Comic Review #23: The Sensational She Hulk #6-7 (1989 - 1990)

 

John Byrne is a hard fella to talk about. For a few reasons. Let's get the big one out of the way, he's kind of uh.. a jerk if we are going to put it as nice as possible. He's said a lot of pretty stupid things over the years but I don't let that hamper the work. Still I feel if you can't respect him or his work because of some of the stuff he's said I can't really stop you. That stuff happens. The second reason is that WOW did his work take a nosedive sometime in the mid 90s. He went from hit after hit in the 1970s and 1980s to some good stuff and some lame shit. Still he went from King of the Hill to "oh yeah that guy" still the work that he's done is really great and he's still a pretty great artist (I don't know if he's still got a problem with drawing children.)

Anyway It's time to regale you find folks with the history of the She Hulk. At least from 1980 to 1989. She was created by Stan Lee and John Buscema in 1980 in the pages of The Savage She Hulk #1. That series ran for two years until issue 25, those issues written by Mr. Anthony Kraft. I like his work and I like those comics. She then became an Avenger during Roger Stern's run for a little while and then after Secret Wars joined the Fantastic Four when Ben Grimm stay on the Secret Wars planet whos name I forget because I can't remember every damn thing possible. Anyway John Byrne was doing the Fantastic Four at that time and it was FANTASTIC. Get it. GET IT!

Then there was a Marvel Graphic Novel with her in it. I haven't read it but I hear it's pretty great. Anyway this leads us to The Sensational She Hulk a very tongue in cheek comic, which would break the fourth wall all the time. She would fight some of the weirder characters that were in the Marvel Universe, at least during the John Byrne issues. Despite this being called John Byrne's She Hulk by most people, he had two different runs in this book. Other people like Steve Gerber, Louise Simonson and Simon Furman of all people wrote issues of this comic. I will get to them later. I like the comedy in this book and I love goofy off the wall characters like The Headmen and the characters we will meet in this story.

This is a two part story, the first part called "Star Truck" has She Hulk as a celebrity guest at NASA, who are sending a new spaceship into the stars, called the Star Blazer. The Star Blazer is hijacked by Razorback and Taryn O'Conner. Yes I know that most people who read this don't know who they are so let's discuss them. Razorback is a trucker who is also a superhero. He wears a giant Razorback on his head. He first appeared in a very enjoyable Spider-Man story in the 1970s during the days of Smokey and the Bandit. He has this super cool truck called THE BIG PIG. This She Hulk story introduces the Big Pig II and The Big Pig III. I like the fact that I get to write THE BIG PIG this many times. It's pretty great.

She Hulk then gets help from Reed Richards who was helping NASA make sure the Star Blazer will work and he helps She Hulk get way up in space to catch the rocket. She almost catches up to the rocket but passes out because she's in space. Razorback helps her get in. Taryn O'Conner tells us the story of U.S.1 who was a trucker named Ulysses Solomon Archer which is the best superhero name of all time. Ever. I'll keep that story a secret for when I discuss his entire series but it's a hum dinger of a doozy. They get to the STAR STOP DINER and find U.S.1 space rig come flying in and BAM! It turns out Xemnu is here to cause a ruckus in part 2 called "I Have No Mouth and I Am Mean". He wants the baby of U.S.1 and Mary McGill because he wants to repopulate his planet. He gets everyone in chains using his telepathic powers. She Hulk gets free and they fight until he hits her with another telepathic attack and when she wakes up he's turning her from She Hulk to She Xemnu. Xemnu is a very hairy white monster. It's very less sexy. That much hair is never sexy. 

Of course she stops Xemnu but feels sorry for him because he's mentioned about being lonely.  Poppa Wheelie and Ma help them find a giant alien that loves to collect Teddy Bears. They give him Xemnu and it's like that Looney Tunes short with the Yeti that sounds like Lenny from Of Mice and Men and Daffy Duck. I could have just said Lenny from Of Mice and Men but I like that Yeti and wanted to mention him.

FINAL VERDICT: A really fun story that I can't wait to dig in further with this series. 60 issues and I think I've only read 9 of them. I got my work cut out for me!!