Lucas Blogs About The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol. 12

OH! MY! GOD! The eyes of TJ Eckleburg represented Galactus this whole time!

That's right, it's another one of those Hypothetical Reader-less blog posts. Let's just jump in: Vol. 12 – To All the Squirrels I've Loved Before collects the four final issues of Ryan North and Derek Charm's The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (colors by Rico Renzi, covers by Erica Henderson). I'm not gonna make any bones about it, this has been my favorite comic book of the last few years and I'm sad that I won't get to read any more of it. But let's talk about this collection before we get any farther.

Doreen Green (aka the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl) is looking for her friend Brian Drayne (secretly the reformed supervillain turned superhero Brain Drain — look he's a brain and eyes that are kept alive in a jar sitting on top of a robot body. Turns out that nobody's seen him for a few days, however, Doreen has been receiving a series of texts that appear to be plain black squares, but which reveal a secret code (was there ever a better time for a superhero's secret identity to be a computer science major?). After Doreen and her various friends decode the message, they discover a set of coordinates and the name Melissa Morbeck (a criminal mastermind who befriended and betrayed Doreen back in Vol. 6). It turns out that Morbeck has learned a thing or two about the value of teamwork following her defeat and she's recruited a cadre of Squirrel Girls most infamous foes (including Doctor Doom, Taskmaster,  Fin Fang Foom, and M.O.D.O.K.)  to help her. Also, she's publicly revealed Doreen's secret identity and blown up her apartment building! Also she's attached Brian's brain jar to a giant mechanical scorpion which she forces to fight Squirrel Girl and her allies! And that's just in first half of the collection!

As usual, Ryan North's writing finds a balance of comedy, heart, and action, Derek Charm's art brings the story to life with bold action panels and excellent adaptations of familiar Marvel characters into his own style, and Rico Renzi's use of color remains on point. At this point, it's almost impossible for me to judge this comic objectively (I mean, I think it's impossible for anyone to evaluate art objectively, but you get what I mean, right?), but I will say that it felt like a fitting end to the story that began back in the first Issue #1. Speaking of, there are a number of callbacks — ranging from the hilarious to the touching — to the first volume. I don't want to get too into it here, because SPOILERS, but I think the creative team really knock it out of the park. The story ends in a way that feels like it satisfactorily closes this chapter of Doreen's life while leaving open the possibility for future adventures. The one substantive criticism I would offer is that while North packs a lot of action into these four issues, it doesn't have quite the same emotional punch as the gentler story he wrote as a send-off for Erica Henderson was back in volume eight (though this story does reference that one). That said, given that it was my favorite issue of the entire run, I won't hold that against him.

There's even parallels in the covers of the first and final volumes. And at the risk of making this caption way too long, I love the way that Henderson inverts Doreen's day dream, instead of being Rudy'd by the Avengers she's Rudy'd by her regular friends and by the villains she's reformed along the way. Speaking of, one of North's greatest achievements in writing USG was to take one of Spider-Man's goofiest foes (Sergei Kravinoff, aka Kraven the Hunter) and turn him into USG's poster child for the potential of anyone to become a better version of themselves.

Anyway, we're winding down here, I just wanted to thank Ryan, Erica, Derek, Rico, and everyone else who worked on these comics for all the enjoyment I've gotten from The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl these last 4+ years. Look, when a comic book can make you laugh, teach you computer science and philosophy basics, provide children with a model for treating others with respect and healthy means of conflict resolution while still showcasing exciting superheroics, its something special. And I also think it's great that there's an all ages comic book that feels contemporary and vital without any cynicism.  The trade paperbacks always made my day a little brighter, and I'm sorry to see them go. Goodbye, Doreen, Nancy, Tippy, Mew, Brian, Tomas, Ken, Mary, et al.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol. 12 – To All the Squirrels I've Loved Before written by Ryan North, drawn by Derek Charm, colors by Rico Renzi, Marvel Comics trade paperback edition, March 2020, 112 pages, pairs well with fond memories of previous trades

Gaze upon my material possessions!