Eatable

Squirrel Girl and Tippy-Toe are launched back to the 1960s in “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” #2. Rather than worrying about paradoxes and space-time rifts, Doreen tries to make the most of her unexpected trip — much to Tippy-Toe’s dismay. Ryan North and Erica Henderson continue to have a blast with this title, playing with the time period and the genre conventions that go with time hops. Though the plot doesn’t move as smoothly or excitingly as I’d like, this is another fun issue in a reliably fun series. North has chosen another perfect challenge for his heroine. He pits Doreen’s unflappable, practical cheer against the conventions of time travel, and the incongruity is quite funny. While Tippy worries about creating a “time loop” or “a paradox,” Doreen pays more attention to the potential of “old lady me” meeting up with young Nancy, or how “cute and fresh as heck” ’60s clothes are. It’s clever and often comical to see her solve problems outside the genre conventions. However, as

Thanks to Marvel’s recent “Secret Wars” event, this is the second time in 2015 Ryan North and Erica Henderson’s “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” #1 has hit shelves. Fortunately, this second go-round hasn’t lost any of the first series’ charm or silliness, even as Doreen and Nancy go up against a new foe and gain a new classmate. North makes “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” #1 (and the series in general) work with a strong sense of humor and a distinct style of superheroism. The core super-powered plot of this issue deals with an old and slightly obscure HYDRA villain that Doreen and Nancy find in their building. When you look at it strictly from that angle, it’s somewhat standard. The duo go up against the bad guy, try to save their sidekicks (or, in this case, animal friends) and ultimately find the bad guy’s weakness to defeat him. Because this is “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl,” however, it’s never quite that simple. Similar to the fight against Galactus in the previous series, North t

With an assist from Chris Giarusso on the trading card art, “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” #4 continues the adorable, entertaining and funny series from Ryan North and Erica Henderson. In this issue, Galactus shows up to devour the Earth and Squirrel Girl stops him. Yes, it really does go down like that, but North makes the story entertaining and enjoyable from start to finish. The writer even has fun with the story structure, giving readers the end of the tale, then backtracking to the sequence of events. Along the way, North packs in plenty of ridiculous humor and underscores it all with the running banter at the bottom of every page in the issue. As can only happen in a comic like this, North makes Galactus a likeable character and even builds a friendship between the great devourer and Squirrel Girl. Erica Henderson’s upbeat, loose artwork matches North’s fun story. She provides plenty of detail and background throughout the issue and her drawings are filled with energy and lif

In many ways, “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” #3 is part of a very standard superhero comic. We have a protagonist who’s heading off to college, meeting new people and fighting super-villains along the way. What makes “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” #3 stand out, though, is the veneer of ridiculousness with which Ryan North, Erica Henderson and Rico Renzi cover the comic. It’s the silliness that makes the comic stand out and, considering their protagonist is Squirrel Girl, that’s a good thing. Most of “The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” #3 involves Squirrel Girl going up against first Iron Man foe Whiplash and then a group of random bank robbers. Neither one of them sounds particularly exciting on their own, but North’s script makes them both wonderfully ridiculous. These are battles where Squirrel Girl makes usage of all of the squirrels in the surrounding area to defeat the bad guys and, if you think this is bizarre, you have no idea just how much so it quickly becomes. There’s more to t

In “Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” #2 by Ryan North and Erica Henderson, Squirrel Girl starts college but her first-day adventures are interrupted by news that Galactus is on his way to Earth again. North combines two traditional plotlines here: the first-day-of-college story and the saving-the-world-from-evil plotline, linking them together with the secret identity device. After the first page featuring Galactus, the first scene of “Unbeatable Squirrel Girl” #2 is all college stuff, and it’s particularly cute to see Doreen worrying about fitting in and crushing on Tomas. The school story is a classic one, but North manages to make it fresh with Doreen’s dialogue and his take on her character. She is adorably earnest and energetic, and her grouchier, less-easily-fazed roommate Nancy Whitehead is a great foil. North’s captions at the bottom of every page are a great idea. They add a layer of meta-humor to the story, but they are so small and placed so unobtrusively that they don’t inter