Doreen GreenSquirrel Girl

Squirrel Girl will save the day from rude ruffians with her squirrel mates Monkey Joe and Tippy-Toe at her side. They won’t back down from a fight because they aren’t quitters. And whenever she finds herself in a bind she calls on her squirrels, and a bushy-tailed army comes to her aid.

Nascent Nutter

Developing strange hybrid squirrel-like features, including buck teeth and a bushy tail, in her teens, Doreen Green acquired the nickname “Rodent” from cruel fellow students. In between attempts to conceal her odd appearance, she escaped her peers’ taunts in the woodlands, where she bonded with the squirrels and formed a close friendship with one she named Monkey Joe.

Idolizing Iron Man (Tony Stark), based at nearby Stark Enterprises, Doreen made herself a costume and took the name Squirrel Girl, hoping to become his partner.

Squirrel Whisperer

Squirrel Girl possesses enhanced strength, speed, agility, and reflexes. A super humanly nimble acrobat gifted at climbing trees, she can perform standing high jumps of at least 30 feet. Small claws on each digit enhance her gripping and climbing and are also useful to some extent as weapons in hand-to-hand fighting. Her right hand contains a retractable knuckle spike, larger and more durable than her claws, which can easily carve wood. Her enlarged incisors can chew through solid wood. She has a bushy, semi-prehensile tail, roughly six feet long, which enhances her sense of balance—she can also use it to cover her opponents’ eyes, or to wrap around herself for warmth or protection. Highly flexible, the tail can be fully concealed beneath civilian clothes, albeit somewhat uncomfortably.

Able to mimic squirrel vocalizations perfectly, she can fluently communicate with them and direct their actions, often commanding large numbers simultaneously. She frequently uses multiple squirrels to distract, disorient, or even assault her opponents, and these animal allies often chew through circuitry, wiring, clothing and other materials, attacking targets with their teeth and claws.

Squirrel Girl shares a close, possibly empathic, bond with the squirrels who become her partners, Monkey Joe and Tippy-Toe. She and her squirrels seem able to understand each other fully and fluently, regardless of whether they are conversing in English or via squirrel sounds, suggesting some sort of mental link between them. A form of telepathic rapport might also explain the unusually high intelligence of Monkey Joe and Tippy-Toe, who may have developed enhanced intellect via extended contact with Doreen’s human consciousness. Tippy-Toe does not seem quite as intelligent as the late Monkey Joe yet, as she is reportedly incapable of reading printed or written human languages. However, this may stem from her mental link with Squirrel Girl being more recent, and she may develop higher intelligence over time.

A surprisingly fierce and formidable unarmed combatant, Squirrel Girl has trained with the Great Lakes Avengers and also practices combat maneuvers with her squirrel partners, such as the “fuzzball special” (which consists of Squirrel Girl hurling Tippy-Toe at an opponent’s face). Wealthy teammate Big Bertha provides her with a customized personal helicopter dubbed the “Squirrel-a-gig,” (later modified and improved by Initiative technicians) and Squirrel Girl is a highly skilled pilot of this vehicle.

Squirrel Girl’s presumably high metabolism requires regular feedings, so she wears a utility belt with pouches, or “nutsacks,” full of nuts. She typically carries almonds, cashews, peanuts, and other nuts, notably macadamias, which she claims give her “extra pep.” She also utilizes acorns as treats for her squirrel friends. It is unclear whether the dark markings around her eyes are natural or cosmetically applied.

Evil, Evil Pie Holes

Dr. Doom (Victor von Doom), a Super Villain with super-genius intellect, engages Squirrel Girl in her first super-fight. When he traps her and idol Iron Man on his Doomship, Squirrel Girl sends a group of squirrels (a scurry) after him, forcing Doom to flee and allowing both heroes to elude his criminal clutches.

Maelstrom is a cosmic menace with minions known as Batroc’s Brigade. Squirrel Girl fights these evil doers alongside the Great Lakes Avengers and an army of squirrels, all of whom perish in the battle, save for Tippy-Toe.

The criminal Bug-Eyed Voice attempts to disrupt Squirrel Girl’s crush, Speedball, from the New Warriors. She halts his efforts leading to a reward from Speedball himself.

M.O.D.O.K.—the Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing—is a mutated cybernetic version of George Tarleton, a technician for Advanced Idea Mechanics, or A.I.M., the scientific arm of Hydra. Squirrel Girl helps defeat M.O.D.O.K. alongside S.H.I.E.L.D., who offers her a position in their espionage and security agency. She declines because of her commitment to the then-Great Lakes X-Men.

Deadpool (Wade Wilson) proves to be an annoying menace to Squirrel Girl. When the Superhuman Registration Act goes into effect, the super-mercenary attacks Doreen and her team for not registering. He eventually realizes his mistake, but continues to be a twist in Squirrel Girl’s tail, and she never agrees with his potty mouth.

Favorite Friends

Monkey Joe and Tippy-Toe are two of Squirrel Girl’s most valued allies. She and Monkey Joe are crime-fighters that become well known in Central Park. After Monkey Joe is taken from her, Squirrel Girl fights alongside Tippy-Toe, who becomes her new partner.

The Great Lakes Avengers—formerly the Great Lakes Champions, Great Lakes X-Men, and Great Lakes Initiative—is the team that Squirrel Girl is most committed to as a Super Hero. Original members include small-time Super Heroes Flatman and Doorman (DeMarr Davis), who initially asks Squirrel Girl to join up. She only accepts when Monkey Joe is allowed in as well.

In a Nutshell

While seeking out Iron Man, Doreen Green had her first super-fight, not realizing her armored foe was the mad Latverian tyrant Dr. Doom (Victor von Doom), who was in the area on undisclosed business of his own. Escaping Doom, Squirrel Girl finally found Iron Man, who was testing his armor’s new onboard radar system by flying through the woods. She playfully attacked him to show how tough she was, told him of her plans to become his partner, then demonstrated her abilities. Unimpressed, Iron Man was politely rejecting her when Dr. Doom attacked.

Angered by Squirrel Girl’s earlier assault and annoyed that she hadn’t recognized him, Doom trapped both heroes in his “Doomship” stealth aircraft. He planned to kill the pair and dump them in the Atlantic Ocean, but Squirrel Girl summoned Monkey Joe and a small army of other squirrels, who swarmed aboard the low-flying ship and chewed through its wiring, disabling the craft and freeing the heroes. The squirrels then turned on Doom himself, damaging his armor and forcing him to flee. While commending Squirrel Girl for handing Doom one of his most humiliating defeats ever, Iron Man still declined her offer of partnership, though he wished her luck. “I don’t need luck,” she replied as she darted back into the trees, “I eat nuts.”

Doreen later moved to New York City, taking Monkey Joe with her, and the duo quickly became locally popular crime-fighters in Central Park. This later brought them into contact with small-time Super Heroes Flatman and Doorman (DeMarr Davis), members of the Great Lakes Avengers, an unauthorized Avengers franchise operating out of Milwaukee. The G.L.A. pair were in New York City desperately seeking new recruits when Squirrel Girl and Monkey Joe rescued them from muggers. Impressed, Flatman offered her G.L.A. membership, which Doreen immediately accepted after they assured her Monkey Joe could join as well.

As G.L.A. members, Squirrel Girl and Monkey Joe helped battle the mercenary trio Batroc’s Brigade, who killed new G.L.A. recruit Grasshopper (Doug Taggert). Doreen soon suffered a far more painful loss when disgruntled ex-G.L.A. member Leather Boy, angry and jealous over reports of her membership on his former team, brutally murdered Monkey Joe. The G.L.A. quickly brought Leather Boy to justice, and a mourning Squirrel Girl shook off her despair just in time to help the group save the world from cosmic menace Maelstrom and his minions, Batroc’s Brigade. An army of Milwaukee squirrels fought alongside Squirrel Girl during that battle, but nearly all of them died. The lone survivor, a female whom Doreen dubbed Tippy-Toe, became Squirrel Girl’s new partner and the G.L.A.’s newest member.

When the Maria Stark Foundation controlling the original Avengers’ legal affairs ordered the G.L.A. to stop using the Avengers name, the Great Lakes group reluctantly complied, adopting a new name as the Great Lakes X-Men after realizing most of their remaining members were mutants. Squirrel Girl continued to work with the G.L.X., but she also operated on her own with Tippy-Toe, improbably overcoming major threats like the Mandarin and the aquatic Giganto.

While the modest Doreen kept a relatively low profile despite these victories, elite intelligence agency S.H.I.E.L.D. tracked her exploits and soon regarded her as one of the nation’s most formidable Super Heroes. When she and Tippy-Toe helped S.H.I.E.L.D. defeat A.I.M.’s cyborg leader M.O.D.O.K., the organization’s commander Dum Dum Dugan offered to recruit Squirrel Girl as an official agent, but she declined due to her G.L.X. commitments. Shortly afterward, she and Tippy-Toe saved the entire multiverse by defeating the cosmic menace Thanos, greatly impressing alien observer Uatu the Watcher. Squirrel Girl came to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s aid again by helping them take on the alien warrior Terrax.

A longtime admirer of the New Warriors, Doreen developed a huge crush on founding member Speedball (Robbie Baldwin). When the criminal Bug-Eyed Voice tried to disrupt one of Speedball’s public appearances, Squirrel Girl beat him into submission, and a grateful Baldwin rewarded Doreen with her first kiss.

Later, while visiting old squirrel friends in Central Park, Squirrel Girl teamed with Tippy-Toe and the Thing (Ben Grimm) to defeat the monstrous Bi-Beast. Impressed by the adorable teen’s moxie and cleverness, Grimm invited her to his Super Hero poker tournament, and she brought the G.L.X. along with her. During the games, the X-Men’s telepathic member Marvel Girl (Rachel Grey) mentally compelled G.L.X. leader Mr. Immortal to give up the X-Men name, and Defenders founder Dr. Strange mystically dissuaded him from renaming their group the Great Lakes Defenders. However, the Great Lakes team had the last laugh when their own Flatman ultimately won the entire poker tournament, inspiring them to adopt yet another new group name as the Great Lakes Champions.

When new laws required all Super Heroes to register with the US government, the G.L.C. eagerly signed up in exchange for legitimacy and generous federal funding. They joined the federal Initiative program, becoming the official super-team of Wisconsin, and soon rechristened themselves the Great Lakes Initiative. The super-mercenary Deadpool (Wade Wilson) attacked them in the mistaken belief they were unregistered outlaws, but Squirrel Girl beat the “evil, evil man” soundly, warning the mouthy mercenary to shut his “evil, evil pie hole” while they turned him over to the police.

Later, after helping the G.L.I. foil A.I.M.’s plot to intoxicate the world via the captured Olympian god Dionysus’ powers, Deadpool accepted an offer of reserve membership. Squirrel Girl took Dionysus back to Olympus, helping thwart the latest schemes of rogue underworld deity Pluto in the process.

After a disastrous mission in Stamford that killed most of the active New Warriors and hundreds of civilians, sole survivor Speedball snapped, adopting a dark new identity as the self-mutilating vigilante Penance. When the now mentally unstable Robbie resisted Doreen’s efforts to console him or reason with him, Squirrel Girl stormed into Dr. Doom’s castle and borrowed the surprisingly accommodating tyrant’s time machine, hoping she could change Speedball’s fate via time travel. Instead, she ended up in the alternate future, where divergent versions of Speedball and other present-day heroes had been stranded since an earlier time travel adventure, unaffected by the Stamford events. Doreen briefly considered staying to pursue a romance with that reality’s Speedball, but a distress call from the past drew her back home to her native timeline to deal with Deadpool, who was abusing his G.L.I. headquarters privileges and refusing to leave. Within moments of her return, Squirrel Girl gave Deadpool another sound beating and warned him not to come back.

Since then, Squirrel Girl and the rest of the G.L.I. have teamed with the Skrull Kill Krew and other Initiative agents to foil the alien Skrulls’ Secret Invasion of Earth, exposing their latest recruit, a new Grasshopper, as a Skrull double agent in the process. When the Initiative reorganized under Norman Osborn’s leadership after the invasion, rising star Gravity was reassigned to his native Wisconsin as the G.L.I.’s new leader, much to his horror and much to the team’s delight.

While Squirrel Girl has distanced herself from her G.L.I. allies of late—who have retaken the Great Lakes Avengers name—and joined up with several more legitimate Avengers groups, her main focus has been on going back to school. She currently attends college at Empire State University where she met new best friend Nancy Whitehead along with fellow crimefighters Chipmunk Hunk and Koi Boy.

One of the most beloved heroes in the Marvel Universe, Doreen Green also stands out as among the most surprisingly formidable.