She-Hulk

[Jeff of Earth-J]

When I was in elementary school I would buy every first issue I saw... not because I thought it would be "worth something someday" but because I wanted to be in on the beginning of something. (I had grand visions of Skull the Slayer #200, for example, but the series didn't last quite that long.) By the time I was in junior high school, however, my philosophy had changed. By that time, having so many series "cancelled out from under me," I actively avoided first issues, concentrating instead on filling in gaps of established series. (Among the first I completed were Avengers, Captain America, Hulk, Justice League of America and Legion of Super-Heroes.) I would consider new series "safe to ignore" as long as they didn't cross over with a series I was reading. 

She-Hulk was one such series. I have often described the Incredible Hulk as "my first favorite character," but his female counter-part didn't have all that much to do with his regular title. When I did eventually read The Savage She-Hulk #1 some years later, I wasn't impressed. Eventually the character got to a point I could no longer ignore and I bought the whole series as backissues, but barely remember them (beyond the fact that I wasn't all that impressed with them, either), and I eventually culled them from my collection after having read them only once. Now I'm rereading them in a fancy-schmancy HC collection and it's like reading them for the first time.

Despite Bruce Banner's walk-on (or rather, walk-through) appearance in the first issue, She-Hulk's origin was rooted more in television than in comics. No "She-Hulk" spun out of The Incredible Hulk TV show but, concerned about The Bionic Woman (which had spun out of The Six Million Dollar Man), Stan Lee put together a "quickie" origin story lest the TV people introduce such a character, thereby gaining the rights instead of Marvel Comics.

The first issue was a perfunctory nothing of an origin. It introduced the main character (Jen Walters, cousin of Bruce Banner) but no supporting characters. A villain was mentioned but not shown. she gained her powers through a blood transfusion, but beyond that, Stan Lee (with artist John Buscema) provided no further character or plot development whatsoever before the whole thing was turned over to David Anthony Kraft for development. He was given pretty much a free hand to take the title in any direction he saw fit, based on Lee & Buscema's bare-bones origin story.

Kraft (a.k.a. "DAK") is probably best known for his long-running Comics Interview magazine but, as a writer, is also remembered for his own little section of the Marvel Universe including Defenders, Man-Wolf and She-Hulk, among others. He introduced supporting characters, among them Sheriff Morris Walters (Jen Walters' father), "Buck" Bukowski (her rival), Richard Rory (her boyfriend, as Jen) and Daniel "Zapper" Ridge (her boyfriend, as She-Hulk). Kraft brought Richard  Rory in from Man-Thing, Hellcat from Defenders, Man-Wolf from Marvel Premiere, and Morbius from Adventure into Fear.

Actually, Morbius was previously cured of being a "living vampire" in Peter Parker #38, and Man-Wolf would go on to be cured in Peter Parker Annual #3. The super-villains newly-created for the series include Man-Elephant, the Grappler, Shade, Brute, Seeker, Radius, Torque, Kyr and Earth-Lord (not exactly household names). Kraft likes using his initials as a sound effect in comics he writes ("DAK-KOOM" being a favorite). Michael Golden did a series of covers, #8-11.

Kraft's writing style is solid, but a bit too obvious for my taste. For example, in #22 She-Hulk is being attacked by Radius: "Unhh! Some sort of crystals pelting me... sticking... forming a rock-hard shell around me, holding me in place! NO! I can't let it solidify! I have to fight it! But the metaphor doesn't escape me! All my life I've felt this sort of constriction! I felt it freeze up my father, sealing him in a rock-hard exterior! Let this metaphor be my strength! I won't wear such a shell! I will break free--no matter how immobile my limbs feel! No matter how easy it might be to give up! I-- will-- fight!"

The series comes to a close in #25 leaving one plot thread left dangling. Her father's second wife has cheated him out of their family home and now plans to slap him with "an alimony suit that'll ruin [his] reputation forever!" After the series came to a close, he scripted one final She-Hulk story in Marvel Two-In-One #88, which he mentions twice in his introduction to the collection. First he simply implies that She-Hulk and the Thing slept together, then he comes right out and says it: "She also sleeps with the Thing, if you read between the lines." Uh, uh. Didn't happen.

He kind of takes credit for She-Hulk's later success. "Just when I'd gotten her there, totally differentiated from the Hulk, and the real fun was about to start... The Savage She-Hulk was canceled." He later goes on to say, "My final She-Hulk story, light and lively, got the character damn cose to where I was headed with her from the start. It was practically a done deal. Subsequent She-Hulk series and mini-series had the benefit of being able to pick it up and run with it, something I envy them.

"To their credit, those who came after me picked up pretty much where I left off. Her character trajectory held true to my defining course--from light, sexy humor to teaming up with super-heroes to an eventual romantic relationship with Man-Wolf's alter ego, John Jameson. And perhaps most important of all, a costume of her own--already hinted at by my sequence spoofing early Marvel romance comics, in which She-Hulk models various 'looks' in lieu of her signature tattered white dress. 'She-Hulk chic' teased the inevitable and long overdue costume still to come."

And DAK concludes: "The stage was set. My job was done."

Me, I don't know. If what came later was really what he had in mind all along, he should have taken fewer than 25 issues to set it up. Kudos to him for what he did do, but honestly? The only issue here worth reading is #1, and that only for curiosity's sake. I've read some She-Hulk beyond this (Avengers, Fantastic Four, the John Byrne series), but I don't recall ever seeing the original supporting cast (Zapper, Rory, Bukowski, her father) again. What She-Hulk needs is someone to do what Alan Moore did to Captain Britain. I'm hoping to see some of those characters again; seems like a no-brainer to me. I haven't yet read the Dan Slott or Peter David stuff, but I will.

[The Baron]

Never liked Starfox as a character.  One of many Marvel characters who  did immoral stuff that we were later supposed to ignore.

Jeff of Earth-J said:

ISSUES #6-7: GLK&H defends Starfox against charges of sexual assault in "Beaus and Eros." Starfox uses his powers to influence two triangles: 1) She-Hulk, Pug & john Jameson, and 2) Mallory Book, 2GK and Awesome Andy. She-Hulk eventually comes to realize that she herself was once influenced into having sex with Starfox (behind the scenes during the Stern run of Avengers). It will be hard to think of Starfox as a hero ever again going forward, but the subtext was alwyas there. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ISSUE #8: This issue is the "Civil War" tie-in. I'm not going to rehash that here, but the She-Hulk's stance is somewhat nuanced. In her professional capacity, she's in favor of registration, but personally she believes heroes' identities should not be made public. (But there's a bit more to it than that; under the Superhuman Registration Act, the only heroes allowed to operate must work on behalf of the government.) In this issue, Dr. Strange removes the Scarlet Witch's spell (to prevent anyone who wished She-Hulk harm from seeing Jennifer Walters) which, as it turns out, was what was causing her problem transforming. So that problem is solved now. 

Cliffhanger: John Jameson proposes.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ISSUE #9: Pug uncovers Starfox's machinations. She-Hulk and John Jameson elope. the "My Dinner with Jonah" section (in which the newlyweds have dinner with the groom's father and his wife) is absurd, but it is illustrated by Ron frenz and Sal Buscema. She-Hulk and J.J.J. come to terms after she agrees to sue Spider-Man on Jonah's behalf.

ISSUE #10: "I Married a Man-Wolf" metatextually addresses the question of whether this series is v2 or v4 and leads Stu cicero to make the discover that the "IX" in Arthur Zix's name is actually a Roman numeral ("Artie Zix" = "RT-Z9"). the Recorder kills him and asks Ditto (the shape-changer) to take his place.

ISSUE #11: Man-Wolf is unregistered; 2GK attempts to kill him with a silver bullet; Mallory Book learns the truth behind her feelings for Andy and dumps him; John Jameson agrees to return to his human form in Jen will. Marvel Westerns: Two Gun Kid presents a flashback which occurs between panels of #11.

ISSUE #12: Starfox is put on trial on Titan, but iot is largely for show until the Magistrati become involved. She-Hulk is recruited to act as official Observer. the trial reveals a HUGE continuity implant: that Thanos was essentially "created" by Starfox.

ISSUE #13: She-Hulk declares "Shananigans" and enters Thanos' memories via Moondragon's powers where it is revealed that last issues EYKIW was a hoax on Thanos' part. Pug drinks a potion (presumably to forget Jennifer) prepared to undue her false love of John Jameson. On titan, she discovers the truth anyway.

ISSUE #14: She-Hulk requests that their marriage be annulled. the history of Awesome Andy is presented in flashback, after which he leaves to sort things out. the 2GK attpemts to leave, but is seduced by Mallory Book. Cliffhanger: Clay Quartermain "drafts" She-Hulk into active SHIELD service.

ISSUE #15: She-Hulk fights the Abomination. SHIELD Agent Cake (short for "Cheesecake") is a Life Model Decoy. She-Hulk is still married at this point, but separated; sleeps with Clay Quartermain. 

ISSUE #16: She-Hulk and Wolverine take down Wendigo; Talisman (of Alpha Flight) appears; Mallory Book learns a lesson from William Shakespeare; She-Hulk hits on Wolverine but is rejected; the question of her having slept with Juggernaut is revisited (she still denies it). Cliffhanger: SHIELD's "Project: Achilles" somehow involves the Abomination and Wendigo. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ISSUE #17: Chas, Lewis and "Stu" (actually Ditto) discuss the relative merits of decompressed storytelling in the GLK&H "Basement." She-Hulk and Gaffer reminisce about the events of John Byrne's She-Hulk graphic novel. Crimson, a follower  of Cyttorak introduced last issue, is the head of SHIELD's magic ops division. (Sometimes it's hard to determine between a one-off gag character and a new supporting character.) In a double-page montage, SHIELD's "Hulkbusters" take on Zzzax, the Toad Men and the U-Foes against a theme song to the tune of "Ghostbusters" playing in the background. All along She-Hulk has been kept in the dark about the Illuminati shooting her cousin into outer space. She-Hulk sleeps with Tony Stark. Cliffhanger: She-Hulk learns the Illuminati shot her cousin into outer space.

ISSUE #18: "Project Achilles" is a plan to subdue the Hulk, should he ever return from outer space, using powers derived from his enemies, but it doesn't work on non-corporeal or alien beings, such as the U-Foes' X-Ray or Vapor, the Toad Men or Zzzax. Zzzax has taken over the helicarrier including flying cars and LMDs. She-Hulk has already left with her evidence, but doen't know who to trust. She ends up going back to GLK&H. Meanwhile, Clay Quartermain and his Hulkbusters are on their way to New Mexico, where traces of gamma radiation have been detected. An LMD named "Beefcake" (the male version of "Cheesecake") has taken She-Hulk's place. They find and defeat the Leader, who has taken over one of Bruce Banner's old hidden labs.

ASIDE: One panel shows the SHIELD agents flying past the Gateway Arch in downtown St. Louis. The Arch is shown in comic books from time-to-time, almost always out of scale or incorrectly. The skyline in #18 is pretty much on model, indicating the artist used accurate photgraphic reference.

Now that she knows Iron Man has been using her all along, she flies back to the helicarrier, interrupting a ceremony complete with a "Mission Accomplished" banner. Unfortunately for her, Project Achilles was successful enough to yield a serum which removes her powers permanently. Unfortunately for Stark, it is now Jen Walters, not She-Hulk, who is after him.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

ISSUE #9: Pug uncovers Starfox's machinations. She-Hulk and John Jameson elope. the "My Dinner with Jonah" section (in which the newlyweds have dinner with the groom's father and his wife) is absurd, but it is illustrated by Ron frenz and Sal Buscema. She-Hulk and J.J.J. come to terms after she agrees to sue Spider-Man on Jonah's behalf.

I remember vehemently objecting to everything about that scene.

[The Baron]

Did they make him watch cheesy movies with wisecracking robots?

Jeff of Earth-J said:

 Cliffhanger: She-Hulk learns the Illuminati shot her cousin into outer space.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"I remember vehemently objecting to everything about that scene."

Ooh, I had forgotten about that discussion. You may have noticed I didn't participate in it; that's because I didn't read the series. I plan to go back and read that entire discussion when it comes up in sequence.

"JJJ started in on one of his anti-Spider-Man rants, and Jen listed various grounds Jonah could have to sue Spider-Man! Jen is Spider-Man's lawyer! She has NO business doing that!"

She did whisper to John, "Don't worry. I can keep this in the courts for years," which leads me to believe she never seriously considered it. That doesn't make it any less of a conflict of interest, but I've never had to spend an evening with J. Jonah Jameson. I'm tempted to give Jen the benefit of the doubt and cut her some slack on this one.

INTERLUDE:

GIANT-SIZE HULK #1 (2006): This is a "Planet Hulk" tie-in. The main story is a flashback set a week after Champions #16 (1977), three years prior to Savage She-Hulk #1. The Hulk has been spotted in LA on the 405 about a mile south of the Wilshire Blvd. exit. the Champions are notified and Angel flies recon. He spots the Hulk emerging from a DeLorean and calls in the rest of the team. They engage him in battle and he picks up the car, but he doesn't throw it at them. Instead he jumps away with it, landing outside the emergency entrance of Cedar Sinai Hospital. They later find out that his cousin, Jen Walters, was inside with a ruptured appendix. If the Champions had delayed the Hulk five more minutes she would have been dead. This revelation hits Hercules particularly hard, and he vows to make amends in the future.

The story sets up later developments, but it doesn't exactly fit into continuity. In Savage She-Hulk #1, Jen hadn't seen her cousin for years ("I haven't heard from you since you quit med school for nuclear physics!") and it is in that story she learned that he was the Hulk. This is the kind of discrepancy that really annoys me because it could have been fixed so easily in the editing stage.

INCREDIBLE HULK #106 (2007): This "World War Hulk" tie-in follows She-Hulk #18 immediately and is a direct sequel to the Giant-Size Hulk one-shot. Jen finds herself dumped somewhere in New Jersey where she is soon discovered by Amadeus Cho. He tells her everything he knows about the Illuminati and, over a grape Nehi, secretly slips her "a few strands of replicating code bonded with glucose [which] temporarily gums up the nanobots." (So much for "permanent.") the effects are temporary, but it does give her the opportunity to take out some of her aggression on Doc Samson, her own psychiatrist, who helped the Illuminati banish her cousin. She does not join forces with Amadeus Cho, although she does tell him the story of her ruptured appendix. Later, he meets Hercules and the Angel. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ISSUE #19: Mallory Book defends the Leader and subpoenas Jen as a hostile witness. Chas & Lewis discover that Ditto has replaced Stu. (Honestly, I could read an entire series dedicated to Chas, Lewis and Stu.) During Mallory's questioning of Jen, the question of whether or not She-Hulk slept with Juggernaut comes up again. (Jen still denies it.) Pug returns (with a Prince Valiant "pageboy" cut for some reason) for Jen's moral support. Cliffhanger: It is revealed that Stu was not disintegrated, but rather transported to Duckworld. 

ISSUE #20: RT-Z9 sequesters the main cast and reveals that he has been triggered by his masters to self-destruct in two hours if he does not complete his mission. Stu suddenly appears in a swamp in the Florida everglades and briefly encounters the Man-Thing and Richard Rory. He was able to escape from Duckworld through a loophole in the b&w Howard the Duck magazine #6. She-Hulk never uses footnotes, BTW. If a reference is revealed at all, it is part of the dialogue. I used to like footnotes, but Tracy's reaction to them (in Swamp Thing) caused me to change my mind. Some writers use footnotes as a crutch; without them, they are forced to explain past events within the context of the story. (I still like endnotes, though.) 

The resolution of this story goes back to #7 of the previous volume (either I or IV, depending on your POV). Hawkeye is revealed to be alive; John Jameson's story (after departing for space in #14) is told; Awesome Andy and Powerhouse are reintroduced (it turns out that his programming caused him to seek out the Mad Thinker following a hard reboot); She-Hulk has been stripped of her Magistrati abilities in a "flashback" to a scene I'm pretty sure was never published); the "Reckoning War" is set up. A lot happens this issue, but it's not over yet. 

NEXT: The wrap-up. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ISSUE #21:

This is one of only two issues of this series I bought new off the stands. 

"I think that if, back in 2005, more people had told me why I would like She-Hulk rather than that I would like She-Hulk, I might have tried it sooner."

#21 was published in 2007 and by that time I was well and truly disgusted with the state of Marvel continuity. Luckily, it was well publicized at the time that this issue was going to account for those discrepancies. The very first panel of the very first page features Stu, Chas and Lewis... not that I knew who those characters were at that point, but I could certainly relate to what they were saying: "You've got bad guys running around when they should be in prison... or dead! Heroes in the wrong costumes, with the wrong status quos. I swear, it's like nobody cares about continuity anymore!" 

BRIEF DIGRESSION: When I was younger, I put a lot of effort into completing runs of legacy series via backissues. (Hulk was first, then Captain America and Avengers.) By the time of "Heroes Reborn" (a.k.a. "the year ClarkKent_DC didn't buy Marvel comics") I was about 10 or 15 issues shy of completing Fantastic Four. Ironically, when Marvel renumbered its core titles making such a thing possible (without having to continue to buy new issues every month), my purpose cooled. Unfortunately, the premise behind She-Hulk #21 was based on some of the few issues of Fantastic Four I had never read.

The continuity discrepancies Marvel had been experiencing at the time (and this story pointed out many of them specifically) were rooted on "Earth Alpha" (Earth 616 being "Earth Beta"), as introduced in FF #118 and further developed in #160-163. I did not have #160-163 at the time (and was perfectly willing to wait another six years until they were reprinted in Marvel Masterworks), but I did have #118. Unfortunately, I didn't remember anything about "Earth Alpha."

So I reread it. It was a back-up story that didn't really grab me; I can see why I didn't remember it. But Slott's premise is that non-powered "vacationers" from Earth-A were coming to Earth-B where, if their counterparts had superpowers, heroic or villainous, the visitors would get them, too. It's actually quite a clever idea. It finally (from the POV of longtime Slott She-Hulk readers) accounts for the fact that it was She-Hulk's Earth-A counterpart who slept with the Juggernaut in X-Men #435. I knew I was was missing a lot of the story in #21 (such as the fact that Holliway retired and made Mallory a senior partner in the firm GLK&B), but I got the gist of it. More importantly, it allowed me to reconcile every single comic book published under the "Marvel Knights" banner.

Mr. Fantastic is able to "cure" She-Hulk of Tony Stark's power-inhibiting nanites infecting her system by flipping the Heisenberg polarity of the interdimensional gateway at just the right moment to allow the atomic resequencer to realign her atoms with those of her Earth-A counterpart. Stu, Chas and Lewis's reaction is priceless.

"Hey, that's the Dr. Pulaski transporter solution from Next Gen!"

"Wow! Two Star Trek references in one day? It's like we're in a Peter David comic!"

"I wish!"

That exchange is funny on two levels.

NEXT: Peter David

[ClarkKent_DC]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

"I remember vehemently objecting to everything about that scene."

Ooh, I had forgotten about that discussion. You may have noticed I didn't participate in it; that's because I didn't read the series. I plan to go back and read that entire discussion when it comes up in sequence.

"JJJ started in on one of his anti-Spider-Man rants, and Jen listed various grounds Jonah could have to sue Spider-Man! Jen is Spider-Man's lawyer! She has NO business doing that!"

She did whisper to John, "Don't worry. I can keep this in the courts for years," which leads me to believe she never seriously considered it. That doesn't make it any less of a conflict of interest, but I've never had to spend an evening with J. Jonah Jameson. I'm tempted to give Jen the benefit of the doubt and cut her some slack on this one.

I'm not. I've never had to spend an evening with J. Jonah Jameson either, and clearly Jen is telling him what he needs to hear to get through the experience, but she should have shut it down. Pointing out that she's Spider-Man's lawyer would have done that. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Would it? It certainly should have, but knowing JJJ I'm not so sure. 

[Jeff of Earth-J]

ISSUE #22:

"This is one of only two issues of this series I bought new off the stands."

...and this is the other (exhibit number one in my case that a title doesn't need a "new number one" with every change of writer). Peter David had She-Hulk give up super-heroin; and lawyerin' to become a bounty hunter. In this first issue of the new direction, Jen Walters has her neck broken by the Absorbing Man, yet she-Hulk also exists. PAD spent a decade chronicling the exploits of the "He-Hulk" and I was curious how her would handle his lesser known distaff cousin. But She-Hulk had never been a favorite character of mine and I wasn't looking to add another title to my P&H at the time, so #22 is the only issue I bought. Besides, I reasoned, I already had (vague) plans to buy Slott's run in collected form at some unspecified time in the future, so I thought I might as well tradewait PAD's, too, which is exactly what I ended up doing).