#1 Fan!

In which Mike reviews the first issue of a new comic. 

This Week: 

the unbeatable Squirrel Girl

Just looking at the cover of the unbeatable Squirrel Girl you know you’re not going to be diving into a “normal” Marvel comic. It looks like the early 90s Disney TV shows (i.e. Tailspin/DarkWing Duck) by way of Lisa Frank. This vibe might throw you off initially; maybe you expect something overly saccharine, overly positive, or overly childish (which we all know comics have no room for childish things). But wait. Look closer. The way the titutlar hero and her ribbon-wearign squirrel gaze lovingly at the fantasy of her being held up by the Avengers tips you off–this book will be a look at unending failure, Squirrel Girl’s failure to comprehend her failure, and how charming and quirky this once once-note joke of a character can be.

Brief background for those Filterinos not into Z-list Marvel characters: Doreen Green, America’s favorite bucktoothed heroine, first showed up in 1992. She was created by Steve Ditko and Will Murray as a member of the Great Lakes Avengers (like if Pawnee had a Justice League*) and designed by Murray as a way to relax and get away from the serious X-Men drama. He wanted to recapture the levity in comics, and remind people that the books are allowed to be fun. Various writers have used Squirrel Girl in small ways since her creation, popping up in everything from Deadpool to New Avengers, almost always as a joke. Because, how the fuck else are you going to use Squirrel Girl?

Like this.

Her newest incarnation (in her very own book) is from writer Ryan North (Adventure Time) and artist Erica Henderson (Atomic Robo), and they keep the jokes running throughout the book. But while they’re poking fun at comics and the silliness of a superhero based on a rodent, they also inject Doreen with some humanity. Which is a good thing because keeping her a one-note joke for an entire issue, let alone an actual ongoing series, would be a chore to slog through. I honestly expected it to be rough going; I’m one of those nerds who like to use Squirrel Girl as a punch line (to the delight of no one), and I love that a character this goofy exists next to Captain America and the Hulk. But I never thought her own book would be handled so well.

One of the smartest things North and Henderson have done is to not make this an origin story. Do you really want to fucking know how she got the powers of a squirrel? The creative team realized everyone is inundated with origins, and that no character who’s book made it big started with their origin. Hit the ground running, and trust the audience to get on board. What this issue does in lieu of an origin story is to open with SG hanging in a tree with her best squirrel pal Tippy-Toe singing her self-written theme song before beating the living snot out of three punk-ass park criminals. This scene does several things: it creates a world in comics where things are allowed to be silly instantly, shows that Squirrel Girl can handle her shit in a situation, and gives the uninitiated some much-needed details (though who is picking this up without knowing anything about her?). Most of that is done through one of the best theme songs I’ve ever heard. Here are some choice lyrics, “ Is she tough? Listen bud: She’s got partially squirrel blood”, “powers of both squirrel and girl” “find some nuts, eats some nuts! Kick some bad guuuuuys evil butts”, and reminding you over and over again that she is both a human and a squirrel. My goal is to find some musician out there to fully realize the potential of the song.

Feeling musically inspired?

The rest of the issue is a simple story. Doreen needs to get used to having a secret identity, since she’s starting college (because squatting in the Avengers Mansion attic is just sad). There are elements of early Spiderman within the character. She’s young, and has to fit into a school setting while balance fighting crime. She’s not a “normal” person; where Peter Parker was an uber-nerd, Doreen Green is obsessed with squirrels and a little hippy-dippy goober. Neither fit the standards of what it means to be super, but rose up. A large difference is Doreen has confidence. And this is where some genius is hidden within these silly funny-pages. Squirrel Girl is a pretty kick-ass feminist role model for young girls, and proves that you don’t have to act, look, or do what the people around you expect (and she blasts through the stereotype of the angry feminist). Squirrel Girl likes who she is. She doesn’t give a shit if people like her or not, she’s got her squirrel buddies. She’s proud of the fact the in her secret identity she has a “conspicuously large and conspicuously awesome butt.” If that’s not a role model for the new millennium, I don’t know what is.

A butt all the black guys want

Within all of the table setting required in a first issue, there are great character moments and little jokes. Where nothing made me laugh out loud, they hit more than I expected and I found myself actually interested in Doreen’s journey through college. Her beating Kraven (with her brain and trusty Deadpool trading cards!) was almost inconsequential, though it did give us her catchphrase, “You’re a jerk who sucks!”. I want to know what her day-to-day life is gonna be like. Which means this issue won. I went in having zero expectations of wanting to know what would happen in the ongoing adventures of the unbeatable Squirrel Girl, but goddamnit she won. If they stick to the ingredients laid out here, this could be a delightful book to break up your overly dramatic, overly woven together crossover events that come out every month. And you’ll get to see a chick with a rodent headband beat the worst of Marvel’s baddies, which will never not be fun. Check it out!

*Really like if Pawnee had a Legion of Superheroes, who’s ranks are filled with characters like Matter-Eater Lad, and Bouncing Boy. So that’s two fat kid superheroes on that team.

Get behind the scenes stuff at: Unbeatablesquirrelgirl.tumblr.com

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