Jack of Hearts died a relatively long time ago, but like many of his fellow superheroes, he got better. Much better, as it turns out, as his powers are finally allowing him to embrace certain aspects of his humanity long forgotten. There are a lot of whys, hows and whats to be figured out here, but first? Pizza. She-Hulk #2 is written by Rainbow Rowell, drawn by Rogê Antônio, colored by Rico Renzi and lettered by Joe Caramagna.
Armaan Babu: Here you are, Stephanie. Shuffle the deck. Pick a card, any card, memorize it — and don’t tell me what it is.
Stephanie Burt: I picked the [redacted]. I’ll drop a few hints on the way. Hey, Armaan, aren’t we supposed to be talking about Jennifer Walters?
Armaan: Comics can be a little like a deck of cards. Everyone remembers the big faces — your kings, your queens, your aces — but everything keeps getting shuffled around and you’re never really sure what’s going to pop up.
Yeah, that’s right, I’m doing patter. You’re locked in to a review with card puns and patter, ’cause someone thought it was a good idea to do an entire She-Hulk issue featuring Jack of Hearts. I don’t make the rules, I just play the hand that’s dealt.
Stephanie: Now that we’ve got that one straight, let’s see what’s in store for our pair. Join the club. Lemme at ’em.
A New Suit’s in Play
Armaan: This was a lot of fun on a first read, but I was a little confused as to why it focused on Jack as heavily as it did in what’s only the second issue of this run. Then I spent a lot of the morning looking up Jack of Hearts and the events referenced in this issue, and realized why it was done this way. Rainbow Rowell’s told us everything we need to know about Jack of Hearts so no one else needs to have the kind of morning I did.
Stephanie: I had a rough morning, too, but at least I didn’t have to lift any ambulances over Manhattan traffic. Or listen to any beleaguered 1980s-vintage heroes narrate their backstories. When I reread vintage Claremont X-books, I always wish that Marvel had been more willing to publish mostly-talking, no-fighting issues focused on quiet moments and character interactions. This comic’s definitely an instance of “be careful what you wish for.”
Armaan: I know there are those who love the character, and I haven’t read all of his appearances, but let’s just say that there are some parts of Geoff Johns’ run on The Avengers that are best left forever forgotten.
One thing I’m surprised Rowell left out, though, is that when Jack drained She-Hulk of her gamma radiation, it turned her into a Banner-esque “Hulk smash!” version of herself — someone closer to the version we’d been stuck with before this series came along. I’m surprised because I’m not aware of any other significant She-Hulk/Jack of Hearts moments. Given that this is She-Hulk’s story, I guess my question is: What do you think Jack could possibly add to She-Hulk’s story?
Stephanie: I don’t know. I just hope Rowell gets enough time to show us. Her Runaways run showed that she could merge space-opera nonsense with romance-character moments, and now she’ll get to do it again.
In theory I should be cheering for this team-up, since I read my actual floppy copies of Bill Mantlo and George Freeman’s Jack of Hearts miniseries in 1983-84 until they fell apart, and since our new co-star for Shulkie holds — according to Marvel Team-Up Vol. 1 #134 — a B.A. in poetry from “New Haven College” in Connecticut. In practice … meh? He’s not a lawyer, he’s not a plausible romantic partner, he’s not funny and I’m not sure how he plays to Jen’s strengths. (He does need her to take care of him, but that doesn’t distinguish him from pretty much anyone else she’s ever come across.)
Armaan: He is cute, though, I’ll give him that. Rogê Antônio gives him a lot of boyish adorability.
And I do enjoy the story told here. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that this is going to be a lot of people’s introduction to Jack of Hearts, and presented as it is this way, it’s a pretty interesting story. A man isolated from humanity by his devastating powers, who’s had arrogant Avengers decide what’s best for him, who has a new lease on life and is rediscovering his humanity after his powers have denied him that for too long …
Huh, OK, actually, all typed out like that, I’m beginning to see what he and Shulkie might have in common.
Stephanie: I see where you’re going. Hey, did you know that while Jack first appeared in Deadly Fists of Kung-Fu, he never teamed up with Iron Fist?
I like the art here very much. Talking-head beats challenge pencillers to sustain their visual interest. Antonio rises to that challenge: Look at the varied frame sizes and Jen’s facial expressions: alarmed, concerned, amused, exasperated, intimate …
Armaan: Jack gets a feast of snacks and stuff from the fridge, and we get a similarly wide array of expressions. Everyone’s a winner here.
One thing I really enjoyed about the opening was the switch from him looking alarmed, concerned, helpless and stunned in the flashback to seeing a nearly identical expression on She-Hulk’s face as he staggers into her hallway. It’s the look of heroes who see something devastating happen to a colleague — and they’re not sure how they can help.
Stephanie: Exactly. Jen keeps trying to find a way to figure out how to help Jack come back to himself, and all she can do — though it’s a lot — is give him water. And food. And a listening ear. And a place to sleep. And a promise that she won’t betray him to Tony Stark, that motormouth motor-head, or anyone else who thinks they know what’s best for Jonathan Hart. Though Jack hardly knows what’s best for himself: He doesn’t remember why he came to Jen. Though he does remember as much of his backstory as Rowell’s readers need to know. (He was a Marvel Zombie at one point, too. Do you think he might have been Killed by Death?)
Just Add Water
Armaan: Given the nature of Jack’s powers, it might not be safe for the two to get too close to each other (kind of a Rogue/Gambit thing here). I say might, because not only is Jack back to life, his powers have changed, seemingly for the better. He’s able to do simple things again, like eat, drink and collapse out of sheer exhaustion. Hell, in future issues we may even see him change out of what looks like a wildly uncomfortable costume.
Stephanie: It’s a classic costume. Sort of. Designed in an era when nobody cared when and if superhero costumes looked remotely wearable, and easy to explain later as necessary so that he can contain his dark powers. … Armaan, do you play tabletop role-playing games? Because Jack as we find him here makes such a good example for one of the playbooks in Masks, currently my fave TTRPG. He’s the Doomed, the hero whose powers are slowly killing him, determined to superhero up until the day he burns himself to ash, or explodes. If that’s not Overkill.
Armaan: I love that you brought up that game. I had some of the best times of my life running a Masks game. Shoutout to Dashing, a character one of my players had, who I want to bring up because he was a Doomed character who actually got past the powers that were destined to kill him, switching from a Doomed character to the Beacon. Escaping what feels like certain death can give you a new lease on life, and I think we’re seeing that happen here.
I really loved these scenes of Jack finding joys in simple human pleasures. I loved it in Angel’s “I Will Remember You,” and I’ve loved seeing this kind of thing pop up in various places in sci-fi and fantasy. Absolute joy in the simple things. It’s making this chocolate cookie I’m eating taste extra delicious.
Stephanie: Sure, though as you say, that’s a bit of a trope. What I love instead is how Jack insists he’s not drinking water while he drinks it, and then drinks more of it, and then — as Jen figures out the disconnect between what he says and what he does — eats all the cheese and most of the complex carbohydrates in Jen’s pantry and fridge. Big props to the art team for those pages set in Jen’s kitchen, with the picked-over cheese board in the center, and then the breakfast-nook stools, empty, seen from above! I’d love to see Rowell’s script, and to know how much of what we see reflects her directives, as against how much is Excellent Penciller Making Excellent Decisions. But also I probably shouldn’t care. I love the results.
Jen’s in a kind of surrogate parent position, doing something parents will recognize: your kid says they’re not sleepy and then falls asleep, says they’re not hungry and eats all the food in the fridge, says they’re not sad and then collapses in tears … and you have to read through what they say to figure out what they need. Is Jennifer now everybody’s mom?
Armaan: Considering Janet’s the one who stocked the fridge, I think that if anyone’s everyone’s mom, it’s the Wasp. But Jen herself is doing an admirable job of taking care of Jack, and there’s nothing like a little responsibility well handled to put some pep in your step.
A Winning Hand
Armaan: Unlike Bruce Banner, Jennifer Walters can (for the most part) switch out between being big and green and more regularly human pretty much any time she wants, with seemingly no adverse effects beyond ripped clothing. Different writers have different takes on what separates human mode from Hulk mode, and different reasons why she chooses one form over the other when not in battle.
Stephanie: Is it ever consistent? Ever? She’s argued in court as Big Green, and as a white lady. Here it looks like she’s decided, a la Nightcrawler, to stay green all the time, even when supervising legal associates. If they have a problem, she’ll take it to HR (Hulk Resourcefulness).
Armaan: Jen’s second day of work is remarkably different from her first. From the moment she steps out of her apartment to when she walks into work, 15 minutes early with breakfast in hand, she’s all Hulked out, a giant smile on her face the entire while.
What do you think this says about what it means to be She-Hulk?
Stephanie: I think it’s supposed to be fun. Earth-616 has dozens of heroes transformed against their will who feel like monsters, or know their change will kill them, and resolve bravely to fight villains anyway, or struggle against their monstrous nature. In Masks they would be the Doomed and the Transformed, and Jack — as we see him now — belongs among them. Jen Walters, though? She’s a fourth wall breaker, or a source of lawyer jokes, or a figure who can give practical, non-combat help to other superheroes, as well as punching villains through concrete walls (not just the fourth wall). And lifting ambulances above traffic, of course. (She’s also one of those heroes who reminds us how many non-combat applications hero powers have. I bet everyone calls her up when they need help moving. Especially in New York.)
In other words: She’s aspirational, whether she’s comedic or romantic, and when she’s angsty (as in Mariko Tamaki’s run) she knows she’s not supposed to be that way. In Masks terms, she’s got at least a +2 Mundane. I’m hoping for more of her non-combat, non-Jack life, as well as more forward motion in the Jack of Hearts plot that — so far — is all retrospect.
What do you make of that last page, where a baddie who’s clearly been holding Jack captive — and who’s got an assistant called April — contemplates the tank from which he escaped, along with a high-tech conspiracy board revealing the hidden villain’s interest in She-Hulk? Who are we gonna see?
Armaan: So far, Rowell’s playing her cards quite close to the chest. It’s hard to really know who these villains could be, especially with so much of our focus on Jack. It’s a classic case of misdirection. But, that being said, with my magician’s gaze, I am able to see past the veils of trickery and can comfortably predict that the villains in question here are … Doctor Bong and minor Spider-Man supporting character, April Maye!!
To prove my prowess, I will now reveal to our readers what card you picked. Is this your card?
Stephanie: I’m sorry. It was the Ace of Spades.
Armaan: Dang.
Well. It looks like we’re going to have to wait at least another month to find out who the villains are. See you all then!
Last Minute Legal Notes
- One of the images on the board on that last page either shows Jen standing with someone in a dark silhouette or Darth Vader. Fingers crossed for the latter; a Star Wars/Marvel crossover is long overdue.
- Mallory Book’s earrings this issue are nothing short of fantastic.
- As mentioned last month, I (Armaan), did in fact read through The She-Hulk Diaries, and it’s remarkable how often “She-Hulk has to rebuild her life from scratch” is used as a plot point.
- The full page where Jen watches over the very disheveled and very asleep Jack Hart opens into the full page where Jen, with a spring in her step, heads to work the next morning. Positive energy, to be sure.
- Jack of Hearts was also resurrected in Marvel Zombies Supreme, but it’s hard to say how much that counts in canon.
- There’s some confusion as to whether Jack of Hearts’ civilian name is Jack or Jonathan Hart, but if it’s Jack, he wins the award for most on-the-nose superhero name since Blackagar Boltagon.
Armaan is obsessed with the way stories are told. From video games to theater, TTRPGs to comics, he has written for, and about, them all. He will not stop, actually; believe us, we've tried.
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.
