Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1989-09-01 00:02:30 |
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She-Hulk #5
Issue(s): She-Hulk #5
Cover Date: Sep 89
Title: "The doctor is in!"
Credits:
John Byrne - Writer
John Byrne - Penciler
Bob Wiacek - Inker
James DiGiovanna - Assistant Editor
Bobbie Chase - Editor
Review/plot:
I know this is a fine distinction, but this is a silly issue of She-Hulk even for the current run. The Howard the Duck villain Doctor Bong...
...has some mini-clones of himself (as Michael notes in the comments, these were introduced in Howard the Duck #31), and he doesn't like how they've become mesmerized by Saturday morning television.
So he's found a way to convert all of the cartoon shows into more realistic versions. By coincidence, She-Hulk and a few other people that were using the right type of remote control at exactly the right time also get sucked into the television.
So She-Hulk gets to encounter the realistic versions of the Flinstones, Jetsons, and others.
One of the funnier bits is Robocop, since it was a cartoon that was being produced by Marvel at the time.
She-Hulk escapes by playing by her own rules instead of Dr. Bong's, and she tears up the comic book to run between the pages...
...running across the ubiquitous ads for back issues.
Click for Big Bucks.
The above image is full of mean little jokes about other comics, so it's worth a full-sized look.
When She-Hulk gets through the pages, she bumps Bong's French Maid Duck into a deliberately too convenient button that traps Bong in the television.
"Meanwhile, three weeks ago" we check in on our still unnamed Razorback and Taryn O'Connell, and we do find that they're searching for Ulysses Solomon Archer.
Quality Rating: B-
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: I've realized that i technically shouldn't be listing Razorback and Taryn O'Connell as Characters Appearing since their scenes are really flashbacks, but due to the nature of this book i'm not worrying about it.
References:
- She-Hulk complains that the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man got Dr. Doom in their fifth issues (Fantastic Four #5, Amazing Spider-Man #5), but she gets Dr. Bong.
- No footnote, but Doctor Bong's clone-babies were introduced in Howard the Duck #31.
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
I did not like that Byrne was actually using the fourth wall breaking to get She-Hulk out of a trap, instead of just as a joke for the readers.
IMO, I thought it fit with the theme of this book as the whole series was a joke. I can't believe this went on as long as it did.
Fnord, the Bong quintuplets were first seen in Howard the Duck 31 and they were created by Beverly Switzler.
Curious little tidbit: Byrne accurately guesses the amount of issues Excalibur would get in the Back Issues ad.
@Michael, thanks. I'll be covering that when i get to my next back issue add.
That two-page spread is great. The "Iron Man" and "Star Brand" entries are my favorite, but did every catch the drug joke for "The 'Nam"? Obviously the Comics Code didn't.
Razorback addresses Taryn by name there, so I figure that is as good as saying that she is Taryn O'Connell (how many other Taryns would seek US Archer?)
Razorback is also named "Buford" and shown to be enormous in size. Among that, the mention of the driving ability in this issue and the CB lingo and profile view with a recognizable mane in #4 he is a fairly easy guess as well.
There is a bit of foreshadowing in that Taryn seems not to mind being seen by Razorback wearing only a couple of towels even while he calls her "darlin'".
ChrisW, I was wondering how the Weed joke got past the comic code. Maybe the people 'upstairs' couldn't be bothered to read it.
I enjoyed this issue of She-Hulk, despite/because of the fact that it resonated with/was derivative of this episode of Bakshi's 'Mighty Mouse' series, "Don't Touch That Dial":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVKE-etrHFA
(Byrne wasn't *necessarily* directly inspired by this, of course... the channel-flipping motif abounded in the mid/late 80s. See also 1989's 'What's Alan Watching?' http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169511/)
JSfan, that's probably what happened. There's also a menstruation joke in the "Marvel Comics Presents" entry.
Another example of the channel-flipping motif I spoke of above: 1989's "UHF" featuring Weird Al Yankovic: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098546/
I'd love to do some cultural analysis on why this premise surfaced across multiple genres and media in 1989...
The two page ad gag was brilliant. Especially love "Justice". "No. A New Universe book. Where all the creators are made to look like idiots." Actually, everything on those two pages was pretty damn brilliant. Oh how I miss those old Mile High Comics ads.
I have a certain nostalgia for those Mile High ads as well. And I suppose every comics collector should make at least one pilgrimage to the 45,000-square-foot facility in Denver, with some 10 million items on hand:
http://www.milehighcomics.com/stores/jasond.html
(Not affiliated with it in any way except as a customer.)
I built up quite a bit of my collection from those Mile High "100 comics for $10" type deals. I looooved going through those lists.
There's also a drug reference under Speedball. "John Beluga death issue" is a reference to John Belushi's death from speedballs.
