Squirrel Girl
Squirrel Girl is a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Will Murray and writer-artist Steve Ditko, the character first appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes vol. 2 #8, a.k.a. Marvel Super-Heroes Winter Special. Murray created the character out of a desire to write lighthearted stories, in contrast to the heavily dramatic tales that were then the norm in mainstream comics.
Although distinct from the mutants of Marvel Comics, Doreen has a genetic anomaly which gives her the ability to communicate with squirrels. She has been a member of both the Avengers and the Great Lakes Avengers, and has been a supporting character in stories featuring Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. Doreen has also appeared in her own solo series, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, which has depicted her dividing her time between her superhero adventures and her work as a college student.
Publication history
Creation and development
Squirrel Girl was created by writer Will Murray and artist Steve Ditko, making her debut in "The Coming of... Squirrel Girl" in Marvel Super-Heroes vol. 2 #8, a.k.a. Marvel Super-Heroes Winter Special. She ambushes the superhero Iron Man, teams up with him, and, after Iron Man is captured, defeats the villainous Doctor Doom. The story also introduces her squirrel sidekick, [|Monkey Joe].Murray has since described the character's genesis:
Murray attempted to pitch a follow-up story where Squirrel Girl tried to join the Fantastic Four, but it was turned down. Despite Marvel acknowledging the character's "coolness", Murray was told that she did not feel like a Marvel character and that they most likely would not use her again.
Later appearances
Squirrel Girl next appeared in Marvel Year-In-ReviewShe did not appear again for nearly a decade. She was mentioned only once in comics during that time: In Deadpool #7, Deadpool's friend/maid/mother-figure/prisoner Blind Al mentions accidentally putting "bleach in with Squirrel Girl Underoos."
In 2005, comic writer Dan Slott wrote a four-issue miniseries for the superhero team the Great Lakes Avengers. Created in 1989, this team was made up of enthusiastic heroes with bizarre and nearly useless abilities. They had appeared only a handful of times over their 16-year history, serving as comic relief. As part of the team's series, roster changes were made and the Squirrel Girl character was revived and included on the team. The miniseries satirized comic book deaths, and it was announced that a team member would die in every issue. After Squirrel Girl made a fuss to ensure that Monkey Joe would be an official member of the team, he was killed in the third issue. Slott would also pen further appearances for her and the team in the Christmas-themed GLX-Mas Special and GLI/Deadpool Summer Fun Spectacular one-shots. Slott's stories satirized Squirrel Girl's unlikely victory over Doctor Doom from her debut appearance by depicting her as capable of defeating some of Marvel's other highest-ranking supervillains, including MODOK, the Mandarin, and Thanos, mostly in comedically unexplained, off-panel ways.
During 2006's "Civil War" company-wide story arc, Squirrel Girl and the rest of the team fought Deadpool in Cable & Deadpool #30. In 2007, she and the newly renamed "Great Lakes Initiative" again appeared alongside Deadpool in the Deadpool/GLI Summer Fun Spectacular one-shot.
In September 2010's release of the five-part story line I am an Avenger, Squirrel Girl appears in the first issue in the story "Welcome Home Squirrel Girl." The premise of the story was simply Squirrel Girl coming home to Manhattan.
Squirrel Girl appears as a supporting character sporadically in the 2010–2013 New Avengers series, from issue #7 through its final issue #34. She is not a member of the team, but works as a super-powered nanny for the daughter of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones while attending New York University.
''The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl''
On October 6, 2014, Marvel announced that Squirrel Girl would, for the first time, be starring in her own series, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, written by Ryan North and drawn by Erica Henderson. The series' first issue was released on January 7, 2015. The series' title alluded to the character's infeasible history of defeating high-level Marvel villains, and its central premise puts a twist on the idea, presenting Squirrel Girl as "unbeatable" because she always pursues non-violent solutions, befriending villains and helping them turn their lives around, rather than actually fighting them.The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl ran for eight issues before being rebooted in October 2015 as part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel branding with Squirrel Girl being part of New Avengers. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl continued as monthly publication until November 2019, for a total of 58 issues. Derek Charm took over art duties in May 2018.
Strong trade sales at school book fairs encouraged the team to develop an original graphic novel, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe!, released in October 2016. While Henderson told The Hollywood Reporter balancing the graphic novel and monthly series "was almost too much work," North expressed interest in another graphic novel, calling it "a fun challenge."
Starting in 2017, Squirrel Girl appeared in U.S.Avengers, a replacement title for The New Avengers.
Starting in January 2026, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl received a Webtoon adaptation.
Podcast continuation
In April 2022, Marvel Entertainment and Sirius XM launched Marvel's Squirrel Girl: The Unbeatable Radio Show which is a six-episode podcast series that acts as a direct continuation of the comic series. It is written by North, directed by Giovanna Sardelli and stars Milana Vayntrub as Squirrel Girl; the series is produced by Radio Point. Additionally, North "wrote an all-new Squirrel Girl vertical comic tie-in" which debuted on Marvel Unlimited.Fictional character biography
Doreen Allene Green was born to Dorian and Maureen Green in Canada. When she was 10 years old, Doreen discovered she could communicate with squirrels; she suffered a modification in her genes for unknown reasons that granted her squirrel-like abilities, which manifested predominantly as a prehensile tail. When her parents consulted a doctor, it was determined that Doreen was not a mutant, even though she believed so for a long time. She is first seen as Squirrel Girl ambushing Iron Man in a forest, hoping to impress the veteran hero and become his sidekick. The 14-year-old introduces herself and her pet squirrel Monkey Joe and displays her squirrel-themed abilities. After she rescues Iron Man from Doctor Doom with the help of a horde of squirrels, Iron Man says she is too young to fight crime, but that he will put in a good word for her to the Avengers when she is older.Years later, having moved to New York City, Doreen joins the Great Lakes Avengers. Squirrel Girl introduces each issue of the team's miniseries, providing an opinion about the contents of the series. Her sidekick Monkey Joe also joins the team and comments upon the series as well. He is later killed by Leather Boy, a rejected GLA member who was disguised as Doctor Doom. Enraged by the death of her friend, Squirrel Girl demonstrates the true extent of her powers when she defeats the villain Maelstrom by overwhelming him with a literal army of squirrels. She finds a new squirrel companion during this battle, the only one of her squirrel army who survived. Doreen names her Tippy-Toe. After receiving a subpoena from the Avengers and discovering that her teammates are all mutants, the team renames themselves the "Great Lakes X-Men", complete with new costumes.
During the GLX-Mas Special, Squirrel Girl and Tippy-Toe single-handedly defeat the supervillains MODOK, Terrax, and Thanos. S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Dum Dum Dugan tries to recruit her, explaining that the organization had been watching her for some time. Doreen declines the offer, saying she is happy with the Great Lakes X-Men.
After helping the Thing defeat Bi-Beast, Squirrel Girl was invited to the annual Superheroes Poker Tournament and brought the team with her. In the end, Flatman won the tournament with a straight flush, beating the Thing's four fours. After being discouraged from using the names X-Men and Defenders by members of those teams present at the tournament, and since Flatman was the champion of the tournament, the team renamed themselves the Great Lakes Champions, despite protests from former Champions of Los Angeles member Hercules.
During the Civil War crossover storyline, Squirrel Girl and the Great Lakes Champions registered under the Superhuman Registration Act, as revealed when Deadpool attempted to apprehend them for violating the Act, only to be defeated and informed that they had already registered. Under the Registration Act, Squirrel Girl remains a member of the again-renamed Great Lakes Initiative.
Squirrel Girl and the GLI, along with Deadpool, are sent to save Dionysus after he fell from Mount Olympus and was captured by A.I.M., who planned to use his powers to cause mental instability in superheroes they consider a threat. After their victory, Squirrel Girl helps Dionysus back to Olympus and to his own bed to sleep it off. It is later revealed that she is a fan of the superhero team the New Warriors, especially Robbie Baldwin, the hero Speedball, on whom she has a crush, and the two eventually share a kiss. Squirrel Girl convinces Doctor Doom to let her use a time machine to prevent Speedball from becoming the guilt-plagued hero Penance. The device instead takes her into the year 2099, where she encounters an alternate, future version of Speedball, whom she unsuccessfully tries to have return with her to her present day. She also encounters a future version of Mister Immortal who convinces her to kick Deadpool out of the team, which she does after returning to her own time.
During the Secret Invasion storyline, the team confronted a Skrull disguised as Grasshopper, with help from Gravity and Catwalk. They later appeared to welcome Gravity as leader of the team, after he was transferred to Wisconsin by Norman Osborn.
After defeating Fin Fang Foom and finding little support from her teammates on the again renamed Great Lakes Avengers, whom she believes have her shoulder most of their work, she exits the group.
When Luke Cage and Jessica Jones seek a nanny for their daughter Danielle Cage, they hire Squirrel Girl. It is also revealed that Doreen had a brief relationship with Wolverine, which did not end happily.
During the Spider-Island storyline, Danielle briefly gains spider powers.
During the Fear Itself storyline, Squirrel Girl runs to the mansion to pick up Danielle while New York is attacked by the Thule Society. Upon arriving on the mansion, she and Daredevil protect Danielle while fighting Thule Society soldiers.
She later helps the New Avengers fight the Revengers, H.A.M.M.E.R., and the Dark Avengers. When Luke Cage and Jessica Jones leave the team, Squirrel Girl follows them as Danielle's nanny.
She and Tippy-Toe have since rejoined the team in the wake of the Secret Wars.
Doreen begins her college career at Empire State University, majoring in computer science. Upon arriving, she ends up fighting Kraven the Hunter, who was lashing out at the local squirrels including Tippy-Toe, whom he caught and was about to kill. She stops him by informing him of the existence of sea monsters like Giganto and challenges him to hunt them. Later, she discovers that Galactus is heading to Earth to devour it, and she steals Iron Man's armor and heads to the Moon with Tippy-Toe. On their way, they defeat Whiplash, who had attacked Squirrel Girl, mistaking her for Iron Man. She and Tippy-Toe surprisingly befriend Galactus instead of fighting him, and afterwards tell him of a planet that could sustain him even better than the Earth. This planet is devoid of intelligent life but rich in nuts, which Galactus has developed a new liking for. He then sends the two back home, and he leaves the Earth to live another day.
When she arrives back home, her roommate Nancy Whitehead tells her that she has figured out she is a superhero, but promises not to tell anyone, the two becoming good friends. Later, Squirrel Girl and other superheroes defeat Mysterion, who was attacking Liberty Island with an army of robot dinosaurs. Shortly thereafter, while attempting to stop Hippo from robbing a bank, she meets Chipmunk Hunk and Koi Boi, both of whom have the ability to speak to different animals. Nancy reveals their secret identities to her, since she easily recognized them under their masks. They later encounter a monstrous Asgardian squirrel god, Ratatoskr, who had been causing mayhem on the city by trash-talking its citizens during their sleep, but is defeated with help from Loki and the current and former Thor.
During their second college year, Doreen and Nancy encounter Brain Drain and quickly defeat him due to his outdated technology and crucial design flaws. Upon realizing that he did not have a choice about his evil actions due to his programming, Doreen and Nancy update his technology to modern standards. When he awakens, Brain Drain reveals that he intended to reform and ends up enrolling at ESU to take computer science courses. Later, she and her classmates get sent back in time to the 1960s by fellow student Cody, who sent them away from the present time to curve his grade. Nancy, the only person who remembers Doreen's existence, goes back to rescue her along with a past version of Doctor Doom, who then learns that he will successfully take over the world thanks to a copy of Wikipedia on Nancy's phone. In the present day, Cody wakes up to a Doctor Doom dystopia and takes himself back to the 1960s with an older, future Doreen to help fight Doom. Doreen defeats Doom by repeatedly using Cody's time machine to send herself a day before the fight, creating a small army of Squirrel Girls that swarm Doom and force him to give up. Doreen and the students are sent back to the present, while future Doreen stays behind and continues to foil Doom's schemes.
Later, she gets jealous when her crush Chipmunk Hunk, starts dating a classmate named Mary. Nancy, Tippy-Toe, and Koi Boi help set her up an online dating profile, which leads to many unsuccessful dates, one of which ends with an encounter with the Mole Man, who is angered by how Doreen's earlier suggestions to Kraven has affected his home. Doreen apologizes to him and the two have a conversation about his situation, leading the Mole Man to proposing to Doreen on the spot and several subsequent schemes to get Doreen to go on a date with him. He threatens to bury a number of worldwide landmarks if she does not date him, and after Nancy is nearly kidnapped by him and being swarmed by the media, she goes to confront Mole Man only to find that Tricephalous is in love with him. Doreen lets the beast defeat her to woo Mole Man and get him off her back for good, and decides that dating is not right for her at the moment after seeing that Mary is a nice fit for Chipmunk Hunk.
Squirrel Girl also had an alternate version of herself due to time travel running around for decades interfering with Doctor Doom's plans. As a result, she released an A.I. Doombot that eventually becomes Gwenpool's nemesis, Vincent Doonan. They later reconcile and at Gwen's insistence he even lets Squirrel Girl examine him for her computer class. She then follows Gwenpool to Hell to rescue her brother Teddy Poole and they defeat Mephisto. While there though Gwen points out that in the Marvel universe the devil is very real and punchable, suggesting that heroes should do so all the time confusing Squirrel Girl. Running out of pages, Gwen then leaves, getting Teddy back to Earth to her and runs off to do other things before her comic comes to an end.
Another alternate version of Squirrel Girl is created when Doreen falls into a piece of technology which Tony Stark had obtained from the High Evolutionary; the clone is nicknamed Allene and is like Doreen in most every way except she is lacking in the restraint and empathy which largely defines Doreen's career as a superhero. Allene strives to create a world where squirrels are the dominant species, sending an army of squirrels into the cloning device to rid them of their restraint and imprisoning every superhero who stands in her way in the Negative Zone. When Doreen gives her last effort to appeal to Allene's humanity, Allene instead banishes Doreen to the moon, where a dying Doreen summons Thor's hammer Mjolnir, becoming Squirrel Thor. After freeing all the heroes from the Negative Zone, Doreen relinquishes Mjolnir and Allene willingly banishes herself and her squirrel army into the Negative Zone, where they shape it into the squirrel-centric utopia she had strived to create in the first place called "Squirreltopia 5000". Doreen and her friends would go on to visit Allene in the Negative Zone on later occasions.
Squirrel Girl later becomes a member of the U.S.Avengers. She later receives a wealthy benefactor in Melissa Morbeck, a woman who can talk to animals who gives Doreen a new "flying squirrel" suit. Morbeck is quickly revealed to be a supervillain, however, who uses technology to exert sadistic control over animals and unleashes an army of insects and wild animals on the city, disguising one of her animal minions as Doctor Doom. While Squirrel Girl, Chipmunk Hunk, and Koi Boi subdue the animal army, Nancy and Mary set off an electromagnetic pulse to disable Morbeck's control over the animals, leading to her arrest. Later stories see Squirrel Girl traveling to the Savage Land and outer space, where she clashes with Loki, Drax the Destroyer, and the Silver Surfer. After she returns home, a clash with a small-time livestreaming criminal inadvertently sends Doreen and Nancy into hypertime; the two girls quickly age into elderly women and become close as they find common interests. They eventually devise a means of reversing time, so they revert back into teenagers and forget their lives together, but Doreen finds a note written by her future self to preserve the memory of the happiness they shared.
While visiting Allene in the Negative Zone, Squirrel Girl is summoned by Loki to help fight the Frost Giants in the War of the Realms. There she once again encounters Ratatoskr, with whom she clashes yet eventually forms an unlikely, if uneasy, alliance. Afterwards, Melissa Morbeck returns with an alliance of supervillains to enact revenge on Squirrel Girl – kidnapping Brain Drain, stealing Iron Man's armor, attacking Doreen's apartment, and finally publicly leaking her secret identity. Several heroes and villains from across the Marvel universe come to Squirrel Girl's aid, including Kraven the Hunter, Ratatoskr, Rhino, Mole Man, Tony Stark, and eventually Galactus, who uses the Power Cosmic to teleport away Morbeck and her allies and return Stark his armor. Afterwards, Stark publicly broadcasts a video which celebrates Squirrel Girl's various achievements.
In the aftermath of the attack on her apartment and her leaked secret identity, Squirrel Girl briefly retires from active heroism and instead starts hosting an AM broadcast call-in show called "The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Radio Show", where she answers questions regarding what it's like to be a superhero. She's joined by her friends Tippy-Toe, Nancy Whitehead, Koi Boi, Chipmunk Hunk, and Brain Drain.
While watching the Thanksgiving parade from the rooftops, Squirrel Girl had an encounter with Spider-Boy and Christina Xu, who were looking for a good spot to watch the parade from. Spider-Boy and Squirrel Girl uncover the balloon-related activities of the gas-manipulating villain Balloon Man, who is controlling the helium in the balloons. They were able to defeat him with help from Santa Claus.
After Spider-Boy had run off following the Boy-Spider incident, Squirrel Girl tells Spider-Man, Miles Morales, and Captain America that her squirrels are looking for him.
When Toy Soldier arrives at the Jarvis Lounge asking Edwin Jarvis if he can join the Avengers, Squirrel Girl vouches for him in front of Captain America, Jarvis, and Thor by claiming that he helped her save some squirrels. After Spider-Man received a distress letter from Christina with the location of Stillwell Farms, Squirrel Girl is among the superheroes that set out to rescue Spider-Boy and Christina. She partakes in the fight against Madame Monstrosity's hybrid form.