Review: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1
Doreen Green is half human and half squirrel. I’m not sure how she came about. Did a squirrel have sex with a human? If so, which one carried and gave birth to her? I’d assume the human, since she’s human-sized. Or maybe she accidentally got inside of a machine - similar to the one in The Fly - with a squirrel and genes got crossed. She has a theme song about herself which does not answer that question. What it does tell us is: she likes to sit in trees, talk to squirrels, find nuts, eat nuts, and kick bad guys’ evil butts.
We start out with her telling her squirrel friend Tippy-Toe that she’s moving out of the attic of the Avenger’s mansion. I’m curious if this is like an Anne Frank type attic situation. She’s moving out because she wants to go to college to study computer science, under her secret identity of Doreen Green. She hides her squirrel appearance by tucking her tail into her pants, which gives her the appearance of a large and conspicuously awesome butt.
What I love about this is how obvious she actually is. She carries stacks and stacks of boxes in her hands that no normal human should be able to do. Then she talks to her squirrel friend out in public while walking down the street. Several times she makes comments like, “I’m actually a totally regular person.” A fellow student named Tomas seems very interested in her, even though she’s doing all these weird things. It must be the large butt.
While introducing herself to her new roommate Nancy, a villain named Kraven appears on campus. She excuses herself to go outside and deal with Kraven, who is holding Tippy Toe in his hands. On her way out, she changes back into Squirrel Girl. I assume just by removing her pants.
Kraven is the greatest of all, cursed only to be killed by Spider-Man. Squirrel Girl tosses him way up in the air so she has time to think about how to defeat him. She decides the question isn’t how to beat him, but rather, why are they fighting in the first place. She uses logic against him. She reminds him he won’t be satisfied until either he kills Spider-Man or Spider-Man kills him. Since he can’t accomplish either of these, he’s frustrated and taking it out on squirrels. She tells him he can’t die, so why is he limiting himself to fighting the same easy creatures. He should be going after more dangerous prey, such as Gigantos or Kraken. He agrees and they shake hands and go their separate ways.
This issue ends with Tippy Toe freaking out because the Earth is doomed. The other squirrels have reported something colossal is headed towards Earth and it’s up to them to save the planet. Doreen isn’t worried because it’s millions of miles away and they have plenty of time before it reaches hits…. or do they?
I didn’t start reading this until the third issue came out. But I’m so glad I started. I love it. It’s light, it’s funny, and Squirrel Girl is awesome. If you don’t think she’s fantastic, then you must be nuts! I’ll continue to read and review this. I’m not going to rate every issue, only this one. From what I’ve read so far, I’d give it 9 out of 10.
