Miscellaneous Comments:    12 December 1999

    Lately, I've been reading (and not enjoying) the supposedly funny Doctor Fate series by J.M. DeMatteis.

    So, just to remind myself what an actually funny super-hero series is like I dug these out: My collection of John Byrne's Sensational She-Hulk.

    Type of Series: Comedy; Super-Hero; Action-Adventure.

    Similar Comics: The Incredible Hulk; Doctor Fate;

    Typical Issue: A typical episode will involved Jennifer in some highly improbable adventure, with plenty of opportunity for her to comment directly to the audience.

    Strengths: Humour. This is a funny series.

    Another strength is the likeability of She-Hulk herself.

    Third, there's the sheer wackiness of the plots. Under several writers, and several humourous styles, the She-Hulk saw some weird off-the-wall action. Cool!

    Weaknesses: Overall on this series, the change in writers could be slightly jarring. But these three issues have no weaknesses. They are good fun, from start to finish. Light, but clever.

    Plotting: Energetic.

    Logic: Wel-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l, that's a hard one to answer. If you try and work out the logic of a fictional character (any fictional character) being able to speak to you, it will give you a severe headache.

    Forget it!

    As for the internal logic of the things that happen...

    Wel-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l, that's hard to credit, too. Since this is a "wacky" series, the things that happen are a little bit out there. She-Hulk being brainwashed and painted Caucasian? Huge canvass being dropped around her apartment to convince her that an alien fleet flies over head? And a headless clone of her body fighting Spider-Man?

    Even in a place as unusual as the Marvel Universe, these events seem far-fetched.

    Which is why they are so cool.

    Originality: Full marks for originality.

    Ending: Both cliff-hangers are excellent, and the overall story conclusion is very satisfying.

    Re-Readability: Full marks here, too. This is funny, classy stuff. Lots of fun to re-read.

    Impressive Characters: She-Hulk is funny and likeable.

    Impressive Writers: John Byrne.

    Impressive Artists: John Byrne.

    Impressive Dialogue: The comments on the covers of these first three issues are hilarious.

    She-Hulk's first series was cancelled after two years, so - on the cover of her new series - Jennifer threatens to destroy the X-Men collection of anyone who fails to support her this time out.

    Issues two and three sport similar knowing dialogue.

    The biggest single laugh of the premier issue comes when Bruno the Circus Strongman utters the immortal line: "Hey... wait a minute! I just remembered! This circus doesn't have any gorillas!" while watching She-Hulk battle a gorilla.

    The second issue features a scene where we cut to the lair of the bad-guys, where they sit in darkness plotting nefariously. In darkness, that is, until one of them tells the other to: "Be a good chap and turn on the lights, would you?"

    While the third issue finds a baddie in the, ahem, unusual predicament of awakening to find his head transplanted onto a female body. We find him trying to vanquish a new foe to reach his goals: "Spider-Man!! Yes! Yes! This is the body I want! Young! Powerful! MALE!"

    Impressive Scenes: Loads. The climax of issue three, where Shulkie demolishes a battle tank is kinda cool. So is the sight, in issue two, of the city skies (apparently) black with alien ships.

    Less-Than-Impressive Characters: The Headmen are second-string bad-guys. Which, I suppose, is the point. I would, however, love to see a story where we are supposed to take them seriously.

    Less-Than-Impressive Scenes: There isn't one. Not one weak one in the entire three issues. It's a blast. From start to finish.

    Continuity: Issues one to three form a trilogy, with the same foes being at the back of the various things that happen. These issues also contain cameos from characters who will soon join the recurring cast.

    Guide:

    Reviews:

    Other Info: Issue one shows Jen sitting down to watch Wiseguy. Before Voyager, Wiseguy was my all-time favourite TV show. Byrne even draws a passing (if tiny) Ken Wahl.

GRADE: A

Review by Michael Leddy

Comments are welcome: rikerdonegal@hotmail.com

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