Immortal She-Hulk #1
Marvel Comics 2020
Written by Al Ewing
Illustrated by Jon Davis-Hunt
Coloured by Marcio Menyz
Lettered by VC’s Cory Petit
IN THE WAKE OF EMPYRE, JEN WALTERS GOES IMMORTAL!
The Cotati invasion has changed everything for Jennifer Walters. Now she seems to have a new lease on life…but things are never that simple for the gamma-powered.
I love She-Hulk, Jen, for so long. She’s one of those characters where I am not sure they knew how to utilise her properly. They kind of copied Bruce’s life with her in a lot of ways and she is her own person, her own identity and while I do miss her confidence, charm and social presence what Al is doing here is what we need to see. Finally the struggle of actually coming into her own through this introspective process that strips her down to such a fundamental place so she can rebuild herself and figure out who she’s supposed to be. This is why I love Al’s work and why I will read his stories anywhere they come out.
The way that this is being told is utterly fantastic! How we see the story & plot development through the sequence of events unfolding as well as how the reader learns information is brilliantly done. That she’s trying to piece her deaths together and figure out why she keeps coming back is the story and it’s her character development. We cannot have one without the other and usually we can say they are intertwined but this time around Al manages to make them one and the same. The pacing here is incredible and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story and the elements to Jen’s life and deaths we see how well everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow.
The way this is structured and how we see the layers within the story come about is bloody brilliant! I mean each time she’s gone to that place she’s seen a different person from the collection of gamma affected people. Then there’s the fact that she can recall these times as fading dreams so that she loses them altogether, it adds to her frustration and what she is so desperately looking for. This packs a very powerful emotional punch in the gut for the reader and it makes me want to see this creative team keep going. I want them to tell this story further and see where it leads them.
The interiors here are absolutely gorgeous! I haven’t been able to say that about a lot of Marvel’s titles over the last few years but this makes the writing have that added punch to it so it is as powerful a story as can be. The linework is sensational and to see how the varying weights and techniques are being utilised throughout to show off the detail in the work is stellar. The work in the backgrounds is equally amazing to see and how much detail goes into it as well makes me a happy camper. They enhance the moments, bring us depth perception, a sense of scale and that overall sense of size and scope to the book. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a tremendous eye for storytelling. Loving the colour work here as well. How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work it exceptionally well rendered.
This is the exact storytelling that I want to see and read. Like Hyperions all too short lived title if it isn’t a high profile Avenger or X-Man it seems Marvel doesn’t truly care. So tell them you care and let them know you want to see more of this. This is brilliantly done from concept, writing, artwork and the lettering and this should be high up on your reading list.
