She Hulk is Back in... Hulk

[informationgeek]

Looks like She-Hulk is back folks and in a brand new title! Also... something different.





Current form She-Hulk as seen in Civil War 2 GX #4:


Article from A.V. Club:

Jennifer Walters has had a rough summer. She suffered near-fatal injuries and the death of her cousin, Bruce “The Hulk” Banner, in the pages of Marvel’s Civil War II crossover event, and that trauma is the foundation of Walters’ new ongoing series debuting in December from writer Mariko Tamaki and artist Nico Leon. Hulk will explore how Walters’ turbulent emotional state impacts her efforts to resume her life as a lawyer and superhero, and ditching the She-Hulk marks a major shift for the character in the Marvel Universe.

“The title She-Hulk evokes light-hearted stories about a Jennifer Walters who is at peace with herself and in full control of her powers,” says Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso. “This isn’t that book. On the other hand, the title Hulk implies all of the baggage that comes with that comic’s 50+ year history—the ongoing battle with the monster within—and that’s why it’s more appropriate for this series. Jen went through major trauma in Civil War II, and Mariko and Nico’s story will deal with the fallout of that trauma—the anxiety and anger, sometimes self-destructive, that comes along with it. If there is light at the end of the tunnel, Jen is going to have to search hard for it, and she’s going to have to battle with some pretty big monsters—including the one within—to find herself again.”

Mariko Tamaki’s work on books like Skim and the Eisner Award-winning This One Summer makes her an exceptional choice of writer to handle this new phase of the heroine’s life, and she has a talent for telling thoughtful, emotional stories about the human condition. She’s also shown that she can find compelling angles for licensed characters with her TMNT: Casey & April and Tomb Raider comics, and Tamaki makes a big move into superhero comics this December with both Hulk and her Supergirl: Being Super miniseries from DC Comics.

“Jen is absolutely shaped by the trauma she’s experienced,” says Tamaki. “Much of it was inspired by thinking about how different people deal with the hard things that happen in their lives, how memory, trauma, can infuse our whole being, be a physical presence in our lives. I was really into the idea of a Hulk, of the ability to transform into something close to monstrous, that’s still human, and heroic. It was interesting to think about what’s human about Hulk and vice versa.”


I love She-Hulk. She's my favorite superheroine... but I'm not sure about this direction. As someone else put it on another site, will she become this Civil War's Speedball?

Comments

[bruinsfan]

Do Not Want.

[thehood]

It's written by Mariko Tamaki. So, do want.

[richardak]

This sounds like a terrible idea.

[veleda_k]

I'm happy to have a new She-Hulk series, and I try to keep an open mind. But it seems like this is going to erase a great deal of what makes Jennifer unique, and what I like about her.

[thehood]

So you just want her to ignore that her cousin, who was like a brother to her, was unjustly killed? Hell, she couldn't even go to his funeral.

It makes sense this would affect her and besides, the article does say she's going to bounce back. But like in real life, it takes time.

[dr_archeville]

Sooo... they're doing a Speedball/Penance thing to her?

[thehood]

Not really, since Jennifer has had issues with her Hulk side before. It makes sense that Bruce's death would upset her.

[dcbanacek]

A grey she-hulk... what possible story line would they give her...

I wonder if she'll move to Las Vegas, become a legbreaker for a casino, start a relationship with a redhead, act like an all around jerk and then eventually after several years get counselling by Doc Samson, merge her personalities and start up with some Greek mythology ripoffs lead by by a guy who looks like Bucky...

But I think its been done before...

[thehood]

You're mixing a few Hulk storylines there.

[alicemacher]

Marvel, Marvel... Learn from DC's experience with New52. Readers don't want all-grimdark, all-the-time characters and stories anymore.

[coldfury]

Sure, but... we can have a mix, right? I mean, I can go read A Force if I want the up beat action squad, and I can check out this new Hulk action title if I want this serious woman action title, right?

If Marvel was doing nothing but grim-dark, I'd agree with you, but how often do terrible things happen to characters and then it gets brushed aside like it was nothing? I'm kind of happy to see Jennifer get a bit of serious focus and development with all the changes to her status quo.

[thehood]

Except Marvel already has several books that aren't "all grim dark, all the time ", so what are you talking about?

[coldfury]

I see the comments above, and I see a lot of dismissive snark from a smart community. I can't pretend to know how this will turn out, but let's break this down.

To compare this to Speedball seems a bit unfair. Speedball was the fallguy for the original Civil War. He was a joke character that was responsible for a great tragedy, and turned that guilt inward with great remorse and self hatred and the writing of that story arc was spread over about... five or six different titles? It was tropey and awful. Not once did he *star* in his own title as a result of Civil War.

Jennifer wasn't responsible for what happened, and while she might have some misplaced guilt about Bruce's death, it would certainly be unfounded and I doubt it will be the crux of her book's plot. Nor is her character nearly as narratively superfluous as Robbie's was before Civil War. I feel such comparisons extremely disingenuous.

As far as the Mr. Fixit comparisons, aside from the color scheme, I don't know that we really have anything to compare it to. I mean, that was a story from a different era, it certainly wouldn't fly today.

Honestly, all we know is this book is promising to take a serious look at the difficult time that Jennifer is going to be in after the loss of her cousin and her near fatal injury. Shouldn't this be, at very least, met with cautious optimism? She's a beloved character around these parts, and the fact that's she's going to be getting a title that treats her character development with respect and actual weight instead of 'rah rah yay' or getting shuffled off to the background in Amadeus' book.. I think this a pretty big win, guys.

[informationgeek]

I'm happy She-Hulk is getting a new book and is even headlining the Hulk title (would have preferred it not because Bruce got offed mind you), I'm not sure about this approach.

Also, I'm not familiar with the writer's resume. I never read anything by her. Can anyone recommend anything from this creator's library that's worth checking out?

[beyondthefringe]

It's just weird that in an era where Marvel has been embracing "fun" characters with Squirrel Girl, Gwenpool, Hellcat, and so on, they use this opportunity to turn She-Hulk into a serious, traumatized, darker character.

I just hope it doesn't last too long.

[luxshine]

Speedball was not responsible for the Stanford tragedy. I know I sound like a broken disk when I point this out but... the responsible one was Nitro and Damage Control, who upped Nitro's powers.

At the very least now that the story is out completely, we could stop blaming the guy who was used as a scapegoat both inuniverse and out universe, no?

(also, he was more than a joke character, when good writers were at the helm of New Warriors. In fact, he was one of the best in character growth)

[richardak]

I liked the Mr. Fixit storyline. In fact, that was really the only version of the Hulk that I ever really liked. The problem with this is that She-Hulk has been a lighthearted, comedic character at least since the Byrne series in the eighties, that is, for thirty years or so. This looks like a fundamental alteration to the character concept, and changing something central to what the character's existing fans like about the character rarely works out very well.

[thehood]

By the way, i love that she Hulk actually looks muscular on that cover.

[freezer]

Umm... Isn't Amadeus Cho "The Hulk?"

[thehood]

The Totally Awesome Hulk.

[lilacsigil]

I love Mariko Tamaki's work, so I'm really looking forward to seeing what she does here.

[tigerkaya]

Hmmm well all I have to say to the writer is, don't fuck up.

[nyadnar17]

I am almost always willing to give the writer the benefit of the doubt when they say up front their work is a departure from previous stories and they get that.

I didn't see anything in the quote about grimdark being the "true nature" or Shehulk or any tripe like that. The writer just wants to explore a different area for a while and I am cool with that.

[tcampbell1000]

I'm struggling even to get my head around this major trauma they're talking about. Losing a fight and being near death? Having her cousin apparently die on her? She's gone through both those things before, multiple times. I'm willing to be sold on the idea of her dealing with darkness, but it doesn't feel like what's happened in Civil War II so far is going to get her there.

Honestly, this all seems retronymic. Marvel knows that giving a female character a traditionally male name was considered bold and transgressive when the staff did it for Captain Marvel and even more so for Thor, so it's decided to do that again and then started casting around for an explanation that will make it seem like the title of the book was the LAST thing decided about it, instead of the FIRST.

Also, I thought becoming a dark Hulk in response to Bruce Banner's death for a while was supposed to be Amadeus Cho's jam.

I guess this is just how big superhero comics are now. We seem to be trending toward an AVERAGE of two characters for each saleable name these days: multiple Spider-Men, multiple Super(-)(wo)men, multiple Captain Americas, multiple Jokers, and admittedly a long history of multiple Flashes and Green Lanterns.

So there's nothing really surprising about this, when I think about it, and it's not like "She-Hulk" sounds like a super-progressive name in 2016. (It's better than "Hulkina," but only barely.) But I think the brand does have a lot of associations that are worth keeping, and I hope we haven't seen the last of it.

[long_silence]

To be fair this death is supposed to be more final than Bruce's other deaths. A lot of superhero witnesses, an actual body was buried. And a friend and former team mate did the deed and got off scot free.

And Carol was using Jennifer's last words before her coma as an excuse to justify her stance, to continue on the path that divided the superhuman community and got Banner shot through the head. Having her own words twisted like that and used as a banner under which her cousin's murderer marched, all for a cause she likely didn't believe in (she was literally arguing in court about how even villains deserve due process just before the issue where she was put in the coma) she must feel a lot of guilt.

[dustbunny105]

I think this more serious, darker take could be a compelling one for Jen, I just don't know how I feel about an ongoing solo title for her being built on its foundation. That said, I've heard good things about Mariko Tamaki and the interview in particular gives me (admittedly somewhat cautious) hope. Looking forward to checking this out.

[silverhammerman]

I'm always excited to see Marvel branching out in hiring talent, so this at the very least has my attention. It's definitely a departure from the usual She-Hulk vibe, but as a couple of others have pointed out, Marvel actually isn't hurting for light-hearted material right now, with Squirrel Girl, Howard the Duck, Hellcat, and Gwenpool already running.

Not sure how I feel about switching the name to just plain Hulk. She-Hulk has always been a little clunky and doesn't quite work for a serious series, but with Marvel's current glut of "franchised" names (counting any out of commission original versions; 2 Hawkeyes, 3 Iron Men, 3 Hulks, 2 Spidey's + Spider-Gwen, 2 Caps, 2 Thors, 3 Wolverines, etc) I do wonder if we're going to look back on this as a time of excess on Marvel's part.