Saturday Splash Page #162

"Green Journalism," in She-Hulk (vol. 1) #4, by Dan Slott (writer), Juan Bobillo (penciler), Marcelo Sosa (inker), Chris Chuckry (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

She-Hulk had a couple of ongoing series prior, but this was the first sans adjective in the title. Slott takes the idea that Jennifer Walters likes being the powerful, eye-catching She-Hulk versus her more nondescript, smaller self to the extent that Jennifer, in some sort of reaction to how quiet and focused she remained on her degree in college, is now going wild, throwing parties at Avengers Mansion every night, abusing her Avengers' parking privileges, and generally just relying on quick talk and her rep as a hero to win cases.

Having been booted from both her job with the D.A.'s office, and told she can't live at the Mansion any longer, she gets approached by a rep from a big law firm with a job offer. There are conditions, which are outlined on the splash page recap. Suffice it to say, while she's lawyering as Jennifer Walters, there's still a lot of aspects of the job that can use the She-Hulk personal touch. Such as when the Scorpion tries to crash Spider-Man's suit for libel against Jonah Jameson, looking to kill the two people he hates most. Or when she has to act as counsel for Adam Warlock on a planet where cases are decided by combat, and his opponent in The Champion.

Slott uses that as a chance to drastically increase Jennifer's strength. Bobillo uses it as a chance to draw her with even bigger biceps, which only makes how tiny he draws her hands more noticeable. Seriously, look at that splash page. It's like her hands are the only part of her that doesn't Hulk (well, except for maybe her mouth and nose.)

Slott adds workplace drama aspects to the book to add another angle beyond punching and legal wrangling. The firm's current hotshot attorney doesn't like or respect Jennifer, while one of the newer attorneys has a crush on her (although Slott starts up something here between Jennifer and John Jameson which nearly resulted in marriage in the second volume.) The guy who recruited Jennifer (with mysterious ulterior motives) has a rebellious teen granddaughter with a bionic arm he makes Jen babysit, to mixed results.

I think Slott used Southpaw in his Avengers: Initiative book, only to have the arm surgically (and painfully) removed by Hank Pym and the Nazi scientist he had on-staff.

Juan Bobillo draws half the series, Paul Pelletier the other half. It's not a perfect split, but Bobillo's issues seem more focused on courtroom aspects, even if the courtroom is a boxing ring on another planet. Pelletier gets two issues where She-Hulk has to contain a super-villain prison break, along with the last few issues, when Titania tries to kill She-Hulk (with an assist from the aggrieved Champion.) But Pelletier's much better at fight scenes, so that works to the book's advantage. Their two art styles are nothing alike, with Bobillo favoring a very thin line for his work, and a tendency to keep the characters at a bit of distance. Not many close-ups, or panels where the surroundings are entirely obscured.

The book ended after 12 issues, although Marvel being Marvel, volume 2 started within a year. I don't own any of that. Slott's run was too pricey by the time I thought about it, likely the result of the news She-Hulk was getting a Disney+ show. I know the book had to deal with Civil War, and Stark shooting Jennifer's cousin into space, and that Slott also went to some convoluted lengths to try and explain past stories about She-Hulk that seemed out of character (like sleeping with the Juggernaut, thanks, Chuck Austen!)

Then Peter David took over the book and made She-Hulk a bounty hunter. Yeah, I don't know.

Sunday Splash Page #354

 

"Deconstruction Site," in Mekanix #5, by Chris Claremont (writer), Juan Bobillo (penciler), Marcelo Sosa (inker), Edgar Tadeo (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer)

Mekanix focused on Kitty Pryde, attending college in Chicago, bartending to pay for off-campus housing, and trying very hard not to deal with the recent death of her father amid the mass Sentinel attack on Genosha that occurred early in Grant Morrison's run on New X-Men.

Unfortunately, even if the other students don't know she's a mutant, that doesn't mean she's free of stupid bigots and their nonsense. When the story begins, she's already attending mandatory counseling sessions after she whupped the shit out of some anti-mutant guys that tried to get her to listen to their propaganda. That same hate group targets the project team she's part of, and when their sabotage causes a meltdown Kitty only narrowly keeps from killing anyone, the FBI naturally treats Kitty and the scientists as suspects, rather than the right-wing hate group that posted very public threats about them online.

In the midst of that, a few of the Sentinels from the Genosha attack - smaller, more insectile in appearance, but highly adaptable - hitch a ride on a freighter into the city and begin targeting mutants. The only other X-Man around to help is Karma, who has her own concerns trying to protect and care for her younger siblings. There's also Shola, who I think was a new character, a very powerful telekinetic from Genosha, trained to use his powers for defense by his parents, and dealing with his own grief at their recent deaths.

Bobillo's very good at making the various Sentinels look a bit different, but in similar ways. They remind me a bit of the machines that patrol the real world in The Matrix, but less uniform, and certainly less sturdy. Lots of thin wires and cables, and multiple optical lenses, rarely any weapons beyond their own mass (though one does incorporate a pistol Karma had been carrying.) Nodding to their ability to rebuild and improve themselves from whatever is available.

I feel like his human characters' heads are a little big for their bodies, or their bodies - especially the women - are too narrow for their heads, but he's good with body language. Critical in a Claremont-written book, where there's going to be lots of talking - Kitty naturally has to make a big speech in an impromptu debate with the leader of the hate group, a moment where she sets aside her anger and focuses on trying to help rather than just fight - and Bobillo keeps the characters moving or gesturing in ways that are appropriate so things don't grow too static.

This version of Shadowcat's hardened by loss and experience, or is trying to be. The way Claremont writes her, she's more like an open wound, taking very little prodding to provoke a reaction, whether from the bigots, the feds, her therapist (I'm not qualified to determine if this therapist is any more competent than most of the mental health professionals in the Marvel Universe. She at least doesn't appear to be evil.) Her grief, like Shola's, is mostly still directed into anger. She's trying to run from "mutant" stuff, but that didn't work, and now she's almost resigned to the notion of never having a moment's peace to enjoy herself or love anyone. Claremont also seems to moving towards a romantic relationship between Kitty and Karma, which so far as I know never went anywhere. Nowadays it always seems like they're going to push Kitty into bed with Emma Frost, which is just a terrible idea.

Anyway, the point seems to be Kitty can't give up on letting people in, on thinking things can be better.

Random Back Issues #133 - Mekanix #6

Couldn't you just start a Facebook group, or get a bunch of cats or something?

We looked at an earlier issue of this 4 years ago, but we've jumped to the end today, with what is essentially an issue-long chase sequence.

The Student Union at the University of Chicago was hosting a meeting to decide whether to ban the mutant-hating group Purity from campus, only to have a bunch more of the person-sized, buglike Sentinels that wiped out Genosha crash the party. The only ones standing in the way are Kitty Pryde, former New Mutant Karma, and Shola, a telekinetic from Genosha attending school.

Shola's doing most of the work, as he's got some serious TK power and combat training in how to use it courtesy of his parents. Also, Sentinels like these killed his parents and everyone he had back home, so he's got plenty of anger for fuel. He encases the Sentinels in a big energy bubble, but these are the adaptive-style of Sentinels, so they figure out some way to escape and attack from underground.

Shola tries to draw their attention so Karma can escape since possessing people isn't a terribly effective power against robots, but two follow her down a dead end alley. Fortunately, Kitty shows up, having gotten lost in the building and pulls Karma through the wall (Karma apparently describes being phased as swimming through oatmeal.) Kitty leaves the wall phased to fool the Sentinel into thinking there's no barrier, then turning the wall solid again to trap it. She even calls it a 'poor bunny', which sounds more like a Psylocke expression to me, but the X-Men do so much psi-linking they probably all ought to speak in a weird melange of each other's verbal tics.

Except there were two Sentinels chasing Karma, and they're down to Karma trying to smash it with a pickax before Shola shows up and launches the thing into the air. Meanwhile, the cops showed up! Well I'm sure everything is under control now! The Sentinels register genome patterns within the range of potential mutants, and elect to attack. Shola gets tagged, but Kitty's able to phase him to keep him safe, for now.

Needing to clear potential casualties, Karma uses her power to make all the students and cops calmly walk away from the battlefield, while Kitty calls for help. Tom had been dating the head of the Purity group, but decided he wasn't a bigot, so he shows up in his car and the three mutants pile in and burn rubber. About the time they reach the university industrial complex the Sentinels catch up. Kitty phases everyone out of the car and then into the tunnels leading to the building where her group was trying to figure out cold fusion. The experiment was sabotaged, but there's still tons of heavy stuff to trap and crush all the Sentinels, if they can be lured in.

So Karma possesses Shola (with his permission) to push him past his limits. Kitty uses herself as bait while Tom, who the Sentinels ignored because he's a baseline human, pulls the lever to dump all the stuff. Kitty phases the Sentinels so they can't try to escape, though they figure out how to hurt her. Kitty uses Tom to pull herself through the junk before Shola/Karma compress the Sentinels down into nothing. I'm not sure if Kitty needed the help because she was tired, because of something the Sentinels were doing, or if it was the strain of escaping the TK field.

All that done, Kitty visits her school-mandated therapist and admits she's a mutant, then goes to the bar where she works part-time (and where the FBI is still surveilling her) to meet up with her friends. We can't have too happy of an ending, as Alice Tremaine, the leader of the Purity Group, found a little bit of one Sentinel at the student union and is helping it rebuild itself in her parents' basement.

{7th longbox, 20th comic. Mekanix #6, by Chris Claremont (writer), Juan Bobillo (penciler), Marcelo Sosa (inker), Avalon (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer)}

Random Back Issues #56 - She-Hulk #1

Come on Jen, everyone knows Chilly Willy's a penguin. Just because Blizzard's frozen through and through, it doesn't make them the same.

The first issue of Dan Slott's run has Jen spending as much time as possible as She-Hulk, living a party girl lifestyle, in sharp contrast to the glimpse we see of her in law school. Where she was quiet, studious, and basically went unnoticed by everyone in her class. I don't know anything about law school, but it seems like it would be competitive enough the other students would notice someone doing well enough to finish summa cum laude. But maybe law school is so tough you don't have time to worry what anyone else is doing.

Anyway, in the present, she's dating an underwear model, abusing her Avengers Priority card to park illegally, stressing the mansion's security protocols with all her unannounced guests. Most unforgivable, she's making a ton of extra work for Jarvis with the messes and the parties.

During a trial for a company which stored Anarctic Vibranium (the kind that's unstable and melts all metal) improperly, she bails during her closing argument because of an Avengers emergency. MODOK is trying to use Blizzard to freeze the entire planet so AIM can have all the technology. All the technology that will now be buried under a shitload of glaciers? As you saw up above, Jen handles that and throws another big party at the Mansion. Big ups to Captain America for offering to help Jarvis with the mess. He's a solid dude, not like that lout Tony Stark, who just stands there silently.

 

Jen ends up winning her case, the jury returning the verdict in minutes, and that's the end of her good news. Her model boyfriend breaks up with her, citing a need to date someone with more 'depth.' Then Captain America and the Wasp swing by to tell Jen she's out. Not out of the Avengers, but out of the mansion. Presumably, Steve is worried living in the mansion is causing negative health benefits because look how tiny her hands are.

When she gets to work, her car gets booted because her Avengers Priority no longer works, and she finds out the guy with the Vibranium issues got a successful mistrial filed. His attorneys argued Jen helping to save the world unfairly prejudiced the jury. Then she finds out she's fired because she's been acting too unprofessionally.

 

So it's off to a bar, where several guys try unsuccessfully to hit on her, and then Blizzard hits her with an ice beam. From a gun. If all his power comes from a gun, why did MODOK even need him? Just kill him and take the freeze gun! Anyway, Blizzard's pissed she ruined his chance to be a big shot. When she busts loose, he figures she's about to ruin his face, but instead she offers to buy him a drink, and he eventually passes out.

At which point she's approached by Holden Holliway, one of the heads of Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg, and Holliway, the firm that defended Anarctic Vibranium guy. Holliway already mentioned that she's very important, for reasons I don't think we learn until the end of Slott's run on the next volume. Pretty sure he ends up being evil. I know, an evil lawyer? Ridiculous.

He starts off by making reference to her not really being drunk due to her metabolism and 'immense body weight'. Man likes to live dangerously. Or he figures whatever is left of him after she punches him can sue her. He offers her a job, but as Jennifer Walters, not She-Hulk. Jen reluctantly agrees, telling herself she can stand being 'her again.' Unfortunately, Jennifer doesn't have the unique metabolism or body size, so she is immediately completely wasted and pukes all over Holliway's shoes (and an unconscious Blizzard). Well, Holliway's a dick, so I'm gonna say he deserves it.

[9th longbox, 198th comic. She-Hulk (vol. 1) #1, by Dan Slott (writer), Juan Bobillo (penciler), Marcelo Sosa (inker), Chris Chuckry (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)]

Random Back Issues #21 - Mekanix #4

'Curious like a kat.' I guess the Xavier Institute took a more liberal approach to spelling. Either that or she's taking Conveying "Clever" Spelling Via Inflection 101.

Don't know why this mini-series is titled what it is, but Kitty's studying physics at Chicago University, where she's run afoul of a anti-mutant hate group. They don't even know she's a mutant, they just know she beat the shit out of 7 of their guys after one of them got in her face with his nonsense. I can picture Logan nodding approvingly until he sees Storm glaring at him, then he frowns and shakes his head.

The downside is, to avoid expulsion for beating up bigots, she has to see a shrink. That's not going terribly well, since Kitty's also dealing with her father dying along with all the mutants on Genosha when Grant Morrison unleashed that little surprise.

I think this doctor is about as bad at her job as Leonard Samson. I know when a person tells me something about themselves one time, then throws a pity party for themselves because I didn't immediately divulge all my deepest secrets, it makes me want to trust them.

An explosion at the lab she works in was caused by the hate group, but the FBI, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to treat Kitty as a suspect and ransack her apartment rather than investigate the predominantly white terrorist group. Was this written in 2002 or 2019?

That's another problem, and on top of that, a ship full of Sentinels sailed into the harbor, leaving Kitty and Karma to try and fight one of them off. With a bat and a handgun. Karma admitted she brought her old X-Men uniform when she left the school, just in case. Seems she should have poked around for any guns Bishop or Cable left behind while she was at it.

Kitty goes with the exposed midriff look a lot in this series, which is not a look I'd typically associate with her. I'd say that Rachel Summers' fashion sense had rubbed off on her, but it's probably meant to be Kitty struggling with her sense of self in the wake of so many changes. I think within a few months of this ending, Claremont dragged Kitty into X-Treme X-Men, because of course he did.

[7th longbox, 128th comic. Mekanix #4, by Chris Claremont (writer), Juan Bobillo and Marcelo Sosa (artists), Edgar Tadeo (colorist), Tom Orzechowski (letterer)]