The lean, mean lawyerin’ machine that is She-Hulk is back courtesy of Charles Soule and Javier Pulido. After serving with the FF, it’s time to get back to basics as Shulkie returns to the world of lawyers and punching robots. I mean, what could go wrong?
Written by Charles Soule
Illustrated by Javier Pulido
JENNIFER WALTERS IS…THE SHE-HULK! A stalwart Avenger, valued member of the FF, savior of the world on more than one occasion, she’s also a killer attorney with a pile of degrees and professional respect. A 7-foot-tall drink of cool, emerald water, she’s tough enough to knock out Galactus with one punch (possibly?) and has a heart bigger than the moon. But juggling cases and kicking bad guy butt is starting to be a little more complicated than she anticipated. With a new practice, a new paralegal and a mounting number of super villains she’s racking up as personal enemies, She Hulk might have bitten off a little more than she can chew…but she just calls that that Tuesday.
There’s been a lot of talk about the “Hawkeye-sation” of solo ongoing titles from Marvel recently, with creative teams taking a very close look at the personal lives of the lead characters and using a lot of design work in the art in the style of Matt Fraction and David Aja’s incredibly popular take on “Hawkeye”. This “method”, if it was to be called that, seems very much in play in Charles Soule and Javier Pulido’s new take on “She-Hulk”, but if this is the result then that is by no means a bad thing. After spending most of her time jumping between various teams for the last four years since the end of Dan Slott’s run on “She-Hulk”, Soule and Pulido have stepped in to bring Jennifer Walters back to basics with this one-and-done first issue that transitions her from FF member back to an attorney-at-law. Which should be a surprise to no-one given how often Soule’s own career as a lawyer has come up in discussions of this book. What’s also not surprising is how much that experience has translated into excellent writing for this comic.
First issues are hard to really nail and getting the balance of setting up the story and introducing new readers to the character and providing an actual story can be tricky. Thankfully, “She-Hulk” #1 nails all three by positioning the story as an almost prologue to the series as a whole. The story follows Jennifer Walters as we find her no longer a member of the FF and out of a job and looking for a new direction in life. It’s the perfect starting point for the character in terms of introducing her to new readers and giving both new and old readers equal footing right off the bat. Teaming that with an excellent first page from Javier Pulido which gives you literally everything you need to know about She-Hulk right off the bat from here strength to her camaraderie to her compassion. It’s an excellent first page which tells you more than even the synopses on the page beforehand could and gives everyone going into the comic completely equal footing.
Thankfully, Soule and Pulido don’t peak with the first page as the issue is a one-and-done story designed to transition Jennifer to her own legal practice by the end of the issue. This is why it feels almost like the prologue of the series as it’s not until the end of the issue that we see everything fall into place for the story to move forward in the rest of the series. However, the story of the issue itself if incredibly entertaining as Soule positions Jen in a case against Tony Stark himself which leads to a lot of the humour of the book. As mentioned, Soule’s career as a lawyer really comes into play in his writing, but it never feels like an especially absurd episode of Law & Order thanks to the quick wit of his dialogue. Soule and Pulido’s style for this book immediately screams fun from the first page and that’s how it is to read.
Continued belowJavier Pulido brings a lot of visual humour to his art which really compliments the wit of Soule’s dialogue. From small character moments and expressions to big moments like the table scene early on which really works because of the small character moments building up to it, almost every page has one joke or another on it. Even then, the switch up between subtle humour and overt jokes makes it so that none of the pages fall flat. The humour of the book is very quick-witted and flows well from page to page thanks to how the visual humour of Pulido compliments the humour in Soule’s dialogue.
Not only that, but “She-Hulk” looks to be the best showcase for Javier Pulido’s design work yet thanks to two back-to-back double page spreads which make full use of Pulido’s page design. The first is easily the most notable thanks to the warping of panels to convey endlessly long corridors, but the slanted panels of the first and the rigid panels of the second compliment each other and create and astounding page turn reveal. Between his excellent page layouts (that are stunning even in the single pages) and his expressive character work, this might be the best showcase of Pulido’s work yet.
Ultimately, this is exactly the kind of #1 this series needed and it’s evident that the key word here is fun. From the first page to the last, this issue is simply a blast to read thanks to Soule’s writing which blends his experience as a lawyer and a quick wit to create incredibly fun dialogue and Javier Pulido’s artwork which is simply stunning and really compliments Soule’s humour and makes excellent use of page layouts. This is the kind of first issue that presents the character in a way that gives both old readers and new equal footing going in and brings both the character and the reader to a place that allows the rest of the series to unfold. This is a masterclass in how to create a new direction for a major character that is both fun and accessible and shows that lawyers can be fun if they get to smash robots every now and then.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – An incredibly fun and strong start to a comic that is surely set to entertain. Be sure not to miss this.
