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quietprofanity Jun. 7th, 2008 11:07 am)
quietprofanity Jun. 7th, 2008 11:07 am)Essential She-Hulk
This is one of those titles that sometimes make people go, "Essential? This? What is Marvel smoking?" Meanwhile, Marvel continues to rake in money for Moon Knight Vol. 12 ... Savage She-Hulk is not considered one of the great series, or even one of the great She-Hulk series ... that was Sensational She-Hulk, which was published in the late 80s-early 90s. Sensational is best remembered for its meta-humor in which She-Hulk knew she was in a comic and would talk to the audience or rip through pages or do numerous other silly things.
Still, I'm overall not too impressed with the few issues of Sensational I read. It broke the record for best-selling female solo character for a time, but I can't really forgive how lame She-Hulk was in the first few issues. For example, in issue #3, She-Hulk spends most of her time trapped while guest star Spider-Man does most of the fighting and day-saving. Very uncool.
But I like Savage She-Hulk quite a bit. Out of all the 70s female superheroines, Jennifer Walters is the one who feels most like a normal person. (Spider-Woman was practically an alien and Ms. Marvel always seemed to be hampered by the split-personality-powers-change-every-few-issues thing.) She starts out the comic as a strong-but-maybe-not-as-strong-as-she-would-like defense attorney but a blood transfusion from her cousin, The Hulk, sets her on a fate which she partly loves but also hates.
The series writing isn't amazing. Stan Lee and John Buscema lay the groundwork for the first issue, but then relative unknowns David Anthony Kraft and Mike Vosburg do the rest. They're not as good (especially Vosburg), but they do a respectable run that made me kind of sad this traditional superhero tale isn't really in vogue anymore. The plotlines are engaging: Jennifer learns to control her transformations, Jennifer spars with sexist pig who eventually becomes humbled and a decent guy, Jennifer/She-Hulk has to choose between two sensitive, sometimes pig-headed but overall decent guys who do NOT do that "I CANNOT HANDLE DATING A WOMAN STRONGER THAN MEEEEEEEEE!" bullshit. [kicks the creepy stalker S.H.I.E.L.D. agent from Spider-Woman GOOD GOD I HATE HIM]
The only problem with the series, if any, is lame villains. For the first couple of issues, She-Hulk deals with the mob. Unless a not-slumming Brian Michael Bendis (who is NOT SLUMMING, yes I've said this twice I want to make a point) is writing them, I've never been into mob stories. Mostly because they often consist of at least a few pages of guys in suits sitting around the room explaining their complicated plot to steal something and these pages are so boring I usually forget what happened a few pages later. Then whenever an actual supervillain shows up 9 times out of 10 its usually a lame-ass villain like Hammerhead who you never have any huge urge to see again BUT YOU DO.
Anyway, yeah, there's a lot of that. And a lot of just lame supervillains in general. (Although the one lame supervillain who was actually MANY lame supervillains was kind of interesting ... OK, not really.) She doesn't even have any guest villains drop by, except for Michael Morbius, who plays a kind of a cool role but is overall still not impressive and acts as a good guy in this comic anyway.
But the supporting cast is pretty good. Richard Rory, Zapper and Officer Walters are all fun characters who move the plot along and come to an impressive conclusion. Buzz the misogynist was appropriately annoying but had a nice character arc. I wasn't very impressed with Walters' evil girlfriend ... she was rather one-dimensional, but what can you do?
Most of all, though, I liked Jen Walters and the She-Hulk. Its hard to explain why. The whole most-human-superheroine of all comes into it. Or maybe there's just something visceral about ripping the shit out of cars and bonking bad guys in the head with them. Or maybe it's what kalinara said about Savage She-Hulk being a feminism metaphor.
Either way, its well worth your time. Essential? Maybe no-- Oh, hell. I say it is. RIPPING UP CARS FOR THE WIN! AND WITH BOOBS!
(Where did she get all those clothes to rip up?)
Thanks for the Memories, Mr. President
Oh, Helen Thomas. Once again you have fooled me. Last time I read one of your books, I thought it would be a commentary on the role of press in society today. But it was your reminiscing about your job. Then I bought this book, which I thought would be a memoir of your time in the Washington Press Corps. But it was ... reminiscing about your job.
Oh well. It was still kind of amusing. Basically this was the collection of "funny" reminisces about the presidents Thomas has covered, which includes JFK to Dubya, as well as of fellow journalists and press secretaries. It's basically fun for a quick read, although some sections went on too long. (The Clinton section in particular felt like it would never end.) I got it on the bargain book rack, so it's good for a two-day read if you're into this sort of thing. If not, give it a pass.
This is one of those titles that sometimes make people go, "Essential? This? What is Marvel smoking?" Meanwhile, Marvel continues to rake in money for Moon Knight Vol. 12 ... Savage She-Hulk is not considered one of the great series, or even one of the great She-Hulk series ... that was Sensational She-Hulk, which was published in the late 80s-early 90s. Sensational is best remembered for its meta-humor in which She-Hulk knew she was in a comic and would talk to the audience or rip through pages or do numerous other silly things.
Still, I'm overall not too impressed with the few issues of Sensational I read. It broke the record for best-selling female solo character for a time, but I can't really forgive how lame She-Hulk was in the first few issues. For example, in issue #3, She-Hulk spends most of her time trapped while guest star Spider-Man does most of the fighting and day-saving. Very uncool.
But I like Savage She-Hulk quite a bit. Out of all the 70s female superheroines, Jennifer Walters is the one who feels most like a normal person. (Spider-Woman was practically an alien and Ms. Marvel always seemed to be hampered by the split-personality-powers-change-every-few-issues thing.) She starts out the comic as a strong-but-maybe-not-as-strong-as-she-would-like defense attorney but a blood transfusion from her cousin, The Hulk, sets her on a fate which she partly loves but also hates.
The series writing isn't amazing. Stan Lee and John Buscema lay the groundwork for the first issue, but then relative unknowns David Anthony Kraft and Mike Vosburg do the rest. They're not as good (especially Vosburg), but they do a respectable run that made me kind of sad this traditional superhero tale isn't really in vogue anymore. The plotlines are engaging: Jennifer learns to control her transformations, Jennifer spars with sexist pig who eventually becomes humbled and a decent guy, Jennifer/She-Hulk has to choose between two sensitive, sometimes pig-headed but overall decent guys who do NOT do that "I CANNOT HANDLE DATING A WOMAN STRONGER THAN MEEEEEEEEE!" bullshit. [kicks the creepy stalker S.H.I.E.L.D. agent from Spider-Woman GOOD GOD I HATE HIM]
The only problem with the series, if any, is lame villains. For the first couple of issues, She-Hulk deals with the mob. Unless a not-slumming Brian Michael Bendis (who is NOT SLUMMING, yes I've said this twice I want to make a point) is writing them, I've never been into mob stories. Mostly because they often consist of at least a few pages of guys in suits sitting around the room explaining their complicated plot to steal something and these pages are so boring I usually forget what happened a few pages later. Then whenever an actual supervillain shows up 9 times out of 10 its usually a lame-ass villain like Hammerhead who you never have any huge urge to see again BUT YOU DO.
Anyway, yeah, there's a lot of that. And a lot of just lame supervillains in general. (Although the one lame supervillain who was actually MANY lame supervillains was kind of interesting ... OK, not really.) She doesn't even have any guest villains drop by, except for Michael Morbius, who plays a kind of a cool role but is overall still not impressive and acts as a good guy in this comic anyway.
But the supporting cast is pretty good. Richard Rory, Zapper and Officer Walters are all fun characters who move the plot along and come to an impressive conclusion. Buzz the misogynist was appropriately annoying but had a nice character arc. I wasn't very impressed with Walters' evil girlfriend ... she was rather one-dimensional, but what can you do?
Most of all, though, I liked Jen Walters and the She-Hulk. Its hard to explain why. The whole most-human-superheroine of all comes into it. Or maybe there's just something visceral about ripping the shit out of cars and bonking bad guys in the head with them. Or maybe it's what kalinara said about Savage She-Hulk being a feminism metaphor.
Either way, its well worth your time. Essential? Maybe no-- Oh, hell. I say it is. RIPPING UP CARS FOR THE WIN! AND WITH BOOBS!
(Where did she get all those clothes to rip up?)
Thanks for the Memories, Mr. President
Oh, Helen Thomas. Once again you have fooled me. Last time I read one of your books, I thought it would be a commentary on the role of press in society today. But it was your reminiscing about your job. Then I bought this book, which I thought would be a memoir of your time in the Washington Press Corps. But it was ... reminiscing about your job.
Oh well. It was still kind of amusing. Basically this was the collection of "funny" reminisces about the presidents Thomas has covered, which includes JFK to Dubya, as well as of fellow journalists and press secretaries. It's basically fun for a quick read, although some sections went on too long. (The Clinton section in particular felt like it would never end.) I got it on the bargain book rack, so it's good for a two-day read if you're into this sort of thing. If not, give it a pass.
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