She-Hulk 4, Loki: Agent of Asgard 4

She-Hulk 4
Soule (w) and Pulido (a) and Vicente (c) and Cowles (l)

She-Hulk pays a visit to San Francisco to get some advice from fellow lawyer-superhero Matt Murdock about her recent case involving Kristoff Vernard, son of Dr. Doom. With his counsel, she flies to Latveria in the hopes of finishing her case. She manages to sneak into the country and launches a small attack on Castle Doom before a giant Doombot controlled by Doom himself stops her. She talks with him, telling him that it would serve Doom well to let Kristoff live a life since all he's doing now is teaching the future ruler of Latveria to bow and that letting him go out on his own, whether in Latveria or abroad, will let him become a stronger person. Doom consents reluctantly and Kristoff brings She-Hulk home, where she begins to look into the facts of her mysterious blue file.

Story
The conclusion of the Doom storyline works out nicely as Jen manages to get into Latveria and makes another compelling argument (her first came when she won her actual trial to grant Kristoff asylum) on behalf of her client. It paints a picture of a good lawyer at work and, as she and Matt discuss, the role of a lawyer who has the ability to do far more for a client than most. On top of it, we start to get a sense of what's in the blue file as she reveals to Hellcat and Angie Huang that she and several other in the superhero/villain community are being sued by someone in North Dakota for something she cannot recall. Interesting stuff ahead. 5/5

Character
There are plenty of strong character moments here from just about everyone who appears. She-Hulk gets plenty of her own moments in the way that she speaks and in the way she acts; her tone and her demeanor give us as much a sense of her character as her willingness to visit San Francisco for advice and her willingness to travel to Latveria for a client she doesn't even like. Kristoff and Doom get some decent characterization (a well-written Doom continues to be just an absolute pleasure to read), as do Hellcat and Angie Huang in their much smaller roles. 5/5

Writing
Soule's writing continues to be very strong, giving great dialogue and compelling story beats as the series continues. I've covered most of that in the above two sections but it feels more and more each issue like Soule is building his world in some really strong ways. Hopefully the book hangs on long enough to let us see it (I've no idea how sales on this or any other new book are doing but I fear that the cuts have to come somewhere). 5/5

Art
Pulido's art continues to impress, though I get the sense that his work continues to be very polarizing. Matt Murdock is characterized some by his dialogue in this one but even more by his inability to sit still as he and She-Hulk hang out on the Golden Gate Bridge. He's constantly doing handstands and jumping from wire to wire and all sorts of different things in the course of his regular conversation. It's pretty fun and it adds a lot to the book, which is about all you can ask from any artist on any book. Muntsa Vicente does a solid job too on the colors for this extremely specific art style. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Just another in a line of Soule books that's proven to be a lot of fun to read while also being an engaging superhero comic.

Total score: 5/5


Loki: Agent of Asgard 4
Ewing (w) and Garbett (a) and Woodard (c) and Cowles (l)

Loki needs to send Sigurd home to Asgardia on behalf of the All-Mothers but Sigurd has other plans. Sigurd wants to remain on Earth but also to change his religion to one of resurrection upon death, hoping to avoid the fate that's been promised to him when he dies (consumed by the ex-Disir Valkyries, as happened a few years ago in NEW MUTANTS). For his plan, he needs his sword Gram, which Loki happens to have. The two fight for it and it seems Sigurd was the winner, though the conclusion of the fight happens out of sight. Sigurd visits Tibet and finds dark sorcerer Kaluu, hoping that he can change his religion. Sigurd explains what happened between himself and Loki while Kaluu listens and, at the end, agrees to aid Sigurd. They both shed blood on the wheel of karma to agree to terms and to get the ball rolling only for Kaluu to transform into Mephisto and show Sigurd that the karma wheel was, in fact, a contract and that his soul now belongs to Hell. Unfortunately for Mephisto, Loki had been on the mountaintop all along, courtesy of a number of invisibility charms and spells, and swapped out the wheel/contract for a contract of his own that banishes Mephisto and sends Sigurd back to Asgardia. Though the All-Mothers are pleased with Loki, he's not so thrilled with them and enlists the help of Verity Willis, Lorelai, and Thor to try to open up the dungeons of Asgardia to release the gods who have been imprisoned there recently.

Story
Every issue of this book has ended so far (with the exception of issue one, but even that had this problem, I just thought the story was more interesting) with me going "geez, that was awfully convoluted." I do believe, to Ewing's credit, that "convoluted" is rather the book's intent. Loki's the god of mischief, not the god of straightforward cause and effect. Were there probably easier, more generic ways for Loki to send Sigurd back to Asgardia? Probably. Maybe fighting? Who knows, it's all moot at this point. I think Ewing's not wrong to want to take the roundabout way to get it done, since people picking up this book want to see Loki being mischievous and outsmarting people. Still, at some point, convoluted for convoluted's sake wears a little thin and the story has to be exciting and compelling enough to warrant it. It didn't feel like this one ever really hit that point. 3/5

Character
Though we get some character beats in dialogue, the strongest sense of character comes from the aforementioned Rube Goldberg-ness of Loki's plots. It's strong characterization in that sense but the dialogue doesn't always support it. One of the most impressive things that Kieron Gillen did in JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY (and no, it's not fair to keep comparing this series to that one but I'm going to keep doing it) was to make Loki continually outsmart his foes even when it looked like he wasn't doing it or wasn't doing it intentionally because every once in a while you'd get a dark or foreboding line from Kid Loki that showed that maybe his young and excitable exterior was maybe a little deeper than it seemed. I haven't seen a lot of that from this Loki so his dialogue feels incongruous with his plots. Suddenly he just appears and goes "AHA, I had it planned this way from the start!" which, while true, doesn't feel particularly rewarding. 3/5

Writing
I think I pretty much said all I wanted to say about the writing above. The only other thing I'd mention is that I still tend not to like the faintly gimmicky asides that feel more at place in a SCOTT PILGRIM than in a book whose tone hasn't really been firmly established yet (for example, there's a cutaway sequence outlining what Sigurd's wearing and another establishing what Verity is eating in longer detail - it's not necessarily a dumb idea as it's stuff that needs to be explained and an aside is perhaps more useful than clunky dialogue but it really breaks the tone and rather makes me roll my eyes, which is not the last time I'll discuss eye-rolling this time out). 3/5

Art
Lee Garbett's art is pretty strong throughout this one, switching back and forth between realism and fantasy pretty effortlessly. He keeps up with a lot of the tone changes pretty well and really manages to hold the book together when it starts to come undone. Woodard's colors don't hurt either. 5/5

Miscellaneous
Still rolling my eyes continuously at Verity Willis. I understand there's quite possibly a longer game going on with her, but it would have to be a pretty darn convincing and exciting reveal to make me not roll my eyes at her.

Total score: 3/5

Avengers 26, She-Hulk 1

Avengers 26
Hickman (w) and Larroca (a) and F. Martin (c)

After the events in Perth right on the front end of INFINITY, AIM had managed to get DNA from many of the unconscious Avengers. Now they're putting it to use in the form of new and improved Adaptoids, which is never never never never NEVER a good idea and I don't know why everyone continues to think it is. More of the story from AVENGERS 25 comes to light as the new Adaptoids are set upon the dimension-hopping Avengers in the middle of New York right around when they're putting a big old crater into the city. The factions fight with the Adaptoids containing the majority of the Avengers, killing their Pym, and destroying the device that Wasp used to control Hulk. With that device destroyed, their Banner returns to his normal self and we can see that he's not really there of his own will. He wanders off and, realizing that he's in another dimension, makes for Avengers Tower in the hope that things are roughly the same there as in his world. It is and he runs across the other Banner. ANYHOW, the fight breaks up as the other Avengers flee the scene and the Adaptoids return home from testing. While AIM evaluates the information and the real Avengers try to put the pieces together, the Adaptoids do what they always every single time do and adapt, becoming something more powerful and gaining self-awareness.

I know, you were settling in to a story that was maybe a little LESS complicated than INFINITY. Sure, we had to deal with two different Avengers teams, one from some alternate dimension, but we can handle that, we're savvy, smart, regular AVENGERS readers, we had worse to contend with in issue one. BOOM, Adaptoids are back on the scene and they kind of look like Avengers, or like those toys that the back of every single Marvel comic seems to want us to care about, the ones where you can interchange parts to create an inexplicable new mash-up of a hero (GUYS, those things are clearly a scam and I don't have to tell you that but I kind of resent that this issue practically makes them canon). Anyway, things are a bit more complicated (though helped by the fact that the Adaptoids lose the mash-up Avengers look by the end of the issue) than they had seemed and now we're fully embroiled in a big story involving robots and AIM and parallel dimensions and SHIELD being terrible and multiple Banners. Geez, this got a lot bigger a lot faster than I anticipated.

She-Hulk 1
Soule (w) and Pulido (a) and Vicente (c)

Jennifer Walters finds herself out on the street after leaving a terrible employment with a jerky law firm that, though she performed admirably in her year there, expected her to bring in more superhero clientele. She leaves the law firm (with the promise of intrigue about a "blue file" she's forced to take with her) but almost immediately picks up another case in the form of Holly Harrow, wife to the late criminal Jonas Harrow, who claims that her husband's designs were stolen by none other than Tony Stark and Stark Industries and that they haven't seen a dime of the money. She-Hulk promises to talk with Tony and get it worked out but ends up being routed through Stark's impressive and heartless legal counsel. Unable to actually reach Tony, Jen ends up in court with Stark's men, who are content with simply delaying the case for as long as need be. She-Hulk manages to go to Jonas' old warehouse, filled with weapons and old tech, and find the evidence she needs, a tape recording of Harrow's meeting with one of Stark's engineering heads. She brings the evidence straight to Tony, preferring to fight through robots that try to keep her from reaching him in the matters of legal counsel and shows Tony the evidence. Tony hadn't been trying specifically to keep her out but anything to do with "legal matters" has been practically automated so he didn't even know about the case. She finally talks with him and he agrees to send a sizable check to Holly, who pays She-Hulk a hundred and fifty thousand dollars for her help. Jen quickly uses the money to set up a law office of her own in New York.

I called an audible here, folks. Hopefully I'm able to get my hands on SECRET AVENGERS in order to slot it where SHE-HULK had previously been slotted (second post Thursday, see, I have a plan typically). Anyway, this was worthy of making its way to a day-one review as Charles Soule brings the same sort of fun and natural dialogue and exquisite characterization that he's brought to his other current major Marvel product THUNDERBOLTS (hoping for similar results when he kicks off INHUMANS). Jen has a definite personality here, one matching the confidence and competence she's always brought to the table but one that ultimately distinguishes itself from its past. It's a smart book with a fun core and one that I think really has a lot of potential. Not too often we get a rip-roaring legal tale (though it's one of television's favorite genres) with a confident and powerful superhero as its star. I mean, not too often ASIDE from DAREDEVIL. Look, it's still pretty fun is all. Check it out. Should be fun.