She-Hulk Vol. 1: Deconstructed

This book focused on Jennifer Walters and not the new angrier, grayer She-Hulk. I enjoyed that. It's nowhere near the best I've read, but the quality of recent books seems to be steadily decreasing anyway. It was good enough that I will buy the second book.

She-Hulk Vol. 1: Deconstructed  collects the first six-issues of the post-Civil War II Hulk title. The Hulk being dead and all (though see the Star*Lord Annual in  Star-Lord: Grounded (Legendary Star-Lord)  for more on that), She-Hulk has been promoted to be the heavyweight title holder by default, but then Marvel had second thoughts and re-retitled the collection. Editorial indecision? Strange sales results? Who can say? (Well, Marvel, obviously; but they haven’t told me.)Anyway, if you were expecting an All New Rampaging Hulk, you are/were in for a big surprise, for this appears to be another entry in Marvel’s “throw it at the wall and see what sticks” range. Gwenpool stuck, Spider-Gwen stuck (though I have no idea why, but I am old), Mockingbird, Hellcat, Howard the Duck and She-Hulk didn’t.This is actually a ‘serious’ comic, in that we are presented with a non-green Jennifer Walters who is struggling with something or other – it is not clear what exactly – it may be post-traumatic stress following Civil War II, it may be something else; it is hard to tell, for, although we see her internal struggles at work, we don’t know if she is frightened of releasing the Hulk, or of something else. She may have lost control of the Hulk, she may not; it is not clear enough to me, anyway. Actually, it might be more accurate to say that, while she does have post-traumatic stress, we don’t know how that is manifesting, or whether another problem has also emerged.It is an excellent story though, even if not quite what you may be expecting from the cover of the collection or of the individual issues, which shows a rampaging Hulk. The internal art is also extremely stylised – a polite way of saying very cartoony, but not in a bad way – and so when Jen does Hulk-out, you can’t actually tell if she’s different from her usual self because you have no idea how the artist would have drawn the ‘old’ She-Hulk; so, again, the mystery is kept mysterious.This is also the ‘real’ Jennifer Walters – a lawyer now gone back to working for a biggish firm, but with friends looking in to check on her – Carole Danvers and Patsy Walker in particular.This is not yet a Rampaging Hulk, more of a Recovering Hulk.

I have to admit that I have read this story in single issues, but since my agenda is about the story alone I feel legitimated to write a review here. There has been a lot of criticism on these pages about this not being the light-hearted Jennifer Walter everybody loves, and I have to admit that also I fell in love first with the funny Jen of Dan Slott.But this is a completely different story. We should not measure a piece of art by what we expect but what it is. For me what Tamaki does here was unexpected too, but it won me over.Jennifer Walters has experienced terrible violence during the second Civil War almost dying after the fight against Thanos. She has experienced the loss of her cousin Bruce. And she just tries to get on her feet again. She tries it by work but she barely can bottle her feelings. Tamaki takes her time to get a grip of her main character. A new lawyer firm, her new collaborators; Jen watching cooking shows to occupy her mind… The art supports all of this, the facial expressions done by Nico Leon, the congenial coloring by Matt Milla that is more directed by moods than by naturalism (green!).There is a client, Maise Brewn; a woman who has experienced violence too. And who is threatened to lose her home; in her view to lose everything. This might set off more violence. We will see.The story builds slowly, decompressed, but finally the pieces all come together. There are no slugfests with the likes of the Rhino or Titania, there is few witty banter (although there is, the relationship of Jen with her new assistant surely has its potential, the friendship of Jen and Patsy Walker is built on), but the story has depth and social relevance.Finally the Hulk is coming out. I won’t spoil more. But the story of Jen Walters is going on. I will follow, and I hope when the title will go back to “She-Hulk” with the renumbered #159 Mariko Tamaki will still be on board.