With Squirrel Girl, Marvel is proving just how strong the Marvel brand is—so strong that it can do a 180 and it’s still part of the fun. Written by Ryan North (Adventure Time, Dinosaur Comics) and drawn by Erica Henderson (Atomic Robo, Marceline and the Scream Queens) this book is as “indie” and charming as comics can get. It even has lovely flat colors by Rico Renzi. Squirrel Girl is Doreen Green a typical college student except that she also has the proportionate speed and strength of a squirrel….and a big bushy squirrel tail, which she stuffs into her pants to keep her secret identity secret. Squirrel Girl was created in 1992 by writer Will Murray and Steve Ditko (!) and the gimmick is that even with powers that sound less than a-list, she can defeat anyone —and so far she’s defeated Doctor Doom, MODOK, Terrax, and Thanos, all with the help of her squirrel sidekick Tippy-Toe.
In the first issue of her book she (spoiler) defeated Kraven the Hunter while negotiating coed life and singing a theme song that sounded a lot like maybe it was like the Spider-Man theme song…like Kamala Khan, Doreen Green takes the classic Marvel “young adult with a problem” formula and updates it for a world that’s not grim and gritty, but chipper and hopeful.
Perhaps anxious to make sure that Squirrel Girl gets her licks in before Secret Wars, the second issue goes all the way to the top and features none other than Galactus. Here’s a preview of the issue, which takes place at…a comics convention. The main cover is by Henderson and the variant by Joe Quinones.
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #2 goes on sale next week, February 4th.
“and the gimmick is that even with powers that sound less than a-list, she can defeat anyone”
Doesn’t that describe most b,c,d list marvel superheroes?
She actually had a few joke popins in most of those events.
That cover with her looking over her shoulder at the squirrel in the exact same pose . . . is pretty brilliant.