 She-Hulk #1 (May 2004)
Woof! Marvel attempts to re-introduce She-Hulk as some sort of sexy, super-powered party girl a la Edie Sawyer from X-Force, but minus the witty writing that made Edie work. She-Hulk has appeared before, usually defining the character as a female counterpart to The Hulk – super-strong and full of rage. This new series takes a different tack, playing off the logic that The Hulk is the side of Bruce Banner that he represses. So instead of simply being a big, strong, angry, woman, the new She-Hulk embodies wallflower Jennifer Walters's repression: so She-Hulk is a hard-partying, insatiably sex-crazed, and belligerently confident monster of fabulousness. Lest that description give you the idea that She-Hulk #1 is any good, let me say now that it sucks. A totally embarrassing mess from start to finish. I was skeptical from panel one, which depicts a dorm-floor party with college kids gettin' down to "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba … at first I thought this was yet another case of the comics world running several years behind the real world in terms of "hipness," then I saw that the panel was introduced as "Years ago." OK, so I stuck with it, thinking that maybe this one would be satirical and funny like X-Statix, which I love. Sadly, no … it flashes forward to She-Hulk's tenure in The Avengers (with distressingly "underwear model"-esque Captain America and Iron Man), showing her endless string of one-night-stands and hardcore drinking escapades. At one point, she throws a party in the Avengers mansion, and jumps on a table to rock out to … "Tubthumping." Yuck. The art isn't notable, the writing is terrible, and aside from a 1% amusing scene that has She-Hulk drowning her sorrows alongside an increasingly drunk would-be supervillain called The Blizzard, there was nothing here to merit following the comic any further. It doesn't even get into the origin tale of She-Hulk, which any self-respecting first issue ought to do. I'm all for big, sexy green women, but this is ridiculous. Hm … that made no sense. Well, fuck it, neither did She-Hulk.
Review by Mr. Milquetoast |