She-Hulk #30 – Review

By Peter David, Val Semeiks (Penciler), and Victor Olazaba (Inker), Chris Sotomayor (Colors)

Twenty years ago, if you had told me that She-Hulk would be one of my favorite books, I’d have gouged my eyes out Oedipus-style, then lopped off my fingers just in case they started printing the damn thing in Braille.

Granted, Semeiks continues the tradition of lousy art on the book. (She-Hulk has had the strange misfortune of catching two of comics’ greatest artists, John Buscema and John Byrne, at periods in their careers where their only concern seemed to be picking up their next paycheck.) Like Francis Portela on Black Panther, Semeiks should be forced to wear a sign around his neck reading, “I learned to draw by reading comics. I have never actually studied the human form.”

But you don’t buy a Peter David comic for the art. One day, grad students will analyze the complexity of David’s plots the way they currently dissect Kubrick. When David took over the book, he immediately changed the tone, turning She-Hulk from a lawyer into a bounty-hunter without explanation, and he’s been deftly juggling half a dozen plots ever since, telling the story not chronologically but according to some undefinable yet perfect artistic hierarchy. It’s a style of writing I’ve seen in Oscar-contenders like Babel, but never in a comic before. And yet he still writes cool dialogue like “You are aware that the only reason you’re not airborne is because I’m not tossing you there, correct?”

In this issue, She-Hulk gets a get-out-of-jail-free card to apprehend Bran Murphy, who turns out to be the vessel of a Celtic demigod. Bran had gotten into a drunken brawl with Hercules, who is just as good here as he is in his own series. That’s all you need to know. Buy the book. And if you haven’t already, go to eBay or your local comics shop and snap up every back issue you can find. Buy anything without an adjective, and make sure you get volumes 1 and 2.

With an “A” for writing and a “D” for art, I give this book an overall (Grade: B-)

– Andrew C. Murphy