She-Hulk #5 // Review
Jen was investigating Jack’s mysterious past with him when they got attacked. As it turns out, the guy in question is a complete stranger. That doesn’t make the attack any easier to handle, which is really saying something when one considers that Jen can make herself 6’7”, green, and nearly invulnerable. Jen’s going to have some difficulty in She-Hulk #5. Writer Rainbow Rowell puts Jen through a couple of difficult moments that are rendered for the page by artist Luca Maresca and colorist Rico Renzi. The action is a lot of fun. So is the drama that follows it. Rowell’s approach to Jen has a very strong indie comics vibe for a title featuring a very prominent Marvel character. And that’s a really good thing.
The guy who is attacking Jack is big. He might have a reason for attacking the Jack of Hearts, and it might have to do with some tarts. So it’s probably not going to make a whole lot of sense, but Jen’s got plenty of experience with weird altercations. Having survived that, there’s the small matter of dinner with Jack, which could prove to be a bit of a challenge of its own. Jack’s trying to work things out, and Jen wants to help him. Time will tell if he’ll let her. Maybe somewhere between wine and high-end Brussels sprouts, they have a few moments of clarity.
Rowell’s framing is pleasantly strange. An issue that starts with an 8-page battle in the streets of Manhattan ends with a 6-page conversation over dinner at a nice-looking restaurant. The conversation is as witty as it is moody. Rowell’s got a really good handle on quirky idiosyncrasy. Even the slugfest at the opening of the issue has a wistful kind of moodiness about it. Yes, this guy’s beating the hell out of Jen, but he actually comes across as being profoundly vulnerable as he’s doing it. The issue’s “villain” is dangerous and fragile. It’s quite an accomplishment to pull that kind of dichotomy off without extensive dialogue.
Maresca and Renzi deliver the moodiness to the page with some very poignant shots. The action hits the page with jarring percussion, but the nuanced drama seems to hit the page with much more emotional intensity. Jen’s helping clean up after the battle, and she looks off into the distance and says, “That’s all of us, I guess.” And in that moment...in that panel, there’s an emotional fatigue rendered into the moment by the art team that feels a hell of a lot more powerful than the combat that preceded it. Later on, the conversation between Jen and Jack at the restaurant has palpable shifts in tone that the art team brings to the page quite beautifully with breathtakingly subtle shifts in framing, color, and facial expressions.
From the first issue of her first series, She-Hulk has always been kind of a strange and quirky alternative to mainstream Marvel. The best writers and artists to work with Jen over the years have each found something unique and distinctive to link her to...a mood that takes the quirkiness in a different direction. Rowell has found a pleasant indie drama approach to Jen’s life that finally seems to be establishing a very distinctive and extremely charming personality with the fifth issue.
