2 out of 5

I owned only a few scattered issues of Gerb’s She-Hulk run for a good long while, not stumbling across my missing ish’s in any cheapie bins.  But the crazy characters on the covers and – gasp – Howard the Duck appearing for a few issues had me madly eager to read his run of 13ish issues (Peter David did a fill-in on #12 and Buzz Dixon – occasional Gerb script assistor – co-wrote 21 – 23).  However, I’d long ago learned, once seeing the bigger picture of the Gerberverse, that his series absolutely read best when you can read ’em all together, so I say on my scattered issues for years.  Finally, I took the plunge and filled in those holes (uhhh backwards metaphor and not intended to tie into ‘The Cosmic Squish Principle’ arc in this series…) and set to work.  Despite my eagerness, I must admit I was equally skeptical: why were these books never really mentioned in reference to Steve?  The run, quantity-wise, is substantial enough to merit being lumped in with other titles he wrote, so what gives?  And thereby do we arrive at a fair comparison title Steve worked on for a similarly lengthy amount of issues and yet doesn’t often get a nod: Daredevil.  It’s not a one-to-one comparison, as Steve’s struggles on that book were for much different reasons (in my analysis, many years later) than the ones which make She-Hulk never really get off the ground, but it results in the same overall vibe of a writer just not sure how to approach a character.

When he took over DD, Gerb had the unenviable task of following up on Conway’s fan-favorite run.  He actually tailed on some story elements it seemed Gerry was developing, and then tried to continue in the same vein of the recent years, tossing cosmic adventures and big monsters ol’ horn-heads way.  It might’ve worked for Gerry, but it felt uncomfortable in Steve’s hands (along with a rotating stable of artists preventing the book from ever feeling settled), and it wasn’t until he finally gave into his overly-texty omniscient narrator ways that the series finally started to shape up into something good.  …And then he left.  Unfortunately, this style of writing – at which Steve excelled – wasn’t so popular in 90s books, making his writing during that era much more hit and miss than his 70s and 80s work, excepting those titles where he really got to design his characters from the ground up (like the awesome Foolkiller mini) and so still wrote from “within” instead of externally, which generally amounts to straight parody/satire – which is a lot of She-Hulk.  On SH, he was also stepping in after John Byrne, who boosted sales and did a lot of 4th wall breaking gimmickry.  Now, as opposed to the filling-the-shoes syndrome he faced on DD, I don’t think he was too bothered by Byrne’s shadow, I suspect more it was Marvel’s idea to toss another “funny” writer onto the series, and maybe they waved “Howard the Duck created by Steve Gerber” under SG’s nose as incentive, as, sure enough, the Duck makes a return in issue #13 with that credit firmly stated.  (This is all guesswork, mind you.  I’m sure someone has the real story and it’s completely different, but until I hear otherwise…)

So issue’s #10 and 11 have Shulkie facing “Pseudoman,” who uses a device which takes advantage of subconsciously ingrained symbolism to essentially convince people of anything.  Dressed in a funny helmet and shabby outfit, he’s a silly villain, and stands for Steve’s stab at commercialism, which seemed as smart a way as any to fully take over the reins and say the book was now his.  There’s no attempt to explain way the heroine no longer breaks 4th walls; we’re just moving on.  It’s a smart move, and does speak for Steve’s confidence in where he wanted to go.  …Which, methinks, was to a place where he could shoehorn in HTD, which happens in the 4-part Cosmic Squish Principle.  Unfortunately, it’s never really clear why he’s there, although it ropes She-Hulk into the Gerberverse as some other old Steve creations pop up as well.  You can feel him at work trying to pull those universe-building strings together.  It just never feels right for She-Hulk.  It’s as though Steve figured the loosey-goosey nature of the series up to that point would make it fertile ground for him to start working his magic, but he was always anchored to characters in other books where he made that happen, and Shulkie just feels functional in Steve’s writing, not an integral part of the plots.  There’s some great ideas and beautiful Steve-ideas kicking around here: Cosmic Squish has a hilariously silly motivating concept and the digs at commercialism and merchandising and fame are all written by the same fastidious and genius curmudgeon who wrote so many great titles over the years, but again, it never feels like it fits.  Some one-off issues – Village of the Darned, raging against censorship, and a fight against Doctor Doom…’s fifth cousin, a dentist – are good and focused and work, because it fits within the comic book context for the character of conflict, punch, resolution.  But with the bigger ideas, it’s too wandering, and the mix of satire and story-telling never successfully blends.  Give Steve a character he can work with.

Art-wise, the book is notable for some early Brian Hitch art, which several letter writers rightfully compare to Alan Davis at this point.  Hitch’s paneling is already excellent at this stage (especially compared to guest penciller Tom Artis’ more jumbled work on a few issues), but it does take about halfway through the run for he and inker Jim Sanders III to find a groove which looks right.  Once they hit that groove, though, it’s a great look.  Jim Novak’s lettering is solid throughout, well adapted to Steve’s wordiness, and Glynis Oliver does a great job on colors: the book seems especially bright and bold for the era in which it came out.

There’s an interesting series of articles on this run here – although it does leave out the last arc of the run – which is much more favorable toward the success of the themes Steve worked into the book.  It’s a good read, and I don’t disagree (the symbolism of The Terror would be satisfying if intended, as it seemed like a strange here-again-and-gone extra stuffed into the book) with it, but overall, I just don’t feel the different elements of the writing were effectively blended together to make it a fun read.