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| She-Hulk Vol. 2: Superhuman Law | 
| Authors: Dan Slott, Juan Bobillo, Paul Pelletier
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Category: Book
List Price: $14.99
Buy New: $4.13
You Save: $10.86 (72%)
New (21) from $4.13
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 465709
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 144
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 10.1 x 6.6 x 0.4
ISBN: 0785115706
Dewey Decimal Number: 741.5973
EAN: 9780785115700
ASIN: 0785115706
Publication Date: April 27, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 8 | | NEXT » |
An entertaining read worth your time and money... April 26, 2008
*** WARNING; MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***
She Hulk: Volume 2 is a good collection of comics, for a price you can't beat.
Dan Slott does a great job of telling the story of the people and superhumans of GLK&H. I was surprised the whole thing wasn't written by a woman. Although Jennifer herself is probably one of the lesser likeable characters, it's her whole ensemble that makes you want to keep reading. The people of the She Hulk graphic novel really are worth getting invested in.
#7, Space Cases starts out boring, but builds up to something later. The story picks up where Volume 1 left off and involves Jennifer/She Hulk presiding as judge of the Magistrati, the court of the Universe. In #8 Engagement Ring, She Hulk learns that she'll have to be involved in a trial on a planet where the law is determined by boxing matches, and currently, the reigning champion is The Champion Of The Universe, the universe's best fighter and boxer. All of Space's mightest heroes fall to him, including She Hulk, who gets her clock cleaned big time. She Hulk, however, requests for an appeal and after learning that all and any weapons or enhancements are illegal in the ring, devises a clever and intelligent strategy for winning her rematch.
One thing that bothers me in this issue, though, are the visual discrepensies. She Hulk seems to have two very different, but visually impressive, looks throughout this whole graphic novel. One is her "pudgy face" look and the other is her "sexy-as-hell" look, and when you go from Number 8 to Number 9, the differences of artists is obvious. Southpaw, the teenage granddaughter of her boss whom She-Hulk has full custody of, also changes looks. In 8, she's smaller, looks much younger, and her gauntlet claw is regular forearm size. But by 9, she goes back to looking like a 15-year-old, and her gauntlet is suddently an enormous three-feet long again! Not one to nit-pick, I'll just go ahead and assume being transfered across the galaxy had a dramatic change on everyone's looks! But why does Gamora, also a tall green female, look so much like She-Hulk? Would making her a slightly different shade of green have hurt?
Anyway, in #9 Strong Enough, She Hulk returns to Earth looking much more massive. (and much hotter, as well!) So, she goes to her old pal Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic, for a method of controlling her new limitless strength. Meanwhile, Mallory Book, She-Hulk's associate, has to defend Hercules (yes, THAT Hercules) in a trial when he injures B-Supervillain, Constrictor. A bit of a boring read, but it leads up to something later.
In #10, we learn the tragic origin tale of Mary "Skeeter" MacPherran, also known as She Hulk's #1 enemy, Titania. Born pre-maturely into a poor Denver family, poor Skeeter never got to grow up like normal girls, and as a result, lived her life as a puny adult woman under five feet tall. Desperately wishing to be rich, strong, and liked by people like so many superheroines she looks up to, Skeeter comes up with a solution to her troubles by falsely revealing herself to be the secret identity of Spider Woman (Julia Carpenter). The lie gets her fame and popularity, for a short while, but ultimately gets her in trouble when her neighborhood is thrust off into space to be part of the "Secret Wars". When the real Spider Woman shows up, Skeeter and her only friend Marsha flee from the angry and scared mob she's lied to and finds solace in Dr. Doom, who grants Skeeter her every wish by transforming her into the 6'8" invincible giantess, Titania. However, with Skeeter's real issues being psychological, even the quick fix isn't enough to truly make her happy, especially when She Hulk is still more popular and stronger than her. Still a loser, only in a much larger body now, Skeeter/Titania shirks off all her friends and allies in order to train for revenge against She Hulk, but even all the self-sacrifices prove to her that life is truly unfair.
In #11, a recently embarassed former-Champion presents Titania with the key of ultimately fulfilling her dreams of beating her arch-rival, She Hulk. And it's here, where I have a problem with the story. Skeeter/Titania was just presented as a tragic character. In fact, her story is so sad, it almost makes you want to cry. But all of her sympathy is supposedly then tossed out the window when she seeks revenge on She Hulk in Number 11. I mean, WHY??? By this strategy, you almost want Titania to win, as She Hulk is the one who is presented as the popular, mean b*tch type girl from high school. The story progresses by Titania trying to get to She Hulk, even if it means hurting her friends. Inbetween, there's also a story involving She Hulk doing something bad to The Avenger's that we don't quite get to see. Something that also confuses me, as why would they gloss over supposedly a major happening with She Hulk, in her own graphic novel? Plus here, we're supposed to feel sorry for her, but we're still too busy with the storyline of Titania, so it fails to work, at all.
The conclusion in #12, Some Disassembly Required, comes when, once again, we see it takes more than She Hulk's brute force to save the day from revenge-bent supervillainess Titania, and ultimately, it's Jennifer Walters (and comic book geeks, just like YOU!) who ends up being the true hero(es). But once again, we're left feeling truly sorry for Titania, and as much as I understood where the ending was trying to go, it still was a bit of a cop-out. Before the end of this series, I truly think the guys and girls at Marvel need to get Titania a shrink and have her talk and cry out some of her truly sympathetic insecurity issues, as just leaving her the insanely jealous bad guy just isn't working, at all. Hell, it only makes the reader want to see Titania possibly turn good, or just be able to win, SOMEHOW! Titania's the sympathetic loser who steals the show by the end of the graphic novel and I only hope she's able to psychologically get better before this series is over and done with.
All in all, I definitely recommend this, even if it isn't perfect. I honestly don't think anyone but Dan Slott could've done a better job telling the She Hulk story. He manages to grab readers in and give them a story befitting of She Hulk, that is full of the traditional action you expect and love, but also gives us some things to think about, as well. I can't imagine that being an easy task to do, but Slott does it well, and piques your interest in the jade green giantess. So, I truly recommend the buy!
I really hope Marvel does a She Hulk movie in the next few years. (Starring Jessica Biel as Jennifer, of course.) And why we're at it, why not Thor and Nick Fury, as well. Only, forget using David Hasselhoff this time, please!
 I can't get enough She-Hulk! The fun continues from the first She-Hulk collection! March 20, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
While not as groundbreaking as the first collection, I still had a good time following She-Hulk into her second collection. Just like before, where most books only tell you one padded out story, She-Hulk gives you a bunch of stories. This time around She-Hulk has a couple adventures being a judge in outer space, helps Hercules when a supervillain tries to sue him because Herc beat him up, and finally She-Hulk has a showdown with her arch enemy Titania.
After reading the first collection and its hilarious Spider-Man issue, I was hoping to see more of Spidey in this book as well. But he only showed up briefly in the last story, and only had one line of dialogue. Luckily though, there was a really funny issue with Hercules, and the scene where he sung in court was pretty much worth the cost of the collection alone!
This time around, I really took notice of one of She-Hulk's biggest strengths: her supporting cast. With characters like the loveable Awesome Andy, the bratty Southpaw, Pug, and Ditto, the supporting cast in this book is probably one of the best supporting casts in comics, up there with the original supporting cast from the early years of Spider-Man. That's something you just don't see anymore in comics today.
If you want to take a chance on a great new superhero book, I'd suggest buying the 1st collection of She-Hulk! And, after you fall in love with it, I'm sure you'll be back for this second helping! Now where's the third already?
 The worst depiction of She-Hulk yet. March 19, 2006
2 out of 18 found this review helpful
She-hulk has always had bad luck with writers.
First David Anthony Kraft's earnest, derivative stories, then John Byrne's ludicrous hijinks and now Dan Slott's "funny" melodrama.
I was appalled at how bad this book was, especially after hearing that it was allegedly a "phenomenal" book.
The book aspires to be a hybrid of comedy and drama, and fails at both miserably, particularly when it over-indulges in stale jokes and soap-opera contrivances.
Quirky? More like annoying and groan-inducing.
And it takes up too much time obviously trying to be hip in a retro way (if that makes sense)and trying to wring laughs out of
tired comic book cliches, when it should be telling solid stories and building up the character of the protagonist.
And that's another problem...the protagonist feels like an afterthought, especially when the courtroom drama and the cool guest stars seem to overpower the She-Hulk's presence.
It's as if the writer was only allowed to use the She-Hulk character, but damned if he is not going to bring his favorites into the mix. (The Spider-Man appearance in the other trade was horrible...it literally read like a Spider-Man book in which She-Hulk had a cameo)
The book at times (many times) feels like a super-powered mix of Ally McBeal and LA Law, without any of the charm, strong characters or intelligently constructed jokes.
If this is what passes off today as good comic book stories, then I'll pass.
The art is the only thing that is memorable.
Everything else, from the contrived tone, to the trite comedy to the "cute" dialogue, is forgettable and not worth the money spent.
1 star out of five
Superhuman law is super! January 8, 2006
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
This second collection of She-Hulk's third series continues the fun new direction initiated by writer Dan Slott and artists Juan Bobillo and Paul Pelletier. The series is superhero adventures by way of "Boston Legal". All adventures are either a result of a legal case or initiating one, providing much humor along the way, with the occasional pokes at comic book conventions that readers have willingly suspended their disbelief for over the years.
Slott's writing is top-notch, with all characters coming off as real and the humor coming from those characters rather than feeling forced or driving the characterizations. This is complemented nicely by his two artists. Juan Bobillo's style is a looser, more stylized representation of She-Hulk and her world which may require a discerning eye to appreciate, but is well worthy of such appreciation. Paul Pelletier, on the other hand, has been known for more traditional superhero art, and brings that style to play here to great effect, reminding the reader that these stories are not parodies, but take place in the same fictional timeline as those in Fantastic Four, New Avengers, etc.
If you enjoy superhero stories and enjoy a touch of humor, this book is for you.
She-Hulk: Superhuman Law (Volume 2) August 21, 2005
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Collecting issues 7-12 of the newly revived She-Hulk series, writer Dan Slott continues his charming blend of stellar action and clever nostalgia. Defying recent comic book trends that explore the darker themes of superheroes in a realistic setting, She-Hulk turns its back on the heavy handed approach and comes up with a light, easy to read and thoroughly enjoyable series.
The clean lines of artist Juan Bobillo set up the first story arc (issues 7-8) which features an entertaining if unlikely tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek boxing match on a cosmic scale. The second arc (issues 9-12) continues the serviceable pencils of Paul Pelletier to set up a memorable, old fashioned superhero showdown between She-Hulk and the classic Marvel villain Titania. There are also a number of continuing subplots that develop in this collection including the weakest aspect of this series, She-Hulk as guardian and role-model for her employers' delinquent granddaughter, Southpaw. This troubled relationship is tiresome and distracts from the otherwise excellent story telling.
Before I read this and the first trade paperback, I had no interest in ever reading a She-Hulk comic book. The hyperbole surrounding Dan Slott as an emerging writing talent drew me in and it was a pleasant surprise to find that perhaps with further experience, Slott could very well be considered one of the top writers in a crowded market. Slott makes excellent comical use of forgotten second (and third) rate Marvel characters such as the Awesome Android, Hercules, even Howard the Duck (to name just a few) and an abundance of quirky ideas in this second She-Hulk book will bring a smile to any new or long time comic book reader.
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