I mean, who knew that there was actually a Norse Squirrel God named Ratatoskr who runs up and down the world tree Yggdrasil and provokes people with slanderous gossip? I mean, for real. What a perfect enemy for Squirrel Girl!
We first met Ratatoskr when she posed as a super-powered squirrel hero named Girl Squirrel. Girl Squirrel seemed on the level at first, but then she began running from home to home whispering horrible, unthinkable messages in the ears of pretty much everyone in New York City. These whispering were a form of anger-inducing mind control powers, which led to city-wide riots!
Soon enough, Squirrel Girl and her new friends (Chipmunk Hunk, Koi Boy, and Nancy Whitehead) teamed up with Thor and Thor to come up with a plan to defeat and capture Ratatoskr. The Thors and Nancy left to do research in Asgard while Squirrel Girl and the other took the fight directly to Ratatoskr. That latter plan didn't turn out well. Soon enough, Ratatoskr got into the minds of everyone except Doreen -- everyone including Chipmunk Hunk, Koi Boy, and all of their four-legged animal friends! How will Squirrel Girl stop the Squirrel God's plan to destroy the planet without any of her friends?
Fortunately, she comes up with a solution with a little help from Nancy, Thor, Thor, and Loki! You really owe it to yourself to see how it all goes down. You really will not regret this purchase!
Here are some of the reasons that this comic book continues to be one of my favorite comic books:
1. Nancy's fan-fiction featuring Cat Thor. Nancy Whitehead is obsessed with her cat Mew -- and pretty much all cats. Why wouldn't she do fan-fiction and why wouldn't she establish majestic adventures for her favorite animals?
2. Nancy schools the Thors on the usefulness of Wikipedia. They learned everything they needed to know about Ratatoskr with one single web-search.
3. Loki cosplaying as Cat Thor. Loki took an instant liking to Nancy Whitehead and agreed to show up his shapeshifting abilities to her. He remained in Cat Thor's image, complete with Cat Thor's enchanted "Mewnir" hammer for most of the rest of this issue.
4. Squirrel Girl has a new archnemesis. Technically, Squirrel Girl didn't defeat Ratatoskr. Not directly, anyway. But try telling the Norse Squirrel Girl that bit of truth! I have a feeling that we haven't seen the end of Ratatoskr!
Next to lastly, Squirrel Girl laments towards the end of this issue that Girl Squirrel turned out to be a nasty Norse Squirrel Girl. She really wished that there were actual super-powered pets in the world. Hello!!?! Hasn't she heard of the Pet Avengers?? Somebody needs to arrange for a face-to-face team-up!!
And finally, it looks like THE UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL is ending with this issue -- but being relaunched in October "because SHE'S JUST THAT GOOD." Or something like that.
"The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #8" is written by Ryan North, penciled and inked by Erica Henderson, colored by Rico Renzi, and lettered by VC's Clayton Cowles.