Essential Savage She-Hulk volume 1

Essential Savage She-Hulk volume 1 contains issues #1-25 of The Savage She-Hulk, the complete run of the character's original title. The first issue is written by Stan Lee and drawn by John Buscema; they are succeeded by David Anthony Kraft and Mike Vosburg for the entire of the rest of the run. Bonus material includes Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entries for She-Hulk and Man-Wolf.

As I've discussed before, She-Hulk, like Spider-Woman, was created solely for the corporate aim of securing the intellectual property on a female version of one of Marvel's big name heroes before a television company did. With The Incredible Hulk television series a strong success there was a fear that it could lead to spin-offs and imitation characters, and so Marvel decided to create their own female Hulk to see off such attempts. But whereas Spider-Woman had been distanced from Spider-Man as much as possible, She-Hulk is a much closer character to her male counterpart in both relationship and origin.

The first issue establishes all the key points and the origin, but surprisingly it's rather ambiguous about whether it follows comic or television continuity and at times tries to side step the issue. Dr Banner arrives in Los Angeles but the story actively declines to tell us if his first name is Bruce, David or Bob (a mistake in an early guest appearance that was later morphed into his full name) and bizarrely his cousin calls him "Doc". There's even reference to a medical career. When he recounts the origin of the Hulk it's the comic version, but his identity is publicly known by this stage whereas in the television series he's assumed dead and on the run using assumed aliases. So for his cousin to not know what's happened to him suggests either a high degree of ignorance for a lawyer or else a mixed attempt to be accessible to both the comic and television audience. Nowadays it's standard for comics to just ignore the changes to character names, tone and continuity of spin-off adaptations, or make limited lip service, but it seems in times past some more active efforts were made to bring new readers in. Unfortunately this just creates odd moments - the idea Jennifer Walters always calls and even thinks of her cousin as "Doc" just seems strange, and highlights the story's sitting on the fence between two different continuities.

The origin itself is simple - lawyer Jennifer Walters is shot and given a blood transfusion by her cousin, but this also makes her change into a big green monster. She may be closely tied into her male counterpart, but tying to avoid them had been a mistake with Spider-Woman and so perhaps it's better that this time Marvel went down the Supergirl route and made her a relative, though in practice throughout her history she's largely stood or fallen on her own merits. This starts right here with her cousin's only other appearances being a couple of brief flashbacks and a group pin-up at the end. She-Hulk is also notable as the last character co-created by Stan Lee for many years (until Ravage 2099 in the 1990s) but his sole issue here doesn't feel that great. Jennifer doesn't turn into the She-Hulk until late in the story and there isn't any real exploration of just how much control she has or what her limits are. At this point she's just a big fighting green-skinned woman. It's a disappointing (near) end to a long string of successful creations and origins with Lee's name on them.

Lee and Buscema leave after the first issue and it's astounding for the era (1979-1981) that all of the remaining twenty-four issues have the same writer and artist with no fill-ins at all. It's just unfortunate that the series itself is somewhat strained and tired, probably because like Spider-Woman its main reason for existing was legal rather than creative. Yet oddly the series stayed a monthly throughout its entire run and didn't dive for guest stars - perhaps because of the differences between copyright and trademarks with different effects on what does and doesn't need to be kept in print. Whatever the reason we have another series starring a female spin-off that tries to operate outside the normal comfort zone of the Marvel universe, which takes its time to sort out the lead character's background and which makes some changes to the status quo along the way, although these are more minor than Spider-Woman's. It's not the most encouraging sign, though at the time the series was launched Spider-Woman was only halfway through its run and only formally signalled the warning signs during the last few months of Savage She-Hulk.

At its core the series presents Jen Walters, a lawyer in Los Angeles who can now transform into a large, very strong green woman. For the first half of the series the transformations largely come about whenever Jen gets angry - and she is easily inflamed by arguments in court or the office - but following a serum developed by Morbius to cure other problems, Jen is now able to transform back and forth at will. There's a clear continuity of memory and identity between Jen and She-Hulk, in contrast to her cousin who has spent most of his history fighting the Hulk as separate personalities, but at times both Jen and She-Hulk refer to the other in the third person and increasingly prefer to stay as the She-Hulk as much as possible. The most prominent point where the two are going in different directions comes in their relationships, with She-Hulk having an active relationship with Jen's childhood friend Danny "Zapper" Ridge and Jen herself falling for Richard Rory, formerly of the Man-Thing series. She-Hulk's character is very different from later portrayals, being angry, violent, paranoid and untrusting, in sharp contrast to the fun-loving at ease version who even knows she's a comic character. Her clothing is invariably rags and it's not clear which is the greater mystery - why does the transformation always tear the clothes in such a way that her breasts are kept covered or how does Jen manage to afford the large number of clothes she literally goes through?

Jen's life is reasonably well developed with a supply of supporting cast members, but some of the details of her background surprisingly only slip out as the series progresses. We never actually see a flashback showing her mother's death and instead it's only steadily dropped in that she was killed by gangster Nick Trask. Jen has an awkward relationship with her father, local sheriff Morris Walters, which deteriorates over the course of the series when they clash over her decision to defend Morbius from murder charges and then when Morris falls for Beverly Cross a gold-digger also seeking revenge for her boyfriend's arrest, who manipulates him in pursuit of money. This is another plot point badly handled as we never actually see Morris and Bev meet and although Morris discovers the truth and throws Bev out, the cancellation of the series means we never see the final showdown as she seeks revenge. Morris also falls into the Thunderbolt Ross role of doggedly determining to bring the She-Hulk in, but he eventually relents when evidence emerges clearing her of all charges.

So too does Assistant District Attorney Dennis "Buck" Bukowski with whom Jen regularly clashes both inside and outside the courtroom. Buck is indirectly responsible for the She-Hulk being accused of murder when he rams his car at her, mistakenly assuming she's about to attack Jen in her car. In fact the driver is Jen's friend Jill and the car has been sabotaged, with the result Jill crashes and dies. Jen takes her failure to save her friend bitterly, and when the car is subsequently examined and Buck realises his mistake he becomes a very different man, guilt-ridden and far less confrontational. Unlike other changes in the series this one feels a natural flow as Buck's realises the cost of his arrogant assumptions. Jill's death impacts in other directions as Zapper hopes Jen will turn to him. A medical student, Zapper has known Jen since childhood when she used to baby-sit and protect him, and whereas he has a big crush on her she seems to still regard him as a little surrogate brother. However She-Hulk takes him differently and the two at times retreat to his parents' isolated beach house. Zapper makes mistakes though, such as when he's tricked into thinking She-Hulk can help cure cancer when in fact it's a ploy to study her genetics. Their relationship is also complicated by Jen falling for Richard Rory, who has briefly found huge luck gambling in Las Vegas, before losing his money when the radio station he buys is ruined by an energy wave. Richard and Zapper remain tense rivals throughout the latter half of the series but are able to put this aside when needs be to help Jen/She-Hulk. In the end she decides she prefers being the She-Hulk and settles with Zapper, to the sadness of Richard.

The series has a handful of guest stars, starting with the Hulk and Iron Man, before moving onto the likes of the Man-Thing, Morbius the Living Vampire, here partially cured, the Man-Wolf and Hellcat. But despite the appearance of some superheroes, She-Hulk does not see herself as a superhero, and explicitly says so more than once. However she faces a wide variety of foes. The first handful of issues focus upon Jen's defence of gangster Lou Monkton from a murder charge frame by crimelord Nick Trask and subsequent actions against both Jen and She-Hulk - Trask is the first to discover they are one and the same. The storyline takes an odd turn in issue #5 when Los Angeles is plagued by earthquakes and refineries are finding their oil is being stolen - it's all being done by Trask using a giant burrowing machine shaped like a snake. Perhaps fortunately he loses control of it and ends it being buried in the centre of the Earth as the character has been twisted beyond his original purpose, even if he is responsible for the death of Jen's mother. It's a pity as in theory he could have been opened out into an archenemy, but the change in scope is too blunt for this to work. After this She-Hulk faces a mixture of foes including some quite bizarre ones. A trip to Florida brings an encounter with a civilisation who have discovered eternal life but have lost the spirit of life in the process. Back home there's "the Word", the charismatic head of a cult who can persuade anyone of anything, and his daughter Ultima, who has developed superstrength, and then comes Gemini, a being who can split into two halves with opposing personalities and outlooks. There's the Grappler, a master of leverage. Finally the last few issues see She-Hulk put through a gauntlet by the mysterious "Doc" (no relation) who works through subordinates such as would-be new crimelord the Shade, or through student Ralphie Hutchins who is evolved into a variety of monstrous forms including the Brute, the Seeker, Radius, Torque and Earth-Lord.

Not every story has such clear foes, and in succession She-Hulk faces the problems on a microscopic world that exists upon her necklace then a young would-be singer suffering from diabetes and an inability to recognise her own failures, and then the problems of microwave transmitters when a company erects a communication tower on a childcare centre. This latter issue (#16) feels like a generic rant about the way such technology has been imposed upon people (and it was written a few years before mobile phones had even arrived on the market let alone before transmitters were everywhere) and just sits oddly in the series overall. Later a rich businessman develops a special hydraulic suit and seeks to capture She-Hulk using the identity of the Man-Elephant.

The later issues also see Jen succumbing to preferring the form of She-Hulk the more and in her paranoia fleeing from all others who she feels have betrayed her, despite their only trying to help. It's not a full on identity crisis but rather a question of lifestyle and the addiction of power, and this makes for a somewhat different focus from the average Hulk tale. The series ends semi-abruptly with the defeat of Doc, reconciliation between Jen and Morris, the choice of Zapper over Richard and the final decision to stay as She-Hulk. However a handful of plotlines are left dangling such as the disappearance of Morbius and just how Bev will get her revenge on Morris.

The series may be competent but it's never really spectacular. Maybe it's because the foes and situations the She-Hulk faces are rarely memorable. Perhaps it's the weak characterisation of the main character as over angry and untrusting. Reading through the volume it's hard to escape the conclusion that there wasn't a great deal to the character before John Byrne got his hands on her, first in Fantastic Four and then later in her second series, Sensational She-Hulk, which launched in 1989. At this stage she's underdeveloped, brought into existence for corporate necessity rather than any natural outgrowth, and without a particularly good lure the result is a somewhat pedestrian series that just doesn't excite.

Spider-Woman: An introduction

1976 saw the creation of a new character, Spider-Woman, debuting in Marvel Spotlight #32 (cover dated February 1977 – a sign of how confusing the years can be). In 1978 she received her own ongoing series, which has been collected in two Essential volumes, and in 1979 she secured her own cartoon which lasted one season. Her title lasted fifty issues – until 1993 that was the record for a Marvel comic headlined by a female superhero.

Yet her impact on the Spider-Man titles was almost nil. She had a few cameos but her only substantial appearance during her original run was in Marvel Team-Up #97 (not yet reached by the Essentials) and that was a rare non-Spider-Man issue in which the Hulk instead headlined. As we’ll see she has no direct connection to Spider-Man (although later Spider-Women would do better in this regard) and is really a spin-off in name only.

I did consider for quite some time whether to include Spider-Woman in this series or not because of this. Ultimately I came down in favour of inclusion because creatively she only existed because of Spider-Man and it’s worth considering just how much originality and distance from the male character she actually received. But first it’s necessary to consider the track record on female superheroes, particularly for Marvel in the late 1970s.

Until I sat down to write this piece, I was under the impression that female superheroes have generally not been successful in their own titles. True it’s hard to forget that DC has had Wonder Woman for seventy years (her solo title debuted in the summer of 1942) but I assumed that’s very much the exception that proves the rule (and I’ve read that historically her title has never been a top seller and at times it’s only survived because the character was held under a “keep her in regular print or the rights revert to the creator” clause and the merchandising opportunities were too good to loose). The other historic exception of note is Supergirl, which is a sign of where the creativity and interest goes, and also an indication of the commercial factors behind them – DC was quick to secure the trademarks for various Superman spin-offs but took time to actually use them. Eventually both Superboy and Supergirl were firm features, able to stop other companies cashing in on the Super-franchise.

It seems in digging about that there have in fact been a few more female titles that actually lasted some time – Mary Marvel (the younger sister of Fawcett’s, later DC’s, Captain Marvel), Batgirl (just how many Batgirls have there been by now?), Catwoman and Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane although it was her boyfriend who (usually) did the superheroing. (And no doubt more that I’ve overlooked.) Spot the pattern? It seems as though a female title has normally only succeeded if it’s spinning off an established male title and/or there are strong corporate demands to shore up the male character, either by blocking rivals from creating female derivatives or to boost sales (and in the case of the second Batgirl, TV ratings).

Marvel’s female titles generally fall into this vein as well. The longest running female led title I can think of is Spider-Girl – the adventures of Spider-Man’s daughter in an alternate future which lasted 100 issues from 1998 until 2006 (despite constantly being under threat of cancellation), followed by a renumbering & retitling as The Amazing Spider-Girl which lasted 30 more issues until 2009. Second comes the second She-Hulk series which ran for sixty issues between 1989 and 1994 (although in Marvel’s modern numbering style later She-Hulk series have seen the numberings shoved together to have an “issue #100”). In joint third place with fifty issues each is the original Spider-Woman series between 1978 and 1983 and the second Ms. Marvel series between 2006 and 2010. (After that comes Dazzler with forty-two issues from 1980 to 1985. Then it gets into various series that only lasted up to three years maximum such as the first Ms. Marvel, the first She-Hulk series, Silver Sable, Elektra and X-23 amongst others.)

Both the Marvel Essential and DC Showcase Presents series are biased toward the pre 1990s output but how do the female titles fare there? Well DC has put out volumes containing Wonder Woman, Supergirl and Batgirl (largely collecting her strips in various other titles), whilst Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane is in the Superman Family volumes (the latter title combined Lois Lane with Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen). Showcase Presents didn’t launch until late 2005 and the first female headline titles came in mid to late 2007 with Batgirl, Wonder Woman and Supergirl all debuting that year. Marvel’s Essentials have been around since 1996 but took longer to snowball and initially focused on just the big name series. However from 2002 onwards some of the smaller and less successful series began to get their own Essentials, starting with Ant-Man in February that year. It wasn’t until December 2005 that any female title got an Essential, with Spider-Woman being the first. Savage She-Hulk, the character’s original 1979-1981 series, followed in July 2006, then came Ms. Marvel in February 2007 and Dazzler in August 2007. Make of that what you will.

All of the relevant Marvel titles so far Essentialised originated during a short period in the late 1970s, although Dazzler was delayed for various reasons. And in all but one case there were well-known corporate mandates crawling all over them. I don’t honestly know if this was also the case with Ms. Marvel but I don’t think it’s entirely coincidental that a female with a name including the company’s name appeared just a few years after DC had revived Fawcett’s Captain Marvel and his supporting cast. (Captain Marvel had originally been published by Fawcett in the 1940s and early 1950s until a lawsuit by DC for similarities to Superman led to the character being ditched. Then in the next twenty or so years Marvel adopted that name and established their own Captain Marvel character, securing the trademark. DC subsequently obtained the Fawcett stable of characters and revived them in their own titles, though they’ve never been able to get the “Captain Marvel” trademark back for the original.) Other points that strongly suggest corporate rather than creative design are the fact that her origin was unclear for many issues and the original writer was Marvel’s then Editor-in-Chief (although that title wasn’t yet used), Gerry Conway who left after just two issues. The character was a pre-existing member of the Captain Marvel supporting cast who had gained powers from him due to an accident – as though it was hard to come up with something more original. Her title lasted just twenty-three issues and then the character went on to be used in other ways (and I very much mean used but that’s for a consideration of the Avengers). (EDIT: Since drafting that I’ve since seen this comment by later Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter that supports the corporate mandate theory.)

It’s reasonably well known that both Spider-Woman and She-Hulk were created because Marvel were concerned to secure the intellectual property to female versions of their highest profile characters. I’ll come to Spider-Woman below, but in the case of She-Hulk this was because of fears that the success of the Hulk TV series would lead to spin-off characters (this was an era when The Six Million Dollar Man had spawned The Bionic Woman) and decided to create a female version themselves to ensure they retained the copyrights. The Savage She-Hulk began in late 1979 (cover date February 1980) but benefited from a clear origin at the outset and, after the first issue by Stan Lee, a single writer for the rest of her run. But she was still a clear knock-off of her male counterpart – she was his hither-to-unmentioned cousin who gained similar powers due to a blood transfusion, though generally she’s retained full intelligence & control in both identities, unlike her cousin’s multiple personalities and combinations of minds & bodies. Her original title last just twenty-five issues but she’s been revived several times since and has built up quite a fan base.

The Dazzler was even more corporate driven, originating out a plan by Marvel to have a singer-superhero with a real-life singer to do promotional appearances. Over time there were even proposals to work with a record company and even produce a movie (it all gets complicated – have a read of Jim Shooter: The Debut of the Dazzler for more details). The project kicked around for a few years, by which time the disco scene began to die. However a desire to test the potential of the direct market by doing a direct market only title that was only available in comic book shops that pre-order on a non-returnable basis (unlike the newsstands that operate on a sale-or-return basis that can lead to hundreds of thousands of copies printed that never get sold) came about. Wanting to minimise the backlash from the newsstand distribution, an obscure character was picked and so Dazzler was one of the first ever direct market only titles. The series was initially quite successful and lasted a total of forty-two issues but suffered various problems such as turnover of creative teams, unsuccessful spin-offs and a switch to bimonthly publication before eventual cancellation. Still the character had some originality, not being a derivative of any existing Marvel character. However her origin was one of the simplest for Marvel – she’s a mutant and thus born with her powers. Okay she made her first appearance in X-Men but she was an early sign of what would become a rather lazy approach to origins in later years.

This was the broad background to the environment in which Spider-Woman was created in 1976 and provides the obvious points of comparisons for the series as I go through the two volumes in future posts.