You know, I hate having to admit when I'm wrong, but boy did I miss the call on She-Hulk. I thought it was going to be a mildly fun, somewhat entertaining and ultimately forgettable book. Instead, just as Runaways was the breakout book of the nearly D.O.A. Tsunami line, She-Hulk is the book that surges forward from the rest of the recent wave of new Marvel launches as the real gem of the bunch. Bobillo and Sosa's artwork impressed me from the first, and continues to do so, but the real treasure has been discovering just how funny Dan Slott can be when he wants to be. This time out, he takes She-Hulk's new legal focus to the age-old conflict between Spidey and Jonah Jameson with hilarious results, and not only is it funny on a moment-to-moment basis, but it includes a sweet romance subplot and a very clever way of getting out of the story that seemed to be going in a very impossibly status-quo breaking direction. She-Hulk might not be the best comic that Marvel is publishing right now, but it's probably the funniest, and it's got plenty of heart too.
It is almost inevitable that a new Marvel title is going to feature Spider-Man or Wolverine, just like we usually get a Batman appearance in new DC books. Slott makes Spidey's visit to She-Hulk's book highly entertaining, however, not only finding a legal angle to involve the wall-crawler but writing the guy as such a wise-cracker that I find myself hoping we'll see more Spider-Man from Slott in the future. His Spidey is almost too goofy at times, but it's easy to buy this more jokey version of the character, not just because of the tone of the She-Hulk book but because, for once, Spidey is winning, he's on top for most of this issue, and even when the other shoe finally drops, he's won a pretty big (and enjoyably goofy) victory.
However, while Slott's take on Spider-Man and Jonah Jameson, both in terms of character and in terms of deconstructing their relationship from a legal point-of-view, is enjoyable, that isn't to say that She-Hulk is pushed to the side in her own book. Slott introduced Pug, the everyday guy turned lawyer, in the last issue, and he's quickly turning him into a favorite supporting character. His crush on Jen Walters is a great subplot, and I like that Slott can make the character a little introverted and shy, and yet completely capable in the courtroom. In addition, Slott continues to expand on the notion of a superhero law firm, with shapechanging process servers and superfast couriers, which makes for a nice bit of background style.
Speaking of background style, I'm still completely in love with the work that Bobillo and Sosa are doing on this book. Their superhero work is still sometimes a little weird looking to me, with Scorpion looking a little more bulked-up and armored than usual, but their comedic timing is perfect and their character designs for the people very catchy. I also loved little background gags like Awesome Andy meditating while She-Hulk and Pug work out, and plenty of the humor comes as much from the exasperated expressions of Jonah Jameson as it does from Slott's witty script.
She-Hulk #4 has a couple of minor glitches, including the weird assertion that John Jameson was the first person ever saved by Spider-Man (which sounds wrong to me, but is apparently the case, as several of my readers pointed out). But it's a delightful look at a long-standing Marvel character rivalry through a new lens, and it includes several laugh-out-loud moments, including Spidey's "reason" for why Jameson hates him and going all the way up through an ending that cracked me up as much as when Jameson got his comeuppance from Jessica Jones in the pages of Alias.
