Issue(s): She-Hulk #36
Cover Date: Feb 92
Title: "Plastic snow and mistletoe"
Credits:
John Byrne - Writer
John Byrne - Penciler
Keith Williams - Inker
Renee Witterstaetter - Editor

Review/plot:
She-Hulk and Weezie stop at Wyatt Wingfoot's Kewazi reservation on their way to visit She-Hulk's father for Christmas.

The purpose of the visit is at least a part an exercise on Byrne's part in having the last laugh in his feud with Dwayne McDuffie and Bobbie Chase. She-Hulk first says that she hasn't seen Wyatt since the Human Torch's wedding.

That raised my eyebrows, and then we see that the Kewazi are still living off of the oil money on their reservation, which was supposed to have dried up in McDuffie's She-Hulk: Ceremony. And then the intent is confirmed two pages later. Byrne is writing off Ceremony as a dream.

After telling Wyatt that she wants him back in her life and making a bad joke about how they are red and green for Christmas, we cut away to Olympus, where Venus has asked Hermes to summon her son, Cupid.

We then cut back to She-Hulk, who again complains that Byrne is building up too many sub-plots.

The Cupid plot really is part of the Mahkismo plot, as we'll see in a couple of issues. I think Byrne is being a bit generous with himself about the "Iron Man" plot in Namor, though. That didn't really go anywhere.

To Byrne's credit, i guess, while he is dumping on McDuffie's She-Hulk story, he is at least taking the "Alicia's a Skrull" revelation in good humor. So he can take it as well as dish it.

When She-Hulk and Weezie arrive at She-Hulk's father Moe Walter's house, there's a gag where it's initially filled with people we've never seen before, that her father claims are all her brothers and sisters and their families. But She-Hulk kicks them all out, claiming that she doesn't want any more relatives getting gamma powers.

Andrew in the comments reminds me that She-Hulk's other cousin is Brawn, from Marvel Fanfare #48.

With the rejected family out of the way, the other guests at the Christmas party are She-Hulk's old love interests from her original series. We find that Zapper is married, to a woman that is just a jar of body paint away from being She-Hulk's twin.

And Richard Rory, who has finally come into some good luck.

The newly rejuvenated Weezie and Moe begin to develop a romantic interest. And Moe confesses to Weezie that while he's come to terms with the fact that his daughter is She-Hulk, he still misses the old Jennifer Walters. Weezie tells that to She-Hulk, and suggests that She-Hulk open the gift that Santa Claus gave her (considering the sliding timescale, i wouldn't even have worried about the "not in your book" explanation for how this can be She-Hulk's next Christmas).

And that allows her to change back into Jen one last time.

Nice little human moment at the end to balance out what is otherwise a very meta, fourth wall breaking humor story. Note that this issue also makes no pretense at having any action (which is fine).

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: It's Christmas. Next issue shows She-Hulk and Weezie returning from Moe's house, so no She-Hulk appearances should take place in between.

References:

• She-Hulk says that the last time she saw Wyatt was at the Torch's wedding in Fantastic Four #300. In addition to She-Hulk: Ceremony, that also ignores Marvel Super Heroes #5. Normally i'd push the Marvel Super Heroes story to another place because of that, but since Byrne is having She-Hulk act deliberately obtuse, i'm not so sure.
  
• We learned that the Alicia Masters from a good portion of Byrne's Fantastic Four run was really a Skrull in Fantastic Four #357-360.
  
• Santa Claus gave a present to She-Hulk in She-Hulk #8.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

According to .marvunapp.com Jen's other monstrous cousin is David Pike, also known as Brawn, a Strong-Man-like character who first appeared in Marvel Fanfare 48.

Right! Thanks Andrew.

Byrne is writing off Ceremony as a dream.

This is an aspect of Byrne's that has always annoyed me. he has a real habit of spitefully retconning away the work of other creators that he doesn't like on characters that he's become proprietary towards. His Doombot retcon of the X-Men's run-in with Doctor Doom and Arcade is the most notorious example. This is another of those instances.

I get that "Ceremony" did not mesh with his plans for She-Hulk series or his vision of the character and her supporting cast. What Byrne should have just done was simply ignored it. Don't reference it at all and just write the stories he wanted. Instead he does this, which feels like a big middle finger to McDuffie.

@Ben Herman - On the other hand, the same thing was being done to him at the same time, with Alicia being written off as a Skrull and all the character work done by Byrne in his years on FF being undone. Of course, that was being undone by the EIC, so Byrne had to take it and he does seem to take it in good humor here.

Personally, I don't mind something like this (or the Doombot retcon) if it works and it's done well.