Lucas Blogs About The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol. 11
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| Too bad I don't have a van to airbrush this on. |
So, what's this book's dea — again?
C'mon, Hypothetical Reader, this is the penultimate volume of my favorite comic book. Can we drop the "Hypothetical Reader hates Squirrel Girl" routine.
I am only as you write me.
Oh, right. Anyway, it's The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol. 11 – Call Your Squirrelfriend written by Ryan North, drawn by Derek Charm, and colored by Rico Renzi. Wanna talk about it?
Fine.
So, this volume starts off with a single issue story where Kang the Conqueror (a time-traveller who uses time travel and his 41st century technology to defeat his enemies) confronting Old Lady Squirrel Girl in a dystopian future. See, he's lured her into a building that he rigged to collapse on her forty years ago; only it doesn't collapse because the present day Squirrel Girl noticed the problem and fixed it in an earlier timeline. However, when Kang confronts her he's perturbed to find that the bomb he planted ten years earlier to stop Twentysomething Squirrel Girl didn't go off. So he has to travel back and confront Middle Grade Squirrel Girl who's just finished defusing the bomb. Fortunately, in the meantime Old Lady Squirrel Girl has managed to recreate Kang's time machine, and travel back with Twentysomething Squirrel Girl to rescue their younger self. Also, Old Lady Squirrel Girl is able to fix the timeline to make the future less dystopian. The rest of this volume takes place on the fringes of a larger Marvel event series in which Malekith leads an invasion of the rest of the realms and sees Squirrel Girl attempting to halt the Frost Giant invasion of Midgard (Earth) at the behest of Loki (he's a good guy now, as mentioned back in Volume 8. Only this time around, she's teaming up with Ratatoskr, who she faced off against way back in Volume 2 (which I did not review because I didn't write this blog back then).
Is this another one of those "Doreen reforms a bad guy" storylines?
This is one of those "Doreen reforms a bad guy" storylines. And that's something that Ryan North is kinda of an expert at at this point. This particular bad guy reformation story is especially enjoyable because Ratatoskr and Doreen make for a great comedic duo. Doreen is all about making the world a better place and Ratatoskr only wants to sow chaos.
So wait, why are they teaming up?
Oh, well, Ratatoskr's thing is discord, right?
This is the impression you've given me.
And if Malekith succeeds in uniting all of the realms under his rule, that would be pretty boring, right?
I'll take your word for it.
Anyway, the point is that the Doreen-Ratatoskr duo is one with inherent tensions, and one that leaves the reader wondering if Ratatoskr can reform at all (aside from in the literal sense, as a shapeshifter she turn her eyes into binoculars and her hands into John Locke's Second Treatise).
Or, indeed, whether she deserves to reform?
I suppose that is a valid question, but it's one that The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl already raised back in Volume 9 at the trial of Sergei Kravinoff. The answer seeming to be that any sincere effort at contrition requires action to repair the damage you've done. And I would say that North succeeds in showing Ratatoskr (in the guise of normal human Rachel Oskar) working to correct her mistakes. He also squeezes in such USG standbys as offbeat humor and clever solutions to seemingly insoluble problems.
And the art?
The art's good, Derek Charm does excellent work in both storylines, particularly on Ratatoskr, whose horned squirrel form is quite expressive. He also knocks it out of the park when displaying the scale difference between the Frost Giants and our protagonists (and when called on to draw a Frost Giant dancing to an Ariana Grande song, and when making the Frost Giants look like individuals). This volume also features a second guest appearance by Naomi Franquiz and a return from original USG artist Erica Henderson in the Kang the Conqueror storyline (Franquiz draws the Old Lady Squirrel Girl segments and Henderson draws the Middle Grade Squirrel Girl adventure). So, yeah, still a fun comic book, and I anxiously await the release of the final volume next year.
Not sure North et al can pull off a conclusion to your favorite comic book?
Well, not so much that, just feeling sort of bummed out to see USG end its run.
Well, I'm sure you'll find some other comic I can't stand to start reading.
You can count on it, Hypothetical Reader.
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Volume 11 - Call Your Squirrelfriend written by Ryan North, drawn by Derek Charm, with colors by Rico Renzi, Marvel Comics trade paperback edition, September 2019, 128 pages, pairs well with hot chocolate and quite contemplation of the things you've enjoyed
Is this another one of those "Doreen reforms a bad guy" storylines?
This is one of those "Doreen reforms a bad guy" storylines. And that's something that Ryan North is kinda of an expert at at this point. This particular bad guy reformation story is especially enjoyable because Ratatoskr and Doreen make for a great comedic duo. Doreen is all about making the world a better place and Ratatoskr only wants to sow chaos.
So wait, why are they teaming up?
Oh, well, Ratatoskr's thing is discord, right?
This is the impression you've given me.
And if Malekith succeeds in uniting all of the realms under his rule, that would be pretty boring, right?
I'll take your word for it.
Anyway, the point is that the Doreen-Ratatoskr duo is one with inherent tensions, and one that leaves the reader wondering if Ratatoskr can reform at all (aside from in the literal sense, as a shapeshifter she turn her eyes into binoculars and her hands into John Locke's Second Treatise).
Or, indeed, whether she deserves to reform?
I suppose that is a valid question, but it's one that The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl already raised back in Volume 9 at the trial of Sergei Kravinoff. The answer seeming to be that any sincere effort at contrition requires action to repair the damage you've done. And I would say that North succeeds in showing Ratatoskr (in the guise of normal human Rachel Oskar) working to correct her mistakes. He also squeezes in such USG standbys as offbeat humor and clever solutions to seemingly insoluble problems.
And the art?
The art's good, Derek Charm does excellent work in both storylines, particularly on Ratatoskr, whose horned squirrel form is quite expressive. He also knocks it out of the park when displaying the scale difference between the Frost Giants and our protagonists (and when called on to draw a Frost Giant dancing to an Ariana Grande song, and when making the Frost Giants look like individuals). This volume also features a second guest appearance by Naomi Franquiz and a return from original USG artist Erica Henderson in the Kang the Conqueror storyline (Franquiz draws the Old Lady Squirrel Girl segments and Henderson draws the Middle Grade Squirrel Girl adventure). So, yeah, still a fun comic book, and I anxiously await the release of the final volume next year.
Not sure North et al can pull off a conclusion to your favorite comic book?
Well, not so much that, just feeling sort of bummed out to see USG end its run.
Well, I'm sure you'll find some other comic I can't stand to start reading.
You can count on it, Hypothetical Reader.
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Volume 11 - Call Your Squirrelfriend written by Ryan North, drawn by Derek Charm, with colors by Rico Renzi, Marvel Comics trade paperback edition, September 2019, 128 pages, pairs well with hot chocolate and quite contemplation of the things you've enjoyed
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