The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol 2: Squirrel You Know It's True by Ryan North and Erica Henderson

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Vol 2: Squirrel You Know It's True written by Ryan North and illustrated by Erica Henderson contains the latter four issues (#5–8) of the first solo Squirrel Girl run. Thanks to events, the numbers were reset after the issues in this volume (but no Secret Wars business happens in this book. Phew). There are also some extras from old issues (circa 2006), which are shorter stories and not, I think, any entire issues.

The breakout character of 2015 continues her one-woman crusade against injustice and jerks! These TAILS of the Squirrel Girl will show you the Marvel Universe's most powerful super hero from a bunch of brand-new perspectives, several of them QUITE ASTONISHING.

SQUIRREL GIRL IS AWESOME. This is 100% still my favourite comic book series. I laughed a lot. I was a little leery about the two new super-powered characters that are introduced as Squirrel Girl's friends and sidekicks — Chipmunk Hunk and Koi Boi, lol — but they don't overshadow Doreen at all. (Or Doreen's one true sidekick, Tippy Toe.) Mostly they help and accept that she's better than them and also there are way more squirrels in New York than chipmunks or koi fish. Haha. They contribute to the comedy of the book, too, so yay.

The break-out awesomest sidekick, however, was Nancy, Doreen room mate. We met her in the first volume but in this second trade she really gets a chance to shine. She's a normal human who writes Cat Thor fan fiction and loves her cat above all. And quickly jumps at being on team Squirrel Girl — so long as she doesn't get kidnapped too much more often. Also, we get to actually see some Cat Thor action in this volume, which was AWESOME and adorable.

The villain in the last story arc of the trade was an Asgardian squirrel goddess, so of course some of our favourite Marvel Asgardians also made an appearance (both old and new Thor, and Loki). There were also some background cameos from other Avengers and also a villain who was a hippo, which was also awesome (because hippos, like Squirrel Girl, are the best).

The commentary at the bottom of most pages also continues to add hilarity to an already hilarious comic. There are bits of some old comics included in the back, which are entirely skippable, but really not as terrible as they could be (as they are in basically every other franchise I've read that has included them to bulk out trades). My main takeaway message from those was that the Great Lakes Avengers sucked and Squirrel Girl was probably the best thing about them. Also 2006 was about a decade ago, wow.

Basically, Squirrel Girl and this book are awesome. If you haven't yet, you should buy it. If you haven't read the first four issues, you should also buy those. Read Squirrel Girl. Why wouldn't you want to? Squirrel Girl for all!

5 / 5 stars

First published: December 2015, Marvel
Series: Squirrel Girl, volume 2 of 2 of the first Squirrel Girl solo run containing issues #5–8. The numbering has restarted subsequent to these issues.
Format read: Trade paperback
Source: Purchased in person from a physical bookshop