The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 1: Squirrel Power

There's not many superheroes out there that can claim that they defeated Thanos, Deadpool and Doctor Doom. Oddly enough, Squirrel Girl can. And she's about to add a few more villains to her list, including the biggie of them all: Galactus! But first, she's got to move into her dorm, meet her roommate and her roomie's cat, attend freshman orientation and catch the eye of the freshman hunk that she ran into during her first day of college. Armed with her best friend, Tippy Toe the squirrel, some borrowed Tony Stark tech and a nauseating amount of optimism, Squirrel Girl just might be able to save the world.

Written by Ryan North and illustrated by Erica Henderson. Although, it really seems to me that Erica Henderson should receive co-plotter credits based on the amount of work she's credited for by Ryan North in the letters column of each issue. When's the last time you could say that a trade paperback included the letters columns? Tongue is very much in cheek all around. However, there's a certain degree of reverence to the lead character, which you have to admit is one of Marvel's odder creations. 

Almost every page has a secret message around the bottom margin. You'll need a microscope to read the ones in issue #1. It gets a little bigger on issue #2 but it doesn't help much that the font color appears to be this dijon mustard beige hue. The messages are mostly funny. A couple are interesting factoids. But they also gave me a bit of a headache, and that's with reading glasses.

I don't think that I am going to keep this book. I wouldn't be opposed to reading volume 2 if I found it for cheap or at my local library. As a bonus feature, Squirrel Girl's first appearance from 1990's Marvel Super-Heroes Winter Special is included. Those early 90s seasonal specials are on my wish list and I have quite a few in my collection. Considering how expensive a copy is, I wouldn't mind owning a reprint or facsimile edition of that issue. But only her story is included in this book. It's just not enough to get me to want to hold onto it.

Be mad at me if you want, but Tippy Toe is the best character and excellently drawn. I just hope she doesn't meet the same grisly fate of her predecessor Monkey Joe.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

Season's Beatings #1

X-Force, Spider-Men Miles Morales and Peter Parker, Squirrel Girl and the West Coast Avengers join Deadpool in this 2018 holiday comic. While it has elements of Run Lola Run and The Usual Suspects throughout the plot, this was another festive fail on Marvel's part this year.

The Spider-Men story starts great and then gets jumbled when the two Spidey's meet. It has a great ending however. 

The Squirrel Girl yarn was flat out perfect as she deals with Doctor Doom on a Latverian Christmas Eve. 

The West Coast Avengers story was horrid. It's got the Kate Bishop trying to solve the murder of a mall Santa. If she was doing the work on her own, it would be fine. Having Clint Barton on hand would have been ideal. Instead, Katie has some annoying purple haired mutant helping, hindering, and it was the biggest steaming pile of crap.

Then we have the framing story which involves Deadpool and X-Force. Deadpool by himself is very funny as usual. But X-Force are freakin' confusing as all get out. And once Wade Wilson and Cable's squad get together, it's like a very bad rendition of Who's On First?

The entire book is written by Winter Solider and Spider-Gwen's Jason Latour. I think if Latour had focused on characters that he's got experience writing about, this book would have been great. Or if Marvel had a different writer for each story. Instead, the entire book felt very uneven. 

Then there's the art. As I have mentioned in several posts, Marvel has gotten some flak on the lack of quality in the art. This holiday comic is no exception. The Spider-Men tale was a pale imitation of the great Darwyn Cooke at best. And I've never seen Deadpool look worse and that's saying something. At least whomever did the Squirrel Girl art was on point in this special. As I said, that one tale was flawless.

I'm not sure what Marvel was thinking this year. The Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur Christmas themed issue was great. But the two stand-alone holiday specials just weren't all that great. The House of Ideas has fallen into disrepair and the publisher is going to have to do something to fix things quick in 2019. It's no wonder Disney doesn't trust Marvel with it's more family friendly properties; subletting to Dark Horse and IDW instead.

Rating: 5 out of 10 stars.

You Choose the Story When You're the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (2016 Halloween Comic Fest)

It's another Halloween Comic Fest offering that has absolutely nothing to do with Halloween. But I knew this going into both obtaining and reading this book. Why I wanted to read this book was because I loved the concept behind this story. It's a Choose Your Own Adventure comic book. 

For those of you not in the know, in the 80s, there were dozens upon dozens of series of books where a reader got to choose their fate through a number of choices placed strategically throughout the book. I absolutely loved those books. But I've never seen it in comic book form- until now!

The mighty Galactus has deemed the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl to be the champion of Earth. In order to prove her worth, the World Eater has put her through a series of bizarre challenges, like fighting a mass of living algae.  

This issue isn't exactly the best 'find your fate' type of story I've ever read in terms of the number of options. But the overall story was extremely funny and I did like the chance to be in charge of the storyline for a change. Plus, reading all of the unselected options were quite entertaining. I just don't think this type of story quite works in a comic book format. 

Regardless of how well this book translate, this was a pretty successful offering from Marvel.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.