She-Hulk 12: Another She-Hulk Series Bites The Dust

In this finale, writer Dan Slott wraps up the Titania story with another fun issue.  Here are some random thoughts on this issue:

*I miss letters pages.  I have no idea if this series was intended from the beginning to be a twelve-issue miniseries or if it was a regular series that Marvel canceled for low sales, then saw the good buzz the series received and decided to reboot it a few months later.  If comics had letters pages during this era, I'd probably know this.  And, no, I'm not searching ancient Internet message boards to figure this out.

*Though the series isn't metafictional, Slott keeps the John Byrne spirit alive a bit by having She-Hulk seek out answers in a comic book store as to how to beat Titania.  Marvel in the Marvel universe publishes officially-licensed comics, you see.  I'm pretty sure also that She-Hulk meets Evan Dorkin's The Eltingville Club in the comic shop, though only three of them (maybe the fourth doesn't like comics).

*An ad for Westfield Comics comics mail order service quotes a customer from Somerville, Massachusetts, USA which is puzzling.  Is the guy an invalid?  There are a zillion (well, maybe not a zillion, but a lot of) good comics shops in the Boston area.  Why does he need mail order?  When I was in Boston earlier this year, I visited a number of them and those were just the ones in walking distance from downtown (if I had taken the T, Boston's mass transit, I could have hit even more).  Admittedly, not everyone will walk from Boston to Somerville and back, but I did.  Maybe Westfield gives big discounts or something.  I used to get mail order comics when I lived in the boonies.  It was like Christmas twelve months a year.  I don't get as many comics anymore, so even with the discounted price, it doesn't pay for me since I'd have to pay postage and that would end up costing me more overall. 

*The comic also has an ad for a cd-rom collection that had forty years of Spider-Man comics on them.  This was a good deal for $50.  Unfortunately, Marvel realized that the digital comics market was growing and took the license away from GIT Corp, the company who made the cd-roms.  It was nice while it lasted.

*She-Hulk would go on hiatus after this issue, but it would return in eight months with a new number one issue (much to the confusion of future collectors, I'm sure).  You only have to wait until tomorrow though to read about it!

She-Hulk 11: The Best Therapists Have Green Hair

You can guess what happens in this issue from the cover, but in addition to She-Hulk getting beat up, she takes a stroll with the gamma-radiated mental health professional Doc Samson and discusses some recent trauma.  It's another fun one courtesy of writer Dan Slott and the rest of the crew.  Here are some random thoughts on this issue:

*The ice cream cones She-Hulk and Doc Samson enjoy are green and purple respectively.  Gamma-radiated folks seem to love those colors.  I'm not sure what ice cream is purple, but some flavor out there is.

*You would think the Marvel universe version of New York City would have cheap rent since fights between superhumans are always smashing the city up.  Who would want to live there unless the rent was very cheap?  Don't get too attached to your stuff either; sooner or later a superhuman is going to get thrown through it.

*The issue ends on a cliffhanger, but careful readers will remember that The Scarlet Witch cast a hex on She-Hulk a few issues earlier and it comes in real handy as Titania heads in for the kill.

She-Hulk 10: Titania Takes Over!

In this issue, She-Hulk's archfoe Titania takes the spotlight as writer Dan Slott fleshes out her origin from Secret Wars to more fully humanize her and make her more than another strong woman for She-Hulk to fight.  Here are some random thoughts on this issue:

*The covers have been used in the last few issues to tell little stories of their own.  7-8 featured She-Hulk headed to court while encountering such other Marvel characters as Howard The Duck (Howard did appear inside 9 threatening George Lucas with a lawsuit for stalling Howard's career with the poorly-received movie from 1986).  For 9-10, a cover of She-Hulk flexing her newly-increased strength for 9 is defaced and torn open by Titania on 10.

*On another cover note, aren't those UPC codes on the covers awful?  I like it much better when they are jettisoned to the back cover.  At least in The Sensational She-Hulk series, the codes were only used on newsstand copies and other art appeared in the white space on direct sale copies (i.e., comics sold in comic shops).  Best of all though are older comics with no UPC space at all, just a complete cover.

*This is another great issue.  It's reminiscent of The Invisibles 12 (the first volume) wherein writer Grant Morrison tells the life story of a henchman mowed down by one of the "heroes" of the story and gets the reader to sympathize with the "villain" (and a very minor villain at that--the guy is basically cannon fodder).  Titania is a bit more significant in the She-Hulk saga, but still she's had to wait twenty years to have a decent origin telling.  She's still a villain, but, after learning of Titania's bullied upbringing, the reader can understand why she goes powermad with her strength and has such a hatred for She-Hulk.

*The issue isn't entirely devoted to characterization.  It sets up a rematch for Titania in the next issue (in 9, She-Hulk took care of her with one punch; now Titania has a counter for She-Hulk's increased power).

She-Hulk 9: Green Biceps

This issue is another bit of fun.  The story concerns She-Hulk learning to deal with her newly-increased strength and with a supervillain suing Hercules for beating him up during a crime.  Here are some random thoughts on this issue:

*She-Hulk emulates her cousin and begins leaping across town.  One interesting aspect of The Hulk and She-Hulk is that whereas women are stereotypically viewed as overly emotional, it's the male Hulk who can't control his emotions in most stories whereas She-Hulk is not only rational, but she also has a lawyer's mind trained for analytical logic.

*Though the first Dan Slott She-Hulk story portrayed her as a player (a male model dumped her because she was shallow), She-Hulk picks up a regular boyfriend in John Jameson, The Man-Wolf (hey, when you have green skin, you won't complain that your boyfriend turns furry once a month).  A fellow lawyer at She-Hulk's firm, Pug, has a crush on her though, setting up a love triangle.

*DC keeps advertising in She-Hulk.  This month, it's Superman and Batman underoos.  I hope they're in adult sizes because I doubt many young boys were reading She-Hulk in 2005 (maybe they were aiming at the parents buying the children underwear).  By the way, when I was in Los Angeles recently, I met the leaf in the Fruit Of The Loom commercials.  His name is Gene, and he is from Iowa.  He's a nice guy and a good comedian.  Check him out at The Hollywood Hotel or wherever he's performing now if you get a chance.

*The Fantastic Four gueststar, and writer Dan Slott makes fun of how many times Mr. Fantastic has told The Thing that he can never turn back into plain old Ben Grimm and been proven wrong.  Marvel must have liked how he handled the characters because, a few months later, Slott would write a Thing solo series.

She-Hulk 8: And New Champion Of The Universe . . . !

This issue finishes the cosmic storyline from the previous issue.  She-Hulk uses her brain to overcome The Champion (as well as beating the snot out of him with her brawn).  It's another fun issue.  Here are some random thoughts on the issue:

*The comic has another great cover, presumably continuing the scene from the previous cover.  Now She-Hulk is in the courthouse and taking the elevator to the eighth floor (it is issue eight after all).  Her old buddy Howard The Duck is in the bottom right corner while She-Hulk's fellow legal superhero Daredevil is in his Matt Murdock alter ego behind Howard.  Unfortunately, neither gueststar in this issue.  However, The Silver Surfer does; he doesn't do much though (he, like the gueststars from last issue, got beaten up by The Champion).

*The Champion at first refuses to fight She-Hulk since she's a female, so their eventual showdown also becomes thematically a battle of the sexes.  Like the famous 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobbie Riggs, the woman wins.

She-Hulk 7: Boxing Across The Universe

Writer Dan Slott starts another two-part story here.  This one takes place literally across the Marvel universe as She-Hulk gets drafted to work for The Living Tribunal judging cosmic court cases.  The result is a hoot!  Here are some other random thoughts on the issue:

*The cover scene with She-Hulk heading to court doesn't really appear in the issue but it works well thematically.  I'm not quite sure why she's wearing glasses, but maybe she had to change quickly from Jen Walters.  Longtime She-Hulk fans will enjoy seeing Razorback in the lower left corner.  Unfortunately, he doesn't appear in the issue.

*Gueststars in this issue include Beta Ray Bill, Adam Warlock, Pip The Troll, The Watcher, and Gladiator.  Most are facing off against The Champion in a boxing match to save the life of a planet.  Slott obviously read a lot of comics while growing up.

*A Teen Titans DVD ad runs inside. Once again, Time-Warner makes some strange advertising buys.  Not many companies would pay money to their major competitor.

She-Hulk 6: Awesome Andy Is Indeed Quite Awesome

This issue finishes the story started last month concerning the miniature supervillains' prison break.  It's the payoff for last issue's setup, and it does indeed pay off for the reader, making for a fun story.  Here are some other random thoughts on this issue:

*She-Hulk is smashing her logo on the cover.  Apparently, she was upset at her low sales.  Fortunately, the book was getting noticed by the critics.  Wizard Magazine had named it book of the month.  Though Wizard often had a bad reputation for their encouragement of spectator excesses, the magazine's writers often did champion underappreciated but well-done comics as well.

*The best part of the story concerns The Mad Thinker's android, now called Awesome Andy and working at She-Hulk's law firm.  A big gray bulky fellow with a stone block for a head and forced to communicate with some sort of chalkboard thingy hung around his neck, A.A. has quite a personality, and he shines here as he is forced to decide whether or not he wants to rejoin his creator in a life of crime or keep working at the law firm. 

*Actor/musician Jack Black makes a cameo on the first page.

*Writer Dan Slott has fun with the longtime conceit of the Marvel Universe that Marvel Comics publishes officially licensed adventures of the Marvel heroes.  Apparently, they're admissible in court too!  I doubt that works in our universe, but next time you get in trouble with the law maybe you can give the police a copy of one of the Spider-Man comics with the clone storyline and claim your clone did it instead!

She-Hulk 5: Dan Slott Writes A Longer Story

After demonstrating that he could write great single issue stories, writer Dan Slott stretches out a bit in this issue with the first part of a two issue story involving a very unique prison break.  In the Marvel continuity of the time, supervillains were being shrunk down and held in a miniature prison.  This story concerns how some of those villains devise a way to use She-Hulk to break out.  It's clever stuff even if it doesn't have the snap of the previous single issue stories, though perhaps that lost snap is explained by the absence of regular artist Juan Bobillo.  Here are some other random thoughts on this issue:

*What is She-Hulk smashing on the cover?  Concrete?  A gallon of milk?  Whatever it is, she doesn't like it.  I like her weightlifter gloves though.

*This issue has a cameo from The New Warriors.  As a writer, Slott clearly delights in playing with all the toys in the Marvel toybox.

*There's an ad for a Justice League cartoon movie inside.  Apparently, Time-Warner, owner of DC Comics, was so desperate that they actually advertise their products in comics by their major competitor, Marvel.  Actually, this probably isn't a bad idea (someone reading She-Hulk probably likes Superman and the gang as well), but it's still a bit weird.