Issue(s): She-Hulk #21, She-Hulk #22, She-Hulk #23
Cover Date: Nov 90 - Jan 91
Title: The Return of the Blonde Phantom: "Atomic secrets!" / "Blondes and bombshells!" / " Las Vegas mon amour"
Credits:
Steve Gerber & Buzz Dixon - Writer
Tom Artis - Penciler
Jim Sanders III - Inker
Gary Barnum - Assistant Editor
Bobbie Chase - Editor

Review/plot:
Tom Artis has replaced Bryan Hitch again, causing Steve Gerber to go out on a less than high note. Actually Gerber may not be fully with us for his last three issues either, since they are co-written by Buzz Dixon (who also collaborated with Gerber on Destroyer Duck; someone writes in to ask if he's really Chuck Dixon and the response is "no way!"). It's not said how the writing duties were broken down.

She-Hulk and Weezie return to Weezie's apartment to find that it's been ransacked. Weezie notices that a particular file - the "Rosebud" file - has been taken and starts to act funny. She sends She-Hulk home. As She-Hulk is leaving, she notices an Abominiation shaped footprint.

The next day, Weezie doesn't show up to work, and Weezie's daughter Wanda comes to the office looking for her.

Wanda tells She-Hulk that the Rosebud file had something to do with Weezie's days as the Blonde Phantom during the Golden Age (Wanda accidentally says Phantom Blonde).

She-Hulk uses her Avengers access to access Weezie's phone records, and then takes Wanda with her to go look for Weezie.

Weezie, meanwhile, is in Las Vegas, investigating a wealthy, and old, casino owner named Dutch Rosenblatt. She gets repelled by his guards and winds up meeting a Jasper Keating, the head of the American Purity Foundation. To help fight his war for the "soul of America", he's got a super-hero, Captain Rectitude.

After they leave, Weezie is kidnapped by the Abominatrix.

She-Hulk and Wanda later show up in Vegas, and the Abominatrix attacks.

She-Hulk defeats Abominatrix, who reveals that she's working for Keating. Keating is going after Weezie because he wants Rosebud, which turns out to be a nuclear bomb. The bomb was stolen in the late 1940s and hidden somewhere in Nevada. Dutch Rosenblatt, then a mobster, was the prime suspect. She-Hulk goes to Rosenblatt and learns that the bomb is remotely connected to his pacemaker, so when he dies all of Vegas will be blown up.

So She-Hulk and Wanda fly back to New York and go to Mr. Fantastic. She-Hulk wants to use the Fantastic Four's time machine to see where the bomb was hidden.

They arrive in Vegas in 1946, and break up a mob battle to get in good with Dutch.

Meanwhile, the All Winner's Squad has teamed up with the Blonde Phantom to look for the stolen nuke.

So that puts them in conflict with She-Hulk.

But they learn that the bomb is hidden inside a statue at the casino, and go back to the present.

Mr. Fantastic gives She-Hulk some info on Jasper Keating, confirming that he's as much into corrupt money making and crime as he is into his anti-smut campaign. And there's also these winning joke origins about his two villains.

Clever. :-\

Meanwhile, Sue has designed a costume for Wanda, making her the Phantom Blonde.

Then they go back to Vegas, rescue Weezie, and fight Keating and his goons.

Dutch has a heart attack during all the excitement, but She-Hulk throws the nuke into the atmosphere before it explodes.

It's actually kind of sad. This is like the third? fourth? time that Gerber has done a story attacking the moral majority crowd. The first time was a big deal, but after that it's kind of tired, especially since the stories are all very cartoony and shallow.

Generally speaking, we've got horrible art and a boring, unfunny (and not for lack of trying) story. I can't tell you how exhausting it is to write plot summaries for comics that no one gives a shit about, me included. But at least it's over with. Let's take a break and then come back with Simon Furman and Death's Head, yes?

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Jasper Keating was based on the real-life Charles Keating.