AMG have given MCP players a double dose of fan-favourites in one of their newest boxes, with two of their foremost female stars of recent years.  Gwenpool and Squirrel Girl are both major oddballs in power terms, so how have AMG translated their quirky charm to the tabletop?  Read on to find out!

Who Is Gwenpool?

Gwenpool is a dimension-travelling, fourth-wall-breaking, probably insane, and mostly very silly character, who is one of the newer members of the Marvel Comics stable.

She has one of the more unusual creative origins, starting as a piece of alternate cover art in Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars #2 in 2015, with her appearance based on a combination of Deadpool and Gwen Stacy.  Despite having no other appearances or any fleshed out story or powers, the character was a huge hit with fans and Marvel decided to develop it into a full-fledged original character in her own right.

The retooled Gwenpool made her appearance in Howard the Duck, and then got a Gwenpool Holiday Special later that year, where the character’s new identity and backstory were fleshed out, revealing that she had entered the Marvel Comics Universe from another dimension and was aware she was in a comic.  Despite having no actual powers, she was able to leverage her knowledge of the comics world and sheer confidence (as protagonist of the story) that she could not die into becoming a very successful mercenary (and occasional hero).  She then got her own regular series, The Unbelievable Gwenpool, before joining the West Coast Avengers, where she located her pet landshark Jeff, and then getting another mini series, Gwenpool Strikes Back, in 2020.

Character Card

Gwenpool is a 4-Threat character with 4/3/4 defenses, 6/6 stamina, and a medium move.  She has two physical builders, one at Range 2 with 5 Attack which can Pierce; and one at Range 4 and 4 Power that can inflict one of a variety of conditions with a Hit and a Wild.  Neither of these are especially impressive, but Gwenpool’s rocket launcher spender This End Towards Target is an appropriately explosive Range 4, 8-dice attack for 4 Power, that automatically inflicts Incinerate and Stun on the target, and causes 1 damage and Incinerate to all characters within Range 2 of the target on a Wild.

Gwen has three other powers on her card: a 2-Power, Range 3, self-Place (as long as she is not carrying an objective token); damage reduction 1 (to a minimum of 1); and a once-per turn Attack or Defence dice reroll that can reroll 1-3 dice depending on Power spent.  The Place is probably the most interesting, given some of her powers and the tactics cards we will see later, but the rerolls also have huge potential in combo plays with the above.

Affiliations

Despite her short career, Gwenpool’s highly diverse list of adventuring partners sees her gain the A-Force, Avengers, and Criminal Syndicate affiliations.  Gwen seems to have ways to play well with all of these affiliations and benefit from their leaderships, but each already has many 4-threats to chose from.

Tactics Cards

Gwenpool has one dedicated card, No, Try This One! which can be played during the cleanup phase and lets her select an unused Team Tactics Card from the Roster which meets the current Squad’s affiliation requirements, and adds it to the squad’s available tactics cards this game.  This is a very interesting and flexible card that gives your squad the potential to find specific answers to on-board threats or surprise your opponent with a gotcha card that they weren’t anticipating.

She also has a card that can be played by either her or Squirrel Girl, They Say Keep Your Enemies Close… which costs 3 power and has two different uses depending on the proximity of the opponent being targeted with the next attack.  If the opponent is within Range 1, they roll no defense dice against the attack.  If the opponent is outside of Range 1, the opponent is placed within Range 1 of the attacker after the attack is resolved.

This seems a very strong card that arguably would be good even if only the second option was available, given that Deception is considered one of the best cards in the game.  Both Squirrel Girl and Gwenpool have Range 4 attacks that make this a potentially huge kidnap effect.

The Verdict

Gwenpool has a good combination of mobility, ranged damage, condition-dealing, and strong Tactics Cards.  But she does require power generation and doesn’t have any great methods of her own.  With the right team-mates, or something like the A-Force leadership, she can definitely be a nasty opponent.

Who Is Squirrel Girl?

Squirrel Girl is a mutant* who made her debut back in 1991, and was intended as a more light-hearted character at a time when the vogue was for brooding and violent vigilante-types.  She went on to become a cult-favourite and subsequently mainstream character, and is famous for having canonically taken down some of the biggest villains in the Marvel Universe.

Squirrel Girl made her comics debut in the Marvel Super-Heroes Winter Special in 1991, where she emerged from hiding in Central Park to rescue Iron Man from the clutches of Doctor Doom; ultimately taking the Lord Of Latveria down with the help of her most trusted Squirrel sidekick, Monkey Joe.

Her next major appearance was not til ten years later during a spell with the Great Lakes Avengers, who she joined for a four-issue miniseries in 2005.  During this period, Monkey Joe was killed, and Tippy-Toe became Squirrel Girl’s new favourite partner.  Squirrel Girl eventually left the GLA because she was so powerful she was holding them back, and returned to Central Park.

After a brief spell as a nanny for Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, Squirrel Girl eventually received her very own solo series, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, which ran for 58 issues between 2015-19 and was nominated for two Eisner awards.

*she might not actually be a mutant, Marvel can’t seem to make up their minds.

Character Card

Squirrel Girl is a 4-Threat character.  She has a fairly humble 3 Defense across the board, 6 Stamina on her healthy side, 5 on her injured side, is Size 2 and has Medium move.  So far, not so impressive.

Her builder is a Range 3, 5 power physical with a Place triggered on a Wild, while her spender is a fairly cheap 2-power Range-4 6-power attack that inflicts Bleed and Stun if it does damage, and has a size 3 push on a wild trigger.  This is a really nice attack with large range and good effects, and a great combo with Keep Your Enemies Close.

Her other powers are linked to her pal Tippy-Toe, and much like Brother Voodoo, Doreen uses a token to represent her sidekick that can be placed on enemies to inhibit them, or kept on herself to buff her.  TT can be placed on an enemy character within Range 3 by spending power equal to their Threat value.  Such characters can not explode their Crits when attacking, defending or dodging, and do not even count them as successes!

If the TT Token is on SG, she gets to reroll two dice when attacking, defending, or dodging.  Finally, she can also summon TT back to her any time she is targeted by an attack at no power cost.  When Doreen is on her injured side, this ability is replaced the Guardian Squirrel power, which automatically prevents Doreen from being KO’ed, heals her one damage, and places her within Range 2, but removes the TT Token from the game.

Affiliations

Doreen comes with A-Force and Avengers affiliations, and much like Gwen, she faces plenty of competition for her place from other 4 threats.  But also like Gwenpool, She-Hulk’s A-Force leadership seems a good potential source of power gain for her.

Tactics Cards

As discussed above, Squirrel Girl has access to the very strong-looking Keep Your Enemies Close… But she also has her own dedicated card, Inexplicable Demise.  

This card is a very thematic representation of Squirrel Girl’s major villain takedowns in the comics, and its power is based on the Threat of a selected target within Range 2.  Doreen must spend power equal to that character’s Threat level, and can then inflict a variety of conditions depending on the dice rolled, all the way up to a potential instant KO if she can find a Crit, Wild, Hit, Shield, and Skull.  Very clearly this is going to be a defining card for Squirrel Girl and it is very obviously better the higher the Threat of the character you target.  The main limiter will be the need to have sufficient power to use it against the targets you want.  

The Verdict

Squirrel Girl’s base stats are nothing to write home about, so her value in game will really come down to what you can get out of her Spender, Tippy Toe, and her Tactics Cards.  She certainly poses a potentially huge danger to restrict or outright KO high Threats on the opposing team, and whether that is realised or not, you can bet it will get into the head of anyone who is putting the likes of Malekith or Thanos on the table. 

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