SHE-HULK: Page 12 of 18

Publication Date: 18th Aug 2022
Written By: Monolith.
Image Work: Douglas Mangum.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY - page 12

If convicted, She-Hulk faced being erased from history altogether, and so she asked for the best representation the superhuman law firm could send. Since the TVA had access to the past, present AND future, her request was fulfilled with a surprising attorney: a fully reformed (and licensed) Southpaw from fifteen years in the future. The trial was essentially a referendum on whether She-Hulk was too important to the timeline to be removed for her punishment. Many character witnesses were summoned out of space-time, including her father, Wyatt and her fellow Avengers, to testify about She-Hulk’s good deeds. However, Justice Love made the counter argument that She-Hulk’s strength and valor were redundant, and her heroic feats could be performed by any number of heroines. Using only minor temporal adjustments, the strength of She-Hulk could be removed without much of a blip in the timeline.

It was a low moment for Jennifer, but things turned around with the Hulk’s testimony about knowing that his blood had created a hero like She-Hulk kept him from going off the deep end more than once. As the trial turned against her, Justice Love lost her cool and pulled She-Hulk into the timestream, showing her a glimpse of the Reckoning War. In a few years’ time, the Watchers themselves would take up arms alongside Earth’s heroes against the threat of the Reckoning. Jen saw Zoma the Watcher striking her down and claiming she was responsible for the war, while future She-Hulk grimly agreed. Still, Jen and Southpaw pushed ahead, and Southpaw called up a different line of character witnesses: not heroes, praising another hero, but Jennifer Walters’ clients, normal people whose lives were improved by her arguments, her tenacity in court and her humanity. The TVA judges were swayed, and She-Hulk was not erased from history. [She-Hulk (2nd series) #3 / She-Hulk #100]

As part of her commuted sentence, She-Hulk was given custody of a temporal offender from the time cells of the TVA: Matt Hawk, the Two-Gun Kid. A repeat traveler from the 1870’s to the present, the Two-Gun Kid was determined by the TVA to know too much about the future to be trusted in his own time period any further. Matt Hawk had been a lawyer back in the 1870’s, so Jennifer thought to get him a job at GLK&H. After an embarrassing showing in court, however, Jen and Matt realized it was prrrrrrrobably a good idea for him to get up to date on the last 130+ years of legal precedent. It was Mallory Book who intervened and showed Two-Gun that he was more of a man of action at heart than a lawyer, getting him a job at the firm as a licensed bounty hunter instead. Jen privately realized she had been projecting her own need for self-affirmation as a lawyer onto Two-Gun’s plight. [She-Hulk (2nd series) #5]

Jennifer’s next case was far less wacky and whimsical than GLK&H’s usual fare, though. Her fellow Avenger Starfox was accused of sexual assault, allegedly using his “love power” to seduce a married woman against her will. Eros’ big mouth in front of the press and cavalier attitude was not helping his defense, either. He also started a fight with Awesome Andy at the law firm, having been uninformed of the Android’s reformation. Meanwhile, Jennifer and John had gotten into another fight on the way into the office about her becoming She-Hulk around him when she knew he preferred her as Jen. As they broke up the fight between Starfox and Andy, Eros ended up using his love power to mend fences between John and Jen (and, separately, stirring affection between Mallory and Andy, who had been helping her with physical therapy to recover from the injuries she suffered from Titania’s attack months ago.) Jen’s newly-stirred love for John made her more submissive to his requests of her in the future.

The trial between Eros and Christina Garvey was farcical, despite the serious charges. The prosecution called numerous witnesses to testify to Starfox’s past sexual behavior, only for them to recant their testimony on the stand when faced with Eros’ smile. A convicted Hydra agent did testify that a brief encounter with Starfox’s euphoria power left him with a lifelong obsession with the Avenger. The judge eventually had Eros removed back to Riker’s Island, for fear his power might further sway the witnesses and the jury. While looking for character witnesses to speak on Starfox’s behalf, Jen was forced to take a hard look at her own past with Eros. As She-Hulk, she remembered coming on to Starfox when he first joined the team and having a one-night stand, a sequence of events she was also hearing from the women on the witness stand. When she challenged Starfox about their own night together, Eros chose to flee custody rather than answer her questions. Jennifer left the courthouse to cut him off as he escaped from Riker’s, but the gamma changer wasn’t fully charged yet. Still, her rage and determination was enough to override her mental blocks and force the change. As She-Hulk, Jen chased Starfox down and forced Eros back to Riker’s Island, but his father Mentor chose to teleport Starfox off-Earth, essentially allowing him to flee from the justice of the courts. [She-Hulk (2nd series) #6-7]

After more than six hundred people, including a school full of children, died while the New Warriors fought Nitro in an urban area, a massive rise in anti-vigilante sentiment swept the United States. She-Hulk provided legal counsel to Speedball, sole survivor of the Warriors and the most hated man in America. Jennifer was firmly on the side of the law and the new Superhuman Registration Act that was rushed through Congress, imposing a new level of responsibility on super-heroes. Many of her friends like Wasp, Iron Man and Reed Richards also supported the Act, but others like Hercules joined Captain America in a defiant squad of unregistered heroes. [Civil War crossover]

Jennifer was devoted to upholding all laws, and so she took a case from former Avengers (and New Warriors) Rage and Justice when they reported the New Warriors were being doxxed online. All New Warriors, even those uninvolved in the Stamford disaster, were having their real identities posted one at a time on a hate site, which also documented footage of the violent attacks that tended to follow. Jen had destroyed her gamma changer in pursuit of Eros, but Doc Samson finally realized the problem affecting her changes. They met with Doctor Strange, who removed the cloaking spell Wanda had placed on Jen months ago. That spell had been interacting with Jen’s subconscious to cause all her problems, and now she could change freely without needing the gamma changer. However, when she sought legal remedy to shut down destroyallwarriors.com, the site struck back by posting her real identity onsite as well, as the spell no longer prevented people from seeing Jen Walters and She-Hulk as one and the same. She-Hulk and the Warriors stopped the attacks, but her ability to “hide” from She-Hulk’s life as Jen was a thing of the past. [She-Hulk (2nd series) #8]

Meanwhile, as her roommate, Pug had become suspicious of recent changes in Jennifer’s behavior, and he found evidence from Timely Plaza’s security system of Starfox using his powers on Jen and John Jameson. Unfortunately for Pug, John had already proposed to Jennifer, and they eloped in a Las Vegas chapel. Their only witness was Gary Sherman from the Green Cross, who happened to be in town. He gave Jennifer some interesting news – the Green Cross was on a hiatus since there hadn’t been a single Hulk sighting in weeks. Before Jen could process this, the happy couple received a call from her new father-in-law… J. Jonah Jameson. As She-Hulk, Jen was not only a super-hero (something Jonah had long crusaded against) but she was also the attorney who sued him on behalf of Spider-Man. The first family dinner was so awkward, Jonah even pulled his old Spider-Slayer robot out of mothballs and physically attacked She-Hulk. The two of them eventually made peace, but John and Jen had other problems. Now that her transformation problems were over, Jen had decided to remain She-Hulk 24-7, something which John strongly objected to. [She-Hulk (2nd series) #9]

Pug brought his evidence of Starfox’s influence to Jennifer, but she was unwilling to believe him. Although he tried to hide it, Jen finally recognized that Pug had feelings for her greater than friendship, which only further hampered her willingness to accept his story. Worse, Jonah’s old enemy Alistair Smythe struck at John with a device that triggered his transformation into the Man-Wolf, leading to a fight at the Excelsior. Mallory and Awesome Andy got Pug to the hospital while She-Hulk and Two-Gun chased down the feral Jameson. Pug showed Mallory his video disc of Starfox, and she realized Eros had also engineered her growing feelings for Andy. Worse, she reasoned out that Starfox’s “love” effect had always faded with proximity, but Awesome Andy’s ability to copy powers had unwittingly kept Starfox’s power going for weeks after he left. A shamed Andy turned off all his copied powers, ending his relationship with Mallory and freeing She-Hulk from his influence at the same time. Before Jen could process the sudden change in her feelings towards John, his Man-Wolf transformation evolved into its second stage as the cosmically powered Stargod. [She-Hulk (2nd series) #10-11]

Becoming Stargod made John coherent again in his wolfen form. He now had phenomenal power at his fingertips, but could also give it up whenever he chose to revert back to John Jameson, permanently. However, he gave She-Hulk an ultimatum that he wouldn’t change back to John until she changed back to Jennifer. Their marriage woes were interrupted by RTZ9, who pulled She-Hulk back into service for the Magistrati. Jen was eager to take a break from John, especially after she learned her destination was the “exoneration trial” being held for Eros by his people, the Eternals of Titan. She-Hulk was furious that her role with the Magistrati was to be as an “impartial observer” to the proceedings, until the Living Tribunal itself was made manifest before her. The Tribunal confronted her with the necessity of pure justice, superseding personal interests, and her role as a Magistrati in ensuring justice came to pass.

Jen reluctantly stood by as the Eternals began their case for Starfox, taking testimony though Shao-Lom mind trial – witnesses would have their thoughts synchronized with Eros to compare memories, ensuring that only impartial and mutually agreed upon perspectives shown through. Jennifer could not stand by and so she presented her own recollections of Starfox for the trial. The Shao-Lom merger confirmed that Starfox used his powers to push Jen and John together, making Jen realize Pug had been right. She-Hulk was furious and began fighting with Moondragon and Phyla-Vell to get at Starfox, until Eros’ brother Thanos made an appearance. The arrival of the Mad Titan instantly led to peace between the others, but Thanos claimed he wasn’t present to fight. Instead, he wanted to offer testimony in his brother’s trial. The suspicious She-Hulk oversaw as Thanos provided Shao-Lom testimony about a childhood incident where he and Eros were chasing a creature through the forest. The young Thanos caught the creature, but accidentally killed it with his prodigious strength. Thanos was horrified and distraught, and so Eros consoled his brother that death was a natural part of life and, using his powers, encouraged Thanos to love and accept death.

This fantastic testimony suggested that Thanos’ mad love of Death and nihilism were all the result of Eros’ misuse of his powers, and Starfox’s own memories confirmed Thanos’ story. She-Hulk smelled a rat and had Moondragon transplant her into Thanos’ mind so she could observe his memories more directly. Thanos resisted Jennifer’s intrusion, but she received the unwelcome assistance of Eros on the psychic plane, as he was still linked through the Shao-Lom trial. Unable to hide any truth from each other, Jennifer confronted Eros again about their night together, and he insisted he didn’t use his powers on her when they met. She accepted this and, as they moved deeper into Thanos’ mind, they uncovered his deception. Thanos had planted a false memory in Eros’ mind as a jest to one day use against him. The Thanos present on Titan was a doppelganger who had been mentally programmed with the same memories in order to pass the Shao-Lom trials. The Thanos clone was dispatched, and the damage done to Eros’ mind was such that his love powers needed to be shut down so they didn’t grow out of control again. Eros, having seen his own mind violated by his brother, claimed he was glad to be rid of his influence over others, and was sentenced to community service. [She-Hulk (2nd series) #12-13]

Stargod had arrived at the tail end of the trial, using his cosmic tracking powers to hunt down his wife. Jennifer tried to break the news to John that they had been under a love spell, but Eros had one last unfortunate truth to share – Jennifer had been the only one he influenced that day. Everything Colonel Jameson had felt and done had been his feelings alone. Jen recognized she simply didn’t love John the same way he loved her, and she asked John to grant her an annulment. She pointed out that John offering to give up the power of Stargod if she gave up She-Hulk wasn’t the same, because John didn’t want his powers. John admitted it and explained how he had gained powers several times in his life, becoming arrogant and self-absorbed each time. He saw some of the same traits in Jennifer as She-Hulk and had married her hoping he could eventually convince her to give up that life. She-Hulk was more convinced than ever their marriage was a sham, but John insisted on hearing that from Jen, not from She-Hulk. Jennifer obliged, transforming back to her human form and returning John’s ring to him as Jen. RTZ9 brought her back to Earth, alone, as Stargod took time out in space to process. [She-Hulk (2nd series) #14, 20]