She-Hulk (Vol. 4) #9 (Story 1)

Background

Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk works at the law firm of Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg, & Holliway. A law firm that specializes in super-human law.

One of the employees at the firm, Augustus "Pug" Pugliese, is extremely attracted to She Hulk and has been biding his time through many trials (the legal kind) and the reappearance of John Jameson to express his feelings. After a disagreement between John and Jen, they were on the verge of a breakup when one of their clients – Starfox – managed to bring them back together.

Pug knows that Starfox used his euphoria powers on them in some capacity and wants to prove this to Jennifer.

Also, as of Civil War #2, the Superhuman Registration Act, the Federal law requiring all people with powers to register with the government - has passed. In a surprise twist, Spider-Man has publicly revealed his identity to the world.

Story 'The Big Reveal'

Six days ago. Artie Zix, the enigmatic general manager of GLK&H, is in private conference with some unseen entity. The conference involves levitation and crackling energy on Zix's part.

Pug bursts into the room despite the protests of Dottie, Zix's personal assistant. Pug intentionally ignores Zix's actions to ask for access to video recordings of the firm's activities. Since Zix was hired on, he has made it a point to record virtually everything that occurs at the firm. Pug wants to review the footage on Starfox.

Today: A worn down and bleary-eyed Pug continues to search through the available footage and finally finds the recording he needs. He copies the recording to a DVD and emerges from the Zix's screening room.

As he grabs some much-needed coffee, he notices a group gathering around the television. When he inquires what's going on, he watches the replay of Peter Parker unmasking on national television. Pug is shocked at this revelation. He can't believe that he represented him at one point.

Across town, another person is shocked at Peter's revelation: J. Jonah Jameson. To add insult to the injury, the heroes will be granted amnesty for past activities once their registration is approved. He is absolutely livid, spewing a stream of highly censored (and funny) statements about Parker being granted a pardon for his "flagrant vigilantism". Try as he can, Joe Robertson is unable to calm his publisher down.

The only news item that captures Jonah's attention is one that involves his son John. Both John and an experimental plane went missing recently. Both have resurfaced in Nevada. It seems that John has eloped with Jennifer. They got married in the "Chapel Of Love" by an Elvis impersonator. This news hits their respective friends and family in the same manner: they all do a spit-take with whatever liquid they may be consuming.

As they are leaving John receives a call from his father. As difficult as it is to believe, Jonah is even more angry at his son's elopement than Parker's unmasking. In another brief, highly censored statement Jonah makes his feelings crystal clear on his new daughter-in-law.

As Jen get ready to meet her new in-laws, she receives a call from Pug asking her to meet him at the Velvet Morgue. Jennifer arrives and Pug tries to convince her that her feelings for John have been heavily influenced by Starfox and offers her the disc as proof.

When asked why he's doing this, Pug admits that he loves her. Jen responds that she likes him as a friend and reveals that "she" is actually Ditto, the office process server/shapeshifter. He overheard the call to Shulkie and tried to save him some pain and suffering. After punching Ditto (for all the good it does), he tells him to follow him because they have some work to do.

General Comments

Slott gives us Jonah's initial reaction to Peter's unmasking. This is what we were all waiting for: an over-the-top reaction full of anger and profanity that requires us to fill in the blanks. The other books have Jonah at other stages, but this type of response had to occur. It wouldn't feel right without one of Jonah's rants on this particular subject.

The only thing that could possibly interrupt one of Jonah's Spider-Man tantrums is having his only son marrying a super hero lawyer. Jonah's reactions can only be appreciated when read in full. There is no way to summarize them without losing something in translation.

Overall Rating

4 webs. Another enjoyable read that incorporates the Civil War crossover without losing steam. If nothing else this should be read for Jonah's reactions.

Footnote

Pug represented Peter Parker as a favor to "Spider-Man". This happened in She-Hulk (Vol. 3) #4.