She-Hulk #6 Brings Tantalizing Moments that Don’t Always Satisfy

It’s Eat Cake in Fancy Dresses Wednesday! A grand day under normal circumstances, but this one counts as an especially big win for our favorite green-skinned heroine…for a number of reasons. Find out why in She-Hulk #6, written by Rainbow Rowell, drawn by Luca Maresca, colored by Rico Renzi, and lettered by Joe Caramagna.

Armaan Babu: Good day, Stephanie. I have arrived here in my best suit, taking little bites of a lovely mango cheesecake as I write this review of She-Hulk #6. I hope you are having a similarly fancy day. 

Stephanie Burt: I am now. (I’m pretending I am. IRL I’m eating chili-salt peanuts in bed now that our kids are both asleep. If you can’t break the fourth wall while reviewing She-Hulk, when can you break the fourth wall, amirite?) [Ed. Note: You’re right!]

Armaan: So, while we may lack Megan Thee Stallion cameos in this issue, there are still enough guest stars to have made this a delightful read. Let’s dive in!

Pristine Pastries with Patsy

Armaan: A friend of mine recently got me into Lore Olympus, which took me down a whole rabbit hole of Webtoon comics that made me think: She-Hulk, as it’s written, should absolutely be a Webtoon comic.

We’ve talked before about its unconventional structure, it’s more low-key approach to superhero storytelling — slice-of-life lawyering in a superhero world with a splash of romance and a wonderful cast of colorful characters. The type of audience this targets, this should absolutely just be a webcomic. I would love nothing more than short weekly updates of this series, but ones that continue for like, hundreds of episodes.

Stephanie: I’m not sure Rainbow Rowell would like that. I would be happy with, like, dozens of issues of She-Hulk on actual paper that I could read in bed with the Internet off. Douglas Wolk has this very plausible argument that Marvel Silver Age cape comics evolved from the romance comics that Marvel was publishing around the same time, and that Jack Kirby co-invented along with Joe Simon, and that Marvel kept on publishing until the early 1970s, and as much as this story looks like a modern webtoon it’s also… very literally…. a romance comic. It even has romance comic star Patsy Walker!

Armaan: Getting to She-Hulk #6 itself — I love this first page. It’s a wonderful, simple, She-Hulk moment, I wouldn’t have minded just this being an alternate cover. It’s a beautiful yellow dress she has on, and while it’s not a style we get to see Jen in very often, it suits her. It’s pretty, effortlessly stylish, and just off-shoulder enough to bring in the kind of sexy that She-Hulk is fond of wearing. 

Our guest star, Patsy, is similarly adorably attired, and as much as I love Nightcrawler, I’m quite pleased to see her here too. She’s been having, from what I hear, a weird time of things over in the Iron Man comic, so I’m glad to see her taking some time off with her friend Jen. I like the pair’s relationship — I’m thinking back to a few years ago, when they had recurring roles in each other’s comics, exploring the less punchy, more street level complications of living in the Marvel Universe. Patsy brings a lot of the sillier, fun side of Jen out to play, and I’m hoping we see more of her!

Stephanie: Hard same. Or rather soft same. This Patsy feels like the one we saw in the Kate Leth Hellcat series a few years ago, which I found charming at the time, and she brings out the most fun— and most femme— sides of Jen. She also looks like a throwback romance heroine. With freckles. And a floofy-sleeved dress that looks like a dress. Luca Maresca knows how to draw couture! So many cape comics artists just don’t. I’m super-into the pastry panels.

National Negotiations with Nightcrawler

Armaan: With pastries out of the way, it’s time for Jen to go to work, and I’m left wondering: what exactly are Jen’s work hours? She seems to have a lot of free time for hanging out with her various superhero friends before work, not to mention a lot of time afterwards for romantic evenings with Jack. Works for the story, absolutely, but I thought lawyers had a busier time of things! Clearly, I’m in the wrong line of work, sign me up for a Marvel law degree, how hard can it be?

Stephanie: I prefer to believe that Jen, being a Hulk, needs less sleep than we do. She can still tire herself out with overwork, but she can get five hours a night and wake up with vim to spare.

Armaan: One of the problems I’m having with the storytelling in She-Hulk #6 is how little the various scenes seem to matter to each other. They’re fun moments, of their own, but even though they reference each other, it feels like I’m reading three parallel stories instead of one coherent one — and the switches in tone can feel unsettlingly abrupt. 

Stephanie: Good point. In another book we’d expect them to come together by now— Mallory’s firm would reveal some connection to Jack’s lost powers, for example. Frankly that would have happened in Rowell’s Runaways. In She-Hulk #6, there’s the Jack-story and the various non-Jack B-plots, some of them Mallory Book-related or law-related, and so far never the twain shall meet. They’ve even got separate running jokes (e.g. the joke about whether She-Hulk has a nemesis). In Rowell’s defense, I’m not sure anyone except Charles Soule has ever managed to write She-Hulk without tonal whiplash. Certainly the TV show hasn’t avoid it.

Armaan: The backgrounds in She-Hulk #6, make up so much of the tone, and they double down on that effect. It’s a shame, because each segment is bringing up so much I would love to see explored more. Titania-Grimm-Shulki fight clubs, Jen’s work woes, brunch with Patsy, and the Jack romance. Rowell hasn’t found a way to smoothly blend everything together, and as a result I’m getting tiny little bites of really interesting ideas, and I’m left feeling a little unsatisfied despite how much I’ve been enjoying them.

One thing that’s brought up in She-Hulk #6 that seems pretty big but I worry is hardly going to be touched on: Jen’s now apparently the lawyer-liason to all of Krakoa. Yes, that’s right. All of it. Apparently Nightcrawler’s role on the Quiet Council empowers him to hire a lawyer on behalf of an entire nation just to help out an old friend. 

We’ve been seeing a very different Nightcrawler over on Legion of X, so it’s refreshing to see the charming rogue we all know and love. How’d you enjoy this bit, Stephanie? 

Stephanie: I’m a sucker for anything that makes Krakoa seem like a real country with real small-island-nation problems, so I’m all for this bit. I hope it spills over into the X-line, though I doubt it will. You could get a lot of plotlines from it. I like seeing Kurt the charmer, too, though I’m not sure Rowell has a handle on his speech patterns, the way she does on Awesome Andy. I’m coming to love Awesome Andy. Can someone tell me why Scott Summers has a Connecticut drivers’ license, though? Did Rowell forget what state Westchester County is in?

Armaan: While Mallory Book (who, to my delight, made a quick appearance on the latest She-Hulk episode) has been trying to dissuade Jennifer from taking on any superhuman clients, having an entire nation on retainer is the kind of get even Mallory can’t turn down.

For the record, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want to take a step back from superhuman shenanigans while practicing law… but considering that Mallory’s hired both a lawyer hulk and an android, there’s definitely a bit of disconnect in what she claims to want and what she’s practicing. 

Stephanie: Wouldn’t be the first time an ambitious law firm has demanded the impossible from a new hire. The implication is that Mallory, who has preferences instead of principles, would do anything for enough money— and Krakoa has more than enough money. Let’s say there were a lawyer book in the X-line, featuring Jen: who else would go in it? Several A-, B- and C-list mutants have medical degrees, but do we know any X-gene-bearing lawyers?

Armaan: Speaking of the android, though, it turns out Andy and Mallory are dating again. This is…something I wish had been left alone, honestly, because just like with the Jack of Hearts storyline, I took a look back at the original issues of this story and, well… just like the Jack of Hearts storyline, this is a story better off left far, far in the past.

However, unlike the Jack of Hearts story from way back when, Rowell has left out some major salient points from the Dan Slott run of She-Hulk. Mainly that the only reason Mallory and Andy Android were in a relationship in the first place is because Starfox used his powers to manipulate her into loving him… and Andy used his power-mimicry to unconsciously do the same. When the two found out, they broke up immediately, and Andy was depressed enough about it to erase his memories and work for the Mad Thinker again.

Stephanie: Oh NO. 

Armaan: So it bothers me that their reunion is played for laughs, or that Mallory’s painted as the bad guy here for rebooting him, when Andy did that himself. I’m not saying the two couldn’t work things out, despite having been mentally manipulated into things in the first place, but if you’re going to go there as a storyteller, you’re on thin ice— and I’m already seeing a few cracks start to form. Mallory being Andy’s boss is not the most ethically complicated aspect of this relationship.

Stephanie: Double oh no. Though Andy does tell us that Mallory is, in fact, no longer his boss: he’s a partner. Which means that either Mallory’s firm is not in fact a law firm, or that they’re practicing law in the District of Columbia, the only US jurisdiction in which nonlawyers can be partners with lawyers in law firms (for real: <https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/nonlawyer-ownership-of-law-firms-coming-2760765/>), or that Earth-616 New York State has canned ABA Rule 5-4. Or that Awesome Andy has a law degree. Do we think Andy attended law school? Now there’s a webcomic I’d like to see.

Jen-eral Jocularity with Jack

Armaan: A much, much less problematic romance continues between She-Hulk and Jack. This, I have to say, was set up perfectly in She-Hulk #6. The brief moment of her checking herself in the mirror before seeing him, Jack’s moment of temporary speechlessness when he sees her, the light embarrassment as an almost-kiss turns into a more innocent compliment…the JUST-KISS-ALREADY sentiments are strong, here, but tempered with very pleasant conversation. 

Stephanie: Been waiting for this one since issue one. And She-Hulk #6 alone has So. Much. Build-Up. 

Armaan: She-Hulk’s had trouble starting over, leaving her history behind her — Jack’s had no such problems. He’s more than happy to begin anew, whether or not his previous life had a satisfying ending. I love this in a romance — two people who have extremely different approaches on life, there to learn from each other.

Jack’s new lease on life has been one of the best parts of this book. He’s so charmingly excited about life. About the little things, like cooking, finding a new job, and buying clothes that fit. There’s enough mundanity mixed into this slice-of-life conversation that it really made me feel like I was part of the conversation — did you feel the same way?

Stephanie: I did, although I still find Jack the least interesting character in the book. If he’s gonna stick around, sure, they may as well kiss! And Maresca, again, knows how to draw romance comics: the faces and bodies angled towards each other, the room they leave empty as they retreat off the couch, to the bedroom door…

Armaan: When they finally kiss, though…it feels not just earned, but like it’s something that Jen’s been waiting for for a long time. Like we’ve been waiting along with her, and it’s… sweet, and earnest, and fervent. The “A Half Hour of Minutes Later” caption made my heart melt. We do, eventually, cut away to the bedroom, and end the story there, but for this segment, at least, I feel satisfied with the story we got in She-Hulk #6.

If what I remember from the Runaways title holds true, the dissatisfactory pacing isn’t something that’s going to go away any time soon. She-Hulk #6’s segments feel like a variety of little cakes. All delightful, though some are gone too soon, some are surprisingly filling, some are a little half baked, and sometimes, it’s possible you just need to binge the lot of ‘em in order to make a satisfying meal.

Stephanie: I read most, but not all, of Runaways, and I don’t remember these pacing problems. If they are problems, and here I’m not sure they are: that was a team book, where a scene change could also be a character change. Here Jen Walters has to be on-page the whole time, so there’s no way to change the scene and give the character a break. She has to experience every story beat, whether or not they connect up. The drawn-out mystery— what happened to Jack? Who did this to him?— has turned from a “will we ever find out?” to something of a “who cares? surely not Jack himself.” And the rest of the comic has turned undemanding and sweet, and it’s a pleasure to see. 

As a former Connecticut resident with a degree (OK, two of them) in the study of poetry, I am ready to confirm to Jack that he might not want to keep studying poetry, should he choose to go back to school, unless he’s genuinely into it. I suspect he’d enjoy Hart Crane (he might feel put off by Jack Spicer). I do wonder what Rainbow Rowell has against, or in favor of, Connecticut, and whether she thinks it’s entirely Greenwich mansions. Can Jen and Jack take a fact-finding trip to New London?

I’m ready to recommend this title to people who want more Shulkie when they’re finished with the series (which has pacing problems of its own). And, let me say this again, Romance Comics Aren’t New. Marvel used to publish them regularly, and they’re back in the business now, and I’m glad.

Also that yellow dress (swoon). Jack is making it happen, too: he loves that heart sweatshirt so much. Maresca and Rowell make a very good pair. No: Maresca and Rowell and colorist Rico Renzi make an excellent trio together. Props to the man who kept the dress bright yellow, and Jack’s face half coal-black, and She-Hulk green.

Last Minute Legal Notes

• We know his name is Jonathan, but “Jack” is just so much faster to type and lines up great with his superhero name — we’re sticking to it!
• Rereading Andy’s romance story did remind us that the reason his words on his chalk board come up so quick is that they’re actually a wi-fi display connected to his CPU.
• Going for lasagna as his first dish ever to cook? Admirable ambition there, Jack.
• Love that he stole her giant, heart-shaped, fits-in-with-his-superhero-name sweater.
• Seriously, though, being appointed as liaison for the entire mutant nation of Krakoa should have happened in a place a little more glamorous than a crammed office!

Armaan Babu

Stephanie Burt

Stephanie Burt is Professor of English at Harvard. Her podcast about superhero role playing games is Team-Up Moves, with Fiona Hopkins; her latest book of poems is We Are Mermaids.  Her nose still hurts from that thing with the gate.