Hold the phones everybody, there’s a new She-Hulk title just been announced. Brian Truitt, the only man I’d consider for the screen role of Awesome Andy, has the announcement at USA Today: Charles Soule and Javier Pulido will be the creative team for an ongoing series featuring Jennifer Walters.

shehulk

So if you’ve calmed down and stopped jumping in glee, the announcement explains that the series will return to the tested and true formula mixing the character’s hulking superhero life with her job as a lawyer, working in New York. This also looks like a return to Dan Slott’s style of writing, with numerous guest-stars and short, sweet story arcs of two-three issues each. There’ll be a main narrative threading through everything, but mostly this’ll be self-contained short stories.

The interview obviously has the full discussion with both the creative team and editor Jeanine Schaefer – but here’s an extract from Soule, for you to read before recommencing jumping up and down with glee:

…one of the things I want to work hard to do in this new series is treat her as a real person. She absolutely has problems, just like most of the heroes of the Marvel U, but she chooses to approach them with optimism and good spirit rather than surrendering to the grim and gritty.

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28 COMMENTS

  2. “For example, the Chameleon might come to her and want to sue someone for identity theft — sort of ridiculous, but you can say some interesting things in a story like that,” Soule says.

    Hmm… Mr. Morris, do you suspect Marvel might be fine-tuning her for a possible TV series? She would be quite easy to set up her origin tale in the cinematic universe… especially if Bruce Banner were to cameo in the SHIELD episode where she gets the transfusion.

    Do it in November 2014 during Sweeps, let the Internet percolate the idea, and launch it as a mid-season replacement a year later, after two SDCCs. Or as a summer series to fill the void of SHIELD reruns, just like AMC staggers Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Walking Dead.

    “Superhero Law”… Joss Whedon’s version of “Ally McBeal”.

  4. “…one of the things I want to work hard to do in this new series is treat her as a real person. She absolutely has problems, just like most of the heroes of the Marvel U, but she chooses to approach them with optimism and good spirit rather than surrendering to the grim and gritty.”

    Cut and paste – get you to care about the character so she makes a perfect victim for their next NY Post-headline grabbing event.

  5. A strange thing about the series as described is that, conceptually, it would be easy to do a series about a female attorney who has paranormal clients. She could have one or two paranormal assistants, but be normal herself. Stories would be about her personal life and cases. That approach is more streamlined, but has no room for She-Hulk; she’s the odd character out.

    SRS

  9. Well I’m reading it, Zach, and it sounds like others will be too, so :p

    I won’t be reading it, though. She-Hulk is, basically, a boring character. Super-strength by itself doesn’t lead to interesting situations. If her personality, humorous situations, etc. are what make the stories interesting, then why use She-Hulk? She’s just an unnecessary complication. From a marketing perspective: who’s She-Hulk’s target audience?

    SRS

  10. @ Syn – I don’t understand your point. If her personality is what is interesting about her, that’s why you’d use She-Hulk. her powers don’t really factor in either way.

  11. If her personality is what is interesting about her, that’s why you’d use She-Hulk. her powers don’t really factor in either way.

    My point is that if Soule wants to write about a “real person,” then he should go ahead and write about a real person. That’s not She-Hulk. She and her powers (super-strength, invulnerability) are the artificial elements. She-Hulk series have failed in the market several times, probably because She-Hulk as a character is boring, and light-hearted, simple stories have a limited audience.

    If someone wanted to, she could write genre fiction stories set in the Marvel Universe that were practically indistinguishable from “normal” genre fiction stories. Fans of Marvel characters wouldn’t want to read them, though, unless they were in the mood for non-superhero fiction.

    Soule might be setting himself up to fail by trying to combine She-Hulk with genre fiction stories. If he wants to write about a superheroine, then he should write about one.

    SRS

  12. This sounds fine, but it doesn’t strike me as much different from Slott’s run, in which She Hulk was touted as a superhuman Ally McBeal. But hey, Pulido draws pretty, and the Slott run was good, so why not call it new and see if it lives?

  13. I agree that She-Hulk has a dubious track record as a commercial solo success, but my beef is with how Marvel is going to sell it, not that Marvel is doing it in the first place. I don’t think how interesting a character is determines how well the book sells. Sales and critical success have never gone hand-in-hand.

  16. he’s probably writing about she-hulk because Marvel is going to pay him cash money to write a comic book, and he probably likes writing comic books. he’ll be able to treat her as as real of a person as he wants within the framework of her also being a superhero, since, you know, she’s a superhero in a superhero comic.

  17. Why write about She-Hulk? Because SHE-HULK, DUH.

    There’s sixteen comics featuring Batman and you’re gonna balk at one comic starring She-Hulk?

    SIDE-EYE.

  18. Officer Ayo of the PC police is here. Everyone show your liberal credentials before he uploads “Priviledge Essay #5” and makes our dismissal of corporate comics about ISSUES.

    There are too many Batman comics. I wouldn’t read one that showed Bruce’s day-to-day as CEO of Wayne Corp., either.

  20. “And people don’t want to read about normal people in the Marvel Universe?”

    Why bother with Marvel U, when you’ve got Astro City!

  21. Isn’t the Marvel universe built upon the foundation of normal people being given extranormal powers, and having to deal with them in a somewhat realistic setting?

    And people don’t want to read about normal people in the Marvel Universe?

    Put another way: She-Hulk is a character in search of stories. The editorial powers-that-be have decided that she doesn’t work in dramatic superhero stories, since she’s just a variation on the Hulk. That leaves other types of stories, for which she’s not necessarily a good fit. If a writer approached the story-writing situation from the opposite direction, coming up with a story and then considering whether She-Hulk would fit, he’d never use her. She’s a much better action figure than she is a story character.

    If readers did want to read about normal people in the Marvel Universe, then most stories would be genre fiction, with people in plain clothes most of the time and using their powers on rare occasions. If the emphasis is on realistic characters, and a reader getting into the head of the hero, then artwork isn’t necessary; it might even be a drawback. Superhero comics became popular because they were visually exciting fantasies for kids.

    SRS

  22. As much as I like She-Hulk, her character was NEVER interesting enough IMO, to support a solo book for very long. She was always better as part of a team (FF or Avengers).

  24. “And people don’t want to read about normal people in the Marvel Universe?”

    Or watch them on ABC every Tuesday at 8 PM ET.

  27. I love She-Hulk . I’d draw that comic in a heartbeat. I’d like to point out that “Ally McBeal with superpowers” might well be an awesome formula for a TV show. Not for comic fans , obviously, but for the 200 million other people who watch TV. Half of whom are women. The comics buying public is such a weird and tiny demographic that trying to test the success of an idea by how many comics fans buy it, is probably not a brilliant idea.

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