Unbeatable Squirrel Girl vol2 #2 (2016)
by Ryan North & Erica Henderson
While Doctor Doom was busy dealing with Iron Man, he was also involved in an unusual series.
If you’re only familiar with Squirrel Girl as a joke character, forget about that because this is one of the best written series in ages and she’s a surprisingly complex character.
It’s still a hilarious series, because squirrels.
We begin with Squirrel Girl and her squirrel sidekick Tippy-Toe waking up in the 1960s.
After she gets some period appropriate clothes…
…she finds herself fighting crime despite her best intentions.
Squirrel Girl’s best friend Nancy has figured out that she’s in the past, but even Wikipedia isn’t helpful.
Unusual for this kind of story, we know EXACTLY when Squirrel Girl ended: July 20th 1962, as she informs Nancy thorough a time capsule.
She comes across another girl who ended up in 1962, who also comes from Squirrel Girl’s university.
She figures out there must be other time travelers, so she puts up a very inconspicuous advertisement.
Meanwhile, Nancy continues to search for Squirrel Girl through Wikipedia.
“Plasmacabre” is too obscure even for me!
I’m pretty sure my counterpart in the Marvel Universe is a Wikipedia editor.
This is when the Doctor Doom of the past finds Nancy.
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl vol2 #3 (2016)
by Ryan North & Erica Henderson
That is one weird art gallery.
One of the running gags of the series is that Squirrel Girl learns about various heroes and villains through trading cards she got from Deadpool.
Doom doesn’t care about Nancy, he just wants to conquer his universe.
Doom almost picks up a fight with Jubilee, who was an occasional guest star of the series.
And who was a vampire in this period, because comics.
Interesting to see that Doom recognizes her, so he can’t be from the past too much.
Jubilee’s been in the list since Deathlok v2 #5, by the way.
SOMEHOW this works.
Never question Doom.
This Doom is very specifically from right after his first encounter with Squirrel Girl, on Marvel Super-Heroes #8. That’s a 1992 story, not that far off from when Jubilee enters the count the following year, and it’s easy to believe Doom already knew who Jubilee was.
So far Ryan North has his continuity right… this guy should write Fantastic Four or something.
We even get Doom’s perspective on his first fight with Squirrel Girl.
Since Doom is a time traveler, how about helping Squirrel Girl?
Yeah Doom’s not in a rush for a rematch.
This is why this is such an amazing series. Squirrel Girl’s joke used to be that she defeats everyone off-panel, but now the joke is that she can defeat anyone by over-analyzing them.
And Nancy is almost as good.
Not that Nancy is always right, because that’s the last thing you should ask Doctor Doom.
Doom and Nancy find Squirrel Girl in the past. At this point she’s still keeping a secret identity, SOMEHOW.
Something else you should know about Squirrel Girl is that she’ll befriend ANYONE.
Basically every page of the book has a joke in the white space. I’m skipping the others because… well what’s the point of recapping every single joke… but I HAD to mention this one.
Doom’s right this time, but he thinks this about everyone else all the time.
Another reason why I love this series is that, while it’s generally light-hearted and is a quick read, it does include very specific discussions about the minutiae of how this universe works.
Doom demonstrates what happens if you allow time travel to affect the time traveler by altering Nancy’s phone…
Doctor Doom WOULD be the kind of guy who regularly checks his own Wikipedia page.
Citation needed.
You can’t even trust wizard scientist dictators these days.
Squirrel Girl’s second fight with Doom doesn’t go as well as the original.
Doom really, really doesn’t care about Squirrel Girl anymore.
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl vol2 #4 (2016)
by Ryan North & Erica Henderson
Now that’s more squirrels.
Squirrel Girl and Nancy brainstorm how to beat Doctor Doom.
Too bad time machines don’t come easy.
Later, Squirrel Girl finds Doom building himself a new batch of Doombots using 1960s technology.
Too bad that Doom always leaves his time machine in neutral.
If I told you Squirrel Girl is one of the smartest written comics I’ve seen in quite some time, you probably wouldn’t believe me until you saw philosophical discussions hidden in silly fights.
Yet another why Squirrel Girl is awesome in this series: she ALWAYS finds a way to find everyone’s humanity.
And it… kind of works on Doom too?
Okay at this point you’re just showing off, Doom.
The other time traveling students show up with makeshift EMP generators, with predictable results.
Things are dire, until a SECOND Doctor Doom shows up…
…and it’s Future Squirrel Girl.
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl vol2 #5 (2016)
by Ryan North & Erica Henderson
The Dark Squirrel Returns.
The reason why Squirrel Girl and other students were thrown back into the past is that another student inherited a time machine gun and sent everyone else away to get better grades.
You know, typical Marvel Universe stuff.
Future Squirrel Girl has exactly the backstory you imagine.
Unfortunately, Future Squirrel Girl is not so unbeatable.
This leaves Doctor Doom to his final fight with Squirrel Girl in a museum.
Doom has all the advantages here, except one: he didn’t take into account that Squirrel Girl is also a programming genius.
If what I said earlier about this being a very smart comic didn’t convince you… how many comics can you remember having programming languages as part of the plot?
Squirrel Girl just managed to create a time loop where Nancy keeps sending her into the past over and over and over again…
…to raise an army of Squirrel Girls!!!
Doom probably considers this one a tie.
In the end, Future Squirrel Girl confiscates the time travel gun, and the original timeline is restored.
I can absolutely believe Doctor Doom respects THIS Squirrel Girl.
But that’s not over! Because in the epilogue, Doom decides he will get back at her.
Aw, nuts.
Doom significance: 2/10
I suppose this is the reason why it takes Doom so long to go after Squirrel Girl: they will meet again at the end of the series.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
On the Marvel scale and it’s done on purpose.
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
The Squirrel Girl is not for everyone’s taste: she can get a little irritating, sometimes the dialogue gets too wordy, and I’m not the biggest fan of the artwork… it works for some of the sillier scenes, but it rarely clicks for me.
But if it wasn’t clear from the review, I love everything about the way this is written. It’s funny, it’s clever, it’s light-hearted when it needs to, it’s serious to prevent everything from becoming a farce… and while this interpretation of Doom is a bit sillier than my ideal, it fits the tone.
Most importantly, Doom still comes across as a legitimate threat and isn’t really a punching bag or a parody of himself. At least until the epilogue, but that’s such a small part that I can forgive it.
Like I said I’m not a big fan of the artwork; that’s personal taste however, and it does have its own unique flavor.
If you’re in the right state of mind, I cannot recommend this series enough.
It was a Doombot all along
I’m sure Doom will say this was just a Doombot. Which TECHNICALLY might be true.
If you hate fun.
Take over the world: 31
Definitely Doom’s goal.
Destroy the FF! : 62
It’s one of the first things he plans to do after taking over the past, so it counts.
Crazy tech
Doom has his own utterly insane computer language.
Times Doctor Doom has taken over the world: 5
The count is NOT increased: by Marvel’s time travel rules, Doom just created a parallel timeline where he’s in charge. And we don’t even see him there.
Humor doesn’t have to be stupid? Humor can even be highly intelligent? Humor doesn’t have to rely on characters acting completely out of character?
There have been so many “funny” books that could learn a thing or two from Squirrel Girl.
Intelligent, smart humor, requires a careful study of the characters and their background. Chapeau to North for creating a series which relies on this crazy combination of smart on multiple levels and educated humor.