By Robin Jones
Written by Charles Soule
Art by Javier Pulido
You know something, Marvel seem to be following a trend at the moment. With the success of Matt Fraction and David Aja’s Hawkeye/Hawkguy/Pizza Dog book and its fresh take on the world of superheroes and what they do in their “downtime”, someone, somewhere in the echelons of Marvel’s office has said “You know something, this sells! We need more books where superheroes aren’t doing superhero things!” So along comes another superhero story without much superheroing in it. Yes it’s All New Marvel NOW She-Hulk #1… THAT was a mouthful.
Jennifer Walter’s, that big, green beauty, resigns from her job practising law for a very unscrupulous firm and decides to head out on her own and start her own firm. Forget action; forget Walter’s turning into a raging She-Beast and destroying her former employer’s office. This is a humour laden, lawsuit filing Walters. This is Ally McBeal with the contrast played around. Soule’s writing is witty and charming, the sections on the legal side of things are fast paced and don’t become tedious or boring and again it’s interesting to see what Jennifer the “glamazon” does outside of being a hero. The premise of issue one is Jennifer up against the legal team of one time lover, Tony Stark, as she is battling them over a repulsor patent. What could have been a tedious and massively under-whelming story is given buoyancy and credibility through Soule’s writing.
The tone is whimsical and light, funny and charming. Soule’s writing seems effortless, and you like Walter’s plucky attitude and no-nonsense legal wrangling instantly. Like I mentioned before, those looking for action and smashing should be warned, this isn’t the focus of the book and all action happens off panel, which on the one hand helps channel the books tone but on the other, I don’t think it would have hurt the story to see Walter’s taking on Stark security robots.
Initially I thought this had been drawn by Mike Allred on a bad day. It is the only thing which let the book down for me. Whilst not all comics should look the same, She-Hulk lacks the style and punchyness of Hawkeye. Some of the panels seem below par, and Walter’s occasionally looks bug-eyed and out of proportion. In contrast, Kevin Wada’s cover work is beautiful and elegant, and you find yourself wishing that maybe they had gone with that style over Pulido’s. More of the “glamazon” and less “She-Bulk”. It’s a shame as it lets down Soule’s work.
All in all, She-Hulk is a funny tale which is setting up a quirky world for Ms Walters to inhabit. Also I understand the charm and interest in seeing big heroes during their “day job” and when done right, like with the afore mentioned Hawkeye and seemingly within the pages of She-Hulk, it’s an interesting and fresh take on the genre, but I worry that sooner or later we are going to end up with a Wolverine comic where the focus is on him being a lumberjack, or an Iron Man comic focused purely on business meetings, pie charts and choosing polish finishes for his suits of armour.
I give this 7 out of 10!
Don’t Hulk out guys, get your fix of She-Hulk right HERE!
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Posted on February 21st, 2014
Category: PULP FRICTION, REVIEWS
Tags: Charles Soule, Comic Blog, Comic Reviews, hulk, Javier Pulido, Jennifer Walters, marvel comics, Robin Jones, She-Hulk #1 Review