Review: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #49

STORY

Whew, ok this book was a tough one to get through. I’ve read a rew bad books since I got this gig and this one is right up there with the worst of them I’m afraid. Now I wanna preface this by saying how much I generally enjoy purposely comedic comic book heroes. I dig characters like Deadpool, Gwenpool, Slapstick, Morph, Clown Man, Plasticman, Howard the Duck, etc. They all have a special place in my heart amongst the pantheon of superheroes. I’ve seen each of these characters handled as both serious and comedic characters and honestly this should be easy to accomplish with Squirrel Girl. I mean even John Byrne was able to figure out how to make She Hulk, a character he had treated with due seriousness in the FF, into a rather funny book in the solo series he wrote and drew for her. Doreen should be a no brainer, I’ve seen her handled as a serious character in Avengers and seen her used in a joking manner which has been the origin of her title as Unbeatable but somehow Ryan North fails at making her funny.

The jokes in this book just refuse to land. Only one gag even got a slight smile out of me (the bit with the independent journalist). Ryan sets up things and then never pays them off, like covering Tony Stark with squirrel armor complete with a squirrel “AI”“ named Friday and then he does nothing at all with that set up. Why even put that scene in there then? It doesn’t serve the story in even a funny way. Seems like Ryan just wanted to see Tony covered in squirrels for no real reason plot wise. I’m willing to bet John Byrne or Steve Gerber could have made that work out.

Aside from being unfunny this book, which is set in the cannon prime 616 continuity mind you, has SG fighting heavy hitting villains like Fin Fang Foom and Dr Doom who for some reason can’t kill a few thousand squirrels with about even blinking. Yeah I know this book is going for the silly but I’d ask you to take a look the series where Deadpool encounters Thanos or Dracula. Sure there are some laughs tossed about at their expense but the writers of those stories never forget that these are powerful and ruthless villains. Deadpool suffers greatly at their hands before ultimately triumphing. In this comic top teir villains are mooks who can’t even put sown SG’s sidekicks. Doom even uses a quantum inversion bomb…that ticks! The only redeeming moment in this comic is that SG is willing to sacrifice herself to save others in the conclusion of the story.

ART

I haven’t looked at an issue of SG in a long while but I’m glad to see that the art is much improved because thankfully SG doesn’t look like a hobbit with downs syndrome anymore. This art however, is only marginally better. Its so basic it looks like it belongs in a child’s coloring book. The aforementioned squirrel armor just looks like Tony is covered in vengeful turds (I’m not even kidding). Panel layout and flow are amateurish, even for a joke book this is unacceptable for a Marvel comic that costs four bucks!

The cover is garishly hideous. While the drawing has some proficiency, the composition is a mess and the colors just flat out ruin it. It’s a muddled, conflicting mess that honestly hurts the eyes.

LETTERING

Usually if I include something about the lettering, its a bit of praise for the under appreciated craft. Unfortunately I’m forced to note that even the lettering on this book is sloppy. So many of the balloons are so poorly placed that it almost feels random. And if its not the balloons obscuring the unappealing art its their tails crossing all over the panels. Some of this might be the fault of the art but not all of it. It just feels like no one is really trying with this title.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Its a hot mess, skip it.

SCORE: 1 out of 5

THE UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL #49

Writer:Â Ryan North
Art:Â Derek Charm
Colors:Â Rico Renzi
Letterer:Â Travis Lanham

Cover Artist:Â Erica Henderson