There are a lot of comics out there, but some stand out head and shoulders above the pack. With “Don’t Miss This,” we want to spotlight those series we think need to be on your pull list. This week, we look one of Marvel’s strongest, and funniest, ongoings, “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.”
Who’s This By?
“The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” is written by Ryan North (“Dinosaur Comics,” “Jughead”) and was originally drawn by Erica Henderson (“Jughead”) and is now drawn by Derek Charm (“Jughead,” “Valiant High.”) The colors are by Rico Renzi (“Spider-Gwen,” “FBP”) and letters are done by Clayton Cowles (“Spider-Gwen,” “The Wicked and the Divine.”)
What’s This All About?
Squirrel Girl is your regular, run-of-the-mill superhero, eating nuts and kicking butts by day, foiling robbers in the park by slightly later in the day. She harbors a secret, though, one she cannot reveal for fear of retaliation from the many, many foes she has bested and befriended — secretly, she’s Doreen Green, computer science student and roommate to Nancy Whitehead, lover of knitting, cats and finding out but then keeping her roommate’s secret identity secret. Does Doreen succeed at keeping a secret? Does her secret even matter? Are there entire issues dedicated to teaching us computer science? Will her roommate Nancy ever meet Cat Thor?! All these questions and more, next time in “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.” Same Squirrel time. Same Squirrel channel.
So, Why Should I Read This?
As I said in the intro, this is one of Marvel’s strongest books and is hands-down the funniest they’ve got on the shelves. Gags abound in the series, from Kraven the Hunter’s Kra-van to Bass Lass, and the team is never afraid to try new and different ways of telling stories, such as the comic styled after a Choose Your Own Adventure book, getting Jim Davis to draw a set of Galactus & Silver Surfer comic strips, or the entirely silent issue, which isn’t a new concept but for a comic as text heavy as this one, it really gave Derek Charm a chance to shine. Every issue is a gem, thanks to Ryan North’s approachable, informative and humorous dialogue and Henderson’s (and now Charm’s) gorgeous character designs and charming expressions.
One of the few titles from the All-New All-Different initiative back in 2015, “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” has lived up to both titles in spades. Much of the charm and pull of this series is in the interpersonal relationship between Doreen and her friends and enemies as well as the ways in which she navigates her problems. The “unbeatable” in the title works on a variety of levels: as a statement of fact (she has never been beaten) and as a mode with which Doreen operates (she will keep fighting for what’s right.)
What truly sets her apart from the rest of the Marvel canon, in comics and in film, is her inexhaustible enthusiasm and belief in the goodness in others as the source of her unbearableness. It’s not that she can’t be physically or mentally defeated — she’s neither telepathic nor stronger than Hulk — but she is clever, quick thinking, and above all, compassionate. She is the embodiment of the best interpretations of the Marvel or the Direct Competitions’ superheroes: that there is always a third option. She does not win by brute force, but by relying on her friends and her knowledge. She defuses when others would escalate. She talks before she fights but she always acts when others are in danger.
She is not naive, she knows there are bad people who do bad things and they will never change, but she tries nonetheless to get them to be better. She has also succeeded via her sharp thinking at stopping galactic threats without ever throwing a punch. One of her earliest adventures involves stopping Galactus via finding him an unpopulated planet that can sustain him nigh indefinitely. She also has a conversation with him about the linguistical usage of they instead of the “gender-neutral” he and after she gets him to hold off on eating the Earth, they spend some time chilling on the moon.
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The whole thing seems a bit silly when distilled but all stories are like that. It is in the telling, in the details, where the strength lies and that is where “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” shines. North’s words turn every character into a more human version of themselves. It can be a bit text heavy at times but the breeziness of the dialogue & the breathlessness is where he has honed his skills. Everyone reads as a full-person; even Doctor “I Am DOOM” Doom is written with more facets than just power-hungry despot. Renzi’s coloring turns every issue into a bright, welcoming environment while still leaving room for more complicated, and more somber, moods.
Henderson, and now Charm’s, art is the perfect compliment to North’s words, driving the action and finding the right expressions, reactions, and posing so as to convey the tones of the series. Their art never gets lost behind the words nor does it overshadow them, because as the comic is keen to teach, words mean just as much as action and what we say defines us just as much as what we do. There is also a self-awareness to the title that allows them to have fun with every aspect of the process, from the solicits to the covers to the recap page to the comments at the bottom of every page, without ever falling into the Deadpool trap of using it for cynical ironic in a market oversaturated with that kind of a take. It’s an all-ages title, something that Marvel and DC sorely lack nowadays, so that is to be expected but it’s nice that the title doesn’t try to.
There isn’t a long term narrative at play but instead “Squirrel Girl” is a series of smaller adventures that build upon one another, crafting a larger story with this group of friends at its heart. These friends are ones that, once you’ve read a few issues, feel like they’ve always been a part of your life. That is the power of a good story and that is the power of Squirrel Girl.
How Can You Read It?
Issue #38 of “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” comes out today at your local comic book shop and digitally. There are 46 issues in total — 8 in the previous series thanks to “Secret Wars” shenanigans — so watch out for that when tracking down back issues. For those who read in trades: Good News! There’s no awkward break so you can pick up all the numbered volumes before Volume 9: ‘Squirrels Fall Like Dominos,’ collecting issues #32-36, comes out on November 27th.
For hardcover fans, there are currenly 3 volumes out, with volume 4 of the hardcover, collecting issues #22-31 and a couple other stories, coming out in February 2019.
If that’s STILL not enough Squirrel Girl, she’s got two prose novels by Shannon & Dean Hale, Squirrel Meets World and 2 Fuzzy, 2 Furious, as well as an OGN entitled “Squirrel Girl Beats up the Marvel Universe” and it is as fun as it sounds.
