She-Hulk

New for Patrons: Guide to Hellcat, Patsy Walker

August 18, 2022 by krisis

Working on last week’s Guide to Black Cat and this week’s update to my Guide to She-Hulk drew my attention to Marvel’s other major feline heroine, who has been a diva along with Felicia Hardy and a BFF to Jennifer Walters. That’s right – today’s new guide for “Pledgeonaut” Patrons of CK is an issue-by-issue Guide to Hellcat, Patsy Walker!

Hellcat is actually one of Marvel’s longest-running characters! Her civilian alter-ego Patsy Walker debuted in the Golden Age as one of the stars of Marvel’s burgeoning line of teen and romance comics. While most people assume those books petered out by the time the Silver Age began with Fantastic Four in 1961, Patsy’s titles kept on running – one of them as late as 1967!

Yet, in that time she was never a hero – just a regular teenage girl who liked to hang out with her best friend Hedy.

(And, actually, if we’re being specific, those comics are not actually Patsy’s earlier continuity, but a fictionalized version of it that existed as in-universe comic books in the Marvel 616 as written by Patsy’s mother!) [Read more…] about New for Patrons: Guide to Hellcat, Patsy Walker

Updated: Guide to She-Hulk

August 16, 2022 by krisis

Are you read to go green? I’ve completely overhauled my Guide to She-Hulk to mark this week’s debut of the new Marvel Cinematic Universe series, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, on Disney +.

She-Hulk stars the mega-talented Tatiana Maslany as Marvel’s Jennifer Walters, a mild-mannered attorney pulled into the heroic life of her Avenger cousin Bruce Banner … or, at least, that’s the story we know from the comics. And if you don’t know the story yet, don’t worry – I’ve got you covered with a guide that includes every She-Hulk series, every appearance, and links to find collected editions, buy digital versions, and read online with Marvel Unlimited.

Guide to She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters

My Guide to She-Hulk will always hold a special place in my heart and memory, because it is one of the first two guides I completed after leaving my tech start-up job in 2016 to be a stay-at-home parent.

At the time, the kid didn’t spend a single second of time looking at screens, so my only downtime from wake-up to goodnight were her mid-day naps. In overhauling this guide, I saw so many places in it where I remembered, “yep, that’s when she woke up,” or other such toddler-motivated interruptions from my guide-making.

As weird and as confusing as a time as that was in my life, it was also a time where I value every single second and every memory. I have so many photos and videos of our adventures, and my She-Hulk Guide is like the negative space of that – one of the few things I was doing in the time I had to myself.

While the guide has always been complete and completely definitive, there were many half-finished thoughts throughout, and I never had the time to refine the the structure and table-of-contents to my typical level of perfectionist completion.

That’s no longer the case. I’ve completely changed my approach to presenting Jennifer Walters’ many series and guest-starring turns, plus added a “Where To Start Reading” section and highlighted the quickest ways to build a She-Hulk shelf in oversize hardcover or paperback.

Some Marvel characters find a niche early on and stick to it. Others grow through a single, continuous arc.

She-Hulk’s progression has been more about evolving with the idea of what being a “powerful woman” means to the broader pop culture in any given publishing era. [Read more…] about Updated: Guide to She-Hulk

Crushing Comics S01E066 – Women of Marvel Omnibus (+ Who are your idols?)

January 29, 2018 by krisis

I reflect on my idols growing up and ask about yours. Are they people that you know, or celebrities you’ve never met? Afterwards, I unwrap the Women of Marvel Omnibus (apt, since all of my idols are women) and explain why it’s one of the best and most-overlooked Marvel omnibuses.

Want to start from the beginning of this season of videos? Here’s the complete Season 1 playlist of Crushing Comics.

Episode 66 features the Women of Marvel Omnibus, which contains key issues of Tigra, Night Nurse, Black Widow, She-Hulk, Monica Rambeau as Captain Marvel, and more!

New Collecting Guide: She-Hulk, and her new status quo at Marvel

September 20, 2016 by krisis

Yesterday Marvel made a shocking and totally cool announcement that Jennifer Walters – traditionally known as She-Hulk – would drop the “She” prefix and become Marvel’s main Hulk in a new eponymous title from writer Mariko Tamaki and artist Nico Leon.

hulk-2016-promo That will mark her sixth time anchoring a solo series since her debut in 1980, not to mention several runs with The Avengers and Fantastic Four and a ton of mini-series in the past decade. That’s all covered (along with every single guest appearance) in my newly-launched Definitive She-Hulk Collecting Guide and Reading Order. (The guide also covers other She-Hulks, like Betsy Ross.)

This will mark a big shift from past She-Hulk series, which have usually featured a green, grinning woman with her monstrous tendencies almost entirely under control. Here, Walters will get lost in her rage as she tries to maintain her double-life as lawyer and superhero. Says Marvel EIX Axel Alonso in an exclusive with A/V Club:

Jen went through major trauma in Civil War II, and Mariko and Nico’s story will deal with the fallout of that trauma—the anxiety and anger, sometimes self-destructive, that comes along with it. If there is light at the end of the tunnel, Jen is going to have to search hard for it, and she’s going to have to battle with some pretty big monsters—including the one within—to find herself again.

Some fans are already hotly debating if rage and a center-stage turn are the right direction for this typically light-hearted hero who is historically as inane as Deadpool. She-Hulk going all rage-y in lieu of an appearance by her cousin Bruce Banner is a time-honored tradition when she’s on the wider Marvel stage – Brian Bendis used the same trope over a decade ago as one of the inciting events in Avengers Disassembled before setting it up again currently in Civil War II.

Personally, I don’t have an opinion other than, “Yay – more She-Hulk!” I own nearly all of her appearances, and her original series was my first custom binding project last year.

How easy is it to own that all for yourself in collected editions? The She-Hulk Guide can help you catch them all, but let’s take a look at Marvel’s track record of reprinting Jennifer Walters’ starring series through the end of Secret Wars in 2015.
[Read more…] about New Collecting Guide: She-Hulk, and her new status quo at Marvel

She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters – The Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order

The She-Hulk comic books definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated November 2024 with titles scheduled for release through February 2025.

It was 1980 and Stan Lee was in a pinch.

The Lou Ferrigno Incredible Hulk TV series was wildly popular at the time, and based on the recent precedent of The Bionic Woman being launched from The Six Million Dollar Man, Lee and Marvel Comics were concerned that CBS could spin off a female Hulk character who would not be copyrighted by Marvel.

In Lee’s last act of Marvel Comics creation until the 1990s, he dashed off the first issue of The Savage She-Hulk. It’s a classic Lee contrivance. Bruce Banner’s mild-mannered lawyer cousin Jennifer Walters is nearly killed by a gang seeking revenge, and Banner is the only one that can provide a blood transfusion in time to save her life. With the blood comes the green alter ego – and a second Hulk in the Marvel Universe!

She-Hulk’s path has been distinctly different than Bruce Banner’s. Not long after her introduction she began to retain her every day personality while in Hulk form. This lead to her eventually eschewing her human body and living almost permanently as She-Hulk.

Due to this key difference, She-Hulk is a social butterfly compared to her cousin. She is a long-running member of Avengers and only the second replacement member of The Fantastic Four (she subs for The Thing after the original Secret Wars). Also, after her first series, her titles are typically humorous – thanks to John Byrne’s 4th-wall breaking take on The Sensational She-Hulk.

Despite a few periods of scarcity, She-Hulk has remained a regularly appearing hero in the Marvel Universe ever since her debut. Marvel also added a Red She-Hulk to their roster in 2009. [Read more…] about She-Hulk, Jennifer Walters – The Definitive Collecting Guide and Reading Order