Squirrel Girl has to now face down Mrs. Morbeck’s entire animal army. Sadly for Squirrel Girl it not going to be so straight forward as beating things up. Morbeck brings about her best cosplay of Doctor Doom.
It seems like she’s about to pin this all upon Doctor Doom. However: Plot Twist!
Morbeck is instead pinning the whole thing upon Squirrel Girl, making it seam like Doreen was doing it all to look like the hero. Morbeck’s plan is interesting. Her plot is character assassination of Doreen. She doesn’t just want to beat her, she wants destroy everything, the goodwill, the reputation, that Doreen has worked so hard to earn. In some ways it comes across as Morbeck being jealous of SG. Doreen was born with the ability to speak to SG, while Morbeck had to engineer a way after her mother and grandmother’s failures. What Morbeck had to work so hard for, Doreen was gifted with, and this must’ve caused jealousy to thrive and embitter Morbeck’s heart, and give her motive to upstage Doreen and become the hero she thinks she should be. And this way she’s mirrors her grandmother who also tried to sabotage people. this comic understand tragic parallels. (Someone get editor Kylie on the phone, this stuff is her shtick.)
So Morbeck reveals Doctor Doom is being played by a bear, further incriminating Doreen. She then bursts onto the scene with the ever virtuous Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson the foolish. With a good dose of drama, she proclaims how she’s “freeing” the animals from Doreen’s control. What results is an ANIMAL FIGHT!!! Meanwhile Doreen’s friends hatch up a plot to disrupt Morbeck’s transmitters. It just means that Tippy has to lose all of her hair and become something like a naked mole rat. Stealthily Tippy infiltrates Morbeck’s army and disrupts Morbeck’s control. Through the power of friendship and knowledge of science SG saves the day.
Everything is fine and hunky dory. The animals are returned to their natural habitats and zoos, and Doreen has to slog through more computer ethics classes (Which are pretty damn important guys. Take head.) Morbeck is however met with a one of SG oldest foes: Ratatoskr.
This issue was excellent to read. The jokes were well timed, there’s cheeky dialogue, and a surprisingly in depth and interesting story. It’s funny, but I take SG more seriously as a super hero than a lot of others, despite the silliness. I think its because SQ the comic takes a lot of its core themes and even characters seriously, despite all of the silly stuff that happens so much.
In a further contrast to Morbeck, SQ wins by team work, in contrast to Morbeck’s solitary leadership style. While Doreen focuses on herself and others, Morbeck only focuses on herself. This is just a further contrast to showcase how different the two really are.
Oh and in then in the last panel we get a gay Jewish marriage between Chef Bear and Alfredo the chicken………this was actually published, by a billion dollar company…..life is really freaking weird, guys.
All Images Courtesy of Marvel
