Marvel has announced by way of USA Today that Charles Soule and Javier Pulido will be joining forces on a new solo book for She-Hulk, starting up this February. Soule, who seems to be writing every third DC book this month as well as Thunderbolts, is actually a practicing Brooklyn lawyer himself, so he seems ideally suited for bringing a legal eagle like Jennifer Walters back to the fore.
“She-Hulk has always been a title where weird, cool things can happen,” Soule says. “She is a strong — very strong — female character, and comics absolutely cannot have too many of those. There’s no reason Jennifer Walters can’t be iconic, and we’re going to do what we can to make that happen.”
“One of the things I want to explore is the fact that she wants to be exceptional at everything she does, but that’s not always possible,” Soule continues about the lawyer/Avenger/Future Foundation teacher. “You can spread yourself too thin,” Soule says. “She’ll be out on her own, without much of a support group at first, a total underdog trying to make good. I love stories like that — Jen’s going to be very easy to root for.”
While promising a strong element of fun – which is a must for a character like this, with a history of breaking the fourth wall and all – Soule also notes that “one of the things I want to work hard to do in this new series is treat her as a real person. She absolutely has problems, just like most of the heroes of the Marvel U, but she chooses to approach them with optimism and good spirit rather than surrendering to the grim and gritty. It takes a lot to bring She-Hulk down, although we’ll throw a lot at her.”
“She’s brainy, which always appeals to me, but she doesn’t always make the best decisions,” he notes, “and that’s a combination that’s ripe for drama.”
For his part, Pulido says he wants to find a balance between the bombshell image she has and the intial ferocity she had when she first arrived as the Savage She-Hulk. “Yes, she’s Hulk’s cousin, but she’s also gorgeous,” he says. “That’s a very important part of the character, and I plan to keep it. When she comes into a room, her presence calls for the attention of everyone there, not just for her skin’s color. She has that kind of magnetism around her.”
What say you? Will you be checking out Shulkie’s solo title? And while we’re talking about her, does “She-Hulk” still work as a name in this day and age, or should she find some new name to roll with? On one hand, you could argue that it makes her sound like an adjunct to her male cousin as opposed to her own person, but on the other hand, it leads with SHE, and insists on SHE, and you better believe that SHE is in the house. It’s not likely to go anywhere, of course, but it’s interesting to think about. Let’s root for Marvel getting their female-led books to have staying power.
