FORMAT: SINGLE ISSUE | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Nobody dies in comic books. Or, if they do, they never die for long. This is the dilemma at the opening of Immortal She Hulk. Jennifer Walters has gotten into a habit of dying. Thankfully also a habit of coming back, but that’s where the existential dilemma lies.
Turning to death, resurrection and general healing expert Wolverine, and resident immortality expert Thor, She Hulk/Jen Walters spends a good chunk of the story exploring recent events, her many deaths, and the implications of her inability to stay dead. Rest assured, dear reader, if you’re looking for ass-kicking comic book action, and not just existential angst, the implications are not good. Cosmic horror, threats from beyond the grave-type not good.
Given the recent traumas and whole existential tone, the She Hulk herself is largely lacking her normal sense of humour/outright aggression and the introspection may not be what fans are looking for. But the comic’s lurking sense of un-nameable Big Bad is palpable and the willingness to look a crazy comics trope dead in the eye and ask ‘Ok, so what would it be like to keep failing to stay dead?’ is brave and well handled.
John Davis-Hunt’s art is rock solid and particularly good on scenic details (like post-Cotati ruins and the decaying underworld of… is it She Hulk’s subconscious…?) although the cover art depiction of She Hulk with almost randomly bulging musculature is just plain weird.
