She-Hulk Sensational (Story 2)

Background

In the days prior to Civil War and the Superhero Registration Act, on some random night in Manhattan, She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters), Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), and Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) all become involved in a series of events that…well, that’s that the “details” category is for.

Story 'Ladies Night'

A white van smashes through traffic and runs up on the sidewalk in front of a bank before unloading a team of gun-toting thugs all wearing Thing masks who charge into the bank in an attempt to rob it. During the course of their robbery, they are interrupted by Ms. Marvel who pounds them all into the floor, before blasting their leader who is revealed to be none other than Spider-Woman, who goes toe-to-toe with her friend before running off.

The following day at the Raft, Jen shows up to meet with a Ms. Helen Rogers (a NY DA) to interrogate a client of Jen’s who is being held prisoner on the high-security island in NY Harbor. The fellow, who is deathly afraid to go to prison, reveals that he was hired by some mysterious gal to knock over the bank from the day before. He then reveals where that initial meeting took place. Jen follows the lead and discovers Ms. Marvel there, and (incorrectly) determines that Carol is the mastermind behind the robbery.

She-Hulk then throws down at the once and future Avenger, and the two duke it out for a couple of pages until Ms. Marvel indicates that it is the fleeing Spider-Woman that (apparently) set up the bank job, not Carol. The two heroines then chase (and subdue), Webs, who reveals that she is working undercover as a Hydra operative. According to Jess, Hydra is cash-strapped and has been engineering bank jobs around the country to raise capital in order to fund their criminal enterprise, and plans for world dominion. Jen and Carol (reluctantly) agree to throw in with Jess to track down her lead to find the local Hydra HQ.

The three women then change into civies, and head to the nightclub where Jess’ contact is located. Once on site they split up in order to find a lead, only they are spotted as soon as they walk into the place and targeted by the Hydra agents. Jess enters her contact’s back-room office but is grabbed by the Hydra Agent (who apparently has some sort of power that manifests itself in the form of his shadow), while the other two discover the hidden Hydra base.

The Hydra goons bring them all to the back room where Jess is located where they all switch into their costumes and proceed to mob up the place with the bad guys. Once they manage to subdue everyone (including “Shadow Guy”) they make nice with each other and then each head off in their own direction on their way to their respective homes.

General Comments

I’m not entirely sure why this story is set in the Pre-Civil War days (except that it wouldn’t work if it were in current continuity), still, it is an entertaining enough story, with plenty of great eye-candy given the, ah statuesque nature of the three women involved. However I’m taking back half a point because of the twisted nature of how the set up is presented. These heroes all know each other, and none of them has “renegade” or “outlaw status” (as does Spider-Man, or the X-Men), so why are they so willing to believe that the other could be involved in a bank robbery.

Overall Rating

This story all just seems to pat to be believed. I would think that they would go the other way, and automatically assume that the other was running some sort of undercover operation (as Spider-Woman actually is), before simply jumping on the “Well they obviously have to have gone bad” bandwagon.

Other than this bit of miscasting, I really liked the story, and it makes a fine addition to this anniversary edition.

Footnote

Not certain if this is a new story for this issue, or an inventory story (does Marvel still do that?), but for some reason, it apparently takes place prior to the events of Civil War.” It should also be noted here that as this takes place before Civil War (and thus Secret Invasion as well), the Spider-Woman in this story is actually the Queen Skrull).

In the issue, Ms. Marvel indicates that she trusts Spider-Woman as Drew once saved Carol's life; that event occurred in Avengers Annual #10, so this story obviously occurs after that.

A reprint of Sensational She-Hulk (written and illustrated by John Byrne), is also included in this issue.