In this present market filled with comics that go nowhere– comics that still employ that now-tired and overused method of ‘decompressed storytelling’, or –worse yet– filled with half-issue’s worth of characters with superpowers doing nothing more than standing around and talking about not much of anything worth reading… there’s a book that stands out to my mind. SHE-HULK, written by Dan Slott and illustrated by Juan Bobillo is that book. Dan’s writing is so intelligent and witty and packed with humor equally mixed with pathos (but not melodrama, mind you) and Bobillo’s unique artwork is the perfect compliment for Dan’s words. It’s hard to quantify or put a pat high-concept hollywood label on what Dan does with Bruce Banner’s cousin Jen Walters in this book. He seems to throw the kitchen sink into almost every plot… and he does a marvelous job of keeping things fascinating. Dan’s SHE-HULK will go from trying a case in court one moment to duking it out with THE CHAMPION in a cosmic boxing ring half a universe away the next. It’s always fun and always interesting. With Dan, Jen faces not only physical challenges but psychological and emotional ones as well. And Juan Bobillo’s wonderfully quirky art works so well with Dan’s stories that I simply can’t imagine anyone else drawing the book. When Juan doesn’t draw it.. I don’t buy it. These guys seem to be in perfect synch on this title… and it deserves to get more attention and recognition.

And sales.

It’s not in trouble by any means…. in fact it just began a second ‘season’ (the new term that’s in vogue for comics these days) and the sales for this run have improved over the last a bit. But when I see the sales for some of the stuff today that in my opinion can’t hold a candle to this book doubling and tripling the numbers that SHE-HULK does… it amazes and depresses me. In the superhero realm of comics, SHE-HULK should reign supreme. So do yourself a favor if you’re not already buying this comic…. give it a try. I’m pretty sure you’ll come to quickly love it.

That’s it for today.

This is Entry 182.

Mike

This entry was posted on Monday, January 9th, 2006 at 5:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.