REVIEW: She-Hulk No.1

Rainbow Rowell, that’s a name that I like to hear. She-Hulk? That’s a title that I love to see. My only qualm is where is the legacy numbering because Antonion & Renzi’s art from the jump is a callback to the “Sensational She-Hulk” era, and the legacy is carried on with strength from cover to cover.

Rainbow is intent on turning Jennifer Walters into a sympathetic and effeminate character after she spent the past few years looking bigger than Bruce Banner thanks to Ed McGuiness playing games on Jason Aaron’s Avengers. The start of Rainbow’s run is the most fun I’ve read of She-Hulk outside of a Fantastic Four costume. A soft color palette, Titania back to her old tricks, a Wasp cameo, and a costume change that looks as good as Superman drawn by Adams busting out of chains; but better, because it’s the Green Goddess busting out of her skirt.

This She-Hulk #1 gets some laughs, which explains why she used to be cool with Howard the Duck, but brings in some of the elements of darkness that Mariko Tamaki introduced to the character with her Hulk run! Jen is broke, working out of a closet for a practice out in Chelsea (see Necro’s “Piss”) while sleeping on Wasp’s couch. Her boss is former Ms. Utah, she’s bumming it on the bill of a socialite who used to sleep with her ex-boyfriend (Antonio Stark gets around) , and her fight with her arch-nemesis culminates with her being offered a few dollars because she’s renting a house with her husband while this Hulk is far from that. It’s also hard to overlook that every time Jen runs into a friend or a foe they ask her why she isn’t green. No one wants to see Jen, they want She-Hulk and this issue is what makes her and her cousin more relatable than in the blood they share.

She-Hulk No.1 is the return of a star put back into the spotlight effeminate as ever, and as she needs to be, as a flagship e where female leads are a historical minority. Marvel needs to fix that legacy numbering though, whether she goes by Sensational, She-Hulk, or just Jen , She-Hulk is that important.

Score : 4/5

(W) Rainbow Rowell (A) Roge Antonia (CA) Jen Bartel