The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #7
Writer: Ryan North
Artist: Erica Henderson
Colourist: Rico Renzi
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Wil Moss
Publisher: Marvel
A review by Amelia Wellman
This month’s issue of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #7 has taken an interesting turn for a comic book: it’s a ‘choose your own adventure’ with numerous ways for you to control one of Marvel’s best: Squirrel Girl!
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #7 is letting YOU choose your own adventure! What choices will you make while in control? Will you use this ultimate power as Squirrel Girl for good or for evil? Okay, clearly for good, don’t be that guy and/or girl! You’ll take on a villain by the name of Swarm with multiple paths and multiple outcomes. It’s time for you to be The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl! With a special introduction from Squirrel Girl’s good friend Galactus!
In all honesty, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl gives me hope that not everything in popular media has to be doom and gloom and big, life-altering decisions that don’t have a happy ending. Sometimes it can just be a girl with the proportional strength of a squirrel and a big, bushy tail fighting a doofus that thought to try their hand at super-villainy! As always, Ryan North handles the absurdly silly subject matter with ease. Who else but Ryan North would ever attempt a ‘choose your own adventure’ in the form of a 32 page comic? His humour comes through effortlessly with the diverging path style presented in issue seven, but with two Shakespearian ‘choose your own adventure’ books under his belt, he’s pretty pro at this point.
The art, once again provided by Erica Henderson, has retained its cartoony, colourful, doodle-like quality that we’ve come to know and love. It just completely suits Squirrel Girl’s overall feel to have it bright and cute and a little rough around the edges. I mean, if that right there doesn’t describe the titular character to a tee, I don’t know what will! If you’ve followed Squirrel Girl’s adventures before this point, the art might come off a little rougher than previous issues, but that’s no doubt just from having to fit so many ‘choose your own adventure’ paths on one page.
The Verdict
Buy it! I don’t think there’s a single thing in The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl that I don’t like and I went into the series about as pessimistic about it as I could have been! It continues to be a ridiculously good read and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #7 shows it’s probably one of the most original comics currently being produced. The ‘choose your own adventure’ format might not be the easiest to read digitally (as I did), but it’s a fun time nonetheless!