ReadItDaddy's Book(s) of the Week - Week Ending 24th February 2017 - "The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Volumes 1 and 2" by Ryan North and Erica Henderson (Marvel)

Our Book (or books) of the week this week collect together the first 'modern era' 8 issues of one of the greatest superheroes ever to nibble a filbert...
...and we'll set Tippy Toe on anyone who disagrees. Squirrel Girl, originally created by Marvel big guns Steve Ditko and Will Murray and now ably chronicled by Ryan North and Erica Henderson is back and she's ready to knuckle down to some serious college work. Wait, what?

"Unbeatable Squirrel Girl" has been gathered together in a set of anthology books and I've been waiting for an opportune moment to introduce Squirrel Girl to Charlotte.

She loves comics, and I love any comic that puts a size 10 boot through the usual comic superhero tropes, and also promotes a fantastic female character who quite often shows the men how things SHOULD be done when you're a crime fighting super-powered superstar.

Squirrel Girl regularly hangs out with the likes of Tony (Iron Man) Stark, Thor (both Thors in fact) and she's even been known to take a poke or two at Spider-Man but this comic is full of fun rather than being one of those angsty uber-violent boob-windowed efforts you'd normally associate with Marvel.

In "Squirrel Power",  our eponymous heroine A.K.A Doreen Green is preparing to go underground and assume a (not so) secret identity as a regular college girl computer nerd. Much to the chagrin of her ever-present sidekick Tippy Toes, Doreen finds life in the dorm a little tougher than expected, particularly when there's still such a demand for a kick-ass super hero with squirrel powers!

Though pitched as completely tongue-in-cheek, Squirrel Girl is the sort of character that is a real draw for girls who love comics but always wonder what on earth Marvel is doing with its movie universe - where Black Widow often takes a back seat and other female Marvel 'big names' have yet to find their place as the central star in their own flix (though thankfully we do at least have an incoming Ms Marvel movie to look forward to).

Expanding on Doreen's first adventures, "Squirrel you Know it's True" once again pitches Squirrel Girl right into the thick of the action teaming up with superhero buddies to thwart a mighty menace.

If there's any justice, Marvel will be looking long and hard at the success of Squirrel Girl and also knocking on Shannon Purser's door to play Doreen Green in an upcoming movie (Sorry Tippy Toes, we just can't book with your choice of Selena Gomez).

At the very least she deserves a cameo in any of the new Avengers flicks.

I think the only negative thing to say about these is the quality of the paper Marvel are using in their graphic novel collections lately. It's as thin as that horrible shiny toilet paper you used to get in schools in the 70s and 80s. Ugh!

"The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl" volumes 1 and 2 are available now, published by Marvel.