She-Hulk #7 – Review

By: Charles Soule (story), Javier Pulido (art), Muntsa Vicente (colors)

The Story: Ant-Man and Hellcat cut She-Hulk down to size.

The Review: I’m sure Soule had his reasons, but it was still kind of bizarre for him to break off the one ongoing mystery of this series, just as it was really starting to take off. For one thing, his choice required all the characters involved to suddenly decide the case they had dedicated themselves to investigating wasn’t worth the effort anymore, going against all of their usual tenacity. That inconsistency would nearly be a plot hole if Soule hadn’t suggested a touch of the supernatural might be involved.

Still, shelving the Blue File for the time being allows Soule to take another stab at that delicate genre balance between superhero and legal drama, and he succeeds this issue. Past premises have been heavy on the law, light/repetitive with the vigilantism, but this one reverses that trend: Rufus, an inventor working out of Jen’s office building, wants her to negotiate a contract for the purchase of his and his partner Reza’s shrink-ray technology, but he needs her to find Reza first. Here’s the wrinkle: Reza, in a fit of proprietary rage, may have shrunken himself into hiding.

This would be material for a fun adventure by itself, but then Soule decides to raise the stakes with the revelation that at any moment the unstable shrinking mechanism will cause Reza to blow up half a city block. While this adds some urgency to the story, it really only pays off as an explosive punchline to Reza’s insistence that there is absolutely nothing wrong with his technology. This being mainstream superhero, there’s never a real risk of anyone getting hurt, but you still can’t help being a bit appalled when Hank Pym declines to warn a nearby hospital because he doesn’t want anyone panicking. I dunno, Hank—this sounds a lot like something people should legitimately panic about to me.

I wouldn’t get too excited about Hank’s guest turn; once he safely gets Jen and Patsy down to size and announces the gravity of the situation (grimly changing the mission parameters from rescue to recovery), his expertise is then whisked away. This has the benefit of leaving the two women to improvise in a completely foreign setting, which would be more enjoyable if they had another issue—or just a few extra pages—to work with. As is, we fairly blaze through Patsy’s valiant attempts to master the Ant Helmet* and the squabble between her and Jen. These two have had a lot of tension over Patsy’s want of powers, so resolving the blowout in just a couple pages sort of downplays their issues with each other.

Despite the rush, or maybe because of it, it’s an exhilarating read, with a new complication arising every time you turn the page. It also hits the rare sweet spot of being well thought out with no harm to its sense of humor. Jen, surprised when Hank calls her client by first name: “Wait, you know each other?”

“Yeah, the field’s pretty small.”

“Heh. Good one,” compliments Patsy.

It’s nice to have Pulido back on the job, even though he doesn’t immediately impress with four copy-pasted panels right off the bat, in which Patsy toying with her Captain America figurine changes, but Rufus’ close-eyed smile and Jen’s vacant stare do not. Once we get that splash of a gargantuan Hank manually installing wind turbines on the coast, like the Colossus of Rhodes assembling his IKEA furniture, Pulido returns to his typically showy self and stays that way for the rest of the issue. Kudos to Muntsa for making She-Hulk the most unashamedly cheery series from the Marvel line; bright colors don’t do much for a comic’s sophistication, but they are entirely right for a lighthearted one like this.

Conclusion: A few minor flaws aside, it’s a thoroughly entertaining issue that puts all of She-Hulk‘s charm on display.

Grade: B+

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: * “Eric O’Grady figured it out, for God’s sake. And he’s an idiot.”

– Shrink ray tech may seem like a great idea for reducing “shipping costs, among other things,” but it also sounds like something that can be grossly abused, like, all the time.

– Really, Patsy? You’re excited by a miniaturized Captain America? Do you not know what action figures are?

– Isn’t it a pretty significant conflict of interest for Jen to work out the contract between Rufus, Reza, and Hank? I wouldn’t know, having thoroughly bombed the professional responsibility portion of the Bar.