity. The new Angel Face is black, wears her hair scraped back in a ponytail, and is dressed in what appears to be orange combat boots. Stirling has said she will appeal to girls (who make up more than a third of the comic's readers).

It is the unenviable lot of the female pop culture fan to fall in love with problematic characters and programmes, and doubly so when they're also brown or black; "cautious celebration" are constant watchwords when it comes to consuming pop culture. On the one hand, we are so pleased when we are – finally – included in the full and rich tapestry of modern British life (Dennis the Menace has been around since 1951). On the other hand, once there, we'd rather like to be just like everyone else, free of stifling tropes and cliches: dumb blondes, magical negroes, bitchy gay men et al.

An eyelash-fluttering heroine is not the worst of out representation woes. But the idea of feminine wiles (because that is what eyelash-fluttering is, at any age) is more than a little disappointing. Still, at least Angel Face won't be a romantic foil for Dennis – she'll only be batting her lashes to get out of punishment from the grownups.