Delayed Reaction: Dan Slott's She-Hulk

She-Hulk Vol. 1: Single Green Female and She-Hulk Vol. 2: Superhuman Law (Marvel Comics), by Dan Slott, Juan Bobillo, Paul Pelletier, etc.

Why’d I wait?: I’ve always had an aversion to the character She-Hulk, despite never having read any of her comics. From her stupid name, to the inherent weirdness of a sexy, female version of the Incredible Hulk.

Why now?: Another accidental find at The Columbus Metropolitan Library, the best friend a Columbus-based, poor graphic novel addict could ever have.

Well?:Despite having zero experience or interest in the character She-Hulk prior to cracking open the first page, it took Slott exactly 22 pages to suck me in completely.

Having finished the first issue of his She-Hulk, I was suddenly transformed into a fan. Like her cousin the (He-)Hulk, She-Hulk can transform back and forth between a jade-colored giant and a small, pale, bespectacled nobody. At the series’ beginning, she’s spending 24 hours a day in her She-Hulk form, working as a giant green lawyer, living in the Avengers mansion and enjoying/abusing the privileges that come with being on the same super-team as Captain America.

Slott turns her life upside down in short order, giving her a new status quo: She’s kicked out of the mansion, dumped by her boyfriend and even loses her job. She gets hired at a prestigious new firm, however—Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway (if the names sound familiar, they should), a firm specializing in the new field of superhuman law. The only catch is that She-Hulk must remain in her small, pale, bespectacled nobody body, not her superheroine one.

Slott writes the series as if it were a screwball dramedy—a cross between Ally McBeal and Alan Moore’s Top Ten series—penning episodes rather than story arcs. These he divides between Marvel Universe legal cases (Spider-Man suing the Daily Bugle for libel, a supervillian seeking damages for injuries suffered during an armor car robbery that Hercules thwarted, et cetera) and tightly-written, gently funny character pieces.

Slott’s love of all things Marvel shows through with nearly every issue, as practically the entire Marvel Universe shows up at some point during these two trades, from The Avengers, The Thing and Hank Pym to obscure ones like Beta Ray Bill, Adam Warlock and Titania to really, really, really obscure ones, like Eightball and the Armadillo.

It’s not a perfect book—the switch from Juan Bobillo’s unique style to Paul Pelletier’s more traditional superhero fare can give one whiplash of the eyes, and Slott has a rough time fitting She-Hulk’s “Avengers Disassembled” ordeal into his completely different take on the character—but it’s one of the closest things to a perfect book Marvel was publishing at the time.

Would I travel back in time to buy it off the rack?: I can’t think of a better use of a time machine. Well, maybe one or two. Or three thousand. But yeah, I’d totally pick up Slott’s She-Hulk while I was back there buying lottery tickets.