Monthly (Comic) Book Club - December - Sensational She-Hulk16304
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Monthly (Comic) Book Club - December - Sensational She-Hulk Sensational She-Hulk #1-8 Week 1 (11/29-12/5): Sensational She-Hulk 1-3 [b]Week 2 (12/6-12/12): Sensational She-Hulk #4-6 [b]Week 3 (12/13-12/19): Sensational She-Hulk #7-8 Discussion topic ideas: * Thoughts on the story or artwork * Details in the story, artwork, or presentation * Adaptations in other media * References to outside events or other works of fiction * Making of/Behind the Scenes details * Editions you will be reading from * Items in your collection pertaining to this week’s selection |
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 If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| My familiarity with She-Hulk is mostly secondhand. I know she had her original series where she was more 'savage' and (at least on the covers) typically drawn a bit brawnier. Then she had a run showing up in Fantastic Four and doing other guest appearances before this Sensational series started. I haven't read any of those. I have read a couple of the more recent series' #1s, and I have Marvel Graphic Novel 18. With MGN 18 being from between the two series and being drawn and written by Byrne, I assume it will give a good window into what our reading will be like. It had funny moments and was a good read, but also had some unnecessary 'male gaze' parts that kind of reduced She-Hulk in her own story. Byrne is a great artist so he makes everything look good. I'll be interested to see if this run is like a proto-Deadpool, having a lot of funny moments and fourth-wall breaking (I know it will have those, but it's a question of how much). I'm also curious to see how She-Hulk is treated in her own book; some of the famous covers later in the series make me think she might be kind of diminished. |
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| @xkonk I’ve read a few issues here and there but none from this selection but I remember the 4th wall breaks being pretty extensive from having full on conversations with the writer to turning the pages herself. Heck the cover of the first issue has She-Hulk talking to the reader holding issues of her own book! I did read a good chunk of the later Sensational She-Hulk series by Dan Slott and that was a super fun read and is where I really grew to like She-Hulk. It looks like she’s gone “savage” again in later arcs. I’m curious which direction her series will go. I’m hoping it will be somewhat fun and light-hearted but I’m not expecting them to really do the 4th wall breaks since unfamiliar viewers will think they’re trying to rip off Deadpool which is so huge in the public consciousness for those kinds of antics |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Issue 1 serves as a brief recap for the character, going through the creation of the Hulk and how Jennifer Walters, his cousin, got similar powers. But it also sets up the current story, with Jen being brainwashed by the Circus of Crime for some kind of testing. They fancy Jen up as 'Glamazonia', I guess mostly just to make her not obviously the She-Hulk, and use her to steal the wallets and jewelry and whatnot from the crowd. It's pretty low-rent as far as it goes; the Ringmaster could have hypnotized the crowd and gone through their pockets nearly as easily. One of the mysterious researchers (?) watching events at the circus gets directly involved and undoes the hypnosis when faced with having to fight Jen. One of the researchers (Morgan) seems overly concerned with Jen's health. If you're a Hulk-type person, is a wagon or a guy throwing barrels really going to hurt you? But he calls the police, who come and arrest the Circus, and the issue ends with the reveal that the mysterious researchers are the Headmen. The issue lives up to expectations. The fourth-wall breaking starts small, with She-Hulk referring to an Avengers comic in speech but sort of in a way that works as an editor's note, but ends big with her saying that we're going to find out who the bad guys are on the next page while she has to wait until issue 3. The cheesecake/objectification is pretty much lampshaded, with character comments, a catcall from the crowd, and her undersized outfits being mixed with Princess Python being upset because she's supposed to be the eye candy. And while there isn't much in the way of out-and-out jokes or one-liners, the whole situation and the bad guys are kind of silly. It isn't a great introduction for She-Hulk herself, since she isn't herself for a good chunk of the issue, but it gives a good sense of the vibe for the book. And we do get to see that She-Hulk is pretty capable; besides the elephant and crowd-lifting bits, she also captures the Circus pretty easily once the hypnosis is broken. Future series have focused more on Jen's abilities as a lawyer, and it is briefly mentioned in her backstory. I wonder if it will come up at all in the arc or if it will mostly go by the wayside. |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Issue 2 really ups the wall-breaking, starting with the cover and the first page (an editor's note about the underwhelming two-page spread). The notes are a little humorous though, with corrections to the complaints noting that the story is more 'Architectural Digest' as we get a tour of Jen's new place. I'm vaguely curious as to why the art team responses look like they're coming from Bob Wiacek instead of John Byrne though. The story looks derivative at first, with She-Hulk battling the Toad Men in her second issue just like the Hulk did (as Jen points out herself), but it turns out there's a twist. The Toad Men are actually part of a show put on by Mysterio, who is the next person hired to test She-Hulk. Mysterio does better than the Circus of Crime by capturing She-Hulk, where we find out that the Headmen want her so they can give her body to their buddy Chondu. Thematically, this issue is pretty on par with the first. It's leaning into being silly, and if the jokes don't land then at least you get to see She-Hulk in her bra. I mentioned before that an obvious comparison for me would be Deadpool. I think it has a similar feel, swapping violence for sex appeal, but I also think Deadpool (at least the Duggan and sometimes Posehn run that I'm most familiar with) had more depth to it. Those Deadpool issues often had Wade's tragic backstory as a background to the plot, whereas so far the She-Hulk issues are pretty breezy. There are no stakes (we have to assume She-Hulk isn't going to lose her head) or deep meaning so far. |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Issue 3 - paying better attention to the credits, I guess the responses in the previous issue could have been from the editor (Bobbie) to the editor-in-chief (Tom DeFalco). At least one said 'Bob' though, so I guess Wiacek got in on the action while Byrne only had to answer to She-Hulk. I like the panel with Spider-Man leaning way over the edge of the roof to look down the building. Consistent with his powers but still vaguely ridiculous. I wonder about the page with She-Hulk telling cheesy jokes though. It kind of fits the vibe but with the jokes being so old, it also kind of feels like filler. I wonder if Byrne was a page short of in-story funny material, or just wanted an excuse to break the fourth wall again. Putting Spider-Man in the story makes sense, since his sense of humor is a match for the book. I wonder if Byrne picked Mysterio just as an excuse to get Spidey in. We're also getting some look-ins at a Mr. Tower, who might be involved in Jen's lawyer side that I was curious about. It looks like his assistant might be Louise Simonson. Plot-wise, the Headmen succeed in getting Chondu's head on She-Hulk's body, but Chondu is upset as he doesn't want to be a woman (sort of). Since they have Spider-Man captured, he'd rather be Spider-Man. But Spidey figures out that Chondu's body is actually a clone and She-Hulk was never decapitated after all. It also gets She-Hulk back in her underwear like we saw at the end of issue 2. She gets to show off a bit by demolishing a fierce-looking battle tank and the Headmen are captured pretty easily. The last page aims to wrap up a dangling point about how Spidey knew Chondu's body was a clone, and he says that there was a tiny head in the collar. But it raised a different question for me, which is why it looked like a little white guy if it was a She-Hulk clone? Probably more thought than a funny book needs, but they raised the issue... |
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| Issue 1 is pretty straightforward, as you said, She-Hulk is hypnotized before recapping her origin and being put to work for the villains before being set free and capturing them. I had to go back and look up Avengers 1 to see if the reference to the Hulk hiding in the circus was true. Not only was it true but the panel in this issue is an almost exact copy of the one from Avengers!  I would say the issue has some of that silver age silliness to it but it seems aware that its being silly, what with the circus goons forgetting that they don't have any gorrillas and the comical way She-Hulk ends up capturing the gang. Also the Gorrilla throwing barrels has to be a Donkey Kong reference, right? |
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| I really enjoyed the silliness of issue 2 and thought some of the gags were pretty clever. Opening the issue with a double page glamour shot of She-Hulk’s apartment spoofing the long-running convention and kicking off the back and forth between the creators and the editor and then She-Hulk calling out Byrne by name when the Toad Men arrived. My favorite gag was probably everyone just kind of kicking back after the one-page aside to She-Hulk getting hired as a lawyer then realizing we’re back and then jumping back into the action. That is an interesting observation that it is similar to Deadpool but replacing violence with cheesecake. I personally wouldn’t be too bothered if the book never tried anchoring itself with more defined stakes or tragic subplots. I even wonder if maybe the book was written this way as a sort of response to the dark, over-serious books of the mid-80s (these issues being published in ‘89 so not yet into the full-blown excess of the 90s). As I said about the previous issue the silliness feels almost Silver-Age in its approach but with a self-aware update. I wonder if perhaps Byrne wanted to throwback to that pre-Watchmen/Dark Knight Returns kind of comic. Both issues thus far have had pretty big references to Marvel’s Silver Age so he clearly knows his stuff. Of course the Silver Age wasn’t without it’s share of legitimate drama so we’ll see if Byrne decides to introduce some of that (Jenn’s job as a lawyer would provide some opportunity) or if it will continue to be a breezy, fun book. I’m fine either way |
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| I would say issue 3 felt a bit more of a science- Spider-Man issue with a bit of body-horror thrown in. While it kind of feels like filler on the surface, I actually think the page of She-Hulk telling bad jokes was more of a trick to skip a lot of material that would probably taken up more space, something Byrne does twice in this book. Prior to that page Spidey was just starting to follow Mysterio but after that page they’ve already had their confrontation and Spidey is ready to pick up the She-Hulk related storyline. It happens again later when She-Hulk realizes she wasn’t decapitated and they just cut to the end of the chase against a giant tank. That’s not to say Byrne is against just filling pages as he would later do with the infamous jumprope sequence in Sensational She-Hulk #40, which might be the most expensive She-Hulk issue out there right now. I kind of wish we’d gotten the descriptions of the Headmen earlier though since they seemed infinitely more interesting after we knew what happened to them. The doctor with the shrunken skeleton is pretty creeping knowing that while before I just thought he was kind of schlubby with an egg-shaped head. I did the Monty Python reference! |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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Quote:Originally Posted by dielinfinite I wouldn't mind either, per se (the book is long cancelled so it doesn't matter a whole lot!), but it puts a lot of weight on the jokes sticking each issue. Going back to that Deadpool run, eventually the jokes switched tone (for me at least) and I lost interest in the storyline, and I cancelled my subscription. The stories don't have to be tragic, obviously, but having something behind the jokes helps to keep interest up and keep your brain involved, I think. A quick google for 'Byrne interview She-Hulk' turns up a few results. I don't have time to get to them right now but maybe he talks about his goals or inspirations somewhere. I do appreciate a more light-hearted book to mix in with the other stuff; it's part of why I enjoy Ms. Marvel and am happy that Kate Bishop has a series again. They're good characters and stories on their own but also offer a nice tonal counterpoint to everything else. |
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| The omnibus I’m reading includes some contemporary interviews and articles but I’m waiting until the end of the month to take a peek at those | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Issue 4 leans all the way in on the fourth wall breaking from the get-go, mixed in with some more She-Hulk dress-up. She meets Louise, who the reader has seen briefly, who also breaks the fourth wall and used to be the Blonde Phantom. Weezi fills Jen in on her backstory, as well as the fact that comic characters don't age as long as they're actually appearing in comic books, when they get interrupted by Stilt Man. I doubt that Blonde Phantom was breaking the fourth wall back in the 40s; I wonder how Weezi found out she was a comic book character? I guess by not aging for a few years (she was only in publication briefly)? Anyway, we also get another opportunity to see Jen strip down. I liked the use of panels for the fight. It starts long, as Jen runs and basically trips Stilt Man so that he falls down horizontally. Then the tall panels as we see all of Stilt Man, first kicking Jen and then jumping on her. Then long panels again as Jen goes through the train the hard way. Stilt Man also acquits himself better than you might think for a C-level (D? F?) villain. He's got electricity built into his suit and can detach part of his stilts if need be. He doesn't come off as a total doofus, even though his 'power' is having really tall stilts. The address list toward the end of the issue is interesting, given the lack of boundary between She-Hulk's world and the fourth wall. Whoever Mr. Powers is, who has just rented in Jen's building, is moving in with Byrne, Wiacek, and the other people involved in making the book in the real world. So I guess they're comic characters too? Is that building supposed to be where Marvel Comics is located? Is it the same place that Jen is borrowing from the Wasp, or is it her law office that we haven't seen yet? Will She-Hulk need to break the fourth wall if she can just go down the hall to yell at Byrne? Maybe we'll find out! |
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| I almost forgot to finish up this week... but only almost! Issue 5. Jen's watching TV when it seems that the shows have been changed to be weird and violent, and then gets transported to a jungle with dinosaurs in it. Apparently the 'bong' sound when the channel changes was a hint that it's all due to Doctor Bong (who I've only ever seen in a Deadpool comic, bringing things back around to my earlier discussion). The problem is solved pretty anticlimactically when She-Hulk tears her way through the comic pages to get out of the TV and back into the 'real world'. The off-brand ('realistic') versions of the old TV shows were kind of fun, but honestly my favorite sight gag was Doctor Bong's stronghold being shaped like a giant bell. On the whole, though, I'd say this issue was a bit below the previous four. |
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 Beaten by boat oars
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| I only have a handful of She-Hulk issues. I admit that I am slowly and half-assedly putting together runs of Savage and Sensational titles. I do have issue 5, and I think that might be the earliest I own. Byrne is my guy though and some of it looks offbeat and awesome. | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Issue 6 pokes fun at how superheroes end up in weird places (like a lawyer being asked to show up at a rocket launch) to get She-Hulk down to a NASA shuttle launch. NASA's new faster-than-light shuttle gets hijacked by Razorback, who's helping a woman track down a couple of other truckers. I had to look them up, but Taryn is describing the cast from U.S. 1. We get a quick appearance by the original Guardians of the Galaxy, find out that Taryn is too late to hook up with her old flame, and get a last-page appearance of the new bad guy, old monster dude Xemnu. I feel like 5 and 6 have moved a pinch away from the comedy and more toward general weirdness. But I give 6 a little more leeway than 5 since it's setting up a second issue while 5 was a stand-alone. |
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| @Studley_Dudley I was surprised how much Sensational She-Hulk #40 is going for these days. About as much as her first appearance! I guess there is some hype since she’s getting a Disney+ series in the near future but still. @xkonk I really liked issue 4 and the way Byrne uses the fourth wall and he continues to make good use of Gold and Silver age stories and characters. Blonde Phantom certainly isn’t a name I was too familiar with and I wonder how many young boys reading this in the late 80s would’ve been familiar with her? I do think it’s cool to see an old character brought back and re-invented i. a way that makes sense. While I’m solid on any specifics, I do know she’s a longtime supporting character in Byrne’s run so it’s cool to see her story continue. I agree that Byrne made excellent use of his panel layouts for the fight with Stilt Man. I especially liked the page with the extremely vertical panels that really emphasized his height. I think Byrne is continuing to land the humor in the book for the most part. I loved that the servants are quitting over things that happened before they were even created and the label on She Hulk’s outfit was ridiculous but also kind of made sense. It also seems like Byrne is starting to build out She Hulk’s world a little bit more so there is a little more to hang the book on than just the jokes. She-Hulk’s already mentioned that her new boss is her future love interest and Weezi is a charming supporting character. |
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| I agree that this issue was a bit weak but I still thought it was a lot of fun. The fact that the whole scheme was because Dr Bong was disappointed with the TV his kids were watching fits right into that late 80s early 90s “panic.” As much as I loved the realistic Saturday Morning tv shows, my favorite part was the two page back issue ad! I think the price listed for the early ASMs is still pretty accurate  I know it’s pretty much all jokes but I kind of think maybe the jab at Daredevil might support my idea that the silliness and references to older comics might be a backlash to the dark and gritty books of the mid-80s, like Miller’s Daredevil. The joke reads: “[unreadable] they still printing [unreadable]? I thought they cancelled it after Miller left. I never cared for it much anyway. Except for the middle period. You know? When he was fighting, like, aliens and stuff? Now that was comics!” |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| I didn't read through all the price pages, but I appreciate the effort he put in to fill it all in. | ||
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| @dielinfinite I saw a She-Hulk #40 at the show today. Really nice copy. Not $300 nice, but still nice. It must be that speculation that she might jump rope in the nude. | ||
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| I thought issue 5 was pretty weak, despite it being a set-up for a two-part story. My main issue with it is that it’s not really a She-Hulk story, it’s about the space truckers and She-Hulk’s just along for the ride. I think this issue kinda highlights the main issue with bringing back niche or forgotten characters and that’s that you often spend a lot of time having to remind everyone who they are. In this case it was about two solid pages that were mildly amusing at best (haha a character’s named Poppa Willie, get it?). I did feel like the times She-Hulk was actually front and center the book remained fun but after she gets into the shuttle she basically disappears into the background. |
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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| Agreed. | ||
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If the viagra is working you should be well over a 9.8.
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I wanted to get to issue 7 before too long since it's a second half. I liked it better than 5 and 6. A little more action, the jokes landed better for me, and less emphasis on humor just from the situation ("aren't truckers funny? and listen to their names!" .On the one hand, I don't have much to say since we're basically returning to the same style as the first few issues. On the other hand, I liked those issues better, so that's good. And now She-Hulk has a flying car, so maybe that will be interesting. |
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Quote:Originally Posted by dielinfinite I’m sorry, I mean issue 6, though I think that was probably understood |
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| Issue 8 follows up on Jen's time as a lawyer. Appropriately for us, she's getting help from Nick St. Christopher, who seems a right jolly old elf. Given the tone of the book you would assume that legal theory wouldn't be a big point, but Jen does make sure (vaguely) that she and Nick follow some appropriate procedure. As pointed out in the story, the case is really just an excuse to have a story with Santa Claus, though. Unfortunately, Santa's wife seems... not great? This was Byrne's last issue on the title for a while. It was an enjoyable read, but uneven. I feel like it lampshades a lot, including trying to justify the book's existence, which didn't appeal to me. But I did like She-Hulk as a character, and I liked the general vibe of the book, so that's pretty good. |
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| Issue7 went by pretty quickly. It worked a little better than the previous issue since She-Hulk got more time in the spotlight but I think it felt a little rushed to the finish. The issue picks up right where the previous one left off but the heroes are quickly incapacitated by Xemnu who wants to kidnap the baby to repopulate his homeworld. When She-Hulk wakes up she quickly frees herself, exchanges some blows with Xemnu but is incapacitated again. Cut to She-Hulk waking up partially transmogrified into a hairy creature. Suddenly the trucker armada arrives and Xenmu is apprehended (offscreen) and She-Hulk is returned to normal (offscreen) and everything gets wrapped up neatly in a few pages. Not that I wanted to stay in the story longer than necessary but it did feel like the blackouts were used to change locations or resolve things off screen quickly without using actual page space. It felt a little amateur-ish. Fortunately the teaser at the end looks to bring us back to familiar territory as a familiar looking fellow arrives at Jenn’s office looking for her |
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| Issue 8 was fun if a bit silly. The appearance of Santa does make for an appropriate stopping point. I did like Jenn insisting on some legal procedure, given that that’s her job. Overall, I really enjoyed the book, though Byrne’s run seems to end as soon as he’s found a framework to support the series (Jenn’s job as a lawyer). I do wonder why he decided to take a detour i to space for two issues just as things were seemingly getting set up? I did feel the meta humor landed more often than not. She-Hulk is an incredibly fun character and Weezi is a fun companion that Byrne did a great job establishing rather quickly. I am curious what Santa’s present was and whether it will be Byrne who reveals what it is or one of the other writers that filled in during his absence |
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