THOUGH IT MAY REEK OF BLASPHEMY to liken The Powerpuff Girls to the Beatles, consider this: Like the most successful pop group of all time, the Cartoon Network’s animated supertots have hit the top of the pops (their alt-rock-driven Heroes and Villains was Billboard’s No. 1 album on the children’s

music chart for six weeks last summer). And though they've yet to make any "more popular than Jesus" claims, the Girls, like Britain's Fab Four (currently reconquering America with the hits compilation 1), are enjoying a banner new millennium, reigning as one of their network's highest-rated

original shows and selling enough merchandise in the past year ($350 million) to rank them among the toy industry's biggest performers.
     Extending the Liverpudlian metaphor, one might also say that, creatively speaking, series creator Craig McCracken and Co. are entering a Rubber