The Empowering Squirrel Girl Jayme Horne Submitted for History of Art 390 Feminism and History of Art Professor Ellen Shortell M
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The Empowering Squirrel Girl 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 Captain Marvel or the New Almighty Thor might be receiving not as much praise. Squirrel Girl was created by Will Murray and artist Steve Ditko. Despite both of them having both worked for Marvel and DC, and having written stories about fan favorites like Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Iron Man, and others, they are most known for creating Squirrel Girl, also known as Doreen Green. Her powers 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, Doctor Doom. 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. Marvel Comics. 1991. always needed. The character has a recurring joke surrounding them. They mainly exist in the comic book realm as a comedic relief. Other examples of joke characters would include Deadpool, Gwenpool, 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 Gwen Stacy 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 Howard the Duck’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 Marvel universe. 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 Latveria, 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." Wizard, January 1993, 45. he is. In the Infinity Gauntlet series, Doctor Doom attempts to steal the gauntlet away from Thanos 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 Scarlet 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 question: 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 Avengers, 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 Wolverine, 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 Galactus the world eater and stopped him from consuming Earth 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. Cable & 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 Luke Cage’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 Ryan North and Erica Henderson. It follows the story of Doreen after she leaves being a nanny and tries to balance her life as a superhero 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 Doc Savage”. 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 stick 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.