She-Hulk (Vol. 3) #4

Background

In the preceding issue of She-Hulk (Vol. 3), Spidey appeared in a cameo flashback. In case you're not up to speed with the title, Jen Walters is no longer big-time hot-shot Avenger, she's now part of the law firm of Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway. She works as Jen (not She-Hulk), but she does work in their Super-Human Division, so the big green thing isn't too far away.

Last ish, Jen moved into an apartment block predominently occupied by GLK&H employees, where she ran into a former bouncer named "Pugs", who once had his life saved by Spidey (hence the aforementioned cameo in #3). This month, Pugs has a plan to pay his debts to the web-slinger.

Story 'Web Of Lies'

Pugs' plan is to sue Jonah Jameson for his years of mis-information and straight-out abuse. Jen and Pugs are a pretty good team, and with a little help from the rest of the "special" folks at GLK&H, they soon have Jonah on the ropes.

Around this time, Scorpion convinces Alistair Smythe to join him in an attack on the court-room, where they can take out both of their foes at once. Spidey and She-Hulk join forces to neutralise their foes in a most unconventional manner. Sadly however, they're a bit more stuck for ideas when Jonah's lawyers name Peter Parker as a co-defendent. Seems Peter has been caught out a few times faking Spidey pics. Hah! It's Spidey vs. Peter in a brutal civil suit!

General Comments

This story belongs to Spidey as much as to She-Hulk. What's really impressive is that Dan Slott clearly knows his Spidey history. He pulls in just the right characters, and demonstrates a sharp knowledge of many key events in the wall-crawler's past. He's clearly been reading his Spider-Man Essentials!

What's more, the way he lays this story out, it just seems so logical at every step. It's staggering to believe that nobody ever came up with this idea before. Of course, this is a "silly" comic, and Slott takes this perfectly logical concept and plays it for maximum gags. He portrays Spidey as a goofy but sulky individual, but to be fair I don't think anybody expects anything less in this title.

This She-Hulk title has clearly staked out a large square of territory in "clever but silly" space, and it's determined to make a decent bash of being accurate and continuity-driven, while equally being completely daffy and dangerous. In this case, they succeed on all counts.

Bobillo and Sosa create art which is complete and colorful, while also being just a little bit over-the-top. It complements the story just perfectly with its clear-cut and cartoon-y lines. The coloring also blends particularly well, with a wide-spectrum of soft-toned colors and subtle air-brush coloring that give a touch of friendly freshness.

Overall Rating

Funny, original, but so completely logical you can imagine Spidey writers the world over kicking themselves for missing this story. It's funny, original, clever, gratifyingly accurate in its continuity, and over-all just a great story. Four webs say I.