Friday, September 21, 2012

She-Hulk 3: In The Marvel Universe, Everyone Comes Back From The Dead

Even though writer Dan Slott isn't as flippant about mocking comic book tropes as previous She-Hulk writer John Byrne was, he still occasionally pokes fun at the silliness of superhero comics.  In this issue, it's making fun of the way comic books characters always come back from the dead.  In the story, She-Hulk is trying to get the judge to allow a ghost to testify in court about who murdered him.  She does this by having The Thing testify that he's come back from the dead.  Here are some random thoughts on this issue:

*The cover inspired actress Angie Harmon to pose punching a hole in the sidewalk so she could demonstrate why she should play She-Hulk in the movies.  Slott approved.  Of course, She-Hulk has been portrayed before on screen, but only in fan fiction videos and The Avengers porn parody (former WWE wrestler Chyna portrayed her there).

*Slott uses the tension between She-Hulk and her alter ego Jen Walters well.  Previous writers often underutilized this motif, possibly because it had been so overused with The Hulk and Bruce Banner.  In the storyline, the law firm prefers Jen Walters, so She-Hulk is forced to change into her other self occasionally (she would prefer to be big and green always).

*Marvel seems to have been more successful in selling advertising than DC during this period.  DC often ran house ads for other comics, while Marvel is selling such oddities as superhero haircut sets ("Haircuts For Heroes"!).

3 comments:

  1. Inspired by your write-ups, I've decided to finally dive into the Slott run. (It's been on my radar since returning to comics in the mid-2000s.) Slott's writing and the series' premise is genius, but I have to be honest, the interior art has been a bit of a challenge. It took three issues in for it to really grow on me. This was the first issue where I was ok with the art.

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  2. I really like Bobillo's art. After he leaves, the art is serviceable but never quite as well suited for the series. The covers are nice the whole way through though. However, I think you'll enjoy the series based on the writing alone; Slott's work is particularly appealing for people such as you who will recognize all the little Easter eggs he tosses in from obscure and not so obscure corners of the Marvel universe.

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  3. I'm a big fan of Paul Pelletier's work on FF with Dwayne McDuffie, so issues 5 and 6 were a real treat for me. But Bobillo's art is growing on me.

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