On the Virtues of Squirrel Girl

I am a huge Marvel comics fan.  If you don’t know that, it is likely because you have never had a conversation with me.  But there is a character amongst my favorites that I suspect many of you have never heard of, a bit of a company joke for Marvel: Squirrel Girl.

Okay, okay, so not exactly the kind of name you expect for a major superheroine.  Then again, I never said she was a main hero, did I?  Brief background: Doreen Green, 14-year old mutant who’s powers include: prehensile tail, buck teeth that can chew through wood, claws, and speaks fluent squirrel.  Squirrelese?  Squirrelic?

Not convinced?  I don’t blame you.  She sounds like a bit of a lame character, I know.  There is one other hypothesized power she might have, though it is purely speculation.  Even within the Marvel universe there are those who believe she has the mutant ability to never lose.  It might seem like one of the less possible powers for someone to develop (how would that even work?), but if the Scarlet Witch can consciously manipulate probability, this could just be a passive version of that same probability manipulation.

And it’s not like she never loses, but only fights street thugs, random gang members and muggers.  Let’s run a tally, shall we:  Doctor Doom (twice), The Mandarin, Fin Fang Foom (that’s right, a fucking dragon), MODOK, Thanos, Deadpool (twice), Pluto (yes, the Roman god of death), and Wolverine (in hand to hand combat none the less).  In fact, Deadpool considers her amongst the major heroes of the Marvel universe, on par with Iron Man and Thor.  What NOW?

All that being said, she is still, in the end, a joke character.  She was introduced to make the comics more light hearted in the early ‘90’s when comics were beginning the so called Iron Age responsible for the grim comics such as the Watchmen, Spawn and Wolverine as a solo character.  She takes jobs as a nanny for superheroes like Luke Cage.  She collects Marvel character trading cards.  She keeps a utility belt of treats for her squirrel friends literally referred to as her “nut sack”.

I love a great many Marvel characters: Iron Man, Gambit, Captain America, Colossus, Storm, and many others.  Squirrel girl will always be amongst those favorites.  She’s a successful hero, who, despite getting the shortest straw of almost any hero in the Marvel universe still finds some way to kick ass.  Mock her and make fun of her powers all you like, but in the end, you can’t help but give her the respect she’s due.

Lauding: Baker Street Holmes

Upcoming: Book Reviews

I’ve noticed that a number of posts on here are book reviews and as I mentioned in my introduction post, I love to read and have found myself finally getting the time to do more of it this summer, though mostly rereading old favorites.  That being said, I’m planning some new reads and wanted to invite you all to keep an eye open for them some time in the next couple months.

Now, I was wandering the internet in search of other great scifi and fantasy works and came across this.  It’s a flow chart for finding novels based on NPR’s Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books.  So So after the break, I name some books I found through this flow chart and will be writing about:

• Neil Gaiman’s American Gods: From what I gather this is a modern mythopoeia where the gods and mythological beings of old have begun to die out as civilizations today begin to lose faith.  However, media crazy American has a new pantheon of our Gods: I’m assuming gods of fame, money, violence…I love mythology so I’m really psyched for this one.

• R.A. Salvatore’s The Legend of Drizzt: Set in the D&D Forgotten Realms setting it introduces Drizzt Do’Urden, a drow who’s actually a good guy who must grow up in a typical drow society where everyone is basically a lying, cut-throat bitch.  I loved roleplaying in this setting and it’s a LONG series (13 books), so if it lives up to its fame, there will be plenty more to read.

• Neal Stephenson’s Anathem: This is a scifi novel set, from what I understand, in what seems to be similar to our medieval era where the Catholic Church has been replaced by intellectualism: monks and nuns are replaced by philosophers, scientists and mathematicians, cloistered in convents.  They only communicate with the outside when an important discover or philosophy needs to be shared.  Oh, and then aliens show up.

• Lastly, Cryptonomicon, also by Neal Stephenson: This is a cryptographic thriller the flow chart describes as “cyberpunk without he grit”.  The story alternates between WWII era American cryptoanalysts helping with the war effort and mid-‘90s decedents who are facing ripple effects from their ancestor’s actions.  I’ll be spending the next year working on a master’s degree in cryptography and I absolutely could not pass this up

When Iknow something, you’ll know something.

Reading: Baker Street Holmes

The Dark Knight Rises, Indeed

The third and supposedly final Batman movie is out and it has a lot to talk about: Batman, Alfred, Commissioner Gordon and Fox are batman classics of course, but Talia al Ghul, Bane, Catwoman and Blake all enter the cast with The Dark Knight Rises.  Heath Ledger left some pretty big shoes to fill in Gotham City, let’s be fair, and his tremendous performance in The Dark Knight has certainly put a lot of hype on the sequel to go even bigger or risk crashing one of the best of the superhero series out there directly into the ground.  For those who haven’t seen it, I will do my best to avoid spoilers, but I will have to give away one little piece if I am to do this review justice.  Don’t worry, it’ll be clearly marked.

First I want to say, though some may think it sacrilegious, that I personally believe that this movie, though not without it’s flaws, was better than The Dark Knight by just a little.  A little.  While The Dark Knight was well written,well acted, well directed…blah, blah, blah…it suffered from one major flaw: it had multiple climaxes in the action and even though it’s only a little more than two and a half hours long, it feel so.  much.  longer.  Personally, by a little after the two hour mark, I was internally begging for it to end.  This time around, the movie is a little longer, but feels shorter, a BIG plus in my book.

Lets talk about some of the highlights: Marion Cotillard as Miranda was amazing, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Officer Blake was great, and Anne Hathaway made an infinitely better Catwoman than Halle Berry did.  As far as casting went, I think this movie was a major win.  I think basing Bane on the earlier incarnations from the comics where he was a powerful, yet a brilliant tactician rather than the juicing/roidrage version that appears later.  With the exception of some minor shots that bugged me, the cinematography was very well executed. But the thing that made the movie for me was the writing.  The dialog were well crafted and the plot was well done with twists and revelations that caught you off guard, but never felt gimmicky.

As with any movie, there are some aspects that didn’t hold up.  I think the biggest problem I had was with the portrayal of Bane.  Not to discredit Tom Hardy, I think his execution was as good as anyone could get out of the terrible, terrible mask that they made him wear and more significantly the resulting quasi-rasping, roughly electronic voice.  The monotone voice left vocal cues dead in the water, the mask clouded any facial expressions and the resulting effect was one of a flattened character devoid of expression of any kind.  Christian Bale can get away with it as Batman, because he can still show emotion at the very least while he’s Bruce Wayne.

I love the phoenix rising from the ashes metaphor that pervades the entire movie.  First, you have the return of Bruce Wayne to Wayne Enterprises and the social life of Gotham City and there’s Batman’s return to crime fighting.  He is placed in a prison called “the pit” in the course of the movie and he must literally climb from the prison and is clearly made to be a representation not of outer strength but a growth of inner strength a sort of rebirth of the same spirit that led him to fight crime in the first place.  [Spoilers Start Here] But the phoenix symbol is most strongly portrayed through his sacrifice for Gotham and the suggestion that Blake, revealed as ‘Robin’, will likely take up the mantle of Batman [End Spoiler]

All in all: A-.  Congratulation to the whole cast and crew for a job well done.


Casting: Baker Street Holmes