by Taylor Anderson
This article contains SPOILERS. If you haven’t read the issue yet, proceed at your own risk!
There are some superheroes who are more good than others. Superman and Captain America are your prototypical heroes who have the reputations for always doing the “right thing.” Other heroes are more nebulous when it comes to how they carry out their heroing. The Punisher, for example kills people, and while Batman isn’t that extreme, he operates in the shadows in more ways than one. If you had to peg Doreen Green into one of these two pigeonholes, she would definitely fall in the former, and while that predictability risks being boring, with The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, it never is.
Doreen and company find themselves in the Savage Lands battling Dinosaur-Ultron. Posed with the task of taking him out, it seems that Doreen has little choice but to kill Ultron to protect the Savage Lands, but she stubbornly refuses to do so. This refusal goes beyond just doing the right thing and has a lot to do with the core of Doreen’s being. She’s not a killer, nor will she ever be. She is a strong, confident person and she’ll be damned if she compromises her beliefs to get the job done. For Doreen, the ends do not justify the means.
Doreen’s beliefs are so strong that they can’t help but rub off on others, even Stefan, who has previously been brainwashed by Dr. Doom. This in turn helps him to motivate the programmers Ultron has forced to work for him upon threats of death.
Stefan’s words are powerful because they come from someone who has every reason to hate everything that Doreen stands for. However, Doreen’s attitude has conquered his prejudice and caused him to take a stand for not only what Doreen believes, but what he believes in as well. This is about the one-billionth example of Doreen’s power to inspire others, but it still rings fresh and invigorating. It’s not hard to read between the lines that Ryan North has written here. He’s clearly advocating for people to step and do the right thing in the face of recent political tumult. And while this might not be the most nuanced way to handle things (much like Doreen’s approach to things) it doesn’t fail to hit the mark all the same.
The conversation doesn’t stop there. What do you wanna talk about from this issue?
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