Unbeatable Squirrel Girl vol2 #47 (2019)
by Ryan North & Derek Charm
cover by Erica Henderson
Unsurprisingly, the finale of Squirrel Girl’s series involves Doctor Doom.
The setup for the final storyline is that Melissa Morbeck, who fought Squirrel Girl earlier in the series, is back with a new plan…
She reveals her secret identity to the world.
So a bunch of criminals barge into her apartment…
…just to keep Squirrel Girl busy, while Melissa recruits the biggest players she can find.
Including Doctor Doom himself.
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl vol2 #48 (2019)
written by Ryan North
pencils by Derek Charm, Micheal Cho, Evan Shaner
cover by Erica Henderson
Never thought I’d see an advertisement for the “ante-penultimate” issue, but a Ryan North series is the one place where that doesn’t surprise me.
Doom wastes absolutely no time establishing who’s calling the shots.
Only DOCTOR DOOM would take THIS LONG…
…just to say “I will declare victory no matter what”.
Pedantic Doom is the best Doom.
In case you forgot the previous issues I reviewed: one of the reasons why I love the Ryan North series so much is that he moved away from the tiresome “Squirrel Girl defeats everyone off-panel” to the awesome “Squirrel Girl defeats everyone with logic, on-panel”.
Later when Squirrel Girl confronts Melissa, Iron Man shows up to help.
Too bad that Melissa REALLY planned ahead this time, first incapacitating Iron Man…
…and then stealing his suit.
Squirrel Girl brings her supporting cast to the fight.
This includes both civilians Nancy and Mary as well as two superheroes: Koi Boi (who has fish powers and who can talk to fish) and Chipmunk Hunk (who has chipmunk powers).
Squirrel Girl’s friends definitely have a theme.
Yeah, uhm, this is not the most balanced fight ever.
But ALSO, Melissa has reprogrammed her other friend: Brain Drain.
Who is a pre-existing character that predates the Squirrel Girl series by a lot, but in the series he’s evolved into… uhm…
…look it would take A LONG TIME to explain Brain Drain, just enjoy the ride.
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl vol2 #49 (2019)
by Ryan North & Derek Charm
cover by Erica Henderson
Will Squirrel Girl just prove herself to be unbeatable?
Well she does have the support of one of the fiercest armies on the planet: squirrels.
Never thought I’d see the day I would see Doctor Doom fight a guy called Chipmunk Hunk.
Even more amazing is that Doom doesn’t obliterate him: he’s distracted when Baron Mordo uses his power to disable the squirrel armors, while Squirrel Girl’s squirrel sidekick Tippy Toe manages to free Brain Drain.
That’s a lot of squirrels in that sentence.
Squirrel Girl gets the support of the current Avengers. Which include ONE hero who has not fought Doom yet, the Robbie Reyes version of Ghost Rider.
(She-Hulk being like that is not from this book. The Avengers were in a weird place.)
But Melissa has planned for this as well…
…stealing MORE Iron Man suits.
I think Doom is beginning to appreciate Melissa’s style.
Will overconfidence be once again Doom’s downfall?
Not yet! If there’s one consistent thing about this series, is to never expect it to play ALL tropes straight.
For example, Squirrel Girl is not saved by her friends… but by the supervillains she helped throughout the series.
One of the things that makes Doom’s appearance in this book is that, while the tone of the series is comedic and light-hearted, Doctor Doom is acting like this was any other book.
Unbeatable Squirrel Girl vol2 #50 (2019)
by Ryan North & Derek Charm
cover by Erica Henderson
How will Squirrel Girl get out of this one?
Well let’s just say that Squirrel Girl will befriend ANYONE.
I’ve said it before: Doctor Doom’s actual superpower is the ability to rationalize ANYTHING into somehow making him the winner.
Out of all the odd friendships Squirrel Girl develops in this series, Galactus might be my favorite.
Galactus even makes sure to jail all the villains.
Doom significance: 0/10
I don’t think Melissa is high on the list of people Doom might call up again.
It was a Doombot all along
At least according to him. But why would you want to take such a fun story out of Doom’s history? It’s not like he couldn’t actually escape from that prison at the end.
Silver Age-ness: 10/10
Does it stand the test of time? 9/10
The artwork is a big hurdle to get past: it works very well with the tone of the series, but it’s definitely an acquired taste.
My only extremely minor complain is that besides Doctor Doom, the team of supervillains summoned by Melissa is completely wasted. Not only that, but they’re wildly off: why would DORMAMMU of all beings get involved in this? Any why would giving him an Iron Man armor even make the slightest possible difference!?
I only complain about this because this series has some of the smartest writing I’ve seen in recent comics, and that felt like an oversight.
It’s not like North couldn’t make this work: Galactus is acting 99% as he would in a regular story.
Having said that… if you’re in for a series that is smart, creative, heartfelt and COMPLETELY BONKERS, you won’t be disappointed by this entire Squirrel Girl run.
Number of superheroes who have fought Dr. Doom: 140
Some of the most random additions to the list yet! Chipmunk Hunk is the most direct addition, but while we don’t see Doom attack them directly he DOES join a team that fights both Koi Boi and Ghost Rider, so they are also added.
Brain Drain is a gray area but I would count him as a superhero in this series… except Melissa is the one to convert his body and Doom doesn’t fight him, so he doesn’t get added.
Crazy tech
Doom’s armor tanking Captain Marvel’s full-power blast is impressive but nothing we haven’t seen before. But take a moment to appreciate that, if it wasn’t for Galactus showing up unannounced, Doom’s hidden bomb would have killed everyone else in the fight.
Even squirrels.
And that was the last full storyline of the 2010s I’m going to cover!
Next up will be a one-off to celebrate the ending of this decade, after which the retrospective will move to the 2020s and change format a bit.
I’d have liked this better if the villain’s plan had not depended on Tony Stark being handed the Idiot Ball.
(sigh) but I’d also have liked it better if even once, when the armored villain lifts the faceplate so we can see her emote, someone would take the opportunity to shoot her in the face!
… I really don’t like Melissa Morbeck.
Wild thought, I know, but do you get the sense that maybe Ryan North is not taking this book entirely seriously?
I hope he had the foresight to add panels showing how Melissa invited those villains for the event. Hopefully most had publicy known email addresses; postal workers deserve better than to have a duty to locate and dare into the specific locales in the Dark Dimension, wherever in China Fing Fang Foon might currently be, and AIM, Baron Mordo and Leader headquarters.
Gotta love that Brain Drain uses a domino mask while he is robbing a bank; he wasn’t that careful early in his career. Now that is planning in advance. Also, that of that bunch of criminals appearing earlier the one who does not have a true mouth nor vocal chords (Swarm) is the most articulate. And also Modok in Iron Man armor having a Transformers emblem. Even Fin Fang Foom gets a ridiculously small amount of protective armor. Too bad it wasn’t shaped as a chainmail bikini for full effect.
For that matter, gotta love that this was the second #50 of Unbeatable Squirrel Girl that year. Perfect balance between transparency and cynical opportunism, as one would expect. Legacy numbering may be pointless (since it is discarded so often), but at least it gave me a laugh this time.
Ordinarily there would be no need to announce an antepenultimate issue on the cover. And there wasn’t here either; but the antepeNUTimate issue is another matter entirely.
Tony’s statement that he hates when bad guys snap is, of course, a direct reference to Avengers Endgame.
Has a team-up between Squirrel Girl and Beak (Barnell Bohusk) been done yet? It is a natural. Good opportunity for a cross-company event with My Little Pony too. Then a year later we have have Squirrel Girl and Beak versus Godzilla and Kong.
On a Squirrel Girl series? That’s crazy talk!
Jokes aside, I found that North takes the series seriously *when it matters*, meaning when it’s tackling characterization and character development.
But this IS primarily a comedic series, so the “rule of funny” still very much applies.
From his other books I can tell that there’s always a touch of humor in his work, but less prevalent as they are more straightforward superhero comics.
Not directly but I don’t find that necessary. Most of the villains (potentially all? It’s been a while since I’ve read the whole series) had already met Squirrel Girl previously, and Melissa has been obsessing over Squirrel Girl long enough to find them.
Assuming Dormammu wasn’t the one to find them. Or that postal workers don’t include Dormammu worshippers, which I wouldn’t exclude!
The make fun of that in the comic a couple of times.
I’d buy any of these if Ryan North is writing.
This series is in my To-Read list… Ryan North is amazing. I am a fan since I read “The Midas Flesh” by him. It’s awesome. And a weird coincidence. Just before reading this post I read today’s “Dinosaur Comics” by North…