Are you ready to be charmed within an inch of your life by one of the most surprisingly funny and quirky first issues of not just the year, but possibly even the decade? Because if you’re not, I suggest you find something much less fun to read like “Irradiated Beefcake in Spandex” #389. For the rest of us, though, let’s strap ourselves in and dive right into “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” #1.
Written by Ryan North
Illustrated by Erica Henderson
• Wolverine, Deadpool, Doctor Doom, Thanos: There’s one hero that’s beaten them all—and now she’s got her own ongoing series! (Not that she’s bragging.)
• That’s right, you asked for it, you got it, it’s SQUIRREL GIRL! (She’s also starting college this semester.)
• It’s the start of a brand-new series of adventures starring the nuttiest and most upbeat super hero in the world!
“The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” is the latest in a long series of moves by Marvel to, hopefully, seemingly counteract the complaints by readers (myself included) that superhero comics have taken too much of a darker and introverted tone. Well, I mean… we still just got “Axis” which was literally just ‘Superheroes Act Evil For No Reason: An Event In Nine Parts’, but I did say it was a move and not a permanent shift. “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” joins the ranks of books like “Ms. Marvel”, “She-Hulk” and, hell, even the recent shake up on “Batgirl” as comic books designed to be fun when reading them, not slogs through the seventy year old continuity of a muscular dude in tights that only a select few will even care about. Now, yes, that means you are going to get the oft touted complaint that this book only exists to usher in a new crowd of readers by pandering to their sensibilities with a female main character and a focus on socially awkward comedy as much as actual superheroic fare.
And you know what? Good.
Because Marvel, in their actually surprisingly finite wisdom, deemed this book worthy of the creative team of Ryan North and Erica Henderson, transcending it far above the tumblr crowd cash-in it could have been and turning it into one of the most charming comic books I’ve ever read. The basic premise of “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” #1 is not unlike what you’d might expect given it’s connection to the books I previously mentioned: Doreen Green is tired of being a superhero without a secret identity and only ever hanging out at Avengers Mansion and so she enrolls in college and sets off on her quest to not seem like the most awkward person there. Hilarity then ensues. And that’s not me being sarcastic, either, as this is a genuinely funny and charming issue from the first to the last page and it’s all entirely down to the talents of the creative team.
With a comic like “Dinosaur Comics” under your belt, that socially awkward, self referential brand of humour should come as second nature. Thankfully, it seems like it does as Ryan North infuses “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” #1 with a great sense of humour right from the first panel, keeping the entire issue feeling light and upbeat as he slowly introduces the actual story elements. It isn’t all just fun and games, after all, as there’s a plot to be had and this first issue does a good job at juggling both being funny (even though that is, of course, a rather subjective thing to say, but for the style of humour North writes and the visual comedy that Erica Henderson employs, the comedy works on a technical level even if it isn’t your cup of tea) and being an introduction to the character and the direction North and Henderson are taking her. This is definitely a first time buyer’s kind of issue as it’s geared to be accessible to anyone, regardless of their history with comics, but there’s still enough here to be a fun read for veteran comic readers – especially when you find out who the bad guy is for this issue.
This is perhaps where the whole unbiased, objective part of the review falls apart: I was already a fan of Erica Henderson’s art before going into this issue. Still, I was surprised at just how much I enjoyed her artwork on this issue as she manages to blend a great sense of absurdist visual comedy with an exaggerated sense of the classic superhero action all wrapped in a style that blends something like Broad City with superheroes. Henderson captures perfectly the quirky nature of North’s script, creating this hyperstylised reality that actually works with the Marvel universe, like taking a magnifying glass to the absurdity of a universe where superheroic figures are commonplace and then embracing that absurdity.
Continued belowThis works really well with both the comedic slant to North’s writing of the actual superhero stuff, but also with the scenes in which Doreen is trying to come off as a normal college student only to act incredibly socially awkward and yet still come off as normal. That’s the beauty of the comedy these two employ as the more conspicuous Doreen is in trying to act normal, the weirder she seems and therefore the more normal she ends up seeming because, well, she’s in college. It’s a feeling that blends through the art and the writing to keeping everything feeling fun and upbeat and, most of all, enjoyable.
Overall, this was actually a fantastic first issue and exceeded a lot of my personal expectations. Sure, I knew it was going to be fun, I mean, look at who made the thing, but what was surprising was just how cohesive the issue was in introducing readers to each part of Doreen while starting her on the new direction for her in the series and still keeping everything fun at the end of the day. This issue could have easily felt either too focused on comedy and rather light on story or the exact opposite, but instead it managed a nice balance between the two as the story is rather simple, but enjoyable and the humour stems from the story beats and the absurdist humour that the story and the universe spawns. The creative team never feel like they’re stretching to make a joke or pushing a story element just for the punchline; the humour and the story feels like it coexists and flows together really well making for an incredibly fun read. “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” #1 is definitely fun read that should not be written off. This might just be the sleeper hit of 2015.
Final Verdict: 9.1 – A solid introductory issue from a creative team that are simply hilarious for a series that has a lot of potential to go to some great places.
