20 Lesser-Known Female Superheroes

Cover from Squirrel Girl #1 (Image via Marvel)

6. Squirrel Girl

Squirrel Girl may be one of the most powerful superheroes in the Marvel universe. Cosmic beings aside, she’s been able to defeat friends and foes alike thanks to her squirrel-based powers of strength, agility, enhanced vision and smell, and a three to four foot long furry, prehensile tail. Her army of actual squirrels comes in handy, too. Oftentimes, Squirrel Girl is able to communicate with them. In more recent comics, she even has a squirrel side-kick, named Tippy-Toe.

With all of that, she’s easily defeated Dr. Doom, Wolverine, and Deadpool. While Squirrel Girl can easily defeat her enemies in combat, she’s just as likely to talk them down and peacefully resolve a situation. In one case, she befriended the world-eating Galactus and convinced him to spare Earth. In another, she simultaneously distracts and impresses Count Nefaria by explaining how she uses binary to count to thirty-one on a single hand.

Squirrel Girl, also known as Doreen Green, was created by Steve Ditko and Will Murray. She was largely a response to the heavy superhero plots that dominated the 1990s. It’s awfully hard to get all grimdark with a squirrel-based character, so Squirrel Girl was and still is an opportunity for fun, smart storylines.

Her most recent series, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, follows Doreen at college, where she’s a computer science major. The series is really, truly funny, not to mention empowering for young comics readers.