How one Marvel character figured out how to skip Secret Empire entirely

Marvel’s Secret Empire, its infamous summer crossover event, in which a Hydra-aligned Captain America leads a takeover of the United States and installs a prejudiced, totalitarian regime, has touched a lot of corners of the Marvel Universe, by design.

But there’s one character who has found a very good reason not to have anything to do with it. That character is Squirrel Girl, and the reason is that she’s saving dinosaurs from going extinct. Again.

Stranger in a Savage Land

Squirrel Girl is one of Marvel’s more comedic heroes, so it’s reasonable that she wouldn’t have much to do with Secret Empire. On the other hand, she’s been a member of the Avengers for a few years now.

But either way, the buck-toothèd crime fighter has found another cause to fight for, as she explained to Spider-Man in the recap page of this month’s issue of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl — which always takes the form of a Twitter feed. (And also several actual Twitter accounts.)

Ryan North and Erica Henderson/Marvel Comics

See, Squirrel Girl is currently trying to save the Savage Land from certain doom. What’s the Savage Land? Why, it’s a supernaturally preserved tropical Antarctic island full of dinosaurs, and Squirrel Girl isn’t about to leave it in jeopardy.

Ryan North and Erica Henderson/Marvel Comics

In the meantime, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl’s writer, Ryan North, throws a bit of shade on the cyclical nature of superhero crossovers.

Ryan North and Erica Henderson/Marvel Comics

Since Secret Empire released its final issue this week, it seems like Squirrel Girl’s tropical dinosaur rescue vacation came at exactly the right time.

It’s not the first time a Squirrel Girl comic has had something to say about Secret Empire, just the first time it’s been done so deliberately. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #5 accidentally lampooned the very idea of Secret Empire, a Hydra plot to turn Captain America anti-democratic, in an imaginary story two years before the event kicked off.

Eric Henderson/Marvel Comics