TITLE: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl vol. 2, Issue #1
YEAR: December 2015
COMPANY: Marvel Comics
Writer: Ryan North
Artist: Erica Henderson
Trading Card Art by Joe Morris
Color Art by Rico Renzi
Lettering by VC’s Clayton Cowles
Cover by Erica Henderson
Variants Cover by Chris Bachalo & Tim Townsend, Ben Caldwell & Rico Renzi and John Tyler Christopher, Phil Noto
“Have you read ‘The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl’?,” said an acquaintance. “She’s quite popular!”
Someone known as Squirrel Girl popular?
I thought this was some independent comic book series but when I heard it was a Marvel Comic book series, immediately I had to look her up and found out that she was created by will Murray and artist Steve Ditko and made her debut in “Marvel Super-Heroes” vol. 2, issue #8.
Believing that I had this issue, I had to look it up and sure enough, I didn’t have issue #8, I had issue #1. Wanting to read the origin, I went on eBay and saw how much the issue is going for that I decided to pass. Nevertheless, it made me curious about the Marvel superhero.
A girl with a large tail and the ability to communicate with squirrels is too far out but considering one of my favorite titles as a child was “Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew”, I was open to trying the first issue out.
The issue starts out with Doreen Green as Squirrel Girl stressing because her mother is coming to visit her and wanting to meet her roommate Nancy Whitehead.
As Doreen, her mother and Nancy talk and mom giving quite a number of details of Doreen’s younger years, while they are about to head inside their building via roof access, the door comes crashing down and nearly hits Doreen.
Behind the door is a robotic being with a brain inside glass (which functions as the head). Going through Deadpool’s Guide to Super Villains cards, they find out the robot like being is Brain Drain.
And as the groups clash, they will soon learn if Brain Drain is friend or foe.
Personally, I found “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” to be entertaining, campy but I can also see how readers can gravitate to her because despite her superhero status, she and her friends kind of remind me of the Scooby Gang (a “Buffy the Vampire” and “Scooby Doo” reference) and the characters joke a lot and for the most part, the story that I read was fun and upbeat.
But it’s really an unusual character to know that she has become so popular, especially when there are many other female superheroes out there. But I suppose that one can look at Squirrel Girl, Ms. Marvel and a few others as the new generation of girl power and if it makes one laugh, may it inspire or make one to pick up a comic book and forget reality for several minutes, then all power to “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” for entertaining so many readers and becoming one of Marvel’s popular super heroines of today.