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She-Hulk #6 – Review

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By: Charles Soule (story), Ron Wimberly (art)

The Story: Jen has her own demons to confront.

The Review: Exposition is a necessary evil in storytelling. Without it, stories lose context, substance, pretty much everything that gives the characters and action real meaning. At the same time, nothing slows down a story more. Part of the art of writing is doling out enough of exposition so the story doesn’t devolve into a mindless series of dramatic outbursts and car explosions, while pacing it so you don’t just bury your audience in background facts.

If a long streak of exposition is bad, it’s even worse when you’ve heard it all before. Comics have a particularly bad habit of doing this, I imagine for purposes of being accessible to the fabled new readers. It’s not a great justification; when you consider most comics tend to peak at their debut and gradually lose readers afterward, the repeated exposition seems more likely to annoy loyalists than inform the uninitiated, which is exactly what happens here. All that recapping about Jen’s blue file and the parties involved and the fact you’re not meant to say the plaintiff’s name out loud just seems redundant when the issue has a recap page to rely on.

Thankfully, we’re spared from having to go through the whole spiel all over again when Jen’s meeting with Kevin Trench (a.k.a. Nightwatch), another defendant on the case, is interrupted by a squadron of little blue imps. Their ability to teleport in and out of action with a bamf sound strongly suggests a connection to Nightcrawler, though that only deepens the mystery than clears anything up.

It also looks like we may have a temporary hold on that mystery now that Jen’s decided to let the blue file go. That in itself is suspicious; since when does She-Hulk just “let sleeping dogs lie,” especially when “people are getting hurt”? In addition to this uncharacteristic lack of tenacity, Jen displays some truly unusual tactless behavior to her supporting cast: alluding to Patsy’s lack of powers, trying to lawyer her way out of her landlord’s insurance policy, putting down Angie. Clearly, getting the googly-eyes from one imp during the battle messed with our hero a little.

It’s Jen’s hostility towards Angie that’s really hard to swallow, since Angie literally took a bullet to bring back some information on the case. We already figured that our favorite paralegal and her monkey have some powerful mojo, but for Hei Hei to bring Angie back from the dead, and for her to be completely nonplussed about it in such a way as to indicate this is a common occurrence for her, is power of a whole ‘nother level. More importantly, this issue makes us realize that Angie isn’t just a clerical genius; she cares deeply about her work, otherwise she wouldn’t react with such hurt when Jen dismisses her findings out of hand.

We’d have a much better appreciation of Angie’s feelings if only Wimberly’s art was a little tighter. Coloring things himself helps; the softer hues weigh less heavily on his etchy linework so you can see the craft he puts into his very distinctive style. But I’ll be frank: originality sometimes comes a far second to just looking pleasant, specifically when it distracts you from paying attention to what’s actually going on. There’s a plasticized, sharp, and fragmented quality to his figures, almost like he put them together with shards of Plexiglass, that’s kind of hard on the eyes. The texture is missing in his art, which flattens even his most dynamic action sequences.

Conclusion: The unconventional art leaves something to be desired, and the script is slightly hampered by points you know too well.

Grade: B-

- Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – Under Wimberly, Jen’s hairstyle actually changes when she hulks out. Not sure I like the wild pixie look. It kind of makes her look like the Jolly Green Giant’s twin sister.


Filed under: Marvel Comics, Reviews Tagged: Charles Soule, Hellcat, Jennifer Walters, Marvel, Marvel Comics, Nightwatch, Patsy Walker, Ron Wimberly, She Hulk, She-Hulk #6, She-Hulk #6 review

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