Issue(s): Hulk #412
Cover Date: Dec 93
Title: "Bi me that"
Credits:
Peter David - Writer
Paul Pelletier - Penciler
Cam Smith - Inker
James Felder - Assistant Editor
Bobbie Chase - Editor

Review/plot:
She-Hulk comes to town to visit the Hulk. The conversation gets pretty heavy right on the way home from the airport.

She-Hulk also suggests that the Hulk is the reason Rick has been getting the cold shoulder from the super-hero community while announcing his upcoming wedding.

Meanwhile, the Bi-Beast returns to Earth with "the Family Jewels".

The Pantheon are tracking him.

Bi-Beast teleports outside of the Hulk's house and gets into a fight with Doc Samson. The Pantheon alert the Hulk, and that results in the Hulk saying one of my favorite lines (not the one about the knishes).

I don't know why i think it's funny, but i do. I sometimes say it to my friends when i want them to follow me out of a room, but no one knows what i'm talking about.

Anyway, with a "Bi" Beast and Family Jewels, not to mention a She-Hulk appearance, Peter David is obviously going for pure comedy here.

It turns out that the Bi-Beast was, unbeknownst to him, allowed to escape by the Stranger.

To make his experiment more interesting, he sets the Family Jewels so that they will explode.

The Hulks manage to knock out the Bi-Beast. But the Family Jewels are stuffed into a Felix the Cat doll and knocked into a warehouse full of Felix the Cat dolls. The Hulk and She-Hulk eventually find it, but without any time left before it explodes. Hulk tries to send She-Hulk away, but she stays and they both use their bodies to absorb the explosion. Then She-Hulk goes into a tirade about the fourth wall.

Earlier, a sliding timescale joke:

Fun stuff. I'd prefer if the comedy didn't completely overshadow things, but there are elements here hinting at the long term problems with the Hulk's mental state.

This is the last issue shorted by the Pantheon origin back-ups. If the goal was to give Gary Frank a break, it didn't seem to work, because Paul Pelletier, who draws the back-ups, also draws the main story. Frank will have an uninterrupted run for close to a year after this, though.

Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: She-Hulk says Sauron attacked during her flight to Reno, but it was probably just a joke. Last issue, She-Hulk said that she was on the "left coast" on business and would stop by to see Rick and the Hulk on her way back, so i suppose this should be She-Hulk's next appearance (as opposed to, say, issues of her solo series showing her back in New York, but of course her visit could have gotten delayed). Enough time has passed that She-Hulk is aware of the events of last issue. The Stranger's appearance here probably shouldn't take place during Starblast, but could take place before or after.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A