Tag Archives: Chipmunk Hunk

Nov 20 2018

Defusing the Tension in The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 38

By Drew Baumgartner

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 38

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

You guys, I love The Thing. That’s the John Carpenter movie, not Ben Grimm (though he’s cool, too). I’m a sucker for parlor mysteries in general, but the thought that “the killer” might actually be an imposter adds room for extra little twists that make the mysteries more mysterious and the tension more tense. Ryan North and Derek Charm play with this concept in the opening scene of Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 38, as Doreen and her computationally-minded friends devise a perfectly logical means of verifying everyone’s true identity. In Squirrel Girl’s world, there’s no white-knuckle blood-test scene, just the shortest route to diffusing that tension. It’s a choice North and Charm make throughout the issue, and while it sounds like it would rob the scenes of drama, it actually helps keep the pace moving along at a dizzying clip. Continue reading →

Jun 21 2017

Boys Night Out in Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 21

by Taylor Anderson

This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!

Any time I get the chance to compare Squirrel Girl to Star Trek, I’m going to take it. That’s because Squirrel Girl writer Ryan North is almost certainly is a fan of the series, at least in the nostalgic sort of way that recognizes the original series and TNG equally for their goofiness and genius. This being the case, I remember watching old episodes of TNG that focused on the ancillary characters aboard the Enterprise rather than the main cast. These episodes, in a lot of ways, turned out to be some of the best the shows the writers ever wrote. Perhaps there’s something about being unburdened from the role of an overarching narrative that engages writers creativity. This certainly seems the case in The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 21, an issue that shifts its focus onto Koi Boy, Chipmunk Hunk, and Brain Drain. Continue reading →

May 18 2017

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 20

Today, Drew and Taylor are discussing The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 20, originally released May 17th, 2017. As always, this article contains SPOILERS.

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.

Winston Churchill

Drew: We like to think that the truth in an unstoppable force, that its discovery is inevitable. It’s a comforting thought, and may very well be true over the long-run, but heaven knows it can be effectively obfuscated in the short term. This is exactly what Doreen finds herself up against in the depressingly timely Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 20, as Melissa Morbeck attempts to frame her for her own crimes. Ryan North and Erica Henderson pack the issue with enough parallels to the 2016 election to make the familiarity sting, but manage to keep it just as packed with jokes, maintaining their distinctive levity, even as things look their bleakest.

Continue reading →