SPECIAL GUEST REVIEW She-Hulks #2

The saga of the She-Hulks continues as Jen and Lyra find their personal lives overshadowed by their quest to apprehend the Intelligencia. Meanwhile, Jen reconnects with John Byrne era beau Wyatt Wingfoot (click on image to enlarge).

This becomes unpleasantly clear to Lyra, who receives detention when last issue's mission to capture The Wizard causes her to be late for class. After being pummelled by her entire gym class in dodgeball, Lyra finds solitude in the locker room, where she turns green out of sheer frustration with school. Unfortunately, local mean girl Amelia secretly captures Lyra’s transformation on a borrowed camera phone. 

Listen carefully and you can actually hear the theme from Love Story playing in this panel.

Unfortunately, their reunion is cut short by news from the Hulk that Intelligencia alumnus The Red Ghost has been located in Russia. Jen and Lyra have a brief argument on the trip over, with Jen expressing disappointment at Lyra getting detention on her second day of school and Lyra questioning why she has to be there in the first place. As they assault his hideout in St. Petersburg, The Red Ghost is swiftly taken down, whereas his Super Apes offer stronger resistance. While Jen gets punched out of the neighborhood by a deceptively cute chimpanzee, Lyra displays her fighting agility (that her human form lacks in dodgeball) and contempt towards opponents she'd just as soon order from a menu. Amelia, who had followed Lyra to the ship, soon finds herself being rescued by her from an ape. The issue ends with Jen scowling at Lyra for allowing them to be compromised by the stowaway.

She-Hulks #2 is a fast and enjoyable read that ends sooner than you want it to. Longtime She-Hulk fans will be pleased to see Wyatt again, and one hopes his reintroduction will be more than a simple cameo. While minor costume changes for Supergirl generate pages of spirited debate on message boards and blogs, little has been said on Jen and Lyra’s new outfits. While I am partial to Jen’s purple and white leotard, her new costume look great on her. The same can be said of Lyra’s red and yellow outfit, for it is an improvement on her first costume, which looked borrowed from She-Ra’s wardrobe.

As She-Hulk’s 30^th anniversary year ends on a high note midway through this enjoyable mini-series, fans can look forward to two more issues (and hopefully more after that) next year from the capable hands of writer Harrison Wilcox and penciller Ryan Stegman. With She-Hulks #3 due to be released in the first week of January, picking that issue up is one New Year’s resolution that I plan to keep.

EUGENE LIPTAK

Eugene Liptak is a librarian and author who really enjoyed this issue, but wished Jen or Lyra could have quoted Charlton Heston at least once while fighting those damn dirty apes.