Merge:Squirrel Girl

Squirrel Girl is a superhero in the Marvel Universe. Her real name is Doreen Green, and she is originally from the Los Angeles, California area. She first appeared in the Winter 1991 Marvel Super-Heroes special (officially Vol. 2, No. 8) in a story that saw her team-up with Iron Man, and, incredibly, defeat Dr. Doom. She is noteworthy for being created by Steve Ditko (the artist who first worked on Spider-Man), who drew her first adventure, and which was written by Will Murray. She is currently a member of the Great Lakes Avengers.

History
The original story (entitled "The Coming of Squirrel Girl!") began with her ambushing Iron Man in a forest. She hoped to impress the veteran hero, wishing him to take her under his wing as his sidekick. The 14 year old mutant introduced herself and her pet squirrel (named Monkey Joe), and displayed her various abilities (all of which were Squirrel themed). Unimpressed, Iron Man politely declined, when suddenly the duo was attacked by Doctor Doom in a large aircraft. Doom captured and subdued Iron Man, and began to fly out over the ocean where he planned to dispose of Iron Man's body once he killed him. Underestimating her, Doom left Squirrel Girl to her own devices. She devised a plan, and used her ability to communicate with squirrels through an open door as the ship passed over the forest. Hundreds of squirrels answered her call and flooded Doom's ship, chewing through the wires, and swamping the evil dictator with their furry bodies. Doom exclaimed "Confound these wretched rodents! For every one I fling away, a dozen more vex me!" Iron Man was freed, they emerged victorious, and the two heroes went their separate ways.

Squirrel Girl's first appearance was almost assured to be her last, given the sillyness of the character's concept, especially in the grittier and more grown up comic market trend of the early 1990s. She existed primarily as a matter of trivia, or an example of an extremely bad character, for the next decade. Her only known appearance during this time was as the pattern on a pair of underwear worn by the comedic character Deadpool in issue 7 of his series.

In 2005, comic writer Dan Slott wrote a four issue miniseries for the superhero team the Great Lakes Avengers. Created in 1989, this parody team was made up of enthusiastic heroes with bizarre and almost-but-not-quite useless abilities. They had appeared only a handful of times over their 16 year history, serving as comic relief. In commemoration of the team's first starring series, the first roster changes were made, and the Squirrel Girl character was revived. Having relocated to New York City for some reason, she was fighting crime in Central Park, and encountered the GLA, who were on a membership drive, after saving them from muggers. Along with appearing in the story, she also introduced each issue, usually giving a disclaimer or opinion piece about the contents of the series. Her side-kick squirrel, Monkey Joe, was also added to the team, and was used as a sort of commentator to the series, appearing in a circle alongside the story to make comedic and smart-assed remarks. Alongside her new teammates Squirrel Girl witnessed the death of Grasshopper and became very frightened but was determined not to give up. Thanks to her "squirrel army", Squirrel Girl was able to help stop Maelstrom from destroying the world.

This miniseries was also a parody of comic book deaths, and it had been announced that a team member would die every issue. After Squirrel Girl made a fuss to be certain that Monkey Joe was an official member of the team, he was killed in the third issue, apparently by Dr. Doom, who had come seeking revenge. In actuality, this was a rejected member of the GLA named Leather Boy in a variation of Dr. Doom's costume. Squirrel Girl found a new squirrel companion in the next issue, the only one of her "squirrel army" who had survived Maelstrom's wrath, whom she named Tippy-Toe.

In the following Winter's GLX-Mas special, Squirrel Girl and Tippy Toe managed to defeat M.O.D.O.K., Terrax and Thanos all by themselves. Uatu, the Earth's Watcher, was on hand to confirm that the Thanos she defeated was the real thing, and not a clone or copy of any kind (an explanation that has sometimes been used to excuse some of Thanos' more embarrassing performances over the years). After M.O.D.O.K. was defeated, Dum-Dum Dugan offered her a position at S.H.I.E.L.D., explaining that they'd been watching her for some time and found her to be one of the most effective people ever at defeating powerful supervillains. Squirrel Girl declined the offer, saying she was happy being with the GLX. Squirrel Girl was one of the lucky 198 to retain their powers after M-Day.

She was a huge fan of the New Warriors, especially Speedball, on whom she had a crush. It's unknown if the Stamford Tragedy from Civil War #1 has changed her opinion of the New Warriors or Speedball.



Powers and abilities
Squirrel Girl is a mutant, and like some other mutants (such as Angel), has a variety of mutations which coincidentally align with a certain theme (in her case, obviously, squirrels). During her first encounter with Iron Man, she gave a detailed demonstration of her powers and abilities: She has a furry, prehensile tail roughly 3-4 feet in length. She has sizable buck teeth, which are strong enough to chew through wood. She has enhanced agility and strength, enabling her to jump between trees with ease. Her fingers have claws on them, assisting her with climbing. There are retractable "knuckle spikes" of unknown strength roughly 2-3 inches in length in the back of each of her hands (the mechanism for these is presumably similar to Wolverine's claws). Lastly, she is capable of communicating with and understanding squirrels, who obey her commands, much like the DC Comics hero Aquaman's relationship with fish. Squirrel Girl does not communicate with squirrels telepathically, however, but rather has an innate understanding of and ability to use their language; squirrels have also been depicted understanding her when she speaks in English. Whether this power extends to species of ground squirrels, or other rodents, or merely the traditional tree squirrel is unknown.

Later appearances have revealed additional abilities possessed by Squirrel Girl. Her eyes have been seen to glow red it low-light situations, possibly indicating that she has some form of enhanced vision. In I (heart) Marvel: Masked Intentions #1, Squirrel Girl revealed that her lips taste like hazelnuts; she also appeared to have an enhanced sense of smell, shown by her attempt to sniff out the police when they confronted her.

Squirrel Girl also carries a belt of pouches which only contain nuts to give as snacks to her squirrel friends. Thus, to much comedic effect, they are her "nut sacks." She also has markings around her eyes, but whether these are natural due to her mutation, or cosmetically applied to enhance her squirrel-themed appearance is unknown.

Other
Squirrel Girl was 14 years old at the time of her first appearance, and announced that her birthday is sometime in July. It is unknown how much she has aged in her most recent appearance, however, a profile indicates she is still attending high school, and is thus still 18 or younger. It can be assumed, then, that her mother moved with her from Los Angeles to New York between her first and second appearances. The ramifications of her sudden move to Milwaukee to be with the GLA and her relationship with her mother has not yet been explored.

In addition to Monkey Joe and Tippy Toe, Squirrel Girl gave specific names to several other squirrels in GLA #4. These were named Slippy Pete, Mr. Freckle, and Nutso, and all were presumably killed when they were sucked into the singularity created by Maelstrom.