Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1992-03-01 00:04:10 |
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She-Hulk #38-39
Issue(s): She-Hulk #38, She-Hulk #39
Cover Date: Apr-May 92
Title: "Love in bloom" / "Date worse than death"
Credits:
John Byrne - Writer
John Byrne - Penciler
John Byrne - Inker
Renee Witterstaetter - Editor
Review/plot:
John Byrne begins inking himself with these issues. After a few pages of "regular" inks, focused on She-Hulk lounging around while talking on the phone to Weezie (who has stayed with her father in California), She-Hulk realizes that the inks are by Byrne, and tells him to use the duo-shade paper.
I may be in the minority in this, but i much prefer the cleaner looking regular inks to the duo-shade.
She-Hulk and Wyatt Wingfoot go out for breakfast, and they are attacked by Mahkizmo.
Mahkizmo's initial attack destroys She-Hulk's clothing, as often happens in this book. But, as She-Hulk notes, for once the tables are turned and some beefcake is provided.
Mahkizmo appeared in the sub-plots of previous issues. Appearing in separate sub-plot scenes were Cupid and Venus, and in this issue, Cupid appears again, this time with Dionysius.
I think it's odd for Dionysius to refer to Wyatt as a "native".
Cupid fires an arrow meant for She-Hulk but hits Mahkizmo instead. That ends the fight, causing Mahkizmo to fall in love with her and take her back to his home dimension to be her bride. The fact that this is the umpteenth time this has happened results in a footnote war between Byrne and editor Renee Witterstaetter.
I agree with both major points about footnotes. Good for new readers. Good for selling back-issues.
Wyatt Wingfoot goes to get the Thing to help She-Hulk. I do like the duo-shade treatment on the Thing.
Since She-Hulk has already been taken back to Mahkizmo's dimension, and since the dimension is actually an alternate future, the Thing and Wyatt use the Fantastic Four's time machine to follow. As they arrive, the phenomenon that merged Mahkizmo's ultra macho world with Thundra's 'equal but opposite' ultra feminist starts to break down, and the people start reverting to their old ways.
Cupid shows up again to apologize for the arrow, explaining that Venus actually wanted him to shoot her, and then disappears without elaborating. Then She-Hulk convinces Mahkizmo that his plan to detonate a "gender bomb" to wipe out all the women on modern day Earth is a bad idea because it would ensure that his future world would never get created. When Mahkizmo expresses confusion about why that would be the case, She-Hulk explains to him about the birds and the bees.
It also turns out that the fighting between the male and female members of the world is really just how ultra-warriors of both genders have household spats. So with that, She-Hulk, the Thing, and Wyatt return home.
The final panels show US Archer and Al the Alean getting ready to contact She-Hulk about Spragg the Living Comet (nee Mountain), in a build up for next issue's plot.
Quality Rating: B+
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place on Valentine's Day. I've pushed this back in publication time a bit to line up with Alpha Flight #107, which also takes place on Valentine's Day.
References:
- Mahkizmo previously appeared in Fantastic Four #151-153, where his world was merged with Thundra's. She-Hulk complains that Mahkizmo is lame even by the standards of her book. "He's never even had an entry in Marvel Universe!"
- Xemnu tried to make She-Hulk his bride in She-Hulk #7.
- Santa Claus made a pass at her in She-Hulk #8.
- Mole Man tried to marry her in She-Hulk #33.
- Garth the Zombie fell in love with her in She-Hulk #35.
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
| Previous: Alpha Flight #107 | Up: Main | Next: Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD #32 |
Comments
"I may be in the minority in this, but i much prefer the cleaner looking regular inks to the duo-shade."
I'm right there with you. Didn't like it on Namor and don't like it here. Byrne was my favorite artist growing up but, as we get further into the '90s, some of the choices he makes and changes to his style will leave me pretty unenthusiastic to see his name on anything. We're not quite there yet but we are starting to see the shift.
Sadly, these days Marvel seems to go out of their way to make buying back issues (or even their modern equivalent, a Marvel Unlimited subscription) a waste of time (because then people might realize how much worse the new stuff is?), and their idea of appealing to new readers is relaunching everything with a new #1 every year or two and trying to neuter any sense of continuity as much as possible.
I assume a Greek god would have a long-term perspective and think of Native Americans as "natives" of the land. He is from a time when people cared a whole lot about those things.
Oh, and I think the DuoTone makes for a somewhat "noir" look which is thematically at odds with She-Hulk.
I usually don't have much reaction to this book's meta-jokes, but after all those Namor duo-shade entries, the bit at the beginning here got a big laugh out of me.
"I may be in the minority in this, but i much prefer the cleaner looking regular inks to the duo-shade."
Yeah, I don't know that you are in the minority on that, fnord. If you are, then I'm in it with you, complete with not liking it in Namor but actually liking how it makes the Thing work.
Totally agree with you about footnotes as well. Interesting that Renee would say it's Marvel Policy at the same time it's kind of being phased out through most of Marvel.
In terms of selling back issues - well, on one level Marvel has no incentive to sell back issues. Like with anything used (books, cd's, etc), nothing actually gets paid back to the original source. So Marvel doesn't actually make any money from back issues - only the comic shop does.
We are in the minority at least compared to the people writing in to both Namor and She-Hulk. All the letters i saw about the duo-shade were positive.
I'm with you guys on not liking the duo-shade, fwiw.
Something tells me that Mahkizmo lost a number of brain cells due to his "death" and "resurrection". If he ever appeared again, did he gain them back?
