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©Marvel Comics, She-Hulk, no.28, June 2008

She-Hulk grapples with the never ending barrage of questions about her and Juggernauts nepharious relationship.

Who is She-Hulk anyways?

While most people know what a comic book is and are even aware of Superman, non-comic book fans might not be aware of who the She-Hulk character is. She is the niece of Bruce Banner, who is the Incredible Hulk. He was out visiting Jennifer Walters aka She-Hulk when she was shot by some bad-guys. Rather than let her die, her uncle gave her a blood transfusion right on the spot. Of course, his blood was gamma-radiated and it turned Jennifer Walters into the She-Hulk when she became angry, a powerful emotion. As Jennifer came to have control over the persona of She-Hulk she could transform at will

She-Hulk is arguably the strongest female in the Marvel Comics universe. She-Hulk has been known to lift up to 75 tons, but the limits of her strength have not been reached according to The Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe. (alpha-order She-Hulk).  Conversely, another Marvel superheroine, Ms. Marvel is also argued as the strongest female with abilities to lift 10 tons, but her cosmic powers from the Kree might boost her strength more than She-Hulk’s.  Speculations like these in Marvel fandom are rhetorical hot-topics, but for the purposes of this website, until She-Hulk is proven weaker, the verdigris Shulkie wins hands down as the strongest super-heroine in the Marvel Universe.  Her physical stats from The Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe report that she is 6’ 7” and 650lbs with superhuman strength measured by her level of anger. One of her favorite retorts is “Don’t make me angry, you wouldn’t want to see me angry”.  

She-Hulk’s warning is well merited because the last time someone made her really angry, she demolished the town of Burn, Idaho.   Her anger levels determine her size but her defining trait is her intellectualism.  She thinks through situations, unlike her uncle who has a tendency to just “smash” whatever is in his way.  She-Hulk on the other hand, retains composure and conveys a certain sense of sarcasm and humor which are her more valued traits, though her overwhelmingly male fan-base might argue it is her physical assets that they esteem.

She has stopped spacecraft, lifted two ton trucks, and fought the strongest and most popular superhero, her uncle, the Incredible Hulk.  She-Hulk’s attributes are considerable in contrast to her alter ego, the mousy and dimunitive Jennifer Walters.  Unlike She-Hulk, who really likes who she is, Jennifer Walters has always struggled with her stronger inner id.  

While Jennifer was not exactly comic book material, She-Hulk would come to represent any role for women. Whether the role was derogatory or enlightening began with the creator and was then accepted, modified, or rejected by fan agency.

Throughout the sixty issues of The Sensational She-Hulk, it was artist/writer Dave Byrne who both built up and tore down She-Hulk’s character.  The strip tease scene in She-Hulk’s debut trade paper back was a real set back for She-Hulk’s character.  It dealt a blow to fan's perception of her as a strong, smart, sexy, and sassy superheroine because up to this point in Shulkology, her reputation was fairly clean.  

Cultural historian Robert Reynolds stated “the costumed heroine may be frankly  the object of sexual attraction, and therefore (for many male readers) will constitute the object of the gaze, as well as the subject...”[Reynolds, 37]  For She-Hulk is doubly under the gaze, she simply stands out as the jade giantess who happens to be well-endowed. 

Though She-Hulk’s choice of clothing is often club wear, even when working as a lawyer, (this changed over time), she knows the response she generates as when she goes out on a date and says of her outfit and physiognomy, “I’m six foot seven inches tall and bright green—people are going to stare however I dress”. [Byrne]

The act of staring is a relatively thought unnerving inert action, but writer/artist Dave Byrne departed from innocent staring when he transformed it into ‘the gaze’.  In the same book, later in the evening, She-Hulk is strip-searched and is shown doing a forced striptease.  Reynolds remarked that “for the superheroine the process can (at least potentially) be viewed as the performance of an uncompleted striptease".[Reynolds, 37]  Byrnes' drawing undermined the feminine power of She-Hulk by making her the object of the male-gaze and completing the striptease.  To compound her humiliation, She-Hulk was subjected to a second stripsearch later in the story.                                                                                 ©Marvel Comics, The Sensational She-Hulk , Marvel Graphic Novel, 1985 

She-Hulk comics were not marketed for females specifically, but females found empowerment through her career, intelligence, strong self-esteem, relationships with men and superheroes, sense of humor, and honesty. It is highly doubtful that female readers found any empowerment through the act of She-Hulks stripsearch. 

Comic book enthusiast and historian Mike Benton wrote of the genre of superhero comics that “they appeal to young reader’ fantasies of personal power and total freedom.  Finally, the comic-book superhero provides adolescents with a larger-than-life heroic model as they outgrow their other childhood heroes and fantasy figures”.[Benton, 24]What is of minor interest here in Benton’s description is that the assumption of the text “young” and “adolescent” is highly indicative of male readership because of the close association with the term superhero.  At the time of publishing in 1989, the book was well before conservative politically correct terminology and may have benefited from adding the word “superheroine” to infer female readership as well.   

Of major interest in Benton’s description, is the phrase “larger-than-life heroic model” because of the implications of Byrnes’ Sensational She-Hulk striptease.  What sort of model is that for female and/or male readers?  It is true enough that She-Hulk is larger-than-life as a superheroine, but she is no positive role-model as the object of the gaze for females. Rather, her best attributes are her sense of humor, aggressive intelligence and strength, and sense of female empowerment because of her sexuality. Throughout She-Hulk's superheroine career, she seems to have ups and downs like anyone else, only she isn't like anyone else. She-Hulk represented the tough, I can have it all attitude of women in the eighties, yet her creators consistantly stifled her triumphs against cultural stigmata, making her not so funny.

On the other hand, the comic book is one of popular cultures best outlet for the American sense of humor and is reminiscent of the carnivalesque parody.  For comic historian M. Thomas Inge in What’s So Funny About the Comics? (1990) stated, “to satirize life and institutions is to believe in a better mode of conduct which people fail to live up to, and humor may serve as a gentle but sometimes bitter or angry corrective”. [Inge, 12]  Possibly but not certainly, that She-Hulk’s stripsearch was satirical may have reminded readers of feminine inequality. This might be an excellent counter-argument, but it is immediately weakened when the satirical stripsearch was performed not once, but twice. 

Jennifer Walters is a dimunitive and mousy lawyer with lots of smarts. Readers seem to prefer the sassy and superpowerful She-Hulk because Jennifer's character is admittedly weaker in every sense.

©Marvel Comics, The Savage She-Hulk , vol 1, no.2, March,1980

One of She-Hulk’s most unusual characteristics is that she is a lawyer, unlike contemporary superheroines with careers as secretaries, or teachers.  She-Hulk’s elevated career status in the 1980s represented the cultural discourse in an equal opportunity society.  Comic artist and historian Trina Robbins expressed her view that a 1980s Marvel Comics’ advertisement featuring She-Hulk probably would not “use the term ‘Equal Opportunity Employer” in an ad sixteen years later”. [Robbins, 137] Though She-Hulk has worked in a respectable and well-paid profession for most of her career, she has been put in so many compromising positions that even today, the same could be said of Marvel Comics twenty-eight years later. 

Buck Bukowski has barged in on Jennifer Walters once again, but this time it is in the privacy of her home, thus the negligee. Jennifer, rather than facing Buck, runs out so she can change into She-Hulk privately. Buck infers that her hasty departure is indicative of her professional life in court. ©Marvel Comics, The Savage She-Hulk , vol 1, no.3, April,1980

Following these examples of objectification and role-model in the ‘Good Girl’ superheroine She-Hulk, it is no wonder that comic book publishers struggle to attract female readership and more importantly,  the reason why comic books continually face emphatic denouncement by critical press and scholarly institutions.  

Writing and Drawing She-Hulk

The following comic book runs of She-Hulk and basic storylines cover only the solo issues of She-Hulk.  In between and during comic book runs, She-Hulk has made numerous guest solo and team guest appearances in a variety of comic book titles.

In 1980, Stan Lee penned the first Savage She-Hulk with subsequent issues two through twenty-five written by David Anthony Kraft and drawn by artist Mike Vosburg.  She-Hulk was frequently her human counter-part Jennifer Walters.  Through out the series, Jennifer struggled with the uninhibited and powerful feelings she had as She-Hulk. She preferred the state of She-Hulk, but used her human form to pursue her criminal defense career.  The Savage She-Hulk run ended in 1982. 

In 1985, artist/writer Dave Byrne in Sensational She-Hulk graphic novel.  She-Hulk has been written by Byrne, Slott, so and so. Each writing team has the opportunity to revisit her origin story to accomplish the feat of tying in new alternate sub-stories.  Some have succeeded where others have left the She-Hulk wanting.  It is true and a wish of many many of Frails statement, ‘ if female characters can be written with the same consistency and strength of character as male characters,  this would certainly show some advancement on the part of comic book companies".  She-Hulk has had some bad turns to where her book was abandoned before being picked up again as a the star of her own book. 

One of She-Hulk’s lasting attributes is her strong and resilient nature.  Much like what Frail attempted to attribute to Wonder Woman as he noted ‘that no other female characters can be identified nearly as strongly with those traits".  As mentioned before, She-Hulk’s origin was in 1980 while Wonder Woman’s origin was in 1941.  What really makes Wonder Woman resilient in character is her creators love triangle that she was born of.  But it is too broad and sweeping to speculate that no other superheroine exhibits traits of strength and resilience, for She-Hulk is the very definition of THE most powerful superheroine.

She-Hulk is more powerful than Wonder Woman, yet Wonder Woman has had a better history of super-villians and that perception gives the facade of power. The perception is similar to real life Mohatma Gandhi, whom had he not a villianous British Empire to vanquish, would have been less celebrated.  The super-villian in the comic book narrative acts as the both the receptor and manifestor. She-Hulk's creation (whether trademark purpose or not) may have been Marvel’s answer to DC’s powerful Wonder Woman. What follows are the many differences between the two role-model superheroines.  She-Hulk’s strength increases by the measurement of her anger and no full measurement has been accounted for yet. Wonder Woman uses a whip as a lie-detector.  She-Hulk has gamma radiated multi-cultural skin whereas Wonder Woman has creamy white skin denoting elitism. She-Hulk has super intelligence but humble pride.  Wonder Woman comes from an aristocratic background and is an Amazon princess.  She-Hulk is the people’s princess.  To Wonder Woman's credit, she has had a better set of writers to carry her through the years, but then again, she is a mature superheroine.  She-Hulk is only thirty-one, in the prime of her youth, and has a promising future in the ever-changing Marvel creation teams.