She-Hulks #4 – Review

By: Harrison Wilcox (writer), Ryan Stegman (pencils), Michael Babinski (inks), Guru eFX (colors), Ed Dukeshire (letters) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: She-Hulks comes to a close in an issue that is alternately fun and sad.

What’s Good: This issue really hits the right emotional notes.  First, it has some fun portions, especially some scenes in the immediate aftermath of the She-Hulks battle with Klaw.  A good She-Hulks story should have some fun and witty banter because Jen She-Hulk is a light-hearted character.  Although she is a Hulk she’s also a young woman who just kinda wants to have fun in the city too.

Then (of course) we get some sadness.  C’mon, you knew that was coming, right?  This is a Hulk story and Hulk stories don’t end with everyone loving the Hulks.  That is sad and tragic enough when the Hulk affected is Bruce Banner, but it is sadder to see when it is Lyra who is just an awkward and misunderstood teenage girl.  You will really feel badly for her at one point in this issue.

Wilcox and Stegman capture both ends of the spectrum in this issue.  It isn’t surprising that they could do the “fun” part, because that’s what we’ve gotten for the first 3 issues.  But, it was pretty cool how well they nailed the sad part.  They’re both newer creators at Marvel, so hopefully this demonstration of their dramatic range keeps them from getting typecast onto jaunty girl-books.  While it is very sad that this title didn’t get the support from retailers to become an outstanding ongoing series (along the lines of what DC has with Batgirl), we can take some positives from this.  One is that the creators have left these characters in a good place for the next team.  The other is that these two guys are both really talented and I (for one) would rather see them both on a title that will draw more eyeballs to their talents.

I’ve gushed about Ryan Stegman’s art in these reviews before, but it bears saying again just how talented he is.  If you are familiar with his art, you know that he has a lot of talents doing still life figures that don’t look anything like a She-Hulk blasting some guy in the face.  What I love about the style that Stegman is using is how well it straddles the cartoony/realism line.  The super-realistic guys (like Steve Epting) put themselves in a tough place where they have to bring their A-game to every panel because our eyes see their characters and think “pictures” instead of “cartoons”, so our eyes fixate on every little detail of anatomy that doesn’t conform.  What Stegman has done is find a neat sweet spot where he isn’t hyper-realistic (so he doesn’t have to noodle over body dimensions) but he does so with going to an extreme Chris Bachalo/Humberto Ramos level.  I love it.

She-Hulks #3 – Review

By: Harrison Wilcox (writer), Ryan Stegman (pencils), Michael Babinski (inks), Guru eFX (colors), Ed Dukeshire (letters) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: She-Hulks Jen and Lyra continue taking down The Intelligencia while dealing with other important matters… like shopping.

What’s Good: This miniseries has capital F-U-N all over it.  I love it.  The story is quick and funny, it isn’t all bogged down in any of the other Marvel Universe continuity and the art is just greatly awesome.

This story is very new-reader-friendly and doesn’t take itself too seriously.  It also strikes me as something that Marvel could sell the hell out of to girls or sell digitally.  Jen and Lyra have a great chemistry together.  It’s a kinda spunky-yet-misunderstood teenage girl with her “cool” aunt vibe.   It is enjoyable watching Jen teach Lyra the superhero basics of busting criminals, maintaining your secret identity and also finding to time go shopping with Bruce Banner’s credit card (leading to one funny scene where a holographic Hulk on the communicator is craning his neck trying to see all the shopping bags).  Love it.

Here’s a name for you comic fans to keep an eye on: Ryan Stegman.  The art in this issue is just incredible.  The only thing that worries me is that Stegman draws attractive women SOOOOO well that he’s going to get “stuck” on books like She-Hulk or his upcoming story arc on X-23.  If you follow the guy on twitter, you see his sketches and he can draw just about anything.  Stegman doesn’t just draw the pretty ladies either, you’ve got good story telling, great panel layouts, backgrounds, some creative panel design, etc.  It’s just a very complete effort and I really didn’t mind that Stegman didn’t ink his own work here.  I think he’s a good inker and this IS a different look, but it still works just fine for me.  And kudos also to those nameless colorists at Guru eFX.  You can’t have a She-Hulk comic without doing a good job on green skin and they nail it.

World War Hulks #1 – Review

by Jeff Parker, Harrison Wilcox, Scott Reed, & Paul Tobin (writers), Zach Howard, Ben Oliver, Aluir Amancio, Ramon Rosanas, Ryan Stegman, & Ig Guara (artists)

The Story: As Fall of the Hulks transitions into World War Hulks, we pause for a moment to get glimpses into the recent pasts of some of the major players of the story-line.  And no, none of them are the Hulk.

What’s Good: Well, I’ve got to admit that I had low expectations for this one, and I was generally not surprised with what I found.  However, the two stories (out of the six) that I actually got some enjoyment out of were the two that I was convinced would be the worst.  Harrison Wilcox’s Red She-Hulk tale and Jeff Parker’s Deadpool yarn are hardly worth the price of admission, but they succeed at being illuminating and funny, respectively.  Parker’s introduction of Hulkpool in particular induced a few smirks from this reviewer, as did the return of Bob, Agent of… well, you’ll see.