Squirrel Girl: The Best Superhero You've Only Kind of Heard of
In the age of Marvel superheroes where Thanos can snap half a universe into oblivion and the multiverse can be created by a teenager with an identity crisis, there’s one thought crossing several diehard Marvel fans’ thoughts:
“This never would’ve happened if Squirrel Girl was here.”
Squirrel Girl, aka Doreen Green, has been gracing “weirdest Marvel superheroes” lists since her debut in Marvel Super-Heroes Vol. 2 #8 where she recruited herself to be Iron Man’s sidekick and promptly defeated Doctor Doom with a legion of squirrels. She appeared with a terrifying buck tooth and a diamond mask most fans mistook for harlequin-style eyeliner, which didn’t necessarily help her placings on the “most bizarre Marvel superheroes designs” lists either.
However, since her first appearance in 1991, Squirrel Girl has also proven herself to be one of Marvel’s most powerful heroes. Her list of defeated foes include Marvel legends such as Doctor Doom (on more than the first occasion), Kraven the Hunter (they’re besties now), Galactus, Kang the Conqueror, Thanos (in an off-panel fight but it still counts), and an evil version of herself. She even earned the moniker “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” in her own comics series released from January 2015 to March 2020 due to her impressive track record of being, well, unbeatable.
How does Doreen Green do it? Well, with a combination of legitimate power, empathy, and incredibly high self-confidence.
Despite boasting one of the most bizarre sets of superpowers seen in comics and being created explicitly as a joke to balance the darker storylines of 1990’s Marvel, Squirrel Girl remains unapologetic with her abilities. She never questions if she belongs in the same room as the Avengers or if her long list of victories is deserved. She knows she’s kind of silly and utilizes that knowledge to help save the day as needed. Her villains aren’t defeated solely through the violence typically seen in comics. While there are plenty of moments where Squirrel Girl kicks some serious butt, she also understands that some bad guys can be conquered through some good ole fashioned empathy instead.
Take her encounter with Galactus, devourer of worlds, for example. Galactus is a godlike supervillain from space known for eating actual planets to sustain his lifeforce. When he once again targets Earth for his endless appetite, Squirrel Girl borrows a space suit from Tony Stark aka Iron Man and flies into space to confront the powerful foe. Traditionally, this would result in a massive fight requiring every resource available to the young hero or some space-time continuum nonsense where the planet Earth is moved to a different place in the universe to avoid him (remember the old Patrick Star memes, anyone?). But for Squirrel Girl, the solution was much easier: redirect Galactus to a planet of nuts. As in, the food source for most squirrels. Not only did Galactus receive a healthy snack filled with nutritious calories, but he thanks Squirrel Girl with a gift near to her heart and she’s able to return to her computer science class just in time before the lecture starts.
It’s this kind of empathy and innate cleverness that makes Squirrel Girl one of Marvel’s best superheroes. She doesn’t need to be dark and gritty to be taken seriously. She can get the job done to defeat anyone and anything that crosses her path with relentless optimism and a little bit of silliness and doesn’t apologize for a second of it. Her commitment to maintaining that positive attitude is reflected in her treatment of her villains and her loyalty to her group of friends, which seemingly grows larger and larger as each issue passes. The fact that she also studies computer science, occasionally using her gained knowledge in this field to survive her challenges, serves as a nice inspiration for her majority young female audience as well.
So the next time Marvel tries to throw a world-ending crisis into the MCU or even DC loops around to their usual “how gritty should superheroes be” debate, just know that there is a superhero out there that can not only handle the world-ending crisis (with a little help from her friends) but accomplish it with a positive attitude. Squirrel Girl is an inspiration to the world of superhero comics in terms of strong female representation and the power of light-hearted storylines that I hope is reflected in future series.