Marvel's other new launch for the week is a new She-Hulk series. Or rather, it's a relaunch of the one that lasted twelve issues in its previous incarnation.  Since it was so well received by the people who did read it, the plan was supposedly to cancel it, relaunch it, and give it a promotional push of some sort.

The promotional push has apparently passed me by.  Quite why Howling Commandos was deemed more deserving of a three-page preview than this book, which is immediately likeable, entertaining, and would probably have sold a few copies by displaying its wares, is something of a mystery to me.  No doubt Marvel had their reasons, and no doubt they were bad ones.

I did a search the other day for writer Dan Slott's earlier work and was surprised to find that he's been around much longer than I thought.  His published CV goes back at least to 1991.  But She-Hulk has been a breakout book for him in terms of critical attention, if not for actual sales.  It appeals to the more traditional superhero fan mindset that enjoys wallowing in the playpen of established Marvel Universe concepts, while simultaneously relishing in the absurdity of it all.  It works not by mocking the silliness of the superhero genre, but by reminding us that the silliness is an intrinsic part of what we love about it.

The set up in the previous series had the She-Hulk working as a lawyer in the unlikely-sounding superhuman law division of Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg and Holliway, which spends its time dealing with the unavoidably ludicrous legal fallout of a world with superhuman vigilantes, time travellers, cosmic beings and supernatural occurrences.  After being destroyed at the end of the last series, the law firm have rebuilt, but something's slightly off about the new version.  For one thing, they seem to have started acting for the bad guys.

The grasp of law may be a touch shaky from time to time - Slott often falls into the common trap of assuming that the law is much more hung up on technicalities than it really is - but it works because it recognises a reality that will be familiar to many practicing lawyers.  There is no set of facts so unlikely, no occurrence so bizarre, and no discovery so novel that a sufficiently determined lawyer cannot bludgeon it into an established legal pigeonhole.

Juan Bobillo is a perfect choice of artist for a book like this, combining just enough traditional superheroics with off-kilter comic timing.  If everyone looks a little blocky, it doesn't matter, because somehow it just feels right.  The art walks a fine line of being silly while at the same time creating a believable world.

And, on top of creating a generally adorable comedy world, the book knows when to shift gears to introduce a bit of genuine drama into the plot.  It's perhaps a little unfortunate that House of M already teased bringing back Hawkeye over the last few months, but She-Hulk does it in a much more effective way, with a plot device that seems bizarre yet just might work.

God, I love this book.  It's staked out its territory, and it's going to be hard to beat.

Rating: A+

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