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I was in a Marvel forum, and I saw a picture of Squirrel Girl with a defeated Thanos, and the Watcher saying that it was the real Thanos, and that she had saved the universe.
I'm not sure if that is a joke from Marvel, or it it is canon. In which comic did this happen?
This occurred in GLX-MAS #1 published in 2005. It was a special holiday issue. The stories included are meant as parodies, and not canon within the main Marvel Universe.
Marvel describes the issue as such:
Marvel’s own Milwaukee-based Misfits are back—in their very own, double sized X-mas special! Sure, they survived the GLA mini-series, but can Squirrel Girl, Mr. Immortal, and pals survive… the HOLIDAYS?!? 6 all-new features of mockery, morbidity, and merriment-- including the return of Grasshopper, Deathurge… and the Yuletide tyranny of Dr. Tannenbaum?!
There are actually two stories involved here.
The first is "Eggnog, Toilet Paper, & Peace on Earth". It ends with Squirrel Girl running to battle Thanos.
The second story is "Days of X-Mas Past". Unfortunately, it is never explained how Squirrel Girl defeated Thanos, just that she did.
As to how Squirrel Girl might be able to defeat Thanos, one might refer to the answer to the question How did Squirrel Girl defeat Dr Doom? which explains a possible battle strategy (Squirrel Swarming the enemy with extraordinary numbers) and points out the fact that her official power/ability stats are maxed out.
Anyone who reads The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl knows that not only does she have superpowers (including super strength, super agility, claws, tail, knuckle spikes, ability to command a literal army of squirrels, ability to communicate with said squirrels, and some measure of invulnerability), she is also extremely intelligent (a computer science major who keeps up with her studies in addition to superheroics), pretty much angst-free (so not handicapped by her own emotions like so many superheroes) and, most importantly, she is allowed to have common sense.
Common sense is something most superheroes and supervillains lack. She defeated Doc Doom twice by a combination of superpowers, intelligence, and sense. Take any one of those qualities, especially sense, out of the equation, and you have a bog standard superhero or supervillain who does typically dumb things to advance the plot. She is one of the few who is allowed to use all those positive talents in the same altercation. If she can talk 'em down, she does. If deliberately losing the battle means winning the war, well, she's done that, too. Usually she just has creative strategies combined with intelligence, powers, and sense.
It used to be a common joke for a while that she beat the biggest of the big bads off-panel, though in her own comic we see her methods, which are sometimes conventional and sometimes quite wild and out there. I imagine she beat Thanos because he got arrogant and over-confident, she got sneaky, and the squirrel army swarmed.
It's worth mentioning that later, in another comic, Thanos claimed she only beat a clone, despite what the Watcher said. Who are you gonna believe? The Watcher or the villain with the bruised ego? LOL. (Clone jokes come up frequently in TUSG comic, ridiculing this very bit of Thanosian ego)
It's not Squirrel Girl, in this case, it's Thanos.
Thanos' biggest weakness is self-sabotage. Time after time, he will unwittingly hand his opponent(s) the means to defeat him because, deep down, he doesn't believe he deserves to win. Sometimes this manifests as simple plot device but there have been instances when his cohorts or those few he actually seeks out for advice have told this to his face, and left him silent.
i feel like she's, for lack of a better term, squirrely and spry, just as much as her furry friends, it's possible that just like a squirrel she would be pretty much impossible to catch and most likely can tire/frustrate her opponent to the point where even the toughest most cunning villain will eventually make a mistake and open to attack, she reminds me of deadpool in the sense that there is a method to their madness
