Series Disambiguation (She-Hulk)

Written By: 
Last Updated: 
29th September 2022
Image Work: 

 

 

Years Issues Series Name Brief Description
1980-1982 #1-25 Savage She-Hulk Lawyer defending the innocent in court while her hard-to-control alter-ego gets physical.
1982-1984 #221-242 Avengers (1st series) Joins Earth’s Mightiest Heroes
1984-1987 #265-300 Fantastic Four (1st series) Replaces the Thing on the Fantastic Four
1985 #18 Marvel Graphic Novel John Byrne’s first solo She-Hulk story
1987-1988 #278-297 Avengers (1st series) Returns to the Avengers
1989-1994 #1-60 Sensational She-Hulk John Bryne's fourth wall-breaking series known for comedy.
1995-1996 #13-18 Fantastic Force (1st series) Lightens up the Fantastic Four spin-off
1998-1999 #8-19 Heroes for Hire (1st series) Bills by the hour to help out the Heroes for Hire
2000-2004 #27-84, 500-503 Avengers (3rd series) Another stint on the Avengers until they get Disassembled
2004-2005 #1-12 She-Hulk (1st series) Puts her law degree to use while still battling wacky villains (Dan Slott series)
2005-2009 #1-38 She-Hulk (2nd series) Direct continuation of the previous volume. Slott replaced by Peter David with #22
2009 #1-4 All-New Savage She-Hulk "New" She-Hulk Lyra meets Jennifer
2010 #1-3 Fall of the Hulks: The Savage She-Hulks Crossover miniseries in which Lyra rescues Jennifer.
2010-2011 #612-623 Incredible Hulks Teams-up with fellow Hulk characters
2011 #1-14 She-Hulks Jen and Lyra take down the Intelligencia
2013-2014 #1-16 FF (2nd series) Matt Fraction / Mike Allred series, wacky tone
2013-2014 #5-14 Mighty Avengers (2nd series) Pro-bono lawyer and member
2014-2015 #1-12 She-Hulk (3rd series) A lawyer-based series written by lawyer Charles Soule
2015 #1-9 Captain America and the Mighty Avengers A team player in the Last Days of 616
2016 #1-10 A-Force (2nd series) All-female Avenger spin-off team
2017 #1-11 Hulk (4th series) A bulkier, gray She-Hulk battles depression
2018 #159-163 She-Hulk (1st series) Previous volume returns to the Legacy numbering
2018-2022 #1-50 Avengers (7th series) A much stronger, less articulate She-Hulk joins an A-list Avengers team
2022 #1-? She-Hulk (4th series) Series returning to comedy, romance and law

CREATION

In 1980, She-Hulk was arguably the final, majorly popular character created by the legendary Stan Lee, with original art done by the legendary John Buscema. However, the fun-loving character that Marvel fans would come to know was actually created for cynical reasons. The story goes that the success of the Incredible Hulk television series got Marvel nervous that the network would attempt to create a spin-off with a female version of the gamma-infused character. The root of this fear came from the creation of The Bionic Woman as a spin-off of The Six-Million Dollar Man. Universal Studios then had sole ownership of the character and did not have to compensate the original author of the novel Cyborg, upon which The Six-Million Dollar Man was based. With Marvel creating She-Hulk first, they could ensure that the network would not own any similar character created for the Incredible Hulk show.

 

This link to the show is evident in the first line of text in issue #1 of Savage She-Hulk, which shows Bruce Banner on his way to visit his cousin Jennifer Walters. It reads, “Call him David, or Bruce, or Bob—what does it matter?” David was the first name of Hulk’s character in the popular show, which allegedly changed because the producers thought the name Bruce sounded “too homosexual.” Stan Lee would later admit he found this reason to be foolish but he nonetheless relented. Perhaps this was, in part, because he was fighting to ensure that the character remained green, which the producers also supposedly wanted to change. Regardless of the truth behind the production of the Hulk TV show, the success of it directly led to the creation of She-Hulk.

In the past, Marvel had already created female spin-off characters for similar fears of missing licensing opportunities. They had created Spider-Woman in 1977 in anticipation that another comic company would publish a similar female Spider character to capitalize on the success of Spider-Man. Unlike Spider-Woman (who had an origin completely removed from Peter Parker) She-Hulk actually included a direct link to her male counterpart. She had received her powers from a blood transfusion given to her by her cousin Bruce Banner.

While perhaps not created for the most inspired reasons and having written no more than the first issue, Stan Lee would admit later in life that he had always liked the character. He would often mention She-Hulk as one of the female characters he had created for which he had a soft spot. Stan Lee’s first issue did a good job establishing the character’s origin and helped lay the groundwork for writers like John Byrne to flesh out the personality traits that would later define her. Finally, 42 years after her creation, She-Hulk has once again followed in her cousin's footsteps to headline her own popular television show. The future seems bright for the Green Gamazon.

Pages