A Letter to a Friend: One Last Hurrah to Soule's She-Hulk

She-Hulk #12 just put a bow on the entire comic series from Marvel. We here at Comic Book News UK would be remiss if we didn’t take the time to focus inwards recounting on what the series did for comics, equality, and the forward thinking nature of marvel’s own publishing slate. Over the past couple of years, Marvel has taken some huge risks starting with Hawkeye from Matt Fraction and David Aja, and since then, the publisher really has continued to explore many of those ideas with bold new stories and smaller takes on characters. Thankfully, the openness of She-Hulk called forth a new drive in the industry. The tone set forth by author Javier Pulido contained a distinctive line-style and method of storytelling. Charles Soule was the other side of the greatness contained within the comic. Soule is a practicing lawyer intensely familiar with the law. As a result, She-Hulk was an exciting new path that saw us explore Walter’s own life turn upside-down when she was forced to start her own practice for ethical reasons.

Righting Tony Stark’s wrongs.
The first thing that Soule did with the character to really start breaking ground right out of the gate was have Jennifer go up against Tony Stark himself. Bear in mind that this storyline is before Tony Stark became the Superior Iron Man, and was simply a story about how Tony tends to forget about the smaller picture. However, this showed something that people in comics always clamor to see more of; the little guy. The people trapped in the wreckage of the superheroes in the Marvel Universe are all fascinating creatures, but digging deeper into their more everyday lifestyles really sheds a new light to these heroes. Jennifer’s investigation into discovering more about these characters illustrates something that was hidden in the back of Soule’s letters column in She-Hulk #12: Jennifer tries to be the best version of herself in every instance that she possibly can. The first issue of She-Hulk addressed Soule’s thesis by having Jennifer represent those that cannot help themselves.

Breaking diversity and stereotypes.
She-Hulk continued to break ground in the people that she surrounded herself with. Angie, Walter’s paralegal is a form that we rarely see represented in any form of comics. She’s a real distinctive person that has more curves than others. She also has a monkey – and everyone knows that monkeys are awesome. This comic was also a vehicle for Hellcat as well, a character that at times seems to exist on the fringes of the continuity within the greater Marvel Universe. Patsy Walker is also written with a certain level of moral ambiguity with her second issue. This interesting length of supporting cast members really added to the rich tapestry the story was trying to explore.

The lawyer stuff was pretty cool too.
This comic was well versed in the rules of being a lawyer, and in the big Steve Rogers storyline that kicked off before the most recent story, we saw the payoff of those aspects of the comic in full effect. She-Hulk was so smart that it really did lead to something graceful on behalf of the full comic book series. The stories that dealt with the legal puzzles head-on really showed Soule at his best, as the author masterfully explained really confusing legal puzzles and made them sound like they were so simple a child could follow them. It’s one of the heftiest assets to this comic as a whole, and one that made it something to remember.

Forget Nicolas Cage, Javier Pulido is the National Treasure.
Pulido’s art has set a standard for She-Hulk that is simply unlike anything else on the stands. Taking an obscure character and matching the heroine up with artwork that’s so different in that sense was one of the greatest things attached to the character in general. The subtle facial expressions and heavy lettering was only part of the genius here, further complemented by the different kinds of layouts and body styles. This story looks like nothing else in comics.

Rebranding the character without destroying her.
I voiced some displeasure with the recent Ant-Man relaunch that completely reinterpreted the character to come up with something that is separate from the previous incarnation of Scott Lang. This is never the case for Soule’s take on this heroine. He rebuilt her with new elements, took her own background and fleshed it out in-tune with a brand new supporting cast of characters. This series was inventive in how it introduced a familiar sect of characters into new situations. Longtime She-Hulk love interest Wyatt Wingfoot was reintroduced into the series with love, in a whole new manner during The Blue File storyline. Jen’s ties to the Avengers were explored here on several different notes, chronicling her life as a character all throughout the series. All the pieces of Jen’s life were used in this tale, but they were assembled differently than they had been before.

She-Hulk was a marvelous comic for a plethora of reasons, and while it was being published we were lucky to have a comic so willing to take chances and brave such tremendous heights. Getting a story with this much politics, hubris, and pure passion soaked into the pages isn’t something that any fan should take lightly in this changing comic book climate. Unfortunately, losing She-Hulk is a loss. Fans should keep an eye on the projects of both Charles Soule and Javier Pulido as the two creators continue to innovate within the comics industry.