Stephanie Kay
Oct 13, 2007, 09:37 pm
<a href=" http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/marvel/0906/SHEHLK012_col.jpg"><img src=" http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/previews/marvel/0906/SHEHLK012_colt.jpg" hspace=10 align=left alt="She-Hulk #12"></a>Reviewer: Andrew Jastrzembski, adjastrzem@msn.com
Story Title: Remember the Titans
I want my Single Female Lawyer back!
Writer: Dan Slott
Penciler: Rick Burchett
Inker: Cliff Rathburn
Colorist: Avalon’s Dave Kemp
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Assistant Editors: Lazer and Sitterson
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (www.marvel.com)
I am losing patience with She-Hulk. It started out as a breath of fresh air. At the time, it has been awhile since I have read a good humor book out of Marvel. Dan Slott found a perfect character, a fun loving b-list super hero/lawyer, to carry the series. Instead of focusing on the superhero part of She-Hulk, Slott focused on her secret identity, Jen Walters, and the more “normal” aspects of her life as a lawyer. What the reader got was a witty action-legal comic book about superheroes and the lawyers who represented them. The combo was hilarious and then the book went on hiatus. . .
Marvel promised that She-Hulk would be back, and they did not lie. She-Hulk(Vol. 2) started off well but unfortunately went off course around the Civil War issue. What happened, you ask. Well, Jen Walters stopped appearing in the book and we got She-Hulk all the time. Plus, Jen/She-Hulk stopped going to court, then fell in love with John Jameson, and got hitched. The law firm angle of the book has been almost completely ignored for the past few issues. The only reminder the reader gets that She-Hulk ever worked at a law firm is the appearances of the wonderful supporting cast, the office pool of the law firm of Goodman, Lieber, Kurtberg, and Holloway.
What really needs to be resolved is She-Hulk’s marriage to John Jameson. Is She-Hulk really in love with him or is it all because of Starfox influencing her with his powers? Pug is convinced that she is under a spell but the reader is left guessing at the end of the last issue. The marriage has taken a turn for the weirder now that Jameson has been turned first into a werewolf and later a Star God. Slott has focused on and stretched this romantic plot for several issues at the expense of She-Hulk’s day job. The aspect of She-Hulk that separated this title from all the others was the zany court cases that Jen Walters argued in a court of law. That is when the reader gets some of the best laughs. In past story arcs, Slott maintained a nice balance between court cases, that supply the humor, and action, that results from representing superheroes, but She-Hulk seems to be adrift since Jen Walters disappeared and has been out of a courtroom for the past few issues. Overall, the humor just has been flat and the action has been overshadowed by the cast’s romantic problems.
Thankfully, She-Hulk has suddenly been called into work by the Living Tribunal.
A few issues ago, Starfox was on trial on Earth for using his super powers to get himself laid, but before the court could say “sex offender” and convict him, Starforx jumped bail and left the planet. She-Hulk is called in to observe the trial on Titan and make sure that justice is done. It is here that it is finally revealed that Starfox was responsible for She-Hulk’s current love problems. I am willing to give Slott partial credit for moving this story thread along, hopefully closer to resolution, but the question is how She-Hulk going to use this information when she gets back to Earth. I just have my fingers crossed that it leads to superhero divorce court.
Slott also uses this trial as another opportunity to dust off more characters from the Marvel Universe canon. Phyla (aka Captain Marvel) and Moondragon, the fabulous lesbian power couple of outer space, are on hand to help facilitate the trial and help bring humor to the proceedings. Thanos also crashes the trial to lend support to his brother which spectacularly blows Stafox’s not guilty plea out of the water and is probably going to start a riot in the courtroom. Even, Pip, a character from an earlier She-Hulk arc, makes a great cameo at Starfox’s trial.
There is one thing that I am confused about on this title, and that is the art. There has been a revolving door of artists on this book as of late. Is there a permanent penciler on this series? There has been five artists working on this book and there are only twelve issues so far. Rick Burchett has been handling the art chores for the past three issues (and is slated to do to the next two issues). His work has gotten progressively better with each issue he has done. He has a clean and simple style. The biggest complaint that I had about his work in previous issues was that that his facial expressions were a little too exaggerated, but the character’s facial expressions in this issue are more balanced and does not distract from the rest of the artwork.
She-Hulk is starting to address some of these dangling plot threads that have developed, but for the most part, they just keep on dangling. More importantly, I am reminded why I loved this series in the first place, the humor. This issue was not Slott’s best but it definitely a step up from the past few issues. She-Hulk now needs to put the beat down on Thanos, get her big green butt back to Earth, pull a Britney Spears and get a quickie divorce, return the wedding gifts, and get back to work at the law firm she supposedly works for. I am sure that there are some superheroes in need of legal counseling back on Earth right about now.
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/hulkfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/hulkfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/hulkfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/hulkhalf.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/hulknone.jpg
‘Buy this She-Hulk online now from X-WORLD and save!’ ( http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=2012&cat=SHE%2DHULK+VOL+2)
Story Title: Remember the Titans
I want my Single Female Lawyer back!
Writer: Dan Slott
Penciler: Rick Burchett
Inker: Cliff Rathburn
Colorist: Avalon’s Dave Kemp
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Assistant Editors: Lazer and Sitterson
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor In Chief: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Dan Buckley
Published by: Marvel Comics (www.marvel.com)
I am losing patience with She-Hulk. It started out as a breath of fresh air. At the time, it has been awhile since I have read a good humor book out of Marvel. Dan Slott found a perfect character, a fun loving b-list super hero/lawyer, to carry the series. Instead of focusing on the superhero part of She-Hulk, Slott focused on her secret identity, Jen Walters, and the more “normal” aspects of her life as a lawyer. What the reader got was a witty action-legal comic book about superheroes and the lawyers who represented them. The combo was hilarious and then the book went on hiatus. . .
Marvel promised that She-Hulk would be back, and they did not lie. She-Hulk(Vol. 2) started off well but unfortunately went off course around the Civil War issue. What happened, you ask. Well, Jen Walters stopped appearing in the book and we got She-Hulk all the time. Plus, Jen/She-Hulk stopped going to court, then fell in love with John Jameson, and got hitched. The law firm angle of the book has been almost completely ignored for the past few issues. The only reminder the reader gets that She-Hulk ever worked at a law firm is the appearances of the wonderful supporting cast, the office pool of the law firm of Goodman, Lieber, Kurtberg, and Holloway.
What really needs to be resolved is She-Hulk’s marriage to John Jameson. Is She-Hulk really in love with him or is it all because of Starfox influencing her with his powers? Pug is convinced that she is under a spell but the reader is left guessing at the end of the last issue. The marriage has taken a turn for the weirder now that Jameson has been turned first into a werewolf and later a Star God. Slott has focused on and stretched this romantic plot for several issues at the expense of She-Hulk’s day job. The aspect of She-Hulk that separated this title from all the others was the zany court cases that Jen Walters argued in a court of law. That is when the reader gets some of the best laughs. In past story arcs, Slott maintained a nice balance between court cases, that supply the humor, and action, that results from representing superheroes, but She-Hulk seems to be adrift since Jen Walters disappeared and has been out of a courtroom for the past few issues. Overall, the humor just has been flat and the action has been overshadowed by the cast’s romantic problems.
Thankfully, She-Hulk has suddenly been called into work by the Living Tribunal.
A few issues ago, Starfox was on trial on Earth for using his super powers to get himself laid, but before the court could say “sex offender” and convict him, Starforx jumped bail and left the planet. She-Hulk is called in to observe the trial on Titan and make sure that justice is done. It is here that it is finally revealed that Starfox was responsible for She-Hulk’s current love problems. I am willing to give Slott partial credit for moving this story thread along, hopefully closer to resolution, but the question is how She-Hulk going to use this information when she gets back to Earth. I just have my fingers crossed that it leads to superhero divorce court.
Slott also uses this trial as another opportunity to dust off more characters from the Marvel Universe canon. Phyla (aka Captain Marvel) and Moondragon, the fabulous lesbian power couple of outer space, are on hand to help facilitate the trial and help bring humor to the proceedings. Thanos also crashes the trial to lend support to his brother which spectacularly blows Stafox’s not guilty plea out of the water and is probably going to start a riot in the courtroom. Even, Pip, a character from an earlier She-Hulk arc, makes a great cameo at Starfox’s trial.
There is one thing that I am confused about on this title, and that is the art. There has been a revolving door of artists on this book as of late. Is there a permanent penciler on this series? There has been five artists working on this book and there are only twelve issues so far. Rick Burchett has been handling the art chores for the past three issues (and is slated to do to the next two issues). His work has gotten progressively better with each issue he has done. He has a clean and simple style. The biggest complaint that I had about his work in previous issues was that that his facial expressions were a little too exaggerated, but the character’s facial expressions in this issue are more balanced and does not distract from the rest of the artwork.
She-Hulk is starting to address some of these dangling plot threads that have developed, but for the most part, they just keep on dangling. More importantly, I am reminded why I loved this series in the first place, the humor. This issue was not Slott’s best but it definitely a step up from the past few issues. She-Hulk now needs to put the beat down on Thanos, get her big green butt back to Earth, pull a Britney Spears and get a quickie divorce, return the wedding gifts, and get back to work at the law firm she supposedly works for. I am sure that there are some superheroes in need of legal counseling back on Earth right about now.
http://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/hulkfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/hulkfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/hulkfull.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/hulkhalf.jpghttp://www.comixfan.com/xfan/images/reviews/hulknone.jpg
‘Buy this She-Hulk online now from X-WORLD and save!’ ( http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=2012&cat=SHE%2DHULK+VOL+2)