Adventures In Hulkbusting: She-Hulk: Planet Without A Hulk Meanders Around She-Hulk’s Post-Civil War Adventures!

The Good: Moments of character, Most of the artwork
The Bad: Not one single, concise story, Focus on exceptionally minor characters peripheral to the main story
The Basics: When She-Hulk: Planet Without A Hulk is focused on Jennifer Walters’s She-Hulk, the book works, but unfortunately it meanders surprisingly far from her story.


As my She-Hulk Year continues at a surprisingly fast pace, I find myself happy with the focus of my yearlong study. I have also discovered, however, that the writers of She-Hulk are saddled with fleshing out the stories of a number of very minor characters that are not nearly as interesting or cool as the female protagonist who readers are drawn to when they pick up a She-Hulk book. Moreover, many of the She-Hulk books have stories that are incomplete, with elements that are included in other books or storylines. The problem of the peripheral characters and other stories reaches its head in She-Hulk: Planet Without A Hulk.

She-Hulk: Planet Without A Hulk resolves the story of Jennifer Walters as She-Hulk after the Civil War during her brief tenure working for S.H.I.E.L.D. It also includes a number of larger Marvel Universe concepts, most notably the Earth A and standard Earth universes for the Marvel Multiverse. The bigger issue than the missing story elements is the way She-Hulk: Planet Without A Hulk includes an extensive focus on secondary characters who are flat-out boring.

Opening where Laws Of Attraction left off, She-Hulk: Planet Without A Hulk finds Jennifer Walters on Titan where she and John Jameson are in the process of breaking up. The story of Awesome Andy, the android, is told. Andy returns to the side of the Mad Thinker, who reboots the android and he goes off on his own. With her friends having abandoned her, Jennifer – as She-Hulk joins S.H.I.E.L.D.’s hulkbuster unit and she hooks up with both Clay Quartermain and Tony Stark.

For the hulkbuster unit, Jennifer Walters takes down the Abomination and works with Wolverine to capture Wen-Di-Go. When the electric-based Zzzax Walters helped capture takes over the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Project Achilles gets all of the material they need to stop Gamma-based threats to humanity. When Jennifer discovers that her cousin, Bruce Banner, has been sent to outer space, She-Hulk confronts Iron Man about his anti-Hulk action. After taking out the Leader, Iron Man executes the Project: Achilles endgame and Jennifer Walters is infected with nanotechnology that prevents her from turning into She-Hulk ever again! After Pug shows up, altered, Stu Cicero makes it back to Earth and Jennifer Walters must confront her own desire to return to being She-Hulk while the trial for the Leader begins!

She-Hulk: Planet Without A Hulk includes a number of missing moments, like Jen Walters apparently getting associated with the Thing again in order to borrow Ben Grimm’s apartment. Similarly, She-Hulk: Planet Without A Hulk alludes to events of the World Without A Hulk event that are not fleshed out or really fully explained. So, for example, exactly what happened to Bruce Banner and why and how it is resolved is only very casually mentioned without truly exploring it.

The last portion of the book – after Jennifer Walters is forced into permanent human form – finally resolves the whole Artie Zix plotline. Unfortunately, it is bogged down with the side stories of Stu Cicero who is briefly incarcerated on Duckworld and an allusion to a trial She-Hulk attended as part of the Magistrati. The tale of the Recluses seems to be included for an impending storyline with the Reckoning War.

Unfortunately, very little of the book actually focuses tightly on Jennifer Walters. Her usual moralizing about the internal conflict between herself and She-Hulk is largely absent from the book. Unfortunately, following Iron Man violating her and destroying her ability to make the transformation, she does not raise the larger moral issues of the nanotechnology being used on her. That is a huge problem with the book. Apparently, there are huge incursions in the Marvel Universe from Earth A that are in other titles, but are very casually mentioned in the last chapters of She-Hulk: Planet Without A Hulk, which becomes a very convenient, but annoying, for readers.

The artwork in She-Hulk: Planet Without A Hulk is erratic. Some of it is very detailed and others look much more like comic strips. The coloring is homogeneously good throughout the book.

Ultimately, She-Hulk: Planet Without A Hulk asks readers to fill in way too many blanks, which is unfortunate for those who are looking for a solid, concise She-Hulk story.

For other She-Hulk books, please visit my reviews of:
The Sensational She-Hulk
Single Green Female
The Avengers: The Search For She-Hulk
Superhuman Law
Time Trials
Laws Of Attraction

4/10

For other book reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing.

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Series Of (Mostly) Meaningless Tangents: Civil War Marvel Universe Underwhelms.

The Good: She-Hulk chapter, Some of the artwork
The Bad: No character development, Only one interesting character in the book, Erratic (and often-poor artwork), No coherent plot or plot threads
The Basics: Picking up some of the stray stories from the Marvel Civil War Saga, Civil War Marvel Universe collects stories about the b and c-rate heroes and villains in the Marvel Universe.


As my She-Hulk Year continues, I have been exposed to quite a bit of new (to me) Marvel Comics. Because Jennifer Walters is part of the Civil War Crossover Event, I have been picking up other books, outside Civil War (reviewed here!), from that event. The first of the “spinoff” books is Civil War Marvel Universe. This book proved to me that Marvel is no better than DC when it comes to crossover events. Just as DC had dubious inclusions in its major events, like Blackest Night: Rise Of The Black Lanterns (reviewed here!), that included stories of characters who had nothing to do with the event – like Jonah Hex and Starman – Marvel seems to try to make the bucks off the fringes of their events, too. Civil War Marvel Universe is that book for the Civil War Crossover Event.

It is important to note that Civil War Marvel Universe is not a single cohesive story. Instead, it is a collection of short stories – many only a few pages long – anthologized together because they are, essentially, the leftovers of the series. The only one that is truly vital is the She-Hulk story and it is the exact same chapter that is included in She-Hulk: Laws Of Attraction (reviewed here!). That it is available elsewhere in a superior book makes it impossible to recommend bothering with Civil War Marvel Universe.

Civil War Marvel Universe is a bit of fractured storytelling from the disparate parts of the Marvel Universe. It opens with the She-Hulk section, which recaps the time she went on Larry King to advocate in favor of superhero registration (that actual interview is still not included!). Following her appearance on Larry King Live and being cured of the spell that has made Jennifer Walters invisible to those who want to do She-Hulk harm, Jennifer Walters finds herself once more able to exercise her abilities, unregulated, to transform into She-Hulk. Jennifer Walters begins defending the civil liberties of the last two Warriors before being targeted herself. She helps take out the perpetrator before John Jameson proposes to her. The artwork in this chapter is good, but it contains a number of elements that are serialized to the main She-Hulk story, none of which have to do with the Civil War.

After selling his movie rights, Macdonald Gargan kills a S.H.I.E.L.D. team, then turns into Venom to accept the amnesty offer being offered by the government. This chapter has no character development and it makes it entirely baffling why S.H.I.E.L.D. would even work with a guy like Gargan. Moreover, if the government and the superheroes know who he is, it seems like Venom would be one of the villains they would try to take out (one way or another) as opposed to offer amnesty and a position in the Thunderbolts to. This mundane chapter is plagued by sketchy artwork that makes the brief, dark scene seem cheap.

Another pointless story has Ant-Man helping a girl out of the war zone before wandering off to be a peeping tom.

As a fan of Daredevil, I was psyched to see a vignette from his corner of the Marvel Universe included in the book. However, Matt Murdock – having either been undercover with a new alias or captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. at this point in the narrative – is nowhere to be seen. Instead, Danny Rand, The Immortal Iron Fist, takes over for Matt Murdock as Daredevil in Hell’s Kitchen and walks into a trap. While the artwork in this story is consistent artwork with Daredevil, the muted colors and shady lines make less sense for his replacement. The artwork in Daredevil is arguably an expression of how Murdock “sees” the world, so it makes no sense for it to be the same in Danny Rand’s story.

U.S. Agent, who seems to be a cheap knock-off of Captain America, is almost killed by the Purple Man before joining Omega Flight in Canada. His story is irksome to read as it has two parallel storylines which are jumbled together . . . for no particular reason. This story has somewhat underdeveloped artwork.

In Cleveland, Howard The Duck tries to register but finds the local government denies his existence. This humorous, but somewhat pointless vignette has comic strip artwork.

“The Return” has Captain Marvel guarding the Negative Zone facility. A good chapter like this ought to get even those of us who do not know the character to invest in him or her. This chapter entirely failed to do that. I didn’t know the character and did not care about him after I was done reading this short story. This chapter does, however, have great artwork!

In another well-drawn, but pointless story, the Sentry decides to register.

“The Initiative” has Michael Pointer, “The Collective” brought in for Omega Flight. Civil War Marvel Universe concludes with stories wherein Hurricane is hunted by the villainous Thunderbolts and brought in and Carol Danvers, Ms. Marvel finds Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman, and tries to talk her into registering. If it seems like I am not evaluating these so much, that it true, but there is not anything of substance to evaluate. Civil War Marvel Universe is not about significant plot or character developments; it’s about making sure every obscure character who can get a page in the narrative gets one. And it didn’t make me care, so I feel like spending no more time upon it!

For other Marvel graphic novels, please visit my reviews of:
The Avengers: The Search For She-Hulk
Deadpool Classic, Volume 1
Daredevil: Return Of The King

3.5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please visit my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Clever Arc For She-Hulk, She-Hulk: Laws Of Attraction Kept Me Guessing!

The Good: Smart plotting, Interesting character arc, Good humor
The Bad: Requires a lot of Marvel knowledge outside the book to actually get the most out of it, Erratic artwork.
The Basics: A smart continuation of the She-Hulk story, She-Hulk: Laws Of Attraction gets rid of some conceits that did not work and progresses the She-Hulk character through the Marvel Civil War.


I began my She-Hulk Year at something of a disadvantage. Previously, the only character in the Marvel Universe I devoted a year to was Daredevil and I picked him purposely; I wanted a character who was not embroiled in the bulk of the crossovers and universe-changing events. I wanted something of an introverted, vigilante character to study. So, when I went with the advice of some fans who thought I should go with She-Hulk for the year, one of the first things I learned was that she was – at various points in her character’s arc – a member of the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. While I correctly divined that this might finally get me to read the Marvel Civil War story arc that I had actually been intrigued by, I did not realize how many allusions the books would make to other Marvel Comics. In fact, She-Hulk: Laws Of Attraction - the latest volume of She-Hulk I have read – makes allusions in its final chapters to stories that She-Hulk was not even directly a part of!

She-Hulk: Laws Of Attraction is one of the volumes I have easily enjoyed the most so far, but it is also one I felt was most hampered by my lack of knowledge of the general Marvel Universe. While I enjoy the long character arcs that Jennifer Walters (She-Hulk) seems to be a part of, She-Hulk: Laws Of Attraction does not stand as well on its own as a result. This is very much dependent upon understanding some of the character intricacies of earlier She-Hulk books, even though the story begins and ends with a focus on the peripheral Titan character, Eros.

As well, She-Hulk: Laws Of Attraction smartly gets rid of storytelling conceits that are not working as well – gone are Southpaw, the disembodied head, and other issues from earlier volumes – and replaces them with problems that can be much more compelling and interesting future arcs for the character. Chief among these structural issues is the Gamma Charger that Jennifer Walters has been forced to use (for at least the prior graphic novel, Time Trials). Writer Dan Slott dispenses with that quickly enough.

Still working for the mysterious Mr. Zix at the superhuman law firm, Jennifer Walters continues to wrestle with an erratic ability to shift between her human form and the form of the She-Hulk. This is complicated by her relationship with John Jameson, the heroic test pilot who is uncomfortable with superhumans. Walters finds herself working with the former Avenger, Eros, in a date rape case that has a personal bent for her. After her fights with John stop abruptly and Mallory Book’s crush on the Two-Gun Kid ends abruptly for a startlingly physical reaction with Awesome Andy, She-Hulk becomes suspicious and Eros flees Earth fearing for his life. Almost immediately, Jen surprises all of her peers by marrying Jameson abruptly in Vegas.

This happens as the Marvel Civil War hits with the Superhuman Registration Act sending the superheroes reeling. With half the heroes believing registration is a responsible act and the other half falling into the camp that it is a violation of their rights to privacy, She-Hulk [in another volume, but summarized here] comes out in favor of the Act. Nevertheless, Jennifer Jameson takes a case involving the right to privacy for some of the individual heroes at the heart of the controversy. She-Hulk: Laws Of Attraction reaches its peak as Pug figures out why the office dynamic has shifted and the guilty party stops exerting influence over everyone. This, unfortunately, comes at the inopportune time when Jen is called to perform her work as a member of the Magistrati and her husband is transformed into a Man-Wolf and the Stargod!

The final chapters of She-Hulk: Laws Of Attraction is what really sold me on the book. Until then, it is a pretty average graphic novel. But in its last section, She-Hulk: Laws Of Attraction has some truly clever reversals – John Jameson’s transformation into a creature, which is something his family is exceptionally prejudiced against, is compelling and sets up a wonderful sense of conflict – and makes all of the less-important characters have real value. Despite the issues with the She-Hulk aspect of the story, the far-flung elements are very well-explained. So, the plot between Eros and Thantos is detailed enough to let readers who have never seen a story with that particular villain understand the extent of his power and villainy.

The artwork in She-Hulk: Laws Of Attraction is erratic, but not to the level of the previous volume. In this one, all of the characters are recognizable throughout.

She-Hulk: Laws Of Attraction sets up well real conflicts for Jennifer Jameson to wrestle with and I cannot recall a time I finished a graphic novel and was so eager to see what direction the character went in as when I finished this one! Dan Slott . . . it may have taken a little faith, but after only four books, you’ve gotten me hooked on the She-Hulk!

For other She-Hulk books, please visit my reviews of:
The Sensational She-Hulk
Single Green Female
The Avengers: The Search For She-Hulk
Superhuman Law
Time Trials

7.5/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please visit my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Consequences Of Being An Erratic Superhero (And Lawyer) Are Explored In She-Hulk: Time Trials!

The Good: Decent character work, Trends toward the more serious (which I like)
The Bad: Erratic artwork, Somewhat predictable plot
The Basics: In She-Hulk: Time Trials, Jennifer Walters gets involved with a case that involves time travel and is put on trial herself for attempting to right a death of a close friend, against the laws of temporal non-interference.


Having fully committed myself now to my She-Hulk Year (my nightstand is suddenly very green!), I am pleased to discover that I had been led to a superheroine who is more than just a punchline or a female version of a classic male archetype. She-Hulk, and her fully-human alter ego Jennifer Walters, is growing on me, in part because the books I have read that focus on She-Hulk tend to be smarter than what I think of when I think of The Hulk (“Hulk smash!”). This comes through in She-Hulk: Time Trials, which attempts to make the arguments that Jennifer Walters and the She-Hulk are both unique and utterly replaceable. In fact, one of the only real moments of humor is in a sequence that attempts to illustrate just how replaceable She-Hulk is (I wish I were more of a Marvel aficionado, to actually get the joke!), but because the book is a She-Hulk volume, it predictably comes down on the side of She-Hulk being indispensible.

She-Hulk: Time Trials is a continuation of Dan Slott’s vision of the She-Hulk and a direct sequel to The Avengers: The Search For She-Hulk (which is in my reading stack, currently unread, but alluded to with enough detail that one gets the significant aspects of the story spoiled). Apparently in the first run of Dan Slott’s work on She-Hulk, there was an important side-story focusing on She-Hulk that necessitated a reboot of the character and She-Hulk: Time Trials takes place eight months after her last solo appearance to redirect the character.

Eight months after her uncontrolled outburst that destroyed Bone, Idaho – and her subsequent Green Cross work rebuilding the town as Jennifer Walters – Jennifer Walters returns to the supernatural law level of the law firm Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg, & Holliway to find her mentor, Holliway, replaced by the mysterious Mr. Zix. Her first case, which she is co-chairing with Pug, focuses on an attempted murder that occurred in broad daylight by a man who claims to have shot his assailant because the man was going to kill him in the future! With the present jury pool so tainted by media coverage of the shooting, Pug has the trial remanded to a temporal law division that uses a jury pool of people who all died prior to the shooting (and thus could not be tainted or in any way invested in it). Unfortunately, one of the jurors is Clint Barton, the Avenger Hawkeye! Barton had, apparently, died recently and was (also, apparently, because it has not yet come up in the volumes I have read!) a good friend of Jennifer Walters.

Jennifer decides that she is going to save Clint, regardless of what happens in the trial. Attempting to slip him a note about his impending fate before he is returned to his regular, pre-death time frame draws the attention of the Time Variance Authority who decides that She-Hulk will be erased from all existence. Represented by a future version of Holliway’s granddaughter, Southpaw, Jennifer Walters is put on trial with virtually every ally being pulled from time to act as a character witness for her. But, when she sees a glimpse of the Reckoning War, she decides to accept her punishment. Her sentence is commuted when, during the trial, she thwarts a villain from making off with key technology from the Time Variance Authority. In returning to the timeline, Jennifer is given custody of Matthew Hawk, an obscure Avenger known as the Two-Gun Kid, who was pulled out of time previously. As she acclimates the cowboy Hawk to the 2000s, Walters commits to her law firm and a new direction.

She-Hulk: Time Trials has, in its last two panels, an amazing saving grace for the She-Hulk franchise: She-Hulk (and writer Dan Slott) commits to not breaking the fourth-wall. So, despite the allusions to other time periods, writers, and incarnations of She-Hulk, Slott commits to a more serious version of She-Hulk. I like that and Slott does not let the reader down. As the serious reader may appreciate, She-Hulk: Time Trials has larger themes outside the comic book microcosm. Time Trials is all about consequences and Walters puts her ethics and desire to save lives before a consideration of the consequences of her actions.

Interestingly, in the divergent story that takes place during the missing six months of She-Hulk’s life, She-Hulk notes that neither she, nor Hulk, have ever taken an innocent life. I found that interesting as it seems to reduce the overall menace of both characters in their out-of-control forms to never have human collateral damage. That said, She-Hulk: Time Trials maintains that tradition well, if in a predictable way.

The artwork in She-Hulk: Time Trials is problematic in that it is entirely erratic. For one of the chapters, there are no less than sixteen separate artists! Sixteen artists for a single issue and it shows. The interpretations of the characters and the situations are so variable that it is distracting. It is hard to go from beautiful painted panels that look like the quality of covers to cheap comic strip sketches! At least the coloring throughout the entire book is decent.

I do not know the work of Dan Slott well enough yet to know whether or not She-Hulk: Time Trials is truly the beginning of something wonderful or not. The Two-Gun Kid seems a particularly lame hero to pair up with She-Hulk (a comic that already has Walters with a love interest and a man desperately pining for her) and from She-Hulk: Time Trials, it is virtually impossible to become emotionally invested in him. Even so Slott seems to be worth investing in as he wants to make She-Hulk into a serious venture . . . and with She-Hulk: Time Trials he seems to succeed.

For other She-Hulk books, please visit my reviews of:
The Sensational She-Hulk
Single Green Female
Superhuman Law

7/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please visit my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Consequences, Character, I Like It! She-Hulk: Superhuman Law Is A Well-Constructed Story!

The Good: Decent artwork, Engaging character, Good story/plot development, Effective use of humor
The Bad: “Missing” chapter, Relies upon quite a bit not in the book
The Basics: In She-Hulk: Superhuman Law, Jennifer Walters continues her adventures as She-Hulk, practicing law for Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg, & Holliway, though old enemies crop up to do her and her friends harm!


My She-Hulk Year is in full-swing, though it got off to a rocky start. The second She-Hulk volume I read, The Sensational She-Hulk (reviewed here!) was just an abysmal book and I thought I might have to abandon my study of She-Hulk for lack of interest. Fortunately, the third book I picked up, She-Hulk: Superhuman Law, was easily the best of the character’s books I have yet read and it turned out to be exceptionally well-conceived and well-executed. A direct continuation of Single Green Female (reviewed here!), She-Hulk: Superhuman Law follows She-Hulk, with only occasional appearances by her human alter-ego, Jennifer Walters.

While usually I find myself bothered by stories where the elements are telegraphed in the construction of the story, She-Hulk: Superhuman Law seems far more well-constructed and well-conceived than it appears contrived. For the greatest enjoyment and understanding of She-Hulk: Superhuman Law, the reader must read Single Green Female in advance of this volume. There are numerous callbacks to the prior book and writer Dan Slott does an exceptional job of making some of the throwaway lines and moments in the first book have importance in She-Hulk: Superhuman Law. Unfortunately, this volume is far from perfect in the continuity regard (and I am not referencing the Infinity Gem stuff, as I have no knowledge of those outside this book); there is an incident referenced with the Scarlet Witch, which is not contained within She-Hulk: Superhuman Law. To truly appreciate the sense of confusion and loss She-Hulk has immediately prior to her confrontation with Titania, She-Hulk: Superhuman Law should have included that.

On the fringe of the galaxy, a Champion boxer, Tryco Slatterus, pounds the crap out of any and all who enter the ring in which he fights. By Skardon law, he maintains control of the planet with each victory he achieves. A representative of the Magistrati (an interstellar legal authority) oversees the fights, reluctantly. When one of the Magistrati comes to Earth to induct She-Hulk into their ranks, Jennifer Walters is initially honored and she and Southpaw are sent to mediate the dispute on Skardon. In resolving the issue on Skardon, She-Hulk ends up exceptionally powerful and unable to control her physical strength as well when she returns to Earth.

After helping Hercules out with a case and getting outfitted with a power-limited suit by Reed Richards, She-Hulk once again finds herself in conflict with Southpaw and an old enemy. After a primer on Titania, the deposed Champion outfits Titania with the Infinity Gem and the villain Titania comes after She-Hulk . . . this time with enough lethal power to actually be successful!

She-Hulk: Superhuman Law includes a whole chapter that is a primer on Titania and while that is exceptionally useful, it seems to come at the expense of including the incident She-Hulk undergoes with the Scarlet Witch, which is alluded to but not seen. She-Hulk: Superhuman Law is generally strong and interesting on the character front. In fact, the only real issue on the character front is that, after years of being lied to about her condition, Jennifer Walters learns the truth about her transformative abilities. Having been lied to for years, by two people she seems to have trusted more than anyone else, She-Hulk: Superhuman Law does not include nearly enough of a chance to explore the ramifications of those lies. Instead, She-Hulk’s world is shaken and turned upside down, with no real emotional consequences.

She-Hulk: Superhuman Law lacks a larger thematic moral or exploration of emotion or humanity that the best books contain.

However, what the book does have, is an exceptionally engaging storyline and the character aspects that it does explore are well-conceived. When She-Hulk realizes that she can defeat Hercules, she becomes concerned about the level of power she possesses. In the process of taking responsibility for her actions and powers, She-Hulk thinks her way out of some of her legal problems and that makes She-Hulk: Superhuman Law an engaging read.

While the first fight sequence in She-Hulk: Superhuman Law, the conflict between the Champion and most of Skardon is predictable and blasé, the second fight is better and it sets up an important character development. With Tryco Slatterus wanting vengeance, it makes sense that he would seek out She-Hulk’s greatest enemy and that progression is well-developed (with minimal breaks in the fourth wall!).

Unfortunately, as She-Hulk develops and is tormented by her own demons, Southpaw shows nothing quite so compelling or interesting in She-Hulk: Superhuman Law. At her earliest opportunity, well three months after her earliest opportunity, she goes rogue again and that is an unfortunate lack of development after witnessing how hard She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters, and her grandfather, Holden Holliway, work to keep her safe and reform her. Even Dan Slott cannot make her a more interesting character.

The artwork in She-Hulk: Superhuman Law mostly wonderful. The coloring is homogenously rich and filled with real depth and an artful sense of shading. However, several of the panels in the book, especially early on, are overly simple. The artwork does keep the pace of She-Hulk: Superhuman Law moving fast.

Were it not for how dependent She-Hulk: Superhuman Law was on the prior book, this would be a great entry point for new She-Hulk readers. Even so, it is a very good read.

For other graphic novels, please check out my reviews of:
Angel: Immortality For Dummies
The Brave And The Bold, Volume 4: Without Sin
Watchmen

7/10

For other book reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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2013: My She-Hulk Year Begins With She-Hulk: Single Green Female!

The Good: Interesting character, Some decent artwork, Nice cover gallery
The Bad: A lot of very simple panels with indistinct artwork, Episodic nature of most of the book is bland, Derivative, Incorporation of Marvel Comics into the Marvel Comics universe seems less clever than ridiculous.
The Basics: As I kick off my study of She-Hulk with She-Hulk: Single Green Female, I find the character of Jennifer Walters interesting, but in no way extraordinary.


As my Flash Year came to its end (The Flash Archives Volume 1 is reviewed here!), I put out feelers to the readers of my many graphic novel reviews for thoughts on who I should study for 2013 (that article is here!). After some research and debate, my choices came down to Vampirella and She-Hulk. As my local library system would have it, my choice came down to She-Hulk (whatwith the Vampirella books I was looking into being delayed). The first volume I managed to get in was She-Hulk: Single Green Female.

She-Hulk: Single Green Female is, in many ways, a good entry point for a new-to-She-Hulk-reader, like I was. It seems to contain all of the critical information one needs in order to get into She-Hulk without being overly repetitive. So, from this volume, one learns the essential origin information – Jennifer Walters had a blood transfusion that was infected with Gamma radiation – and that she has spent time with the Fantastic Four and concurrent with She-Hulk: Single Green Female, she is a member of the Avengers. Not knowing where the character has been – emotionally – before this, I found it interesting that her characterization seems to be the opposite of the Hulk, at least as portrayed in the film The Avengers (reviewed here!). Jennifer Walters enjoys being the She-Hulk. As well, I was quite happy to discover that She-Hulk is not some base emotional character with a limited vocabulary (my biggest fear with committing to She-Hulk for a year was that it would be a year of “She-Hulk smash!” and me rolling my eyes . . . a lot). Instead, She-Hulk as characterized in She-Hulk: Single Green Female is just a taller, stronger, less-vulnerable version of Jennifer Walters. In fact, outside being big, green, and powerful, I’m not exactly sure what the appeal is of She-Hulk yet; this is a super-heroine without a hook and after reading my first volume featuring her, I am not certain if I should be excited (that there is so much to discover about She-Hulk) or pre-emptively disappointed that I chose to study a banal character for a year. I’d like to lean toward the former, but the very average nature of She-Hulk: Single Green Female makes it harder to do that right off the bat.

Recalling how Jennifer Walters was a mousy, determined college student who graduated in the top ten percent of her class at UCLA’s School Of Law, while making no impression on her classmates, the present finds She-Hulk dominating the life of Walters. She-Hulk takes underwear model Mika to bed, parties hearty, and awakens transformed back into Jennifer Walters. While going up against the supposedly unbeatable law firm of Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg, & Holliway, and its formidable Mallory Book, She-Hulk is called away from the trial to save the world from a lame attempt by A.I.M. to freeze the planet and its inhabitants. Book uses that distraction to get a mistrial declared (for jury bias) and She-Hulk loses her job with her firm. Concurrent with that, the Avengers want She-Hulk out of the Avengers Mansion, as her partying lifestyle is a security risk and her active nature is damaging the structural integrity of the place.

She-Hulk is rescued from her low point by Holden Holliway himself, who offers Jennifer Walters a job at the law firm. Holliway is very clear that he wants Walters, not She-Hulk, as his employee and Jen arrives at Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway to discover that she is being added to the Superhuman Law division of the firm. In that capacity, Jennifer Walters represents a man who was irradiated into becoming a superhero (and his insurance will not pay any of the associated bills), takes the case where she needs the ghost of the victim to take the stand, and Spider-Man in a libel case against J. Jonah Jamison. The book takes a turn for the standard superhero story when She-Hulk has to help liberate the young supervillain, Southpaw, from a prison for supervillains as she is Holliway’s granddaughter and a minor. Unfortunately, many of the villains use this as an opportunity to stage a prison break and She-Hulk must protect her new firm and get the prisoners back where they belong.

Given that She-Hulk: Single Green Female is my first experience with She-Hulk, I beg the forgiveness of the entirety of geek culture that arrived there first, but I feel I would be entirely remiss if I didn’t say, “Come on! Are you kidding me?!” in reference to Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg, & Holliway. This law firm is instantly recognizable as a pale facsimile of Wolfram & Hart from Angel (reviewed here!). Sure, “Superhuman Law” is practiced there instead of “Supernatural Law,” but it’s a pretty easy and obvious substitution. I want to say I admire the creativity of the concept, but the concept was done well before She-Hulk: Single Green Female was published.

The other concept that stands out in She-Hulk: Single Green Female as being either ill-conceived or ridiculous is the incorporation of Marvel Comics into the storyline. At the law firm, Jennifer Walters uses Marvel Comics comic books as research tools, even referencing her own origin story. This is an amusing concept initially because it allows Walters to snarkily remark about how the book was originally written. However, the idea that Marvel Comics exist in the Marvel Comics universe (in this case as legal documents, because they bore the mark of the Comics Code Of America, a Federal agency) is preposterous. After all, Spider-Man has a secret identity (in one of the stories in this very volume!), yet Spider-Man comic books that would be in the long boxes at the law firm constantly illustrate that Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Moreover, Marvel Comics comic books often contain thought bubbles or narration . . . how could that be admissible as “facts.” Don’t even get me started on the conundrum that must arise when one considers, Dan Slott, the writer of She-Hulk: Single Green Female in the context of appearing in the pages of the book he is writing!

As for the story and the character elements, She-Hulk: Single Green Female is homogenously bland. There is no real spark here; Jennifer Walters blithely represents one client for a case, then another, then another, before the book descends into a very standard superhero vs. supervillain story. Jennifer Walters is largely on her own (though she dates multiple guys and is pursued obliviously by another potential love interest in the book) without forming larger connections and certainly without making any larger statements on the human condition. In this book, She-Hulk is a pretty bland superheroine.

In fact, the artwork is part of what helps make She-Hulk so unremarkable in She-Hulk: Single Green Female. So many of the panels are underdetailed (looking more like comic strips than modern comic books) that when a panel pops up with a well-drawn panel, it stands out. Problematically, there were several panels where Jennifer Walters and Mallory Book are in the same panel and the only way I could differentiate them was by their outfits.

She-Hulk: Single Green Female is not a bad book, but it does not pop and it seems to be the beginning of a larger story, a story I do not know yet whether or not it is worth investing in.

For reviews of works from my former superhero of the year subjects, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
The Flash: Rogue War
Daredevil: Gang War
Wonder Woman: Odyssey, Volume 2

4/10

For other book reviews, please visit my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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