The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

Work by Ryan North and Marvel Comics, Review by Stephen Burt

Do you like superheroes, but not superhero hype? Do you worry that super-serious superhero films, packed with super-expensive CGI effects and even more expensive actors making sexist PR gaffes, have squashed all the fun out of what ought to be a fun genre—one forever linked to comic books as a medium, or else linked to what were once Saturday morning cartoons? Do you mourn the demise of Saturday morning cartoons, even while recognizing that most of their scripts were terrible? Do you wonder whether the ever-more-elaborate set of Marvel universes, with their infinitely expanding set of Infinity Stones and their cross-platform crossovers, can make fun of itself? Would you like to see a superhero story that entertains ten-year-old readers, their parents, and their unashamed college-age cousins, maybe even for the same reasons? Did you like Felicity? Do you like squirrels?