The purpose of this one-shot is to highlight She-Hulk’s 30 years of existence as a leading Marvel superheroin. Shulkie has accomplished a lot over the past 3 decades, but somehow, she always manages to find herself out of the spotlight, easily overshadowed by her male colleagues. This is truly a pity as I firmly believe that She-Hulk is Marvel’s “Power Girl” (
The Wonder Woman comparison is reserved for Ms. Marvel.) and deserves more credit than anyone gives her.
Let’s get down to the review shall we? Who better to script a birthday party issue than Peter David. A long time scribe of Jennifer’s gamma irradiated cousin, The Hulk, he is no stranger to Marvel’s green skinned clan. He also wrote the last on-going series that She-Hulk had. Unfortunately, PAD never got to explore this character any further, due to low sales figures.
Peter David does a good job of highlighting Shulkie’s accomplishments in the Marvel Universe in the form of a “Ghosts of Christmas” homage.
One thing I have always loved about She-Hulk is the character’s sense of humor and general light-heartedness of her stories. This issue is no different. After Jennifer is awakened from her sleep by Stan Lee, she is visited by 3 different versions of herself; past (
Savage She-Hulk), present (
Lawyer She-Hulk) and future (
don’t wanna spoil this one for ya). She is put on trial for being in denile of her milestone anniversary. We laugh, we cry & we smash along with the Jade Giantess right up to the last panel of the main story.
The pencils were handled by rookie artist Jonboy Meyers. I first saw his work on the Ninja Scroll series by WildStorm. Although heavily manga inspired, his visuals are a lot of fun. He was the perfect choice for the tone of the story. Strong inks and vibrant colors play a crucial part as well. Overall, a top notch collaboration from the whole creative team here.
Happy Birthday Jennifer Walters, here’s hoping for another Sensational 30 years to come.
So that about covers off the main story, but we are still left with 2 more for our eyes to feast on.
The second story is brought to us by writer Brian Reed and artist Iban Coello. I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of running across Coello’s art before, but call me an instant fan. I see a tiny little bit of Michael Choi in his lines, which are extremely clean. This story guest stars Ms. Marvel and Spider-Woman and Iban Coello really does them justice.
Brian Reed pens a good pre-Secret Invasion story. The 3 super-women cross paths after a bank robbery and decide to work together to get to the bottom of it. The creative duo shows us just how well She-Hulk can work in a team environment. Great short story, great art. Keep an eye out for Iban Coello. I expect great art to come from this newcomer in the future.
The 3rd and final act of this She-Hulk Sensational falls into Marvel status-quo for this kind of issue. You guessed it… a reprint! We are “treated” to Sensational She-Hulk #40 by John Byrne. I won’t dwell much on this one here.
Byrne defined Shulkie in the late 80’s. He made her the self-affirmed, good hearted, vivacious & feminine green power house that we know and love today. Let’s also not forget that Jennifer Walters was breaking the 4th wall way before a certain
Merc with a Mouth ever did and this reprint is a great example of that.
Bottom Line: I give this issue a 4 out of 5. It’s a must have for any She-Hulk fan and with an awesome cover by Gary Frank, I think Marvel gave us enough to justify the 4.99 price tag
Happy Birthday She-Hulk.