- Alternate Character Interpretation: The theory has been made that her power is actually the ability to warp reality. This is why she is able to defeat such strong opponents; the "talking to squirrels" shtick is just what she chooses to live as. Some people even think that she might be an Aspect/Avatar/Personification of The One-Above-All himself, who occasionally comes to Earth to have a little fun.
- Base-Breaking Character: You either love Squirrel Girl for her overpowered nature or hate her for it. There is no middle ground!
- Broken Base:
- Squirrel Girl's slightly chubbier redesign for her solo series. Some think she's still adorable, but others think the design choices made is a rather ill fit for her. Yet others like the design on its own, just not the art style that's being used to portray it.
- Erica Henderson's art is divisive, to say the least. There are as many fans who applaud it for its non-traditional look, as there are fans who absolutely hate it. Henderson's successor Derek Charm has been generally positively received, though there has been some disagreement among Henderson's fans on whether his art manages to recapture her charm or not.
- The comic as a whole has become divisive among fans. Some think it is a fun inoffensive romp through Marvel’s universe, others think it is too lighter and Squirrel Girl’s personality has been reduced to Soapbox Sadie.
- Fanon: Somehow people are convinced that the weaker the enemies, the more likely Squirrel Girl is to lose. (Tell that to the Bug-Eyed Voice and those muggers in Central Park.) This is only going to get worse now that she's been "defeated" by a baby.
- Fanon Discontinuity:
- Some fans ignore the canonicity of most of Squirrel Girl's victories; recognizing them as the jokes they are.
- There was some furor over the implication that Logan (Wolverine) had had a fling with her, but that's been relegated to actual discontinuity; according to Ryan North (the writer of Squirrel Girl's solo series), she was just upset because he stole a cab from her.
- The first issue of the first run is considered 'discontinuity' for the Marvel Database Wikia. This is because Kraven is shown to be moping about being stuck with his curse unless he either kills Spider-Man or Spider-Man kills him. The Marvel Wikia considers this a Series Continuity Error as they consider the curse broken in his last appearance in Scarlet Spider, despite the ambiguity of it.
- This probably falls under Hilarious in Hindsight now, too, as the Hunted arc also has Kraven revealing that the curse was not broken and he's still immortal unless Spider-Man kills him.
- Foe Yay Shipping: Yes, she gets shipped with Doctor Doom.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Shortly before the storyline where Captain America was 'revealed' as an agent of Hydra, the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl had this
◊. Even better, Squirrel Girl's solution to the situation involves lampshading the Fleeting Demographic Rule by invoking another, earlier story where Captain America was turned evil by Red Skull's mind control. - In issue #21, Chipmunk Hunk and Koi Boi deduce that the Spider-Man they saw foiling a robbery was an imposter because he casually walked inside instead of swinging in. The very next month, Spider-Man: Homecoming has the real Spidey awkwardly walking into a bank while a robbery's in progress.
- Shortly before the storyline where Captain America was 'revealed' as an agent of Hydra, the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl had this
- Hype Backlash: Some people wouldn't be nearly so aggravated over all the "Squirrel Girl is awesome and can beat everybody" talk if it weren't repeated so constantly by so many of her fans.
- It Was His Sled: How she first defeated Doctor Doom (she sent her squirrel friends upon him). That was just the start...
- Les Yay:
- Nancy, who is endlessly supportive of Doreen and claims not to be interested in dating. She also slaps Mole Man for touching Squirrel Girl without her permission and insults him repeatedly for his behavior. Most notably, she doesn't deny it when Mole Man accuses her of loving Doreen.
- Erica Henderson's last issue basically puts them through the plot of Futurama's Grand Finale - living an entire lifetime together while the rest of the world is basically frozen, then getting a second chance at the cost of their memories. Not only do they manage fine with no one else to meaningfully interact with, they hold hands, compliment each other's looks and repeatedly affirm how much they mean to each other. By the end of the issue, it's really stretching the definition of "subtext".
- The final issue is possibly even more blatant. It ends with Doreen and Nancy picking through the ruins of their appartment to find a picture of them together, all the while talking about their future. In the epilogue-thing, Doreen suggests that Nancy maybe should find other friends, since being Squirrel Girl's best friend is liable to mess up her life, but. Nancy assures her that she's not getting rid of her that easily.
- Doreen and Ratatoskr/Rachel of all people. During the War of the Nine Realms storyline, they team up to fight Frost Giants, though Ratatoskr is only along for the fun of it. After Doreen realizes Ratatoskr actually doesn't care about saving the world, they have a fight that makes them look awfully like a couple, which Ratatoskr gets actually distraught about. Later, when they team up again, Ratatoskr seems legitimately sad when Doreen tells her she hasn't quite forgiven her yet, but perks up when Doreen tells her that she believes Ratatoskr can change.
- Memetic Badass:
- Pick a
comic bookcharacter, anycomic bookcharacter, even a team ofcomic bookcharacters. Put them up against Squirrel Girl, and Squirrel Girl will almost universally be the accepted winner.- All except for an infected Luke Cage in Marvel Universe vs. the Punisher. This is the only instance where she has been beaten...off panel (and non-canon) even.
- Even Marvel's official website seems to have been affected. Just check out her official power ratings. By comparison: Dr. Doom's, The Sentry and Galactus!
- Marvel's website contrasts the power levels the fans believe a character to be at with the power levels they are officially at. And its the official power levels that are through the roof (topping every single field), so Marvel thinks she's even more badass than even her fans do!
- Pick a
- Memetic Mutation: She might have remained one of Marvel's many appeared-once-and-never-seen-again characters, if her disagreement with Doctor Doom hadn't become a meme.
- Moe: She's really chipper and happy all the time.
- Moment of Awesome: The comic takes frequent asides to explain computer science (and other, related subjects). And keeps it engaging!
- Squirrel Girl's solo series doesn't have the crutch of Take Our Word for It; it actually shows how Doreen overcomes all those A-List villains. That most of those victories were thanks to her talking them down does not diminish anything. Most Marvel heroes treat Galactacus as a force of nature; it takes serious nuts for Doreen to go up to him and talk to him as an equal.
- In the final issue, Melissa Morbeck has gathered all of Doreen's most powerful enemies, and they all gather around her to strike her down. Doreen desperately pushes her friends to safety before bracing to take the hit... When she is saved by none other than Galactus.
- My Real Daddy: She first appeared in a 1991 one-shot story by Will Murray and Steve Ditko, but if Dan Slott hadn't decided to bring her back 15 years later in the Great Lakes Avengers miniseries, she'd be just a minor footnote in Marvel history.
- Never Live It Down: Squirrel Girl's writers are determined to rub the Armed with Canon fight in Doom's (hideously burned) face as often as possible.
- Nightmare Fuel: For what is one of the lightest and softest comic books in the Marvel Universe, the scene in "Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #6" with Ratatoskr whispering her lies into everyone in the city is surprisingly unnerving, between the abruptly dark art, the rapid montages of whispers and teeth, and the uncomfortably mundane contents of the whispers. The narrator gets increasingly disturbed and then leaves, giving the rest of the book an eerily silent feel as Nancy wakes up to a burning city.
She's just pretending to like you. All your friends are. They think it's funny. They're not wrong. They need to pay.
- Older Than They Think: Unassuming, seemingly-underpowered superheroine manages to singlehandedly defeat Galactus in her solo book? Dazzler did it first.
- Sweet Dreams Fuel: Compared to other comic book stories which are much darker, Squirrel Girl’s stories tend to be much lighter and softer in tone. Not to mention the fact that Doreen tends to beat foes quite easily, no matter how strong they are.
- Take That, Scrappy!: Squirrel Girl herself was subject to this when a parallel version of her died horribly at the hands of an infected Luke Cage in Marvel Universe vs. the Punisher.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not for Little Girls?: Zig-zagged. The series was originally promoted as if it was aimed at hard-core comics fanboys who were reading it for the character's Ascended Meme status and the many jokes about obscure Marvel continuity, but it has become very popular with actual preteen girls, with enthusiastic support from Marvel-fan geek parents who are happy that their daughters have a Marvel comic to read that is optimistic and morally-uplifting in its tone and not full of sexual fanservice, graphic violence, and depressing plotlines. It helps that the fanboy in-jokes aren't obnoxious about rubbing it in non-fanboy readers' faces that they're missing out on anything, with humorous factcards for the bits of backstory necessary to understand the plotline. Ryan North and Erica Henderson have made it clear that they are completely happy about this and deliberately intended the comic for both demographics.
