Welcome to Comic Book Legends Revealed! This is the seven hundred and seventy-ninth installment where we examine three comic book legends and determine whether they are true or false.

As usual, there will be three posts, one for each of the three legends.

NOTE: If my Twitter page hits 5,000 followers, I'll do a bonus edition of Comic Book Legends Revealed that week. Great deal, right? So go follow my Twitter page, Brian_Cronin!

COMIC LEGEND:

Squirrel Girl was based on a real life person named Doreen who was nicknamed "Squirrel Girl"

STATUS:

True

Squirrel Girl made her debut in Marvel Super-Heroes #8, in a story written by Will Murray and drawn by Steve Ditko (originally, Tom Morgan was going to draw the issue, but after Morgan had to bow out, Murray asked if they could get Ditko and, sure enough, the artistic legend said yes).

Squirrel Girl famously defeated Doctor Doom with a pile of her squirrel friends in the issue...

After not being in a comic book for over a decade, Squirrel Girl made a big comeback in 2005, when she joined the Great Lakes Avengers.

She then took another leap forward when she received her own ongoing series in 2015...

Secret Wars interrupted its numbering, but it soon relaunched with another #1...

And that series ended last year with 50 excellent issues by Ryan North, Erika Henderson and Derek Charm...

Doreen Green, Squirrel Girl, has become a major comic book superstar (and it's only a matter of time until she shows up in a live action film or live action television series).

Amazingly, though, she has a surprising(ly adorable) real life inspiration!

In an excellent piece by Dana Forsythe for the SyFy Wire, Will Murray talked about Doreen Greeley, an old girlfriend who was the inspiration for Squirrel Girl. Murray recalled being at a church service with Greeley in the late 1980s when, "In the middle of the service, another baby squirrel poked its nose out of her jacket. She had rescued it. I had no idea it was there. The nickname 'Squirrel Girl' may or may not have originated at that time."

Murray continued, "She was always into wildlife — she had dogs, cats, ducks, geese, and other critters. Somehow, all of this combined in my mind in ways now half-forgotten to produce Doreen Green, aka Squirrel Girl."

The two had met in the late 1970s and had bonded over their interest in comic books and pulp novels (Murray is an expert on pulp novels and recently wrote a Tarzan Meets John Carter of Mars novel).

They remained friends after dating for a while and in the late 1980s, while Greeley was working for the New England Wildlife Center, she started down the path to being "Squirrel Girl." She explained, "I was hired for my computer expertise, but I soon got into the routine helping out the staff from February to April feeding the influx of baby squirrels."

As Forsythe notes, "Well-meaning people, like Murray, would bring baby squirrels they'd saved from all kinds of troubles, she said. Greeley would train them to climb trees and eat acorns, acclimate them to the world and set them free. When Greeley described the work, she lit up with excitement."

Greeley then explained how she got the baby squirrel friend that Murray recalled in the church service, "You get to see them grow from the size of a pinky, then they get that big furry tail and they're so fluffy. There was one I really got attached to. Most squirrels were out in a week or two but this one had been bitten or something. She had a crescent scar over her eye and she went everywhere with me from April to November of 1989."

And a year later, Murray wrote the Iron Man fill-in story that would eventually be published in Marvel Super-Heroes #8. He had told Greeley about it, but she thought he was joking. He told her it would likely appear in an issue of Avengers West Coast as a fill-in issue (after initially being an Iron Man fill-in), but instead, it ended up in Marvel Super-Heroes. Greeley kept up with Avengers West Coast for a while, but when the story never appeared, she dropped it.

Amusingly, she then got a job at New England Comics and so she was actually working at a comic book shop when Squirrel Girl made her return in the Great Lakes Avengers, but Greeley missed it. It was not until Squirrel Girl received her ongoing series in 2015 (well, before the book came out, technically, so late 2014) that Greeley realized that Murray had actually been telling her the truth and the character had become a real thing!

Greeley was pleased with the popularity of the character and especially how much she has resonated with young readers, noting, "It was great to see all of the young fans react so positively to this character."

What an adorable story.

Thanks to Dana Forsythe, Will Murray and Doreen Greeley for the great tale!

Check out some other entertainment legends from Legends Revealed:

1. Were Luke and Leia Meant to be Siblings When They Kissed in Empire Strikes Back?

2. Was South Park Originally Going to be Just a Big Parody of The X-Files?

3. Were the Lyrics to Sarah McLachlan’s “Possession” Taken from an Actual Stalker’s Letters?

4. How Did the Tonight Show Save Twister From Oblivion?

Check back later for part 2 of this installment's legends!

Feel free to send suggestions for future comic legends to me at either cronb01@aol.com or brianc@cbr.com