Issue(s): Marvel Comics Presents #18 (She-Hulk and Willie Lumpkin stories only)
Cover Date: May 89

She-Hulk
Title: "X-Mas Tease"
Credits:
John Byrne - Writer
John Byrne - Penciler
Bob Wiacek - Inker

Willie Lumpkin
Title: "A Christmas card"
Credits:
Glenn Herdling - Writer
Richard Howell - Penciler
Joe Sinnott - Inker

Mike Rockwitz - Assistant Editor
Terry Kavanagh - Editor

Review/plot:
She-Hulk is bored.

And talking about what comics she's appeared in.

Yep, this is a preview of the upcoming new She-Hulk series by John Byrne. Actually, this issue came out just the week before the new She-Hulk #1.

Anyway, since she's bored, she calls up the Thing to see what other heroes do at Christmas, but he doesn't have anything going on either.

Luckily for her, Dr. Doom shows up to attack.

Jen continues to be aware that she's in a comic.

And more villains show up after Doom, starting with Magneto, whose conversion She-Hulk doesn't buy, at least now that John Byrne is writing her (compare to Fantastic Four vs. X-Men #1 when she argues with the Thing in the library; scans are at the bottom of that entry).

And after Magneto is Galactus. Galactus looks a little odd and i thought that the "Holy Moebius" line might mean that Byrne was drawing him in Moebius' style, but it really doesn't look like that.

Anyway, this all turns out to be She-Hulk still on the phone with the Thing, just fantasizing about how a villain attack would break up her doldrums. Then she hangs up and opens her present from Marvel, which turns out to be complimentary copies of her new first issue.

Also in this issue, Willie Lumpkin shows up at Four Freedoms Plaza with Christmas cards to deliver to the FF.

Later, a Ghost of Christmas Past is looking for J. Jonah Jameson, but winds up at Willie's house instead (Present and Future soon follow).

So he starts taking Willie around to various moments in his past...

...but of course the joke is that Willie is a nice guy, so the normal Scrooge routine doesn't make sense. The scenes he sees are still kind of tragic, including a girlfriend who chose to marry someone else because he's just a mailman, and a nephew who thinks that Willie's stories about the Fantastic Four are a sign of senility.

Willie is eventually shown that he'll die from a heart attack after seeing Lockjaw.

Poor Willie!

These stories are cute, i guess, but just remember that for $1.25, a quarter more than a regular comic, you got half a book of this plus 1/8th of a Cyclops story and 1/25th of Panther's Quest. It doesn't seem like a good value to me.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: It's Christmas. The Thing is still in pineapple form in both stories, placing this before Fantastic Four #326. Takes place before She-Hulk #1. To be really specific about it, i'll note that the She-Hulk story takes place during the Willie Lumpkin story; Willie shows up at the FF's building on Christmas eve, then She-Hulk talks on the phone with the Thing until midnight, and then the FF (and Willie's nephew) show up at Willie's apartment the next day (and after his dreams, Willie slams the door on them).

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A