Issue(s): She-Hulk #27
Cover Date: May 91
Title: "Game, set and match"
Credits:
Simon Furman - Writer
Rik Levins - Penciler
Keith Williams & Mark Heike - Inker
Renee Witterstaetter - Editor

Review/plot:
Simon Furman's attempts at comedy have been somewhat mixed on his short run here. For this final issue he pretty much plays things straight. It's a somewhat lighthearted story but not pure comedy. Part of that may be due to the pencils by Rik Levins instead of Bryan Hitch; Levin's style is more straightforward and doesn't have the cartoonish Alan Davis-ish look that Hitch has at this time. Part of it may be entirely in my head: i consider all the villains in this story to be legitimate ones: Grey Gargoyle, Dragon Man, and Killer Shrike (who, after his badass whipping of Moon Knight in Moon Knight #10 has moved up a couple of notches in my book). So maybe the story was meant to be more humorous in a "ha ha look at this funny villains" sort of way just like Furman's first issue in his mini-run (She-Hulk #24) and it just goes over my head. But as far as i can tell, Furman is eschewing comedy and, for the first time in her second ("Sensational") series, She-Hulk gets a straight super-hero adventure.

Furman also seems to be developing for a long term plot. He starts the issue off introducing us to a character named Surge, a hunter of monsters from another dimension.

He'll show up again later. Meanwhile, She-Hulk is representing a mobster that has been offered a deal to turn state's evidence against the Kingpin. He's not at all interested in the deal, knowing that the Kingpin will kill him if he turns evidence; in fact he assumes that the Kingpin is already sending assassins after him. And that turns out to be true.

(See, the fact that She-Hulk doesn't recognize Killer Shrike might be an attempt at humor, but She-Hulk's attitude is also completely in character for her in a serious story.)

Killer Shrike is partnered up with the Grey Gargoyle, and the Gargoyle isn't happy to be left with the "mundane" job of dealing with the security detail.

So he deliberately screws things up by sending in their contingency, Dragon Man.

The shift back to an action comic may be signaled by She-Hulk choosing to use the adjective name of her previous series over the current one.

Grey Gargoyle sneaks up on She-Hulk while she's gloating about knocking out Killer Shrike.

There's even a continuity concern. She-Hulk knows that her cousin was able to resist the Grey Gargoyle's powers, and she wonders why she can't do the same.

She-Hulk might not know that it took the Hulk quite a while to overcome the Gargoyle's powers, and that's basically the case here as well. In the meantime, she is rescued by Surge.

I wonder if the colorist is making a mistake here as She-Hulk recovers from the Grey Gargoyle's power. It was a little unclear in the Hulk issue, since he was already grey, but my understanding was that he was able to move even though he was still mostly stone. With She-Hulk, she turns fully green again.

This definitely isn't a coloring mistake, though: when Surge is touched by the Grey Gargoyle, he is seemingly paralyzed, but doesn't turn to stone. But it turns out to be a ruse; he was protected by a forcefield.

She-Hulk and Surge then team-up to fight Dragon Man. The audience is made aware that Surge has designs on She-Hulk, and they are not nice.

But he is a handsome guy.

They do have a conflict, though. Surge is a hunter, so he has every intention to kill the felled Dragon Man. She-Hulk stops him, mistakenly thinking that he, like her, is supposed to be a hero.

He teleports away when she stops him. And then the clincher: we see that the mob informant that She-Hulk was protecting (who also ran away) was actually working for Surge (and never had anything to do with the Kingpin), and the whole thing was a set-up so that Surge could have a meet-cute with She-Hulk.

Since this is Furman's last issue, this plot never goes anywhere, and this is Surge's only appearance. But it does indicate that Furman thought he was going to be on the title longer. Even issue She-Hulk #25, that got rid of She-Hulk's previous romantic interests, looks like a deck clearing exercise meant to set up the She-Hulk/Surge storyline.

This issue in and of itself is nothing special, but i find it to be an improvement over the majority of the post-Byrne issues on this series. John Byrne did something unique with his early issues, but there was no reason for She-Hulk's book to continue in a comedy vein, especially the zany comic style of Steve Gerber. She-Hulk can be a serious, viable character. Furman seems to have been going in that direction (although it's not definite). In any event, it's all moot because it's announced in this issue's lettercol that John Byrne is returning. That will happen with issue #31, and in the meantime we have three non-Furman fill-ins.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• The mobster that She-Hulk is protecting also rubs her face in the fact that she lost her case against Bono in She-Hulk #24.
  
• The Hulk fought the Grey Gargoyle in Hulk #363 (incorrectly footnoted as #364).

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A