Immortal She-Hulk #1 REVIEW9/24/2020 Jennifer Walter's She-Hulk is an important character to me, for a number of reasons. She's smart, educated, and willing to stand up for whats right even if it means making some enemies along the way. She's clever, beautiful, sassy, and a ton of fun in general. But she also has a history of trauma, anger issues, and repressed emotion. She's dealt with her personal problems, time and time again, and never asked for help from anyone. When people say they want strong women in comics, they don't mean brute strength MMA fighters. They mean well-developed, realistic, rounded, and believable women. Even the strongest of us have moments of weakness, and Jen truly is the strongest among women. Continue Reading to learn why I loved this single issue so well, and what it means for Jen Walters and She-Hulk. It’s no surprise that Jennifer Walters means a lot to me. My entire online presence is wrapped around a pun of the title of her most famous comic run.
And its a complicated thing, being a female fan of female comic book characters. So often out favorites are torn down and humiliated by the community they serve or their own friends, leaving them less than what they were before, and that's assuming they aren't killed off to further drive a male character's plot. The history of comics hasn't always been female friendly, which is why when female characters do get solid representation, I cling to that like flypaper. Last year I wrote an article about two Marvel heroines who had recently been through important changes in both their character and their power-set. These two were Carol Danvers, after her reworked, manless origin, and Jennifer Walters, who'd spent 16 issues of 2016's HULK series finding her control again, and her place in the hero community. Soon after, Jen was powered up even more, in the start of Jason Aaron's Avengers. All things considered, the She-Hulk we were left with was one who switches at-will between Jen and Hulk, leaving the heavy lifting to Hulk. Then Empyre happened, and She-Hulk was killed, only to be brought back with basically no one blinking an eye at the whole situation. Which brings us to Immortal She-Hulk #1. Jennifer Walters is keenly aware that she's just come back from the dead, and it wasn't the first time. In an attempt to find answers or consolation, she goes to two of the Marvel Universe's least kill-able heroes: Wolverine and Thor. Wolverine brings her to a bar, of course, and they chat about returning to life. Jen wants to know what its like for him, compared to the Hulks. While their conversation is littered with humor and references, Logan ultimately isn't any help, telling Jen she shouldn't question things that others would be grateful for. When she approaches Thor as Hulk, she asks her question differently. Is it possible to be truly immortal? Thor thinks to his recent time as Herald of Galactus, which ended in him killing the one who hungers, permanently. Before that exact moment, Galactus was believed to be immortal. And Thor himself even says he knows one day he will end, too, so immortality isn't possible. He does ask to speak to Jen, as maybe Hulk was having trouble phrasing her question. She declines, saying that Jen is too psychically small to bear such a burden. For not the last time in the comic, she's questioned on her choice of being Jen or Hulk in a particular moment, and had to defend her appearance. If you haven't been reading the Immortal Hulk series by Al Ewing, you'll need to know that the Hulks get their power from The One Below All--basically Marvel's Satan, but without being actually Satan, who is another character in the comics. The One Below All grants the Hulks their Gamma powers, including bringing them back to life after death. In this issue, we get to see the same thing Bruce learned in his series, but this time confirming it for Jen. In an attempt to keep from summarizing the plot, here's why this issue is important in what it says about her and her history. Jennifer Walters has died and come back three times. First, the day she became Hulk. Her origin in Savage She-Hulk #1, if you haven't read it, is that she was a lawyer getting too close to a certain mobster, so they sent out a hit on her. Jen's cousin Bruce happened to be inside visiting when she is shot in her front yard by gangsters. With no other way to her help in sight, Bruce gives his cousin a transfusion of his own gamma-powered blood to save her life. Ewing makes a point, here, to show that it wasn't Bruce who saved Jen, but Joe Fit-It. Joe is one of Bruce's Hulk identities, sometimes referred to as Grey Hulk. When life is too much for Bruce to handle, too much pressure and whatnot, Joe Fix-It steps in. Ewing notes that Jen hears her cousin's voice as grey and gravelly, confirming this was Joe who saved her. But really, he didn't, and Jen died that day for the first time. She tells of falling down, below even Hell, to a below place. Unbeknownst to her, this is the realm of the One Below All. There, she feels a presence and a mighty voice telling her she bears his mark. This is Jennifer Walter's first death, where the One Below All chose her. She doesn't remember any of this when she wakes, of course, and first becomes Hulk. As she narrates, Jen mentions she was always in control of the Hulk back then, it was just the anger that got the better of her. The second death of Jennifer Walters happens during the Civil War II event, with Thanos killing her and Rhodey during a preemptive strike. She doesn't die right away, giving her friends a chance to bring her to the hospital and try to save. But they spend more time arguing than paying attention, and she dies on the gurney. Again, she goes to the Below Place. This time, someone else is there. It's her Uncle, Bruce's father, Brian. Seeing him, Jen believes herself to be in hell. After all, Uncle Brian killed his wife and set Bruce on the path to becoming his various Hulks. He tells her about how he tried to escape hell, became a monster, and was killed again by the devil in his son. This is referring to when Brian became gamma powered himself, and it took all the Hulks to take him down, including Jennifer, holding the power of Thundra, as well. Brian tells her all the Hulks are touched by "his mark," but Jen isn't having it. "I got touched by the wrong kind of radiation and now I'm stuck here?" No, Brian continues, you aren't. He shows her how the other Hulks can summon a Green Door, to let them back to reality, and to life. He can't open the door himself, but Jen does, and wakes up in the hospital again. The third death of Jennifer Walters takes place during the recent Empyre event, when the Avengers were still under the impression that the Cotati aliens were allies. Jen narrates again that Hulk isn't stupid and neither is she, but it was stupid of them to trust the Cotati. Ewing actually makes a point of saying that her Hulk doesn't speak very much, not because she's dumb, but because it's hard to articulate her burning gamma thoughts. Still, the Cotati take over her body, destroy her brain and replace it with themselves. This time, dead in the Below Place, the Leader is there. Jen expresses some vague familiarity with where she finds herself, even though she doesn't remember her time there before, if you can even call that time. She recalls the green door, and Leader is thrilled. He turns this slight knowledge against her, informing her that he's taken control of the doors out of the Below Place and into life. Meaning, he says, if she dies again, he won't let her return to life. The issue ends with Jen waking up in a sweat, remembering all of it, including the Leader's horrific warning. The title of the issue is revealed at the end, the Three Death of Jennifer Walters. Appropriate, and phrased in a way that leaves you waiting for more. The art of Immortal She-Hulk was a delightful fit for the topic. Not as dark and unruly as that of Immortal Hulk, Jon Favis-Hunt's artwork is clear and simple. He draws Jen through the years with distinct traits that carry from one to the next, and inspires terror in his Leader (and to be honest, that last panel of Uncle Brian gave me chills). Coloring by Marcio Menyz wraps up the art team, lending brilliant tones to the Below Place, the various Hulks, and inspiring the read to search out what hasn't been explored yet. This issue was a phenomenal read for Jennifer Walters fans. It clearly displayed the phases of her life and how her history is important. It also clarifies some common misnomers about She-Hulk, like her choices of being Hulk versus Jen, her abilities, and her intelligence. And still, Ewing has left room for another writer to come in and fill out Jen the way she still deserves to be. After the yawn of an event that was Empyre, this is the She-Hulk story we've been waiting for. I can only hope that it does well enough for Marvel to justify giving her an ongoing series again in 2021.
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