Series Disambiguation (She-Hulk): Page 4 of 6

She-Hulk (1st series) – (2004-2005)

The third She-Hulk solo title came at the tail-end of her long tenure with the Avengers, and was for the first time titled simply "She-Hulk." The new writer Dan Slott was both extremely continuity-minded and wrote long-form stories that sometimes took years to pay off. While this version of She-Hulk did not break the fourth wall, she retained many of the personality traits established in her previous runs. In fact, the story began with her being a little too loose and carefree, to the point that she was kicked out of Avengers mansion and fired from her job. However, this establishing low-point was soon rectified with Slott introducing a new status quo and cast of supporting characters. She was asked to join the most respected law firm in New York by one of its founding partners, Holden Holliway, with the caveat that he wanted Jennifer Walters and not She-Hulk working for him. A new legal rival was introduced in the beautiful Mallory Book, the “face that never lost a case.” Awesome Andy, the Mad Thinker’s android, worked as a gopher, Ditto was a shape-shifting process server and Stu worked in the Marvel comic book stacks, which were established as federally-approved, legal documents, thanks to the Comics Code Authority.

The first half of the series ran concurrently with her Avengers membership, specifically after the Red Zone incident in which Jack of Hearts cured She-Hulk and allowed her to turn back into Jennifer Walters. In fact, it would later be confirmed that her overdoing her party girl persona was a direct result of her guilt over the Bone, Idaho incident. A theme throughout the story was Jennifer balancing her time between her two forms and resisting the urge to stay She-Hulk all of the time. At the beginning, She-Hulk had been sleeping around with many men but soon two romantic interests entered the picture, both seeming to enjoy spending time with the Jen side of her. The first was a co-worker and neighbor Augustus “Pug” Pugliese, who quickly fell into the friend zone after the other suitor John Jameson showed up. Additionally, Jen received the responsibility of reforming the granddaughter of Holden, an alien technology-wielding teen criminal named Southpaw.

Utilizing She-Hulk’s lawyer side became a large focus of the run but did not detract from the action, with She-Hulk taking on physical threats, such as the Elder Champion and even her Infinity Gem of Power enhanced arch-nemesis Titania. Slott even managed to solve the final conflict with Titania by utilizing Stu’s impressive talents of an encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel comics and piecing together continuity. Some plot points involving the Living Tribunal-run “Magistrati” and their recorder unit RT-Z9 were also introduced by Slott that he would expand upon in the next volume. By the end of the volume, She-Hulk had reverted to Jennifer and was not able to turn back to her gamma form. However, she now realized her transformation issues were psychological, partially caused by the trauma experienced in Avengers Dissassembled. The series ended with a promise that her adventures would continue in 8 months.

She-Hulk (2nd series) – (2005-2008)

Dan Slott got meta in the first issue of the series when the continuity-obsessed Stu bemoaned the loss of the original Marvel comics within the law office destroyed by Titania in the previous series. He was irritated that the owners wanted to switch to trade paperbacks and thus he was stuck “waiting for the trades.” Later in the issue, the villain Boomerang nearly killed Stu but, luckily, the first two trade paperbacks of She-Hulk (2004) were in his jacket and stopped the killing blow. The trades had literally saved his life and were the reason this volume of She-Hulk was renewed for more issues. This incident in particular seemed to indicate that Dan Slott had a particular fondness for this character and may even have had elements of a self-insert.

There were a few status quo shifts in that Holden Holliway had left the firm to pursue the escaped Southpaw, replaced by the mysterious Mr. Zix. Pug and She-Hulk were implied to be dating and living together, but only the latter proved true, given John Jameson frequently stayed over. Mallory was secretly getting physical therapy from Andy, who also harbored an unrequited crush and became quite jealous when Mallory became interested in the time-displaced Two-Gun Kid. Time travel and continuity became a heavier focus in the run and the Time Variance Authority (TVA) (created by Walt Simonson during this own FF run) was introduced to help solve a case. However, when the deceased Hawkeye was chosen as an out of time juror, She-Hulk tried to warn him of his impending death. This led to her being arrested by the TVA and her trial in issue #3, which chronologically was the 100th issue of a She-Hulk solo title. This issue not only played the greatest hits of her previous runs and tenures on the Avengers and Fantastic Four, but also brought in nearly every significant supporting character from her past. It also placed many hints towards future stories that would not come about for years or decades in future Dan Slott books. These included the Reckoning War and a grown-up Southpaw’s referencing of Gauntlet, a character later introduced in Avengers: Initiative.

The love drama became more of a focus in the next part of the run when the powers of She-Hulk’s new client Starfox was questioned as a potential a form of sexual harassment. In a misguided attempt to make Jen happy, Starfox pushed the floundering relationship of her and John Jameson into lovey-dovey overdrive, resulting in the two eloping to Las Vegas for a quick wedding. Meanwhile, Awesome Andy unconsciously absorbed the euphoria powers and was accidentally using them to reinforce these feelings in the couple, as well as having his crush Mallory fall in love with him. In the background, the Civil War crossover was running across the Marvel line and She-Hulk had a single issue #8 officially crossover with the event. She-Hulk #8 obtained a second printing and this may have earned enough new readers to have this second volume continue longer than the first. By the end of the Starfox arc, he was partially absolved as manipulated by Thanos, John Jameson had been transformed into Man-Wolf and Mr. Zix was revealed by Stu to be secretly RT-Z9. The robot recorder was not ready for exposure, so he seemingly incinerated Stu.

Dan Slott’s final arcs dealt with the repercussions of the Illuminati blasting Hulk off into space. Due to She-Hulk registering during Civil War, she was drafted into SHIELD to battle all of the Hulk’s old foes as part of a Hulkbuster unit. This culminated in her learning about the fate of Bruce and fighting Iron Man. The Leader was the final foe captured and Mallory decided to defend him in court. She-Hulk had became more sexually active during this time, possibly rebounding from her break-up with John, and this was even used against her when she was called in as a witness during the Leader’s trial. Mallory gladly used her She-Hulk’s greater promiscuousness versus Jennifer as proof that gamma-enhanced individuals were psychologically distinct from their original personalities. Lastly, Dan got meta once again in explaining away plot holes in various comic books as being the result of another dimension’s citizens coming to our Earth and appearing as the heroes/villains in situations that did not fit the current continuity. This was all part of Slott’s way of absolving She-Hulk of having slept with the Juggernaut in a generally maligned run of the X-Men. Slott once again referenced the Reckoning War, which would not be paid off for nearly two decades in his eventual Fantastic Four run. Most importantly, Dan Slott’s pet character Stu had survived and been transported to DuckWorld, from which he was able to return with the help of Ducktor Strange.

Peter David took over the book for the remainder of this volume’s publication. At the start of the run, Jennifer was mysteriously debarred and working as a bounty hunter with her Skrull partner/friend Jazinda. She lived in a trailer park with Jaz and the overall the direction was much more standard super-hero adventures. While not devoid of humor, David took Jennifer more seriously and most of the jokes were from situations that caused inconveniences to She-Hulk. An emphasis was placed on Jennifer’s female friendships and how the multiple mentions of her reputation of sleeping around seemed to irritate her. This did not stop her from finally sleeping with Hercules at one point and, while it was hinted that Jazinda may have had romantic feelings for Jen, Jennifer made it clear that she was not sexually interested in women. Due to having one of the two major characters be a Skrull, the Secret Invasion crossover played a major role in the series. The title crossed over with David’s other book X-Factor and Jazinda was confronted by her father, the Super-Skrull.

Ever since World War Hulk, Jen's cousin Bruce had been kept locked up in stasis. Running concurrently to Peter David's She-Hulk was a Hulk solo title starring a mysterious Red Hulk, who was eventually revelealed to be Thunderbolt Ross. In the second arc of the Hulk book, She-Hulk teamed up with a gathering of Lady Liberators, including friends Thundra and Invisible Woman, to help take down Red Hulk.

While they failed, the final arc of her own book involved getting the Lady Liberators back together to take down a cruel dictator in a third world country. This once again established the theme of She-Hulk’s strong female relationships, especially since the ladies’ target was a hugely misogynistic male who literally tried to rape Jen at one point. The series ended with a fight against a powered up Man-Elephant and a reaffirmation of Jen's friendship with Jazinda.

All-New Savage She-Hulk – (2009)

In this short miniseries by Fred van Lente, She-Hulk acted more like a cameo and foil to the new She-Hulk Lyra. This new She-Hulk was from an alternate future timeline and was the gene-spliced daughter of Hulk and Thundra. Jennifer only featured prominently in the second issue of the series and only appeared in a few panels of the other three issues. While the two She-Hulks were fighting against each other, it was discovered that Lyra held a grudge against Jennifer’s fellow Lady Liberator Thundra, for abandoning her original world for this one. Additionally, the more serious Lyra was juxtaposed against the more light-hearted Jennifer when it was revealed that Lyra actually got weaker the angrier she became. The series ended after the pair team up to fight Norman Osborn and his Dark Avengers, the shady Osborne having seized power after Secret Invasion. The plot was left unresolved and continued in issue #600 of the Incredible Hulk, where Lyra’s story would serve as a back-up tale for several issues.

Incredible Hulks – (2010-2011)

She-Hulk next appeared in issue #600 of Incredible Hulk, which was a turning point for that book as her cousin Bruce Banner returned to the title after being out of action since the World War Hulk story line. She teamed up with reporter Ben Ulrich to help find her cousin, who eventually broke out of his induced stasis to battle Red Hulk. Many other gamma-irradiated characters appeared in this issue which would later culminate in the title being renamed the Incredible Hulks in issue #612, featuring a loose team of Hulk's Gamma Family. She-Hulk appeared sparingly, often showing up for a few panels to be the voice of reason among this dysfunctional family of Hulks. Her major responsibility appeared to be to Lyra who, coming from a world of strong women, responded much better to a female role model rather than to her biological father.

Additionally during this period, a story line named “Fall of the Hulks” occurred that included a three-issue She-Hulks miniseries. Revealed in this series, Jennifer had been kidnapped after the events of issue #600 and placed in stasis. In the meantime, Lyra joined the Frightful Four in order to find where they were keeping Jen and rescue her. Betty Ross (as Red She-Hulk) attacked the pair while brainwashed, but Jen talked her through her programming. All three She-Hulks helped turn the tide of battle against an army of Hulks and various Hulked-Out Heroes.

She-Hulks – (2011)

This miniseries concluded the story of the two She-Hulks started in All-New Savage She-Hulk, followed up on in Fall of the Hulks: She-Hulks and touched upon in the Incredible Hulks. Jennifer and Lyra continued working with Bruce, but now worked as a team of two, determined to take down the Intelligencia, a group of super-smart super-villains. In their downtime, Lyra went to high school while She-Hulk enjoyed her new lush apartment and reconnecting with Wyatt once again. Villains fought during this high action series included the Trapster, the Wizard, the Red Ghost, the Mad Thinker and Klaw. The series ended on a somber note, in that Lyra hulked out during a school dance and made everyone afraid of her. Jennifer reluctantly taught her that part of being a Hulk sometimes involves walking away from the ones you wish to protect.