The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1
Ryan North, Erica Henderson, Rico Renzi
Marvel $3.99
DID YOU KNOW: You can prevent me from being disappointed by your book’s lack of CAT THOR by coming up with a food court filled with establishments that have hilarious super-hero related names.?! Keep that in mind all you non- Ryan North and Erica Henderson creators out there!
Now that Secret Wars is over, ALL NEW ALL DIFFERENT MARVEL has started, books that were on hiatus are back, and that’s great for anyone who was enjoying Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (AKA me). The book is back, and not much has changed, which is fine, because nothing was broken to begin with. Well that’s not exactly true, as our hero is now an Avenger (see here and here), which means she has a sweet teleporter which I’m sure will lead to hilarious mishaps sooner rather than later. Oh and North and Henderson have used the editorial mandated 8 month gap to make Doreen Green a 2nd year college student, and move in her cat enthusiast BFF Nancy Whitehead, which is a nice way to please both the powers that be and fans of the book who don’t care about big event comics.
Those changes aside, it’s business as usual, and the business of kicking butts and eating nuts is booming. Ryan North is still writing genius scripts, and this month gives us such gems as a super obscure robots villain, more fun with computer science, and the introduction of Squirrel Girl’s mom Maureen Green. Maureen (which rhythms with Dorren!) is a super likable character from the get go, and a bit of a rarity; she’s a mother well aware of her daughter’s life, is a fan of her life choices, loves her new bestie, OH AND IS ACTUALLY ALIVE AND PROBABLY NOT IN DANGER OF GETTING KILLED OFF ANYTIME SOON. All of it is refreshing, and handled with the level of excellence-meet-insanity North has been known for from this series.
Equally as rad is the art team of Erica Henderson and Rico Renzi. While Henderson’s work on this title has always been solid, this issue feels clean and more expressive than previous ones. What she does with her character’s body language is superb, and the range of emotions she can put into the cast’s acting is impressive. Also she’s definitely on North’s level when it comes to making the book funny, as she inserts a number of gags all 
throughout the book. And the new costume she gives Squirrel Girl is super adorable, and I’m excited to see who cosplays it first next year. Colorist Rico Renzi colors are fantastic, starting the issues off with a cool moody intro that plays off the intensity of the flames quite well, and then switches it up for a bright, animated look for the rest of the book. I dig it, as it set the moods from ultra-heroics to slapstick humor well, and pairs well with Henderson’s pencils and inks.
With great cartoon-esque visuals and some really fun and intelligent writing, Unbreakable Squirrel’s second #1 of the year is as great as the one we got back in January. It’s a delightful romp that joins Ms Marvel as a book that truly feels like an all ages book without looking down the young readers. I’m glad it’s stuck around for this long, and kept it’s killer creative team, and I hope they have the chance to continue telling these types of stories.
