She Hulk 1: Single Green Female

She Hulk 1: Single Green Female 

By Dan Slott & various (Marvel Comics)
ISBN 0-7851-1443-2

She Hulk is the cousin of the Incredible Hulk. Her alter-ego, lawyer Jennifer Walters, got a blood transfusion from Bruce Banner and the inevitable result was a super-powerful, ample-bosomed, seven foot tall, green Valkyrie who is the poster-child for “As If…”

For most of her comics career she has been played slightly skewed to the rest of the Marvel Universe. For a good deal of it she has been the only character to know that her “life” is merely a comic-book, with all the fourth wall comedy that could be wrung out of that situation. This latest outing still concentrates on the humorous aspects, as with a huge tip of the hat to TV’s Ally McBeal, she leaves Avengers Mansion and joins New York’s most prestigious law-firm to specialise in the fledgling speciality and legal grey area known as Superhuman Law.

Single Green Female covers this transition with tongue-in-cheek aplomb, and all the gag prerequisites covered. Sexy rival, geeky lawyer who secretly prefers Jen to her Junoesque super-persona and slightly daffy boss are all in place and awaiting their cues, but the real secret to why this works is the fan-boy nit-picking that extrapolates the superhero world but isn’t ashamed to see the comedy potential. A shape-shifter is on staff because he can always get close enough to serve Writs. Sorcerer Dr. Strange is retained as a consultant for the more exotic cases. The law library contains every Marvel Comic ever published because they are considered pertinent legal documents…

Working on such cases as a man suing for compensation after a nuclear accident gives him super-powers, a murder trial where the victim is the key witness, a libel case where a certain wall-crawler sues a prominent publisher for defamation and a wrongful imprisonment case that involves an underage criminal provides plenty of action and laughs. The art is by Juan Bobillo, Paul Pelletier, Marcelo Sasa, Roland Paris, Tom Simmons and Dan Hillsman and although a little disconcerting in places in all of a high standard.

© 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved.