Marvel

This tweet sums it up perfectly, but most people who hate on Squirrel Girl often turn around and proceed to gush over Deadpool, even though his “doesn’t-take-anything-remotely-seriously” schtick is similar to that of Squirrel Girl’s.



The major difference, of course, is that while Squirrel Girl’s comedy is more PG-rated and aimed at a younger audience, Deadpool’s comedy cranks all that up to an R-rating with a greater emphasis on gratuitous blood and gore, naughty innuendos, toilet humor, and other forms of edge-lord humor most suited to teenage boys pretending that they’re more “adult” for liking all that stuff.



Now riddle me this: why would a bunch of insecure teenage edge lords love such comedy when it comes from a male protagonist but hate it when it’s coming from a female protagonist, albeit more toned-down and age-appropriate for younger girls? Lesson over, Daniel-san!



Again, I’m not here to say that you’re a bad person if you don’t like Squirrel Girl. But even if you don’t genuinely like her or consider her to be your type of comic book character, at least accept that it doesn’t have to be your type of comic.



If you prefer comics that are more “super serious”, there are plenty of comics that are “super serious.” In fact, most comic books these day already try to be “serious”, while comics like Squirrel Girl and Deadpool fill the niche of comics that don’t take themselves even remotely serious.

Marvel

That’s probably what I appreciate about her comics the most. The best way to explain her character isn’t to describe what she is but what she isn’t. She’s not a lone vigilante trying to avenge her dead parents or relatives. She’s not trying to compensate for the sins of a checkered past. She’s not being a superhero out of a sense of duty or honor or obligation. She’s a superhero because she wants to be one, and she wants to be one because she thinks superheroes are fun and awesome. And they are!



That’s something I’ve noticed about the newer, younger Marvel superheroes — you know, the ones that angry comic geeks hate because they fear it’s part of some nefarious “forced diversity SJW agenda”!



Squirrel Girl and many of the other Young Avengers like Kamala Khan and Riri Williams have become superheroes solely because they’ve grown up idolizing them and thinking that they’re cool and awesome. They want to be superheroes because they want to be superheroes.



And before you deride that as a “bad” reason to become a superhero, ask yourself this: if you could have any superpower, why would you want to have it? Is it because you have a genuine desire to selflessly serve the greater good? Or is it because you’d think having that superpower would be awesome. You know what the honest answer is.

Pintrest

In a way, Squirrel Girl and the other Young Avengers serve as the living embodiment of the comic book fandom, the fans who’ve grown up with their superheroes since a young age, reading their comics, watching their shows and movies, creating fan art and fanfiction of them, and overall idolizing them and dreaming of becoming just like them. And for Doreen Green, she gets to do exactly that for real.



This very notion of tapping into the inner power fantasy of comic book fans helps provide a much more positive and optimistic tone that’s been severely lacking in the industry, which is currently obsessed with being dark, gritty, “serious”, and “mature.” As such, comics like Squirrel Girl serve as a much needed reminder that comics used to be about having fun, something that comics haven’t really been since the Golden or Silver Ages.

Marvel

In fact, Squirrel Girl’s original creator, William Patrick Murray, explained that such nostalgia was the very inspiration for his character: “The concept was to introduce into an increasingly grim and gritty Marvel Universe an optimistic, upbeat character similar to the Silver Age Marvel superheroes I grew up reading.”



No, I’m not making the argument that comic book superheroes need to return to being like they were “back in the good old days.” I don’t have anything against superheroes being “serious.” I’d just appreciate if the comic book industry would have some variety is all. If you don’t like superheroes like Squirrel Girl, that’s fine. Just accept that not all comic book heroes need to be for you.



And if you still can’t understand why someone would enjoy a silly comic about a teenage girl who can talk and act like a squirrel and who was able to defeat Doctor Doom, one of the greatest and most powerful Marvel villains, by throwing squirrels at him, well, allow me to kindly remind you that her comic is focused solely on comedy, so…