She-Hulk 9: She-Hulk Gets Hitched!

Yes, this is the issue She-Hulk goes to Las Vegas with The Man-Wolf and gets married (and by an Elvis impersonator naturally).  It's another great Dan Slott issue.  Sometimes there's not much to say about these issues, other than that they're well-written and even non-superhero fans will likely enjoy reading them.  Here are some more random thoughts anyway:

*I never got issue 8.  Not only did I miss it when it first came out, but I never even saw it in the back issue bins when I was looking for it in the last year or two.  Despite probably having the highest print run of any Dan Slott She-Hulk (it went to a second printing), the book isn't readily found.  This is likely because it tied in with the Marvel event Civil War in which Captain American and Iron Man faced off in a sort of Bush Jr. era parable about the tradeoff between liberty and security, so people collecting Civil War comics (as in the Marvel storyline I just described, not 1861-1865 battles between the Union and the Confederacy, though I'm sure some people out there collect those as well) also bought copies and apparently they're hanging on to them.  I did read the comic on Marvel's Digital Comics Unlimited and it was another good one.

*9 features two short stories, both a lot of fun.  Paul Smith does the art on the first story.  I enjoyed his X-Men run as a kid, so it was nice to see a comic by him again.

*Spider-Man characters pop up and Slott once again demonstrates he has a fine handle of the Webslinger and crew, a factor that no doubt led to him becoming Spidey's regular writer.  Along those lines (weblines of course), he apparently has something big planned for the last issue of Amazing Spider-Man (700, for those of you keeping count on your scorecards at home) which will be published in December (why these comic companies keep wanting to reboot old series with new numbering is a topic I won't rant about, but yes, it is annoying).  Rumor has it that Spidey gets Doc Ock's arms grafted to him or something just in time for Marvel to goose sales with a new number one issue.  It sounds ridiculous, but it's Slott so even I might be picking up that one (if I can find it; I might get left out of the fun just like with She-Hulk 8).  I don't think I've bought a Spider-Man comic from the stands in a decade or so, but reading these She-Hulks makes me want to see what Slott's been up to lately.  Plus, I only buy about a comic a week and I like to buy one a month from DC, Marvel, and an independent company, and I haven't bought any Marvels regularly for a few months (though I did pick up Steve Gerber's last Man-Thing series) since I tired of Ed Brubaker's writing on Captain America and Winter Soldier (I still love his Criminal though, but strangely enough I couldn't get into Fatale, maybe due to the supernatural aspects).

*The spittake page (with nine characters spitting out liquid upon hearing of She-Hulk's marriage) on page 7 is fantastic.  We're in Alan Moore genius page layout and characterization territory here, folks.      

She-Hulk 7: Starfox Gets Kicked In The Nuts

This issue concludes the Starfox storyline, and it does indeed more or less conclude with She-Hulk hitting him below the belt.  It's another great Dan Slott comic.  Here are some other random thoughts on it:

*The story title is clever:  "Beaus And Eros".  If you don't get it, then say it aloud and know that Starfox's real name is Eros (no wonder he's a player, eh?).

*Artist Will Conrad mostly does a nice job but some of the characters such as Pug don't resemble what they used to look like much.  One nice thing about drawing She-Hulk is that as long as the colorist remembers to tint her green she's recognizable.

*Starfox certainly looks like a date rapist here, but fortunately for fans of the character a followup story will find him innocent (though after this story it's hard to ever view him with the innocence of the 1980s; his charisma powers certainly aren't as charming anymore).

She-Hulk 6: Starfox Romances The Stars, The Black Holes, And Whatever Else You Got

This issue starts a new case of legal hijinks involving the superhero Starfox being accused of date rape.  Of course, this being She-Hulk, it's a comedy, and, despite the more serious overtones, another fun issue.  Here are some random thoughts on it:

*This was the first Dan Slott She-Hulk I bought, and I was quite impressed, so I picked up more.  I probably would have continued to buy it on an ongoing basis, but issue 8 was a Civil War tie-in and sold out before I could get a copy (in fact, I never did get a copy of it), so after that I just bought an issue once in a while.

*I bought the issue because I liked Starfox and hadn't seen him in a comic for some time.  I enjoyed The Avengers run by Roger Stern, and Starfox was a big part of that.  It doesn't appear that Marvel used the character much since then, making him ripe for a Slott revival/revisioning.  Slott's definitely right though that Starfox's ability to make people agreeable and happy could make him suspect, and Slott uses that ability to make another complication for the two love triangles in the series, as well as for a lot of suspense and comedy.

She-Hulk 5: Welcome To The Twenty-First Century, Cowpoke!

This issue concerns Two-Gun Kid's adaptation to the 21st century.  Brought back from the timecops' pokey by She-Hulk, the Western hero lassos (lassoes?  Any cowboys out there know the standard spelling for the third person singular of lasso?) a place for himself at She-Hulk's law firm.  Here are some random thoughts on this issue:

*I really like the cover.  Not only is it visually striking, but Greg Horn's attention to detail also makes it charming.  Check out the horse's grin, Two-Gun Kid's bemusement, and She-Hulk's crush of the railing or horsepost or whatever the wooden thing is (you can tell I don't ride horses, eh?).

*This is another very funny issue by writer Dan Slott.  Unfortunately, it's also the last issue by artist Juan Bobillo and the series would never again have an artist so well-suited for it.  Though he appears to be busy with advertising work and fine arts exhibits currently, Bobillo doing more comics would be welcomed by me. 

*Slott opens up another love triangle, this time between Awesome Andy, Two-Gun Kid, and uptight lawyer Mallory Book.  He mines much comedy from Two-Gun's time displacement (my favorite is the time traveler support group), but it's hard to top having Two-Gun blunder accidentally into a love triangle involving a big gray android (Ok, maybe a big gay gray android might top it).

She-Hulk 4: Green Guilt

This issue explains what Shulkie was doing between the two Dan Slott series.  She apparently was cleaning up after herself.  Though Slott was taking She-Hulk to new heights with his stories, other Marvel writers were using her as a plot device to do dumb stuff such as killing The Vision or wrecking a small town in a Hulk Smash mindless rampage (no PMS jokes please).  In this issue, a guilty Jen Walters helps clean up a small town in Idaho that She-Hulk wrecked when another writer made her go nuts.  It's an all right issue, but does "fill" like a fill-in, perhaps due to the absence of artist Juan Bobillo.  Here are some random thoughts on the issue:

*Following last issue's tribute to Iron Man 100, this cover appears inspired by the cover of Secret Wars 4, which features The Hulk holding up tons of rock to save his fellow superheroes.  Then again, maybe it's a coincidence that both are issues 4 with Hulks holding up tons of rock.  Or, perhaps it's a fromage.

*The letters page jokes that last issue's letters page featured readers showing off their She-Hulk tattoos.  There is no letters page in the previous issue.  With the popularity of tattoos today (bleccchhhh!), someone out there probably does have The She-Hulk on their belly or something though.

*Dan Slott clearly has fun playing in the Marvel toybox.  This issue he breaks out an old Western hero, The Two-Gun Kid, and adds him to the comic's cast.  Like She-Hulk, he's a lawyer, so, no, he's not into the whole frontier justice thing, well, except when he's the one shooting someone vigilantestyle.

She-Hulk 3: Or Maybe This Is Issue 100

This extrasized special issue celebrates 100 issues of She-Hulk, though officially it's just #3 of her current series.  The main story features She-Hulk being on trial by the timecops for violating time travel protocols, which provides writer Dan Slott with a good excuse to recap She-Hulk's entire career.  As a bonus, the comic includes reprints of issues #1 of both The Savage She-Hulk and The Sensational She-Hulk.  Here are some random thoughts on this issue:

*Not only is this issue a lot of fun, it's actually a good value, which can't be said of most comics from this era, or even today.  For $3.99, readers got 82 pages of comics.  I wish comic companies published more issues like this!  Of course, I think I got it for a buck years later, making it even more of a bargain.

*The cover is a homage to #100 of The Invincible Iron Man (or, as artist John Byrne liked to call it, a fromage, especially when the artist was attempting to swipe the work of a previous artist and then got caught doing so--this one's clearly an intentional tribute though).

*Speaking of Byrne (figuratively, literally I'm blogging of Byrne) he appears in this issue alongside other She-Hulk creators and a cast of characters that includes everyone from The Avengers to Howard The Duck.

*The issue is also filled with guest artists including Don Simpson of Megaton Man fame (well, "fame" might not be the right word, but I like his work), which might be the only time Simpson's art has graced a Marvel comic.  Note to Marvel:  If you could get Simpson drawing something else, then I'd probably buy it.

She-Hulk 2: Hawkeye Comes Back From The Dead

This issue completes the teamup with the then-deceased Hawkeye (brought back through some time travel tomfoolery), and it's another good one.  Here are some random thoughts on this issue:

*It's ironic that though comics are arguably better than ever these days, arguably less people read them than ever before.  Take She-Hulk's comics as an example.  Dan Slott's She-Hulk comics are probably the best the character has ever had, but they sold much less than her previous series in the 1980s and 1990s, which weren't as good.  This decade, the poor green dear doesn't even have a series.

*The story wraps up to a satisfying conclusion, but Slott also manages to work in a cliffhanger.  He seems to be making his story threads connecting the individual issues more explicit this time around.

*The comic also features a fun backup story starring Franklin Richards, son of Mister Fantastic and The Invisible Woman.  It's written by Marc Sumerak, who's going to be at the Akron Comicon, which looks like a fun event.

She-Hulk 1: The Fourth Time's The Charm!

She-Hulk got her fourth series in 2005.  Like the others, it wouldn't last, but it ran the second longest of her series, and it might be her best, thanks to writer Dan Slott (the third series was by Slott as well, but he wrote more issues of this one).  This first issue is a bit slice-of-lifeish, which is nice, but it also sets up the following issue, which concerns She-Hulk attempting to bring her dead friend Hawkeye back to life through the wonder of time travel.  Here are some random thoughts on this issue:

*The cover envisions She-Hulk as Lady Justice, which is the second time this has been done.  John Byrne on issue 50 of The Sensational She-Hulk also used this idea for a cover.  Unlike Byrne's cover, more than just She-Hulk's breasts appear here, so I suppose some progress on the don't only treat women as sexual objects front has been made since 1993.  Then again, look at She-Hulk's ridiculous costume . . .

*I'm not quite sure why they didn't add another word to the title to distinguish it from the 2004 series.  Why not The Stupendous She-Hulk?  The Savvy She-Hulk?  The Supreme She-Hulk?  The Suing She-Hulk (she is a lawyer, after all)?  The series is basically a continuation of the previous one since it has the same creative team, so perhaps that's why the same title was kept.  It should have been #13 though instead of another #1.  Supposedly, comics sales drop after every issue these days until the series is ended and then rebooted to start the process again.  This is quite bizarre.  One would think a good series would pick up readers while bad series would lose readers.  Apparently in today's comics industry they all lose readers, but the bad series just lose readers faster.

*The issue begins with Jen Walters listening to Chumbawamba's "Tubthumping," a song Slott used to great effect in the first issue of the previous series.  That band is finally disbanding after three decades.  Their last release will be an ep commemorating former U.K. prime minister Margaret Thatcher's death (she and the Chumbas didn't get along) to be released when she dies.  I rather like Chumbawamba so I'll be sorry to see them go, but obviously, aside from She-Hulk and myself, the rest of the world stopped listening to them long ago.  Someday, when civilization collapses, humanity will construct shelters using old 1990s cds such as Tubthumper and mud.  What else can be done with all the Alanis Morissette and Stone Temple Pilots cds piling up in the remaining used record stores today?

*Rocket Raccoon  appears in a cameo, but Slott doesn't use him otherwise.  This is probably meant as a tribute to the Byrne run.  I'm glad Slott included him as well, so I could finally learn how to spell his name properly (I prefer the one c racoon spelling since that's closer to how I pronounce the word). 

*Through the character Stu Cicero, who administers the comics library at the law firm (don't ask, just read the comic), Slott complains about comics readers waiting for trade paperbacks instead of supporting single issues.  He also pokes fun at the six-issue story arc pattern of comics today.

*The letters page returns!  Hooray!