DESCRIPTION:
- CGC 9.8 Savage She-Hulk #1 (TEST)
- White Pages
- CGC Certification #: 0314853021
- Marvel Comics, 2/80
- Stan Leestory
- John Buscema& Chic Stone art
- John Buscema Cover
- NOTES: Origin and 1st appearance of She-Hulk (Jessica Walters). Origin of the Hulk retold.
She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist John Buscema, she first appeared in The Savage She-Hulk #1 (cover-dated February 1980).[2] Walters is a lawyer who, after an injury, received an emergency blood transfusion from her cousin, Bruce Banner, and acquired a milder version of his Hulk condition. As such, Walters becomes a large, powerful, green-hued version of herself; however, unlike Banner, she still largely retains her personality: in particular, she retains the majority of her intelligence and emotional control, although like Hulk she is still susceptible to outbursts of temper and becomes much stronger if enraged. In later series, her transformation is permanent, and she often breaks the fourth wall for humorous effect and running gags.
She-Hulk has been a member of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Heroes for Hire, the Defenders, Fantastic Force and S.H.I.E.L.D. As a highly skilled lawyer who became a superhero by accident, she frequently leverages her legal and personal experience to serve as legal counsel to various superheroes and other metahumans.[3]
Walters is set to make her live action debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Disney+ series She-Hulk (2022), portrayed by actress Tatiana Maslany.
She-Hulk was created by Stan Lee, who wrote only the first issue, and was the last character he created for Marvel Comics[4] until his return to comics with Ravage 2099 in 1992. The reason behind the character's creation had to do with the success of The Incredible Hulk (1977–1982) and The Bionic Woman television series. Marvel was afraid that the show's executives might suddenly introduce a female version of the Hulk, as producer Kenneth Johnson had already done with The Six Million Dollar Man.[5] So Marvel decided to publish their own version of such a character to make sure that if a similar one showed up in the television series, Marvel would own the rights.[6][7]
All but the first issue of The Savage She-Hulk were written by David Anthony Kraft and penciled by Mike Vosburg, and most issues were inked by Frank Springer. Vosburg later remarked, "The oddest thing about that book was that Frank drew really beautiful women, I drew really beautiful women, and yet, the She-Hulk was never overly attractive."[8] The Savage She-Hulk series lasted until 1982, where it ended with #25 (March 1982). She-Hulk then made guest appearances in other characters' books. Her earliest guest-starring adventures followed no specific story line, besides her recurring bad luck with automobiles. She-Hulk also appeared in the limited series, Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions (June to August 1982), in which numerous superheroes are kidnapped from Earth to fight in spaceShe-Hulk becomes a member of the Avengers in Avengers #221 (July 1982). Her early Avengers appearances continued the running gag about her car troubles.[9] She-Hulk also made occasional guest appearances in The Incredible Hulk. Her appearance in Avengers #233 (July 1983) was drawn by John Byrne, who would later become strongly associated with the character.
At the conclusion of the first Secret Wars miniseries, She-Hulk joins the Fantastic Four (Fantastic Four #265 (April 1984)). During She-Hulk's tenure with the Fantastic Four, she appeared in Marvel Graphic Novel No. 16: The Aladdin Effect, Marvel Graphic Novel No. 17: Revenge of the Living Monolith, and Marvel Graphic Novel No. 18: The Sensational She-Hulk. All three graphic novels appeared in 1985. The last, No. 18, appearing in November 1985, was written and illustrated by then-Fantastic Four writer/artist John Byrne.
She-Hulk regained a solo series in 1989, The Sensational She-Hulk (maintaining the 1985 graphic novel's title). The Sensational She-Hulk ran for 60 issues. Issues #1–8, 31–46, and 48–50 were written and drawn by Byrne. Byrne's She-Hulk stories satirized comic books and introduced She-Hulk's awareness that she is a comic book character. Two issues tested the limits of the Comics Code: #34 makes reference to the 1991 Vanity Fair cover in which actress Demi Moore appeared nude and pregnant (She-Hulk's version has her holding a green beach ball to imitate Moore's pregnancy). In issue #40, She-Hulk is depicted jumping rope (apparently) in the nude, with her breasts and genital area covered by blur lines; the cover of the same issue shows her covering herself with a form sporting the lines "Approved [...] Comics Code". Other writers to contribute to this series include Steve Gerber (#10, 11 and 13–23), Simon Furman, and Peter David.
During Sensational She-Hulk, the character continued making numerous guest appearances. In 1990, She-Hulk appeared in the two-issue limited series She-Hulk: Ceremony.
The Sensational She-Hulk ran until issue #60 (February 1994), making it the longest-running solo title of any Marvel superheroine up to that point.[10] After the cancellation of She-Hulk's second solo series, she continued making backup, one-shot, and team appearances in Fantastic Force (starting with issue #13 in November 1995), the 1996 miniseries Doc Samson #1–4 (January–April 1996), Heroes for Hire #8–19 (February 1998 through the series finale in January 1999), and The Avengers. Her next major appearance was in the May 2002 one-shot titled Thing and She-Hulk: The Long Night.
In May 2004, She-Hulk was given a new title and launched in a wave of six new Marvel books. Despite favorable critical notices, the new series could not escape the low sales numbers that the titles received from their initial cluster-style launch.[citation needed] Marvel brought the series to a close with #12 and promised a re-launch of the title (as a "second season") eight months later.[11] The eight-month gap is alluded to in the body of the story itself.
With the original creative team (Dan Slott and Juan Bobillo) from the previous series, the book returned eight months later as promised in October 2005. The third issue was billed as the 100th issue of a She-Hulk comic book, and had story art by numerous artists, including Vosburg. There was no new artwork by Buscema or Byrne, who were represented by reprints of Sensational She-Hulk #1 and Savage She-Hulk #1.
Dan Slott's last issue is #21; with 33 issues, Slott has written the most solo issues of She-Hulk. Peter David became the new writer with She-Hulk #22. Marvel Comics announced that She-Hulk #38 (February 2009) would be the final issue of the series. Peter David commented on his blog that sales of the book were hurt due to discrepancies between his book and Jeph Loeb's Hulk series, caused by editorial error:
I didn't even know she WAS going to be in Hulk. Had I known, I probably would have done things differently. As it was, there were thousands of readers who were not saying, "Gee, they're portraying her wrong in "Hulk." Instead they were saying, "Why should we care about her hero's journey in her own title when she's obviously gotten over her hostility toward Stark over in Hulk?[12]
The mantle of She-Hulk is challenged by Lyra, the daughter of Hulk and Thundra, who is the lead character in All-New Savage She-Hulk, a miniseries written by Fred Van Lente.[13][14]
She-Hulk appeared in FF by Matt Fraction and Mike Allred, which debuted in November 2012.[15]
An ongoing She-Hulk series, written by Charles Soule and drawn by Javier Pulido, debuted in 2014.[16] It was revealed in October 2014 that the current run of She-Hulk, which had the character facing off against Matt Murdock in court, would end with issue 12.[17]
Since May 2015, She-Hulk has appeared as one of the main characters in A-Force, an all-female Avengers spin-off being launched by G. Willow Wilson, Marguerite Bennett, and Jorge Molina during Marvel's Secret Wars crossover.[18][19]
She-Hulk starred in the comic titled Hulk beginning December 2016.[20] The series showed how she dealt with the trauma stemming from her cousin's death, and the injuries sustained at the hands of Thanos, as fallout from the Civil War II event. She appeared colored grey, similar to Hulk's "Joe Fixit" persona, and there were great difference in tone from her previous lighthearted adventures. The title was cancelled with issue #163 in March 2018.[21]
Savage She-Hulk[edit]
Jennifer Walters, the cousin of Bruce Banner (Hulk), is the small and somewhat shy daughter of Los Angeles County Sheriff William Morris Walters and Elaine (née Banner) Walters (who died in a car crash when Jennifer was 17).[22] Operatives of Nicholas Trask, a crime boss who had crossed paths with her father, shot and seriously wounded her on the day that Banner visited her to tell her about his transformation into the Hulk. Since no other donors with her blood type were available, Banner provided his own blood for a transfusion; as they already shared the same blood type and DNA, his gamma-irradiated blood, combined with her anger, transformed Jennifer into the green-skinned She-Hulk when the mobsters tried to finish her off at the hospital.[23] She then used her new powers to take down Trask, who was killed when the earth-boring device he rode malfunctioned, taking him to the center of the Earth.[24]
As She-Hulk, Jennifer possessed powers similar to those of her cousin, though at a reduced level. She also possessed a less monstrous, more Amazonian appearance. Initially, the transformation to her She-Hulk form was triggered (as with Bruce Banner's) by anger. Like her cousin Bruce, his counterpart, the Leader, Doc Samson and most other persons mutated by exposure to gamma radiation over the years, her mutated form was originally explained as being molded by her subconscious desire to look like the ideal woman. She eventually gains control of her transformations when Michael Morbius cures her of a lethal blood disease. As a criminal defense lawyer, she defended Morbius in his trial for his vampiric killings.[25]
Eventually, Jennifer decides that she is going to retain her She-Hulk form permanently—preferring the freedom, confidence, and assertiveness that it gave her compared to her more timorous and fragile "normal" form. After her brief solo career, she joined the Avengers.[26] This led to her being transported to Battleworld by the Beyonder and her participation in the Secret Wars,[27] most notable for sparking her long-standing rivalry with the newly empowered Titania.[28] After the heroes returned to Earth, she temporarily replaced the Thing (who, having been repeatedly de-powered during the event, opted to stay in Battleworld for some time as a form of soul-searching) as a member of the Fantastic Four.[29]
During her tenure with the Fantastic Four, She-Hulk met and started a romance with Wyatt Wingfoot.[30] One day, she had to prevent a radiation leak in a downed S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. This radiation exposure had a drastic effect on Jennifer: she could no longer transform back into her original human form.[31] However, this was an agreeable turn of events for her, since she preferred being She-Hulk, and it was revealed much later that the block was purely psychological.
Shortly after that, she appeared before the Supreme Court, where she battled Titania again.[32]
