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Home , Doctor Doom, Empire State University, Gwenpool, Ironheart (character), Jane Foster, Jessica Jones

The Empowering

Jayme Horne Submitted for History of Art 390 Feminism and History of Art Professor Ellen Shortell Massachusetts College of Art and Design

All the strength of a squirrel multiplied to the size of a girl? That must be the

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (fig. 1)! This paper will explore Marvel’s Squirrel Girl character, from her introduction as a joke character to her 2015 The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl ​ comic series which is being harold as being extremely empowering. This paper aims to understand why a hero like Squirrel Girl would be harold and celebrated by fans, while other female heroes with feminist qualities like or the New Almighty might be receiving not as much praise.

Squirrel Girl was created by and artist . Despite both of them having both worked for Marvel and DC, and having written stories about fan favorites like -Man, , , and others, they are most known for creating Squirrel Girl, also known as Doreen Green. Her include superhuman strength, a furry, prehensile tail (roughly 3-4 feet long), squirrel-like buck teeth, squirrel-like retractable knuckle claws, as well as being able to communicate with squirrels and summon a squirrel army. She was first introduced in 1991, where she ambushed Iron Man in attempt to impress him and convince him to make her an

Avenger. That’s when they were attacked one of Marvel’s most infamous and deadly villains, . After Doctor Doom has defeated Iron Man, Squirrel Girl jumps in with her squirrel army and saves Iron Man1 (fig. 2). Squirrel Girl was originally created as a joke character, and wasn’t expected to be a fan favorite.

A joke character is a character is a character who was created to serve as a punchline, essentially. The character sometimes is a parody of another, but it isn’t

1 Higgins, Michael., Will. Marvel Super-Heroes, Vol.2 #8. . 1991. ​ ​

always needed. The character has a recurring joke surrounding them. They mainly exist in the realm as a comedic relief. Other examples of joke characters would include , , and Doctor Doom. Deadpool, also known as Wade

Wilson, was created as a parody of the DC Teen Titans villain Deathstroke, Slade

Wilson2. Deadpool’s recurring joke is his ability to break the fourth wall (fig. 3) and communicate directly with the reader, as well as constantly making everything a joke.

Another part of the joke is how crude and violent he is. Gwenpool is a parody of

Deadpool, in a way. She was originally created as a character on one Marvel’s Secret ​ Wars series 2015 variant covers (fig. 4), and was supposed to an alternate universe ​ dressed as Deadpool. However, due to the popularity of this image,

Gwenpool was created as separate character and was introduced later that year in one-shot called Gwenpool Special #1, and also appeared as a supporting character in ​ ​ ’s serie. Like Deadpool, Gwenpool is able to break the fourth wall, except she is able to do it because she comes from an alternate universe where she has read about all of these characters from comic books, and then somehow fell into a main . Her recurring joke is that she knows all of the characters and their secret identities, as well as their powers and weaknesses, as well as since she thinks she’s in a comic book, she often acts without any regard of her consequences.

Doctor Doom is one of the most well known and most feared Marvel villains (fig. 5). He is the evil ruler of the fictional country , he is skilled in both science and magic.

Despite being one of the most feared villains, Doom’s recurring joke is how over the top

2 McElhatton, Greg . "The Busiest Man in Comics." , January 1993, 45. ​

he is. In the Gauntlet series, Doctor Doom attempts to steal the gauntlet away ​ ​ from not just once, but twice, even after the Mad Titan himself has killed

Captain America with a simple slap3. Doctor Doom even attempted to marry the

Witch after she had erased her own memory so he could steal her reality warping magic

4. He also wears as a mask to cover what he calls his disfigured face, which is small scratch on his cheek5. While joke characters can have serious storylines and even amass large followings, like Deadpool and Doctor Doom have, their character still delivers a bit of punchline by just being there. This leads to the : how does

Squirrel Girl fit in? Well, her joke is that she is unbeatable, despite having seemingly useless powers. She has defeated some of Marvel’s strongest characters. As stated above, in her introduction comic she defeated Doctor Doom (fig. 6). When Deadpool attacked the Great Lake , a group of superheroes with bizarre and nearly useless powers, Squirrel Girl was the one who defeated him6 (fig. 7). She would go on later to also defeat , who has the ability to passively heal himself as well as super strength and metal claws that can cut through almost anything7 (fig. 8). In a 2005

Christmas special comic book, she defeated the Mad Titan Thanos8 (fig. 9), despite him once having killed half the universe in an attempt to court Lady Death9. She even defeated the world eater and stopped him from consuming by

3 Starlin, Jim. Infinity Gauntlet #2. Marvel Comics. 1991. ​ ​ 4 Cheung, Jim. Avengers: Children’s Crusade #3. Marvel Comics. 2011. ​ ​ 5 Schumer, Arlen. The Silver Age of Comic Book Art. Collectors Press. p. 77. 2003. ​ ​ 6 Nicieza, Fabian. & Deadpool #30. Marvel Comics. 2004. ​ ​ 7 Bendis, Brian Michael. The New Avengers, Vol 2 #15. Marvel Comics. 2011. ​ ​ 8 Slott, Dan. GLX-MAS, #2. Marvel Comic. 2005. ​ ​ 9 Starlin, Jim. Infinity Gauntlet #1. Marvel Comics. 1991 ​ ​

befriending him10. Furthermore, her creator Will Murray even admits that Squirrel Girl was a bit of an ironic creation, citing her inspiration came from an ex-girlfriend who liked

“little critters”11. But if she had been a joke character, how did she transform into her modern empowered figure?

From the time of her creation in 1991 and 2011, Squirrel Girl was only seen a handful of times. In 2011, she became a supporting character for the New Avengers ​ series, but was not an official member of the team. Rather, she was the nanny for

Jessica Jones and ’s daughter. The series followed the Avengers as they fought against the world’s greatest threats. From 2011-2014, many of the same characters were seen coming and leave the group, and in 2015 Squirrel Girl finally became an official member12. In 2015 also came another huge change for Squirrel Girl.

2015 saw the birth of very own comic book series named The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl ​ by and Erica Henderson. It follows the story of Doreen after she leaves being a nanny and tries to balance her life as a and a college student at

Empire State University. With this new series came a sort of new look for Squirrel Girl.

Much like many other female superheroes, Squirrel Girl’s costume can be very telling about her figure. However, compared to Captain Marvel’s original costume, which essentially looks like a black one piece bathing suit with black boots (fig. 10) or even

Jean Grey’s costume which is extremely formfiting and over sexualized (fig. 11),

Squirrel Girl’s costume and character design pre-Henderson isn’t super sexualized but still her costume is more for gazing at and less about practicality. The original design by

10 North, Ryan. Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 1 #4. Marvel Comics. 2015. ​ ​ 11 Vasseur, Richard. “Will Murray: Editor of ”. Jazma Online. May 2, 2009. ​ ​ 12 Ewing, Al. New Avengers, Vol 4 #1. Marvel Comic. 2015. ​ ​

Ditko is very comical however, giving Squirrel Girl also clown like stars around her eyes

(fig. 12). Later in 2005, around the time female character all became unable to escape the male gaze, Paul Pelletier depicts Squirrel Girl in a rather sexualized reindeer outfit on the cover of GLX-MAS (fig. 13). In 2015, illustrator Gerardo Sandoval decided to ​ ​ with Squirrel Girl’ more common costume, but shrinks her waist and puts a lot of emphasis on her chest on the cover of New Avengers, Vol 4 #1 (fig. 14). Also in 2015, ​ ​ ​ ​ with the introduction of Squirrel Girl’s own series came Henderson’s take on Doreen’s design. She scrapped the thin and conventionally beautiful design, and opted for a more chubby and full figured character (fig. 15). This deliberate change was not make fun of

Squirrel Girl, but rather to combat the over sexualization of female characters in comic books. She’s not super sexualized, she actually looks more like a common person, making her easier to relate too. Squirrel Girl and her series actually break away from a lot traditions of comic books. While she still combats big bads and saves the world,

Squirrel Girl’s series also features lessons for her personal life, like her learning about healthy relationships and learning her own self value13, which is important because

North and Henderson marked this series as being not just for adult fans, but also for young teenagers. The series has received mostly positive reviews. The Guardian ​ praised the series for the “cartoon-like artwork”14, while Marvel reviewer Eric Diaz15 harold the series as being empowering and funny. IGN reviewed the the first issue, stating that it was “one of the best debuts in recent history” for comic books16.

13 North, Ryan. Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol 1 #5. Marvel Comic. 2015. ​ ​ 14 Virtue, Graeme. "Lady Killer, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, COPRA: the month in comics". The Guardian. January 10, 2015. 15 Diaz, Eric. "Review: Marvel Comics' The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1". Nerdist. January 8, 2015. 16 Lake, Jeff. "The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 Review: This Squirrel is Nuts". IGN. January 5, 2015.

PopMatters said the series was a “breath of fresh air”17. On top of that, the series was ​ nominated for the Eisner Award in both 2016 and 2017, and in 2017 won for “Best

Publication for Teens”.

With her own series also came the first look into her backstory for the very first time. And unlike many other female characters, Squirrel Girl grew up having a relatively positive life growing up. Even after being born with a squirrel tail, her parents still loved and supported her18. Comparatively, many female characters are given tragic backstories. , for example, gained her powers after her family crashed into a truck transporting toxic material. She was the only survivor. She spent many years being bullied at school and eventually after attempting to become a superhero she kidnapped by the , who uses mind control to Jessica into doing whatever he wanted. After she broke free, she spiraled down into hard drinking, depression and negative relationships19 (fig. 15). Captain Marvel had her powers and memories stolen from her by then member of the The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants,

Rogue20 (fig. 16). She also would become an alcoholic, until gaining new powers21. The

Scarlet Witch spent her childhood being down with her twin brother, Quicksilver, because they were mutants. Eventually after a brief period of being a villain, she became an Avenger and fell in love with the android Vision22. She even used her reality

17 Reece, Gregory L. "I' Nuts for Squirrel Girl: "The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #2"". PopMatters. February 10, 2015. 18 North, Ryan. Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol 2 #1. 2015. 19 Bendis, Brian Michael. , Vol 1 #22. Marvel Comics. 2003. ​ ​ 20 Claremont, Chris. Avengers Annual #10. Marvel Comics. 1981. 21 Busiek, Kurt. Avengers vol. 3 #7. Marvel Comics. 1998. ​ ​ 22 Englehart, Steve. The Avengers #109. 1973. ​ ​

warping powers to create her own children, which would be later absorbed by demon23 and eventually lost her sanity and ended up killing her husband and two other Avengers

24 (fig. 17). While all of these stories are important and depict women overcoming their troubles, sometimes it’s nice to have a female character, like Doreen, who isn’t being tortured. Furthermore, Squirrel Girl is a super positive natured person. She isn’t like the other jaded heroes, but rather she’s a beacon of positivity and generally rolls with the punches. She’s excited to be a hero and to be helping people. She really is a fresh of breath air for the comic book genre, which has increasingly over the years become darker and darker (fig. 18). While heavy plots have always been prominent, over the past few years comic book readers saw the both the of Professor X25 and

26, becoming a Nazi27 and (assumed) death of Black Widow28. With all of this, plus more, it’s not hard to see why a breath of fresh air was needed.

However, as empowering Squirrel Girl is, she isn’t the only female character who can be praised through a feminist lense. But, she’s the only one who isn’t getting ripped apart for having feminist undertones. Characters like Captain Marvel, the new Thor, Ms

Marvel, and America Chavez have been heavily critiqued by male fans, even the idea of feminist agendas being in Marvel stories has caused quite the outcry from male fans, and even in some cases from the Marvel CEOs themselves.

23 Byrne, John. Avengers West Coast #52. 1989. ​ ​ 24 Bendis, Brian Michael. The Avengers #500. 2004. ​ ​ 25 Bendis, Brian Michael. Avengers vs. X-Men #11. Marvel Comics. 2012. ​ ​ 26 Lemire, Jeff & Soule, Charles. Death of X #4. Marvel Comics. 2016. ​ ​ 27 Spencer, Nick. Captain America: Steve Rogers #1. Marvel Comics. 2016. ​ ​ 28 Spencer, Nick. Secret #7. Marvel Comics. 2017. ​ ​

When Odinson became unworthy of wielding his hammer, , he lost the title of Thor. That’s when his ex-girlfriend picked up the hammer and assumed the title of Thor. In her popular series, The Mighty Thor, features Jane taking up the ​ ​ duties of the old Thor as well as battling against breast cancer29. She’s even explicitly feminist, in an early battle with villain , the villain mocked Thor for being a girl and insulted feminism. He mocked her by asking “What the Hell kind of Thor are you?” To which she replied “The kind that just broke your jaw!” as she punches him30

(fig. 19). Another popular comic series is the new Ms Marvel, who is a young Muslim

Inhuman girl who aspires to be like her idol, Captain Marvel (who also at one point went by Ms Marvel) (fig. 20). Even Captain Marvel is still a popular figure, and is slated for her own Marvel film in 2019. However despite these three successful female characters

(who are not the only successful female characters), there have been others not as lucky and with comic book sales dropping, diversity was the blame for it. Marvel’s vice president of sales, David Gabriel, cited the attempt of creating more diversity for the declining comic book sales. He cited specifically , who is an African-American women who took over for Ironman, since her solo series had been canceled.. G. Willow

Wilson, creator of Ms Marvel, replied to Gabriel’s statement, where she pointed out why

Ironheart had failed was because it posed Ironheart to live up to the expectations and history of Ironman, one of Marvel’s most beloved characters, and that the writers essentially set the character up to fail. It didn’t fail because it was about a minority, but rather because Ironman was too beloved by fans all over to see him be replaced and

29 Aaron, Jason. Thor: God of Thunder, Vol 1 #12. 2013. ​ ​ 30 Flood, Alison. “Marvel’s Thor attacks critics who say ‘feminist are ruining everything’. The Guardian. 2015.

also be replaced by bad writing31. Ironheart is a great character, but the writing wasn’t good. Unlike Ms Marvel’s, Thor’s and Squirrel Girl’s stories, which all contain solid writing. And if Gabriel thinks diversity was the issue, than why would all the previous solo series plus Moon Girl (a young African-American girl who Inhuman girl who fights crime with a tyrannosaurus rex) and (a black Puerto Rican boy who, just like Peter Parker, goes by Spider-Man) would be doing so well? Furthermore, there was has been more negative critique and reactions to the series — which ​ ​ featured Captain America as a Nazi, the possessed by a demon, and

Odinson as a villain — than there has been over any of these female and people of color characters.

However, even with all of these other great feminist characters, who can represent any form of feminism from Muslim people to Latinx communities, Squirrel Girl out of all of them is best reviewed and also the least critiqued. Why is that? Why do we love Doreen Green so much? Well, essentially everything that has been mentioned before. The Unbeatable Squirrel series is being harold not because it isn’t feminist, but rather because of how wholesome and sweet Doreen is and how great the writing is.

Unlike some of the other great writings, like The New Mighty Thor comics for example,

Squirrel Girl is accessible for all ages. It doesn’t get dark like the Scarlet Witch’s stories do, and it isn’t too silly, like Gwenpool. Squirrel Girl walks the line where there’s right amount of silliness with the empowerment. Squirrel Girl is also more relatable than some other characters. She’s not super skinny and super buff at the same time, like

31 Hibberd, James. “Marvel outrage after diversity, female characters blamed for sales”. Entertainment Weekly. 2017.

Captain Marvel or Jessica Jones. And most importantly, Ryan North and Erica

Henderson aren’t trying to make a character that fits the cookie cutter mold for heroes.

Like Marvel has been doing since they first starting publishing comic books, they’re recreating the mold and turning out fresh material. In this genre is very easy for the writing to sloppy, repetitive, and even stale. And right now Marvel is once again in a stage where it’s reinventing and changing. As older heroes need to be shaken up and new characters get introduced, there will failures. There will be a few more Ironhearts in the mix. But if Marvel can figure a way to capture the freshness of Squirrel Girl and properly apply to every part of their comic book universe, than they can make the comic book comeback that is needed. Squirrel Girl is the fresh of breath air comic book fans all over have been waiting for. After the massive disappointments of II and Secret ​ ​ ​ Empire, Squirrel Girl continues to prove to be unbeatable and perhaps the key to the ​ survival of the Marvel comics (fig. 21).

Bibliography

Aaron, Jason. Thor: God of Thunder, Vol 1 #12. 2013. ​ ​

Bendis, Brian Michael. Alias, Vol 1 #22. Marvel Comics. 2003. ​ ​

Bendis, Brian Michael. The Avengers #500. 2004. ​ ​

Bendis, Brian Michael. The New Avengers, Vol 2 #15. Marvel Comics. 2011. ​ ​

Bendis, Brian Michael. Avengers vs. X-Men #11. Marvel Comics. 2012. ​ ​

Byrne, John. Avengers West Coast #52. 1989. ​ ​

Busiek, Kurt. Avengers vol. 3 #7. Marvel Comics. 1998. ​ ​

Cheung, Jim. Avengers: Children’s Crusade #3. Marvel Comics. 2011. ​ ​

Claremont, Chris. Avengers Annual #10. Marvel Comics. 1981 ​ ​

Diaz, Eric. "Review: Marvel Comics' The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1". Nerdist. January 8, 2015. ​ ​

Englehart, Steve. The Avengers #109. 1973. ​ ​

Ewing, Al. New Avengers, Vol 4 #1. Marvel Comic. 2015. ​ ​

Goodrum, Michael. “‘Oh, c’mon, those stories don’t count in continuity!’ Squirrel Girl and the problem with female power.” Studies in Comics vol 5, #1. 2014. ​ ​

Goodrum, Michael. “Powers of a squirrel, also a girl” Squirrel Girl and alternatives for women in superhero comic-books - an interview with Ryan North.” Studies in Comics vol 7, #1. 2016. ​ ​

Hibberd, James. “Marvel outrage after diversity, female characters blamed for sales” Entertainment Weekly. 2017. ​

Higgins, Michael., Will. Marvel Super-Heroes, Vol.2 #8. Marvel Comics. 1991. ​ ​

Flood, Alison. “Marvel’s Thor attacks critics who say ‘feminist are ruining everything’. The Guardian. 2015. ​

Lake, Jeff. "The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 Review: This Squirrel is Nuts". IGN. January 5, ​ ​ 2015.

Lemire, Jeff & Soule, Charles. Death of X #4. Marvel Comics. 2016. ​ ​

McElhatton, Greg . "The Busiest Man in Comics." Wizard, January 1993, 45.

Nicieza, Fabian. Cable & Deadpool #30. Marvel Comics. 2004. ​ ​

Reece, Gregory L. "I'm Nuts for Squirrel Girl: "The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #2"". PopMatters. February 10, 2015.

Schumer, Arlen. The Silver Age of Comic Book Art. Collectors Press. p. 77. 2003. ​ ​

Starlin, Jim. Infinity Gauntlet #1. Marvel Comics. 1991 ​ ​

Starlin, Jim. Infinity Gauntlet #2. Marvel Comics. 1991. ​ ​

Slott, Dan. GLX-MAS, #2. Marvel Comic. 2005. ​ ​

North, Ryan. Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 1 #4. Marvel Comics. 2015. ​ ​

North, Ryan. Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol 1 #5. Marvel Comic. 2015. ​ ​

North, Ryan. Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol 2 #1. 2015. ​ ​

Spencer, Nick. Captain America: Steve Rogers #1. Marvel Comics. 2016. ​ ​

Spencer, Nick. Secret Empire #7. Marvel Comics. 2017. ​ ​

Vasseur, Richard. “Will Murray: Editor of Doc Savage”. Jazma Online. May 2, 2009.

Virtue, Graeme. "Lady Killer, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, COPRA: the month in comics". The Guardian. January 10, 2015.

Illustrations

Fig. 1: Kamome Shirahama. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol 1, #6 variant cover. 2015. ​ ​

Fig. 2: Squirrel Girl introducing herself to Iron Man. Steve Ditko. 1991. In Marvel Super-Heroes, ​ Vol 2 #8. ​

Fig. 3: Deadpool breaking the fourth wall. Pete Woods. 1999. In Deadpool, Vol. 1 #28. ​

Fig. 4: Gwen Stacy dressed as Deadpool on variant cover of Deadpool’s Secret . ​ ​ . 2015. In Deadpool’s Secret Secret War #2. ​ ​

Fig. 5: Doctor Doom. . 2017. In The Unbelievable Gwenpool, Vol. 5. ​ ​

Fig. 6 Squirrel Girl and her squirrels defeating Doctor Doom. Steve Ditko. 1991. In Marvel ​ Super-Heroes, Vol 2 #8. ​

Fig. 7: Squirrel Girl defeating Deadpool. Staz Johnson. 2004. In Cable & Deadpool #30. ​

Fig. 8: Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and watch on was Squirrel Girl defeats Wolverine to prove she strength. . 2011. In New Avengers, Vol 2 #15. ​ ​

Fig. 9: Squirrel Girl defeats Thanos and the confirms it. Ty Templeton. 2005. In GLX-MAS #2. ​

Fig. 10: as Ms Marvel (later as Captain). . 2006. In Ms Marvel vol. 2, ​ #1. ​

Fig. 11: as the Phoenix. Mike S Miller. 2008. In XMen vs , Vol 1: The ​ Twelve.

Fig. 12: Squirrel Girl close up. Steve Ditko. 1991. In Marvel Super-Heroes, Vol 2 #8. ​ ​

Fig. 13: Squirrel Girl dressed as a reindeer. Ty Templeton. 2005. In GLX-MAS #1. ​ ​

Fig. 14: Squirrel Girl jumping into battle with her other fellow Avengers on the cover of New Avengers. Gerardo Sandoval. In New Avengers, Vol. 4, #1. ​ ​

Fig. 15: Squirrel Girl daydreaming about be celebrated as a hero by the other Avengers. Erica Henderson. 2015. In The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 1 #1. ​ ​

Fig. 15: Jessica Jones over drinking. . 2003. In Alias, Vol. 1 #23. ​ ​

Fig. 16: stealing Ms Marvel’s powers. Greg LaRocque. 1992. In Marvel Super-Heroes, ​ Vol 2, #11. ​

Fig. 17: The Scarlet Witch having fully lost her sanity lashes out at the Avengers. Danny Miki. 2003. In Avengers #502. ​ ​

Fig. 18: Squirrel Girl variant cover. Erica Henderson. 2015. In The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 1 #3.

Fig. 19: Jane Foster’s Thor breaks Absorbing Man’s jaw for misogynistic comments. Jorge Molina. 2015. In Thor, Vol. 4 #5. ​

Fig. 20: as Ms Marvel for textless variant cover. Jorge Molina. 2014. In Ms Marvel, ​ Vol 1 #2. ​

Fig. 21: Squirrel Girl charging into battle. Erica Henderson. 2015. In The Unbeatable Squirrel ​ Girl, Vol. 1 #1. ​