She-Hulk Sensational (Story 1)

Background

It is She-Hulk’s 30th Anniversary, and this Sensational one-shot (containing two new stories, and one reprint), are here to help celebrate the event.

Story 'The She-Hulk Story that's a riff on Christmas Carol'

She-Hulk is at home, fielding phone messages (30 of them!) from well-wishers (and supervillains) who are congratulating her on reaching her 30th anniversary. Needless to say, she is not amused, and not only smashes the phone, but trashes a word caption that also cites her anniversary. She tosses the crumpled caption out the window and nearly beans Spider-man who is swinging past. Spidey also wishes her well, and gets flipped the bird (off panel) by She-Hulk before swinging off.

The next thing Jennifer knows is that she is back in bed and being visited by Stan Lee, who has arrived to cheer her up. Jen notices that she is wearing a turn-of-the-(19th)-Century nightshirt and comments that she remembers wearing a Victoria’s Secret nightie. Stan points out that this is a family comic, and hence the change. He also points out that this is a riff on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and so she will be visited by a trio of ghosts throughout the night.

The first one pops up right away, pounding her through the wall (and into the streets of LA). Her first ghost is the (Savage) She-Hulk of the past. The pair trade punches for a couple of pages until Jen’s father shows up (as a cop, who is defending LA against here by shooting at her), and she falls through a crevice in the street. Next up Jen finds herself in court facing the ghost of (Attorney) She-Hulk from the present, who (along with Weezie as a court officer and Awesome Andy as the judge), are (apparently) prosecuting her in front a jury of her peers (read: supporting characters from her various books).

As can be expected, the case against her doesn’t go well, and a fight breaks out between the two Jens, resulting in the appearance of the ghost of She-Hulk of the future, the Misstro (a female version of the Maestro (a future version of the Hulk)). Tired of this game, Jen heads up a ladder for the exit and winds up exiting from a 30th anniversary cake surrounded by several of her current co-stars in the Fall of the Hulks storyline.

General Comments

As anniversary stories go, this one is actually quite cute, as it not only plays into the Byrne-style silliness, but stands on its own as a classic-era anniversary story. Also, the appearance of Stan to kick-start the tale was a very nice touch. For someone like this reviewer, who was actually there at the start of her career, as well as for a couple of her later incarnations, this story rings true to the over-all feel of her character, as well as not only who she was, but who she has become.

Overall Rating

I really liked the light, breezy tone of the story. Sure it was silly, but it is hard to do these kinds of stories and make them serious. Further, it plays to both the sometimes silly nature of the character, as well as having that pure fun aspect of Silver-Age Marvel.

Footnote

According to a caption that appears at the beginning of the story clearly states “This story takes place after the last comic you read, and just before the next one.”