Squirrel Girl

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 (cover-dated Winter 1991). 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:

Actually I created Squirrel Girl in script form without any artist input. Tom Morgan was originally going to draw it, but when he dropped out, I requested Ditko and got him. Ditko did a great job in bringing my baby to life. He invented that knuckle spike. It wasn't in the script. I based Squirrel Girl ironically enough on a long–ago girlfriend who read comics and was into "critters"—wild animals of all types. Coincidentally, she was a big Ditko fan. I think I got the idea because I had a bunch of squirrels running around my roof and sometimes coming in through my open bedroom window and inspiration struck.

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-Review '92, where she made a one-panel appearance in the self-satirizing book's Marvel 2099 section, where "Squirrel Girl: 2099" was listed as one of "the 2099 books we've pretty much ruled out" as actual future titles. Later, she was slated to join the New Warriors, but writer Fabian Nicieza left Marvel before going through with his plan. In 1997, Fleer-Skybox released cards based on Marvel Superheroes, one of which was a more sexualized version of Squirrel Girl.

She 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 [Deadpool's] 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.

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.

In April 2022, Marvel Entertainment and SiriusXM 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.

Powers and abilities

During Squirrel Girl's first encounter with Iron Man, she provided a detailed demonstration of her powers and abilities: a furry, prehensile tail roughly 3–4 feet long, sizable buck teeth strong enough to chew through wood, and superhuman strength and agility that allows her to easily jump between trees. Her fingers have sharp claws that assist her with climbing, and she possesses retractable "knuckle spikes" roughly 2–3 inches long on each hand. Most importantly, she can communicate with and understand squirrels, but does not communicate with squirrels telepathically. Squirrels have also been depicted as understanding her when she speaks in English.

Later appearances have revealed additional abilities possessed by Squirrel Girl including heightened reflexes (which she dubs her "squirrelgility") and vision (her eyes have been seen to glow red in low-light situations) and she has also at times displayed an enhanced sense of smell. Squirrel Girl has also revealed that her lips taste like hazelnuts, though this attribute has since been retconned by Unbeatable Squirrel Girl writer Ryan North. She is also a superb hand-to-hand combatant capable of taking down Wolverine in a one-to-one no-claws fight.

Another ability showcased in The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is Doreen's enhanced jaw strength. Due to her proportional squirrel abilities, she can bite with one million and eighty-five thousand pounds of pressure. This gives her the ability to bite through solid steel.

Equipment

Squirrel Girl carries a utility belt consisting of multiple pouches that contain nuts to give as snacks to her squirrel friends. These are known humorously as her "nut sacks". It was originally unknown whether the black markings around her eyes are the result of her mutation, or cosmetically applied to enhance her squirrel-themed appearance (though they did not appear to smear when she's crying). In The New Avengers Annual #1, she is shown in casual clothes lacking these markings.

Squirrel Girl is also shown carrying a full set of "Iron Man Vs. Series battle cards", which she uses to show Dum Dum Dugan how she knows him (she mentions Dugan has a "defense stat of 8"; her own is 6, although the rating system is left unclear). After MODOK is pointed out to her, she consults the supervillain's own card to confirm his abilities. The printing on the two cards shown (Dugan's and MODOK's) is actually gibberish. In her solo series The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, she has a set of "Deadpool's guide to Super Villains" cards to help her identify villains and their possible weaknesses. The writing on these are legible, and tend to contain both valuable information as well as comedic jokes about her opponents. She only owns the super villain set, though some antiheroes such as Ant-Man still have cards in her collection.

In the GLX-Mas Special, she is shown flying a small gyrocopter called a "Squirrel-A-Gig" and mentions it was a gift from GLA teammate Big Bertha. This reappears in Deadpool/GLI Summer Fun Spectacular, used as a way of infiltrating Doctor Doom's castle. The first version was a standard gyrocopter, while it is later shown as a more stylized superhero helicopter (including squirrel-styled bodywork). Squirrel Girl is shown as being able to fly the craft expertly, including through the anti-aircraft defenses surrounding Castle Doom, crediting this to her "squirrelgility".

In The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, she also temporarily obtains a set of armor based on pieces of Iron Man's modular armor that reshapes to fit her, including her tail. The same series also retcons her status as a mutant, noting that her powers are the result of an unspecified "something" relating to her RNA or DNA, and that she is "medically and legally distinct from being a mutant."

In the graphic novel The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe, she is shown as being worthy of wielding Mjolnir, becoming Squirrel Thor when she does so.

Known squirrels

Squirrel Girl is always accompanied by one or more squirrels. Two of these, Monkey Joe and later his successor Tippy-Toe, have been her constant companion. At her insistence, they have each been accepted as a full member of the Great Lakes Avengers.

In addition to Monkey Joe and Tippy-Toe, Squirrel Girl named several other squirrels in Great Lakes Avengers #4. Slippy Pete, Mr. Freckle, and Nutso are presumed dead after being sucked into the singularity created by Maelstrom.

Other related characters

Prior to her first solo run, Squirrel Girl's supporting cast was mainly limited to her pet squirrels, while she herself would usually act as a supporting character to other heroes, most notably Iron Man, Danielle Cage, Spider-Man, and, of course, the Great Lakes Avengers. Since then, her personal life has been delved into with her racking up quite an impressive cast.

Supporting cast

Dorian "Dor" Green: Doreen's father.

Maureen Green: Doreen's mother.

Nancy Whitehead: Doreen's college roommate and close confidante who occasionally aids her in battling supervillains. She has a habit of deducing people's identities easily.

Tomas Lara-Perez / Chipmunk Hunk: A young man who developed chipmunk related powers and embraced his alter ego following an encounter with Doreen. Despite Doreen having a crush on him, he starts dating Mary Mahajan.

Ken Shiga / Koi Boi: A fellow crime fighter with aquatic abilities and Tomas' partner. He is a trans man.

Mary Mahajan: An engineering student and Squirrel Girl supporter who is dating Tomas.

Werner Schmidt / Brain Drain: A former villain with outdated technology who is upgraded by Doreen and Nancy and decides to turn his life around for the better.

G'illian Blax'zthor / Gillian Blythe: A Skrull girl who came to earth to get away from her war mongering kind.

Enemies

Melissa Morbeck: A philanthropist who secretly wants to rule the world via control of animals. She essentially becomes Squirrel Girl's arch-nemesis and at one point steals one of Iron Man's suits, taking the name Iron Ring.

Ratatoskr: The Asgardian creature of the same name who broke free from her job to cause havoc.

Shannon Sugarbaker: A rich entitled cosplay fan girl who hunts anthropomorphic animals.

Kraven the Hunter: Usually an enemy of Spider-Man, this famed hunter has crossed paths with Squirrel Girl numerous times; occasionally the two team up.

Allene Green / Squirrel Girl: One of many numerous clones of Squirrel Girl created by High Evolutionary that Doreen initially befriended. She turns her back on humanity and attempts to make squirrels the dominant species.

MODOK: A frequent enemy to many heroes in the Marvel Universe. Doreen faced him on occasion.

EpicCrimez: A social media influencer who commits typical crimes.

Ms. Quizzler: A one-off villain who is obsessed with riddles. She was ultimately coaxed out of villainy by Doreen.

Doctor Doom: The arch-enemy of the Fantastic Four. He became an enemy of Doreen, following his humiliating defeat at her hands.

Squirrel Girl's victories

Following her defeat of Doctor Doom, an ongoing joke depicts Squirrel Girl repeatedly attaining victory over various villains, some of whom are far more powerful than her. Typically, these victories occur off-panel, though some, like her battles with Deadpool, MODOK, and Wolverine are shown. Her victories often result from her opponent's overconfidence, weakness from an earlier fight, or creative use of her powers. For example, her defeat of Bi-Beast: while visiting squirrel friends in Central Park, Squirrel Girl came across the Thing fighting Bi-Beast. She told the squirrels to retrieve the smelliest garbage they could find and place it around the combatants, resulting in everyone having to hold their noses. Bi-Beast had two heads, and two noses, and had to use both hands to hold his noses, leaving himself defenseless, allowing the Thing to knock him out.

Squirrel Girl's defeat of Thanos is an ambiguous one. Uatu the Watcher was present at the battle and claimed Squirrel Girl defeated the genuine Thanos and not a clone or copy. However, the same writer responsible for that story would soon after write another tale in which Thanos claimed to have perfected a means of creating clones of himself that could fool even "the most cosmic of beings". Adding to the ambiguity is the fact that the reveal comes from the mind of a clone whose memory had been altered.

Squirrel Girl has also saved the world from Galactus, but she does not technically defeat him (though she tries to harm him when they first meet). Instead, she befriends Galactus and offers him an alternate means of sustaining his hunger; this act of kindness so moves Galactus that he later intervenes to save Squirrel Girl's life with his powers.

Reception

Critical response

John Kelly of The Washington Post called Squirrel Girl the "latest hit comics character", writing, "Right now, the hottest superhero in the Marvel Comics universe is not male, does not wear a cape and was not bitten by a radioactive spider. The hottest Marvel superhero has a tail, an overbite and wears acorn earrings. She is called the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl." B. Alan Orange of MovieWeb asserted, "The character was actually created during a time when most comic tales were turning dark and tragic. She was an attempt to lighten the mood of that era. And recently, she has had a reemergence as one of the more popular characters." Dany Roth of Looper described Squirrel Girl as a "fan-favorite character", asserting, "Doreen Allene Green, aka Squirrel Girl, is one of the most beloved Marvel Comics characters that isn't presently in the Marvel Cinematic Universe." Rob Leane of Empire stated, "Big things come in small packages, with Squirrel Girl being a prime example. A younger hero who always exceeds the grown-ups' expectations? Surely this would be a big hit with children, and potentially their parents too – though remember kids, don't feed the grey ones."

Aubrey Sitterson of UGO Networks included Squirrel Girl in their "Women We're Ashamed to Be Attracted To" list, while Matt Patches included her in their "The D-List: Superheroes We Love, That Still Kind of Suck" list. Stacie Rook of Screen Rant included Squirrel Girl in their "10 Female Marvel Heroes That Should Come To The MCU" list. Chris McMullen of Space.com ranked Squirrel Girl 2nd in their "5 Marvel Characters Who Deserve Their Own Show" list. Chase Magnett of ComicBook.com ranked Squirrel Girl 6th in their "10 Greatest Steve Ditko Characters" list, writing, "Squirrel Girl has only recently hit her stride at Marvel Comics, becoming one of the most popular characters among young audiences. However, everything that is great about Squirrel Girl was present to some degree from the very start", while Cameron Bonomolo ranked her 10th in their "Steve Ditko's 10 Best Marvel Co-Creations" list.

Deirdre Kaye of Scary Mommy ranked Squirrel Girl 6th in their "Looking For A Role Model? These 195+ Marvel Female Characters Are Truly Heroic" list, writing, "Squirrel Girl may not be as widely known or wildly popular as Black Widow or Storm, but she's still earned her spot in this list of best Marvel female characters. One cool thing about Squirrel Girl is that she looks pretty average. She's the Hermione of the superhero world: shrugged off at first but probably a lot smarter and stronger than most of her cohorts. Yes, she has squirrel teeth and an actual tail. But, she still kicks butt and that's made her pretty popular with Marvel fans." Gavia Baker-Whitelaw of The Daily Dot ranked Squirrel Girl 13th in their "Top 33 Female Superheroes Of All Time" list, saying, "Squirrel Girl is officially the most powerful character in the Marvel universe. She's also unofficially one of the most fun superheroes", while describing her as a "cult favorite among Marvel fans".

Other versions

Avengers vs. X-Men

Squirrel Girl makes an appearance in a bonus story of Avengers vs. X-Men: Versus #6. Here she is depicted competing against Pixie in a game resembling HeroClix where the toys are based on various superheroes. Thing walks in, stopping the game to reveal that the figurines actually belong to the Puppet Master and are made out of his mind-controlling clay. The next day, Squirrel Girl and Pixie read in the Daily Bugle that the clash between the Avengers and X-Men has occurred and have been mirroring the results from their game, implying that they were the cause of the feud.

Infinity Warps

Luneen Lafagreen / Moon Squirrel, a fusion of Squirrel Girl and Moon Girl created by the Infinity Gems, appears in Infinity Wars.

Marvel Universe vs. The Avengers

Squirrel Girl and Jessica Jones are killed by Luke Cage after he succumbs to the Survivor 118, a virus that causes those infected by it to become feral to the point of engaging in cannibalism.

Marvel Zombies

Several versions of Squirrel Girl appear in the different Marvel Zombies specials:

A zombified Squirrel Girl along with her 'Squirrel-A-Gig' appear in Marvel Zombies: Evil Evolution.

A zombie Squirrel Girl appears in the Marvel Zombies: Halloween special, where she – and other zombified superheroes – are hunting Kitty Pryde's son Peter until they are both saved by Mephisto.

Ultimate Universe

An alternate universe version of Squirrel Girl appears in The Ultimates. She was among the prisoners of H.A.N.D. until Wasp frees her.

In other media

Television

Squirrel Girl makes a cameo appearance in the Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes episode "The Cure", voiced by Rebecca Shoichet. She auditions to replace Ben Grimm on the Fantastic Four, only to be immediately rejected.

Squirrel Girl appears in Ultimate Spider-Man, voiced by Misty Lee. This version is a member of the New Warriors and a student at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy.

Squirrel Girl was meant to appear in New Warriors, portrayed by Milana Vayntrub, before the series was cancelled during production.

Squirrel Girl appears in the Marvel Rising franchise, voiced by Milana Vayntrub. This version is the best friend of Ms. Marvel and a founding member of the Secret Warriors. She first appears in the film Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors and returns in a series of sequel shorts.

Squirrel Girl appears in Spidey and His Amazing Friends, voiced by Emma Berman.

Video games

Squirrel Girl appears in Pinball FX 2 via the Marvel's Women of Power DLC, voiced by Eden Riegel.

Squirrel Girl appears as a playable character in Marvel Super Hero Squad Online, voiced by Tara Strong.

Squirrel Girl appears as a playable character in Marvel Super Hero Squad: Comic Combat, voiced by Eden Riegel.

Squirrel Girl appears as an unlockable character in Marvel: Avengers Alliance.

Squirrel Girl appears as a playable character in Marvel Heroes, voiced again by Tara Strong.

Squirrel Girl appears in Marvel Puzzle Quest.

Squirrel Girl appears as a playable character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes, voiced again by Tara Strong.

Squirrel Girl appears as a playable character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2, voiced by Caitlin Thorburn.

Squirrel Girl appears as a playable character in Lego Marvel's Avengers, voiced again by Misty Lee.

Squirrel Girl appears as a playable character in Marvel Contest of Champions.

Squirrel Girl appears as a playable character in Marvel Future Fight.

Squirrel Girl appears as a playable character in Marvel Strike Force.

Squirrel Girl appears in Marvel Avengers Academy.

Squirrel Girl appears in Marvel Snap.

Miscellaneous

Doreen Green makes a cameo appearance in Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure as a rookie engineer of the Worldwide Engineering Brigade (WEB) program.

Squirrel Girl appears in the young adult novel The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Meets World, by Shannon & Dean Hale.

Squirrel Girl appears in the young adult novel The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: 2 Fuzzy, 2 Furious.

Squirrel Girl appears in Squirrel Girl Goes to College: A Squirrel Girl Play, portrayed by Alyssa Buckner.

Squirrel Girl appears in Marvel TL;DR, voiced by Kimlinh Tran.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl appeared in Magic: The Gathering as a green legendary creature in the Marvel Super Heroes collaboration, featured as both a regular and borderless card.

Merchandise

The Marvel Rising incarnation of Squirrel Girl received a Target-exclusive doll as part of the franchise's tie-in toyline.

Collected editions

Trade paperback

Graphic Novel Trade Paperback