Squirrel Girl's Greatest Hits.

[fullbodytransplant]

Things have exploded in the realm of Squirrel Girl this week. Bendis and Immonen hit a grand slam with her first appearance in a mainstream Marvel Comic with New Avengers #7, and the fanboy fury has been fantastic. My loyalty to Doreen Green runs deep, and tonight I would like to share a few of her best moments.

Hold on to your nuts, here we go...






These scans are culled from my two blogs, and believe it or not there are many many more if you want to go treasure hunting.

Click around at http://sketchcardsaloon.wordpress.com for a sketch card based take or http://fullbodytransplant.wordpress.com if the bushytail itch is not scratched thoroughly.

Ready, set, scurry up a tree!





Those are the first two pages of a legendary myth. The year was 1991 and Steve Ditko changed the world.



That is a trippy mandala I made from a drawing by Art Nerd Em. If Squirrel Girl tugs and stretches your entire being into pretzels of obsessive bliss like me, there is one source you must drink from.

Her true origin has finally been revealed.



Will Murray has spilled ALL the Squirrel Girl beans in Rob Imes' fabulous new issue of Ditkomania. You really must obtain your own copy of #79 and wallow in the most spectacular old-school zine in the world. The writing is magnificent, and the secrets of Doreen Green's creation are mind blowing.

Here are the crispiest nuggets:

1. Will Murray actually wanted to cut loose from the serious drama of the X-Men titles and bring back the light-hearted anything-goes joy of comic books.

2. Monkey Joe was a real squirrel, and Doreen Green was a real girl.

3. Steve Ditko invented the costume and eyeliner himself.

Flash forwarding to 2010, next up is the Iron Man 2 Squirrel Girl card by George "Geo" Davis.



That is the prize of my collection, but there is one additional cardboard treasure I need to share. After three years of begging and pleading and a bit of corporate blackmail, Upper Deck gave me a Squirrel Girl card in their Vs. System trading card game.



As if that was not enough to make me die happy, Marvel went one further. Our final shot of Squirrel Girl's Greatest Hits tonight features the only panel in comic book history that uses a gaming card to defeat a major villain. After studying MODOK's stats in the GLA Xmas Special, Doreen made the coolest move I have ever seen.

I am still recovering!

Comments

[philippos42]

Doreen Green rocks!

[fullbodytransplant]

And now the rest of the world knows!

There are some things that I wonder about her New Avengers gig...

Will Bendis make her finally lose a fight?

Will we learn where her powers come from and how they work?

Will Dr. Strange get in on her act?

Will we get to see flashbacks of her relationship with Wolverine?

Will she get a main story in a whole issue?

[glprime]

"[...]where her powers come[...]"

The previous explanation has been that she's a mutant.

[fullbodytransplant]

That's right, thanks. I still hope we get to see some background explanation of when she first started manifesting her nutty ability.

[psychopathicus_rex]

What I'd like to know more about is her home life. We know from the original Ditko story that her mom thinks her tail is adorable, and the worst thing she suffered in school was being called 'Rodent'. This makes her one of the few mutants in the MU who actually had a reasonably happy and non-traumatic adolescence, without facing extreme xenophobia from her friends and family. I'd like to read a story where she goes home for Christmas or something, so we can meet her folks.

[nezchan]

"Will Bendis make her finally lose a fight?"

...thus proving he totally doesn't understand the character/hates the fans.

[psychopathicus_rex]

It depends on how it's done, really. A character who NEVER EVER loses a fight can get a bit boring after a while - I mean, even characters like Superman and Wolverine lose fights every now and then. And, in fact, I don't think it's ever been stated outright that she's never lost a fight - we just know that she's won a hell of a lot of them against serious heavy-hitters.
Personally, I think that as long as her defeats aren't traumatic or humiliating ones that she can't bounce back from, it's perfectly possible to have Squirrel Girl lose fights and remain her lovable self. An interesting twist would be to have her really good at winning against big-time, nigh-unbeatable villains (as we know she is), but only having even chances against lower-level ones. Galactus comes to town? Holy crap, Squirrel Girl is the only one who can save us! Stegron has been spotted in the area? Eh, better send out her and someone else as well, just to be safe.

[thanekos]

There was fanart that took that to its logical conclusion:

" Yes, Stilt-Man, I can confirm that this is in fact the one true Squirrel Girl you've beaten! "

[psychopathicus_rex]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I was talking about.

[badficwriter]

Having considered the matter, I'm gonna have to say no. Having her defeated--by anyone--makes it no longer funny.

[psychopathicus_rex]

It defuses the joke, yes - but the question is which one is more important, the joke or the character?
There's no question that Doreen owes her present popularity to the joke. She wouldn't have resurfaced in comics at all if it weren't for the 'Squirrel Girl can beat everybody!' meme - it was a case of Marvel getting in on the joke. However, Doreen herself is a perfectly viable character in her own right - she's sweet, she's funny, she's got a very appealing earnestness about her and a genuine desire to help. Her character has already grown beyond its original boundaries, and could well grow further - but, unfortunately, one of the things that is holding her back is the joke. She's THRIVED under the joke, absolutely - the joke is responsible for her resurgence in popularity, but it can't last forever. No character can have much long-term growth if he or she is tied permanently to a punchline - in this case 'Squirrel Girl always wins!' There's nothing wrong with having her character continue to win battles, but if it's automatic, if it's a constant, unvarying thing, then ultimately she stops being interesting; you know what's going to happen before she even shows up. Character growth is achieved through variety of circumstances, through winning a few, losing a few, surviving adversity and coming out the other side. I'm not saying that therefore Doreen should be put through the meat grinder - it would be a crime if she were to lose her chirpy attitude and enthusiasm - but it certainly wouldn't hurt her to see how she handles a really bad situation that she doesn't necessarily win - or, at any rate, doesn't win easily.
Basically, if Doreen is to remain on the sidelines of the MU and gradually fade into obscurity as readers start to tire of the joke, then fine, leave her how she is, but if she's to be transferred into the center of it and have her chance to shine as a genuine non-joke character, then let her lose as well as win, and let's hope that writers are mature enough not to treat her too harshly while she's growing stronger.

[fifthie]

It depends on how it's done, really.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvdf5n-zI14

[psychopathicus_rex]

Does that mean you disagree with me, or...?

[nezchan]

"A character who NEVER EVER loses a fight can get a bit boring after a while - I mean, even characters like Superman and Wolverine lose fights every now and then."

Personally, I think that's the issue here. Superman and Wolverine are Serious Business Heroes, you dig? Squirrel Girl's a different animal, so different rules apply. For one thing, you get her mainly in small doses, so she's not a constant like the other guys, but more importantly, for her the "not losing" thing isn't a power in quite the same way.

It's schtick.

Start doing stuff by making her lose fights against Stilt-Man or whoever, and she becomes Just A Regular Marvel Hero, and to me that would be a huge disservice, and an indication of a lack of understanding that it is schtick. And she loses mystique thereby.

[darrylayo]

Exactly.

Nothing beats a Squirrel Girl. That's the whole point.

Where's Thanos at, anyway? I haven't seen him since it was announced that Doreen was in town...

[psychopathicus_rex]

But schtick can't survive forever, that's the thing. I mean, if she were a Bugs Bunny-esque sort of character in a situation that supported such things, then yeah, she could probably have a pretty long shelf life - but she's NOT in that sort of situation, she's in the MU, in a superhero universe that she wants to be a genuine part of, and a character like that has to have more than one note to her. Joke characters don't last long as jokes without other jokes to support them - look at Forbush Man. He was a fondly-remembered but thoroughly vanished blip on the landscape until Warren Ellis chose to bring him back in 'Nextwave' and treat him in a semi-serious fashion. Whether or not this was a service or disservice to the character is not for me to say - I haven't read 'Nextwave' - but the point is that he probably would never have shown up again otherwise, and I'm fairly certain he hasn't been seen since. (For that matter, seen Obnoxio the Clown lately? No? Didn't think so.) On a somewhat different note, look at the Agents of Atlas - they weren't intended as JOKES, but several of them - M-11, Gorilla-Man - WERE intended as one-note characters in horror comics, meant to give the readers a jolt. Subsequent writers saw past that one note, and they've since become great characters in their own right. Whether it be punchline or dramatic stinger, a one-note character is a passing thing - a several-note character is not. If you'll pardon the stretching of a metaphor, several notes is a tune that can be added to and expanded and given new variations - one note is just a plunk on the strings. It may be a NICE plunk on the strings, it may be funny or dramatic or heartwarming, but unless someone sees the promise in that one plunk and adds a few plunks of their own, it's still just a plunk, and eventually people will tire of the one plunk, and tell the plunker to knock off the plunking and play us a song.
It all boils down, basically, to which you treasure most, the joke or the character. Do you cling to the joke, which is by nature transitory, or do you allow Doreen to expand in different directions and survive as a legitimate, well-rounded character? I'm not saying she HAS to do stuff like losing fights to Stilt-Man, but she DOES have to GROW. She can't remain interesting if she doesn't grow.

[nezchan]

"The joke or the character."

Lovely false dichotomy you've got there, did you make it yourself?

I would say schtick (and since when is it 100% of her character, anyway?) wears out when people don't like it any more. General cries of fans going "Woo! Squirrel Girl kicks Galactus' ass!" doesn't really give me the impression that's been happening.

Or are there loud calls for making big changes to SG that I haven't been hearing?

[psychopathicus_rex]

Look, what I'm saying is that people WILL grow tired with her if she keeps on strictly in the same vein that she's been in. I'm not saying she's a one-note character, but she HAS been handled in a one-note manner. If you want ANY character's popularity to last more than a few years, you've got to vary things a bit. If she stayed on the outskirts of the MU hanging out with GLE and such, then yeah, the joke could probably go on for quite a long time, because her appearances would be more spaced out and she'd be surrounded by other humorous characters, but now that she's been moved into a more central position, I say it's time to do what would have to be done eventually anyway - flesh her out. It's long-term VS short-term.

[zechs80]

She'll die at the hands of DOOM. Search your heart. You know it to be true.

[jlbarnett]

the thing about her job as a nanny is that it gives her a reason to leave fights. Her sidekick squirrels and fellow GLA'ers have died so it's not like she has an invulnerability field around her. So if Danielle is something and Squirrel Girl stays to fight something bad could still happen to Danielle.

[megaspork]

Wait, when did the other GLA'ers die? If I remember the history correctly, she left the team because she realized she was holding back their potential. They came to rely on her way too much to defeat the villians they fought and all.

[jlbarnett]

Not all of them. But after she joined up one of the Grasshoppers died and so did Doorman.

[megaspork]

Well yeah, but the Grasshoppers always die. That's the joke of their legacy. They're the essence of the "Hi then Die" character. XD
In fact, the last one shown died in the panel he was introduced, killed by Deadpool no less.
Plus, Doorman got better, at least as better as an avatar of death can be.

[jlbarnett]

Sure, but it still shows danger exists despite Squirrel Girl's presence. So if Danielle is in danger then Doreen's primary concern is her safety. And just winning the fight isn't a guarentee of that. There can be ceiling collapses, stray shots from a defeated villain.

[his_spiffynesss]

I think she'll be treated a bit more seriously, but not full on grimdark! like some characters end up. It's clear from her first Avengers appearance the book is a bit lighter in tone than Bendis' previous runs.

I expect she's mostly going to stay in the background, except if Danielle is threatened, and then we see her full on awesome while the Avengers are looking the other way.

[hyperactivator]

YAY! ^_^

[fullbodytransplant]

That's EXACTLY the reaction I was aiming for!

[pyrotwilight]

Hehe! Great post!

Though I should point out youv need to look how the community makes its tags.

For example a tag for Squirrel Girl wouldn't be just "Squirrel Girl"

It'd be
"char: squirrel girl/doreen green"

You can see more of how the tags are layed out in the tags area.

http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/tag/

Chiming in to add

[badficwriter]

And go back and re-tag your other entry, so it'll show up when someone uses the tags to search.

[retro_nouveau]

Will Murray actually wanted to cut loose from the serious drama of the X-Men titles and bring back the light-hearted anything-goes joy of comic books.
Heh! Doreen on one side and Logan on the other... More Doreen pleez.

So Harleen Quinzel was based on Arleen Sorkin, and Doreen Green was based on a real Doreen Green, and they both appeared in 1992. Best year in comics ever.

So Doreen has the Rocky the Flying Squirrel attack. Next she'll pull a rabbit out of her hat? XD

[nezchan]

I could see that as an attack that always fails.

[rdfox]

My favorite part of that is that, after specifying that it's a Versus System card, she doesn't just lift Messers. Logan and Rasputin's trademark attack... she even calls it a "Fuzzball Special!"

Also, that sketch card seems specifically designed to cause Sage Freehaven to have a fatal nasal hemorrhage...

[proteus_lives]

Squirrel Girl!

All shall love her and despair!

[aelflar]

Doreen is a great character! She functions well anyway, but her highlight is being a Silver Age refugee - I hope that gets revisited in the New Avengers!

(and she always makes this Silver Age old time fan`s heart grow ^___^)

[badficwriter]

As usual, I teeter between hope and despair. Hope that all shall be as you say, that Squirrel Girl's greatness shall be respected....and despair that she's just been brought in to bring her down, because it'll be worth a brief sensation. Which would make it ironic to post this on 'Deconstructing Superheroes' Day.

[jaybee3]

Squirrel Girl is my favorite Marvel character bar none. I like the fact that Joe Q and Marvel (despite their other editorial faults) seem to like the character and haven't tried to destroy her or the basics of her character by making her dark and grim (i.e. what DC has done to Mary Marvel, Miss Martian and now Ice).