Essential Savage She-Hulk, Vol. 1 by Stan Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects Issues 1-25 of the Savage She-Hulk. It's argued that the book is truly not "essential." In one way, there's a good argument to be had because these stories aren't "essential" in the way that early Spider-man, Avengers, or Fantastic Four stories are. These are not necessary to understanding anything.

But there's also a case to be made on the other side. Issue 1 is written Stan Lee and She-Hulk was the last hero to be created by Stan Lee for Marvel back in 1979. In addition, during the 1980s, She-Hulk would replace Ben Grimm on the Fantastic Four and then join the Avengers, so her start is important.

I'd also disagree that this is typical comic book fare. Certainly, there's an element of that, but when I compare this to the Spider-woman book that a couple years before, this stands out as far different. For one thing, after Lee and John Bouscema created the original story, She-Hulk had one writer and one penciler for the remainder of the book which is rare. David Anthony Kraft took She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters on a journey as a character that was fascinating. At the beginning of the book, her life is actually pretty good, but then her cousin Bruce Banner gives her a transfusion of his gamma-irradiated blood and her professional and personal life go downhill forcing her to confront issues in her life. Instead, Jennifer submerges herself in the She-hulk identity. It's a fascinating twenty-four issue character arc. At the same time, there's a very strong plot arc that runs through the last half of the book parallel to her character story with some plots (such as her Dad's scheming girlfriend) playing out over most of the book. It's impressive structure you don't see in most comics. Keeping all these character and plot threads working together is very hard but Kraft does a great job pulling it off and making this book seem unlike a collection of disjointed comics and more like a single saga.

Another thing that's striking about this book is how few guest appearances there are. Guest appearances by big players in the Marvel universe were a popular wait to boost numbers. Yet, this book features a scant few: Iron Man, Man-Thing, Man-Wolf, and Michael Morbious are the biggest names you'll find. You won't fin d a ton of citations to other books unlike other series which seemed to be a dumping ground for cast off heroes and villains. Kraft really seemed to want this book to be about She-Hulk and really focus on that charactater.

She-hulk faces her own villains, and her own demons too, wrapping up in a super double sized Issue 25 that resoles both character and plot arcs.

Sometimes the book delves into melodrama and there are some cheesy moments, but this was a well-crafted unified series that makes for some wonderful reading as we get to see the woman who would become one of Marvel's most lasting 1980s innovations.



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