Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio. This week, Bennett looks at the casting of Squirrel Girl, the hidden past of the Yellow Submarine comics, and the Lockjaw plush.

Well, just in case you missed it, as The Hollywood Reporter story put it, “Marvel’s New Warrior Sets Its Cast -- Including Squirrel Girl (Exclusive)”. Maybe it was just a slow news day, but the news got a considerable amount of traction online.  And the most interesting thing?  And after reading the headlines of at least a dozen other pieces on the subject (in at least three different languages) I found that always prominently featured in them was Squirrel Girl.

Although the character’s existence continues to make certain comic book fans very, very angry (just type “I hate Squirrel Girl” into the nearest available search engine and see what you get), most of those pieces invariably referred to the character as a “fan favorite.”.  As to who landed this “breakout role” (a phrase which was also frequently used in these stories), that would be Milana Vayntrub, who played Sloane Sandburg on NBC’s This Is Us. But she's probably best known for her portrayal of “AT&T Girl” in commercials.  Who apparently has a given name, Lily Adams, which came as news to me as well.

Now, I’m not one to judge the talent of an actor by their appearance, let alone critique that actor’s physical appearance -- I am forever disqualified from doing so by the fact that I look like a shaved gorilla who hasn’t been at all well.  And I have no reason to believe Vayntrub won’t do a fine job in the role.   However, the actress does appear to be a lot more conventionally attractive than the character in the comic book The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl or the Disney XD animated series Ultimate Spider-Man.

And the thing is, they could have chosen someone who looked at least a little more like the actual article.  According to The Hollywood Reporter piece, during the casting process, there was “…a personal campaign from Stranger Things breakout Shannon Purser (Barb) — who sources say was also in the running. Parenthood grad Mae Whitman — another outspoken fan of the character — was also discussed,”

THR also features a quote from Elizabeth Boykewich, senior VP casting and talent at Freeform, saying “we are committed to finding distinct and entertaining characters that our audience can enjoy and relate to.”  I can certainly appreciate the diversity that’s on display in the show’s cast, because as I keep saying, representation is important; people have a need to see themselves on the screen. Well, I imagine there are undoubtedly a large number of teens and tweens, the demographic the program is looking to attract, who would have appreciated seeing a superhero who represented them. 

I was well pleased when I read that Titan Comics would be publishing Bill Morrison’s adaptation of the animated classic Yellow Submarine (see “The Beatles ‘Yellow Submarine’ Gets Comic Adaptation”).  Now, I’ve always had a dodgy memory (I had honestly forgotten that next week was my birthday until I saw that without thinking I had scheduled a doctor’s appointment for the day before), but I seemed to vaguely recall Morrison has begun work on this adaptation over a decade ago. A quick Internet search confirmed back in 1999 Dark Horse commissioned Morrison to do the adaptation and he had completed 25 pages of it before the project was unexpectedly cancelled by Apple Records.  So, this isn’t so much a “comic book” as a lost treasure, and I can’t wait to finally read it.

And while at this time I cannot promise I’ll watch the upcoming Marvel’s Inhumans TV series, if I get the chance I will definitely get me one of these 5-inch Lockjaw plushies from Funko.  As pointed out in a piece on The Bleeding Cool website, “Inhumans Funko Products Incoming...LOOK AT LOCKJAW!!!!” it would be nice if Marvel could provide retailers with more merchandise featuring the show’s breakout star before the show debuts in September.  

*But until I came across a 2011 Rolling Stone article titled “Disney Kills ‘Yellow Submarine’ Remake”, I had completely forgotten that Robert Zemeckis was once supposed to produce a version of the movie using the same kind of motion-capture animation as his previous films Beowulf and 2009’s A Christmas Carol. Disney became concerned about the movie’s projected costs when Zemeckis’ latest film to use that style of animation, Mars Needs Moms, only earned $6.9 million its opening week, and had a budget of $150 million.  We dodged a bullet, people.

The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.