The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl & the Great Lakes Avengers

by Steve Ditko, Will Murray, Dan Slott

She kicks butts and eats nuts! They get stuck in ruts and shoot themselves in the foot(s)! But could Squirrel Girl be just what the Great Lakes Avengers need to propel them into the big leagues? Or will she be the death of them? The same questions apply to new foe/recruit Deadpool (who spills guts), but he's just playing second fiddle to 'dorable Doreen. Follow Squirrel Girl's complete adventures with the GLA (or is that GLI? GLX? GLC? It changes a lot!) COLLECTING: GLA 1-4, GLX-MAS SPECIAL, THING (2006) 8, CABLE & DEADPOOL 30, DEADPOOL/GLI SUMMER FUN SPECTACULAR; MATERIAL FROM MARVEL SUPER-HEROES (1990) 8, I HEART MARVEL: MASKED INTENTIONS, AGE OF HEROES 3, I AM AN AVENGER 1

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Marvel, Superheroes, Humor, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

264 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2016

About the author

Stephen J. "Steve" Ditko was an American comic book artist and writer best known as the co-creator of the Marvel Comics heroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange.

He was inducted into the comics industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1990, and into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 1994.

Reviews

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of Squirrel Girl's early appearances! Yay! Except that most of these issues are actually pretty dire. But hey, Squirrel Girl's first appearance is here, and that's really good, and parts of the summer special issue are good, too.

[Ma'Belle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vastly darker and more disturbing, less upbeat and feminist than the more recent Squirrel Girl books so many of us know and love. SG often serves as an opening 4th wall-breaking narrator who offers trigger warnings, since the Great Lakes team largely deals with themes of death, suicide, depression, alcoholism, and abuse and body-shaming and queer-shaming - none of which are handled all that terrifically.

I'm still giving it 3 stars because there were enough enjoyable and redeeming qualities to the stories. The team is meant to stand out in stark contrast to the well-known characters of the Marvel universe: failure, inaction, and being unremarkable or unmemorable are their defining characteristics. And yet they have a certain charm, and some of their members have quite endearing character arcs.

SG fans will love getting to see how her reputation builds upon being able to single-handedly defeat the biggest, most powerful baddies, all of which is directly made into a point to rub in the faces of whiny fanboys. From memory, she beats Dr. Doom, MODOK, Thanos, Bi-Beast, Deadpool, The Mandarin, Korvak, and Fin Fang Foom (the last three of which are just mentioned but hot really shown). Uatu, the Watcher shows up after she's incapacitated Thanos (right after MODOK, all on the same trip to the store for toilet paper and egg nog) just to verify for the canon that the Thanos seen beaten is the real deal.

Still - do not consider this essential reading as part of Squirrel Girl's collected comics.

[Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't even know where to begin!

I guess I'll confess that I didn't know anything about the Great Lakes Avengers. Aside from Ashley Crawford being one of the answers I always miss on that Sporcle quiz.

That being said, they were surprisingly interesting. They're a team of reject superheroes that tried to carve a space for themselves in the Great Lakes region and even that didn't work out. Hawkeye and Mockingbird were a part of them for a bit? I guess? Unless that was a joke as well.

Let me say I know for a fact the humor in this book won't work for everyone. I don't mean that in a douchey "If you're not laughing, you're not smart enough to get the joke" kind of way. I mean that in a "some sketches just aren't for everyone" kind of way. The humor in the book reminded me of Happy Tree Friends and Drawn Together. Let that sink in. Quite a bit of it was darkly humorous. Some of it was just "Why is this happening?" humorous. Squirrel Girl is a one of a kind character but one that I genuinely think of to be happy and cheerful. So imagine my surprise when she's in a book that dives quickly into a tale about a superhero that keeps trying to commit suicide?

There's quite a bit on the Great Lakes Avengers. I feel like everyone got sufficient development. We're introduced to Mr Immortal first. Everyone in his life keeps dying and he's doomed to live forever. That story was funny and then really sad. Like, I actually felt bad for him and Dinah and I wasn't expecting that.

I don't know how to feel about Big Bertha. I don't even know if they were really trying to make a statement about body image with her because I personally can't appreciate anyone joking about eating disorders. It's a personal thing but yeah... she exists.

Dehmarr had my favorite Christmas feature. The story about his dad was relatable and interesting. It was full of dark humor as well.

Mr. Flatman appealed to me about as much as Elastic Man in DC. Which is to say, not at all but he was used well in team books.

Anyway, Squirrel Girl joins their team and it makes for some awkwardly funny moments because someone on the GLA team dies every issue. It's always funny and then you feel bad for laughing because Doreen is upset about it. Grasshopper's death made me laugh my ass off. Because I'm a bad person.

The Deadpool intervals were good. I didn't know how to feel about the jokes about the Young Avengers. I loved the CW tie-ins but he kind of overstayed his welcome in this book. Never thought I'd say that.

Anyway, it's a recommend if this type of humor is your thing. If you're the kind of person that thinks South Park, Drawn Together, and Happy Tree Friends are stupid, gross, unnecessarily dark, this is probably not your thing.

4 stars.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was SO much better than the ongoing Squirrel Girl series, especially the parts Dan Slott wrote. It's witty and entertaining with plenty of action. I like how Squirrel girl takes out big time baddies like Thanos and Fin Fang Foom off panel. It makes for a much funnier book. And the "Fuzzball Special" made me laugh out loud. While Squirrel Girl makes an appearance in all the books, they aren't all focused on her. All in all, a really fun book. R.I.P. Monkey Joe.

[Cyndi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Squirrel Girl is so cool! She is funny and takes some of the serious out of the Marvel Universe. Lots of fun!

[Shaun · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only thing I dislike about this collection is the cover. Now, it's not because I dislike the artwork itself. It's because the artwork is extremely misleading. You see, while Squirrel Girl has never been beaten, she was not always known as "Unbeatable." Before she got her own series and went to college, she used to wear black eye makeup and fur lined gettup to fight crime in Wisconsin. Though she remains much the same personality-wise, kind, happy, wanting to do whats right and be friends with people, the people she was friends with used to be drastically different. Her friends in the Great Lakes Avengers have a lot of problems. Issues like suicide and death are brought the forefront. Though it is all with a humorous edge, it's a mature series. They hang out with Deadpool, the guy who just got a very hard R rated movie lately. Now for the right audience (say me) It's great. but the cover is so misleading. I get why they did it, to sell more copies. To show something more familiar to the audience that knows her. The problem is a huge segment of the readers of her new comic are very young people. This collection is not for them.

But lets get past the cover. For the right audience this collection is GREAT. When I found out Squirrel Girl existed I had to google her. When I found out she was in a group called the Great Lakes Avengers I HAD to get it. They were literally the first comic books I ever bought, and I bought them at age 29. Though it is still heavily humor based, it is a dark humor. People die and you laugh at it because the circumstances are so ridiculous. People try to kill themselves and you giggle.

Now, even though Squirrel Girl gets top billing in this book, she's not always the top star. Deadpool takes the lead in some later in, and his humor blends marvelously with her and the rest of the crew. They add levity to the serious (but oh so silly) storyline of the first Civil War arc. Now I don't know a whole bunch about the universe as things were happening at that time, but I followed it enough to get a kick out of things.

I am so happy they finally have a good solid collection of Squirrel Girl appearances before she got her own solo comic. This is the stuff that made me a diehard Squirrel Girl Fan. Though I like the direction she's gone in lately, I love where she used to be too. Though there are stark differences in tone between then and now, I love both. I just wish the cover didn't paint an inaccurate picture of what people were getting.

[Kyra · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was...not what I was expecting. I love the current Squirrel Girl series–it’s hilarious and relatively light-hearted and often pretty heartwarming, and at least from what I’ve read so far, it’s always optimistic. So I kind of figured Squirrel Girl’s previous appearances would be similar? NOT SO MUCH. This shit is dark–like, some of it’s kind of cool and occasionally it’s funny in a normal way, but the majority of it is black comedy at best in a way that feels a little like tryhard “adult” edginess to me. (Also, one character has a dead mom and TWO fridged girlfriends, because of course he does.) Tonally, it’s completely different from the current run, which makes the cute cover of Doreen in her modern costume a bizarre choice. It's...not even a bad book, necessarily, but it's also really, really not for everyone, and if you assume from the cover and logo that it'll be along the same lines as the current Squirrel Girl run (like I did), you'll probably be as unpleasantly surprised as I was.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

ugh...don't waste your time reading this. The worst team ever The Great Lakes Avengers. Basically, castoffs that The Avengers didn't want. Even if you are a fan of the new Squirrel Girl series this will not be what you are hoping to see. Even the Deadpool team up was not that great.

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of Squirrel girl appearances before she had her stand alone series. Also includes her first appearance which is hilarious.

[Sineala · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clearly released to cash in on the popularity of the currently-ongoing Squirrel Girl series, this is an anthology of Squirrel Girl's previous appearances. Since before now she was basically an extremely minor member of the world's worst superhero team, what this book really is is a GLA anthology that happens to start with a reprint of her first appearance and has slapped her name on the cover for extra marketing points.

I say this as a giant fan of the current Squirrel Girl run: this is not going to be what you want.

Oh, some of the book is nice; I really enjoyed the character's first appearance, and her team-up with Iron Man to defeat Doom. (Her initial art design kind of terrifies me, oh God those eyes, but I can ignore it.) That was really what I was hoping the rest of this book would be like. And then the bulk of the book is GLA issue after issue. I don't know what went wrong here. I usually like Dan Slott's writing, but this just... it isn't funny. It isn't. The jokes are either meh or cruel (that was more bulimia jokes than I ever needed, thanks) and mostly I can't be made to care about anyone. So, while, yeah, you will learn about her fighting MODOK and Thanos, it's just... meh.

There is a very cute issue about Doreen's crush on Speedball (of New Warriors fame). This was written by Nicieza, which I think helps a lot. The Thing's bar mitzvah and poker tournament isn't half-bad, either. Probably because it's not entirely about the GLA.

And then we descend, inexplicably, into Deadpool. Because apparently Deadpool was on the team. Was hanging around with the team. Something. I don't know. There is only so much Deadpool I can take. We then take a further turn into the bizarre as the GLA appear in a Cable & Deadpool issue that is actually part of Civil War! Because out-of-context bits of event comics featuring other superheroes is exactly what this book needed! Deadpool is trying to get them to register but they were... already... registered... I guess. And Steve attempts to have an actual serious conversation about the SHRA with Cable. I do like Nicieza's work, and at some point I should sit down and read all of C&D, and it was certainly better written than most of the book, but it was a little weird to suddenly find Civil War.

The book ends with a few pages here and there that just happened to have Squirrel Girl, from random other comics, just for the sake of completeness.

If you want to read a fun story about Squirrel Girl, honestly, just read her first appearance from this book and then go read the current run. Which is way better than this.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apparently there's a whole separate "grown-up" Squirrel Girl series where she's in college or high school or something - more serious than this thing, and fans of THAT series are apparently unhappy with this collection. However...not knowing the other series, I found this a whole lot of fun.

I've always liked the idea of Squirrel Girl, just because it sounded so stupid. And apparently, at least part of MARVEL feels the same way; this whole book was very tongue-in-cheek, and much more in line with the Deadpool sense of humor than the seriousness of, say, the Avengers. In fact, Deadpool is a key figure in this book, and adds to the overall sense of ridiculousness. That said, the Great Lakes Avengers (GLA) are ridiculous enough without him - I particularly liked the 2-dimensional Flatman, (the book includes a "Flatman action figure," which is just a paper doll-like cutout), and Big Bertha.

At the same time, the book is surprisingly dark. Major characters die off rather suddenly, and the loss of Dinah Soar is particularly poignant. Anyway - overall, some good silly fun, especially after the much heavier "Civil War" Avengers books I've been reading lately.

UPDATE: Not sure why this came back to my attention, but this was a fun re-read - and yes, still dark, (didn't realize last time that one of the "rules" of the GLA is that a major character die in each comic). This book is also a great place to see the entire evolution of Squirrel Girl, from this:



...all the way back to whatever the hell this was, in her first appearance in 1991:

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with this one, not because it was bad - I'm just not so much into the death and destruction and persistent suicide. I liked Squirrel Girl for her positivity (which she has here), and her ability to negotiate past the easy label of "villain" (which she also does here). But her major role in this compilation seems to be that of resident hand-wringer and all-around sad Pollyanna, albeit a kick-butt one (yes, it's a weird dichotomy). I found myself mentally echoing her despair at the events taking place, the death, the death, and the more death.

The humor remains spot-on, despite the dark (dark, really deeply dark) tone. I was not surprised to see Deadpool appear in the last few stories.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tonally, I expected this book to align more with the North and Henderson Squirrel Girl series. However, this hapless group of aspiring Avengers draws closer similarities with the fame-obsessed and death-riddled X-Force team team from Milligan and Allred's run in the early 2000's. For someone who grabbed this book expecting to be mildly entertained by some of Squirrel Girl's early adventures, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

Squirrel Girl's involvement in this book should be substantial enough to satisfy most fans. Plus you'll have the added bonus of getting to know the hilarious and endearing Great Lakes Avengers team.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

For some reason Marvel thought they should answer the question of what The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl would be like if, instead of being written by an educated and witty optimistic humanist, it were written by a cynic with a mean streak and a sophomoric sense of humor.

This was the result. It's ... regrettable.

[jonathan h · Rating 5 out of 5]

i am going to cry i am so attached to this book and these characters and these stories. seeing SG make her way to new york at the end... fuck, man, i'm so excited.

also, the section in the deadpool summer special where SG goes back in time to see speedball and mr. i pops up was so entertaining and sweet and hurt my heart so good.

and so my comic journey (properly) begins!

[Catherine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Borders on the unreadable. Not, alas, Squirrel Girl as we know and love her and definitely not one for the kiddies, despite what the cover suggests. I no longer have any questions about why I'd never heard of the Great Lakes Avengers before they got a passing mention in SG.

[Caralena · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was not at all like the way Squirrel Girl was portrayed in the North Henderson comics and I feel I was mislead. Do not read to see Squirrel Girl (or just in general) :(

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would have earned 5 stars if not for the persistent body-shaming and lackadaisical way they address suicidal thoughts/attempts. These stories were funny and had a lot of action. I don't necessarily think this should have Squirrel Girl in the title because it honestly focused on all the GLA equally. I really liked getting to see a group of heroes that don't always get it right, that have very little in terms of back up and planning, and are just losers in every sense of the word. There were parts that had me genuinely laughing out loud and saying what a bunch of idiots. I think the first couple of issues glaze over the suicidal tendencies of Mr. Immortal in a way that makes me uncomfortable. The 4th wall breaking regarding Big Bertha's transformation didn't make it any better that she basically pukes her fat off. Overall, while problematic in a lot of areas (honestly what comic from 2005 isn't problematic), this was still a fun read. It was awesome to see the beginning of Squirrel Girl's journey and how she kicks everyone's ass single-handedly.

[Honora Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fun! The GLA/GLC/GLI/GLX or what have you is sort of considered the worst superhero team. One note joke characters that were never supposed to see a second light. The team spins out of the West Coast Avengers/Avengers West Coast Series and almost everyone in that series was in this book. But in addition to the original roster is Squirrel Girl, another joke character that has actually proved herself to be pretty dang awesome. There are sad times, and funny times and just over all weird times but I truly loved this. And while I know the are the "worst" I wouldn't mind reading more of there adventures as a team some day.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of the first squirrel girl appearances. One of my favorite superheroes and my favorite superhero team all in one book. I couldn't not love it. But to be fair if you don't love or know either this probably won't sale you on them.

[Kevin Leung · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this as a lead-in to the Ryan North Squirrel Girls, and I absolutely didn’t need to. The Great Lakes Avengers is pretty dark, and Squirrel Girl doesn’t make many appearances. Her existing vibe can easily be summarized in a paragraph and doesn’t require the background reading.

[Patrick.G.P · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man this was a fun read! Marvel's most inept superhero team from Milwaukee, The Great Lakes Avengers, teams up with the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl and tries to save the day (and the universe). Great humor and storytelling, Dan Slott's writing is excellent here! Recommended!

[Nathan Haines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Squirrel Girl eats nuts and kicks butts... The rest of them not so much.

As much as i enjoyed these, especially the ones featuring Deadpool, I definitely prefer the later ones more

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a delightfully fun read, collecting Squirrel Girl's main appearances prior to her own solo comic run. The Great Lakes Avengers comics were funny and very tongue-in-cheek, and I enjoyed the very solid continuity going on. RIP Monkey Joe!

[Becky B · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book collects all the comics that explain what happened in Squirrel Girl's life between her first comic book appearance and her latest series. It's the adventures and misadventures of a lackluster group of superheroes in Wisconsin who call themselves the Great Lakes Avengers (and then a host of other monickers) who recruit Squirrel Girl to try and improve their image. Once she gets them a little better record and faith in themselves, and rids them of an unwanted guest (aka Deadpool), she realizes they don't need her any more and moves on.

So I love the current The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl series, and I picked this up expecting more like that series. I mean, the cute cover just screams more of the same. However, that cover may be the most deceptive cover I've ever found because this is obviously aimed at an adult audience and it is anything but happy and fun. I will give Marvel some credit. They at least have Squirrel Girl and Monkey Joe (and then Tippy-Toe after Monkey Joe meets his demise) do a little warning before each new story telling kids to not do any of the things they see the characters doing, but still. I would not hand this to any kid. The "leader" of the GLA is Mr. Immortal. He is suicidal after several loved ones die (including one other suicide) but he's immortal. Still, they show all these suicide attempts through various means. Then there's Deadpool and all of his ichor. They mention him sitting around their HQ and just watching porn all day, and he's got his usual nasty mouth. And then there's Big Bertha/Ashley Crawford who changes from Big Bertha back to Ashley by throwing up and they make a side comment about bulimia being no laughing matter, but it doesn't feel like they take it seriously. The GLA has a high fatality record, losing several members on page. This is a much more serious, grown up, deadly world, and Squirrel Girl isn't anywhere near as wonderful as she is when North writes her. So all that to say, don't pick this up if your a Ryan North & Erica Henderson Squirrel Girl fan. It isn't the same, and there's nothing in here super important to that series. (Ok, so it does explain why her sidekick squirrel in the original comic was Monkey Joe and now is Tippy-Toe, but even that doesn't make it worth reading this. Here I'll solve the problem. Monkey Joe was killed by a bad guy. There, that's all you need to know.) Only pick this up if you like gritty and serious superhero stories.

Notes on content: There are some comments where characters say one thing but you can tell they mean a swear word. No actual swearing that I remember. No sex scenes. Some kisses on page. Mr. Immortal is shown in bed with a woman. Mr. Immortal spends the majority of one story running around in his literal underwear. There's a kinda lengthly discussion about whether certain characters are gay or hetero. And as mentioned, Deadpool is involved for a few stories and is said to watch porn and he makes some lewd comments. There's a LOT of violence. And gore is often shown, like brain splatter and beheadings and blood. As mentioned, suicide attempts and successes through all sorts of methods. Oh, also some drinking and gambling. And in one story all the superheroes are drunk (technically it isn't their fault, the bad guy is making them that way).

[Emma Gear · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not the first person to point this out and I'm sure I won't be the last, but Marvel really did people dirty by making the cover of this what it is. Featuring a cutesy picture off Squirrel Girl in her more modern incarnation for a collection of her previous appearances is just poor marketing, considering how not kid-friendly this series is.

Or, most of it anyway. This collects Squirrel Girl's first ever appearance in Marvel Super-Heroes #8 where she helps Iron Man to defeat Doctor Doom. That part's fine, but the meat of this book is in the Great Lakes Avengers, a mid-2000's dark comedy series that was basically a parody of comics of the day. And since the 2000's were known mostly for edgier comics (Thanks in a big part to the Ultimate universe, which was popular around the time) then GLA goes way overboard in its depiction of that. The leader of the group, Mr. Immortal, is a man who only decided to become a superhero after learning he had the unique ability to not die. This has also lead to a great deal of tragedy as he often attempts suicide during the run, only to kind of bounce back and return to life shortly after.

A big gimmick with the GLA in general is that a member of the team dies in pretty much every issue. Squirrel Girl joins early on as she is honestly sort of tricked by the GLA illegally using the name Avengers when they're not allowed to. But she becomes the muscle of the group and saves the day numerous times. While it is always a humorous series, it is very dark in its jokes, and not at all appropriate for the audience that the cover is definitely trying to pull in.

Still, the initial run of the Great Lakes Avengers remains one of my favorite series of all time. If you've got a high tolerance for the subject matter being joked about then this is definitely worth checking out. If not, then there is still some extra back stories with Deadpool and a really fun Holiday story as well. Plus the initial issue with Iron Man and Squirrel Girl is just plain old fun.

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're a fan of Ryan North's Squirrel Girl, this is not it! The Squirrel Girl featured here is not the one on the cover- it's a super creepy version that will give you nightmares if you stare at her face too long.

Also, don't give this to kids. This is a compilation of various iterations of the Great Lakes Avengers (aka GL X-men, aka GL Champions, aka GL Initiative- yeah, guess none of the writers liked them enough to stick to a name), a ragtag group of misfits that really doesn't have a lot going for them. The first run is so bad I can't believe it was even printed. Each issue was preceded by a trigger warning/ PSA and makes light of suicide, bulimia, and is just in bad taste overall.

Some of the shorter Squirrel Girl stories in the beginning and end are cute and make it not a total flop, but it's just disappointing that with the cute cover they are clearly trying to market this to a young audience that should not be reading this.

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl by Ryan North and Erica Henderson is easily one of my favourite comic series being published right now so I thought it would be interesting to read this volume and see how the character has evolved and how she was written in the past. Honestly, It was pretty tedious to get through. There were some entertaining moments, but it seemed like previous writers just didn't know what to do with the character apart from make her personality a little "nutty" and have her talk to squirrels. Very two dimensional. The one good thing that came from reading this is that it very much made me appreciate the evolution of the character and the inventiveness of the current series even more.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's great to see that a lot of the elements that make Squirrel Girl so awesome were already present in these early appearances from the '90s and '00s. It's a shame, though, that so many of the stories in this volume rely on violence, shock and grossness for humor. Much of it would probably not be appropriate for her younger current fans and may even be a bit of a chore for older fans who only know her from the Ryan North/Erica Henderson run. I can see why Marvel wants to cash in on her popularity, but it is pretty misleading to put such a sweet cover on a book with so much death and gore: suicides, murders, decapitations, accidental deaths. Buyer beware.

[Jen]

Basically read the beginning which is just about a not-great super hero try to kill himself and have an overall hugely depressing life and decided this is not a thing I need to read at this point in my life.