Squirrel Girl celebrates 50 issues by joining forces with two time-travelling versions of herself to battle Kang The Conqueror, before heading off to fight Frost Giants in her first ever event tie-in, as the War Of The Realms looms large.
The one-and-done issue here is probably the strongest of the five issues collected; the plotting's really tight, and the domino-like time travel mechanic is very well done. Kang's stupid face is just delightful, really. It's not so much a celebration of 50 issues as a celebration of Squirrel Girl herself, and god damn it, she deserves it.
The event tie-in takes an entire issue to get moving, which feels kind of unnecessary, but once it does it's pretty fun. It tends to spend a bit too much time with SG and Ratatoskr arguing, which I guess is the name of the game with Ratatoskr, but again, not great. Still, a clever conclusion in typical Squirrel Girl fashion saves the story, although more of SG's friends and less Frost Giants would have been appreciated.
Artwise, it's all Derek Charm all the time, bar a few pages in issue 42 by Erika Henderson (because of course, it's issue 50 after all) and Naomi Franquiz who designed all of the new characters for the issue as well. Lovely all around, even when everything's very white and blue up north with the Frosties.
It's sad to think that this is the penultimate volume of Squirrel Girl, but it's showing no sign of slowing down. The event tie-in's a bit rough, but the Squirrel Girl DNA is all there, just buried a little below the surface.