3.5 stars
This volume is all over the place and for seven out of the eight issues collected here I was having so much fun. Until the last few pages that were an absolute disappointment and a cheap cop-out to a very important storyline.
(Mild spoilers ahead)
So, the first two issues are about a sexual assault case. By a superhero. By an Avenger. By Eros of Titan, aka Starfox. The storyline is dark. I was taken aback by the beginning, introducing Eros as the charming ladies' man, and then the next page Starfox is walking out of a woman who wakes up confused asking him if something happened between them and is left crying in the dark asking herself what did she do. So, I had to take a second because 1. That's rape, that's non-consensual but also 2. this is a 20 year old comic written by a man. Was this going to be addressed? Luckily, the next page introduces the sexual assault case against Starfox. Not so luckily, he goes to Jen who's been very unhappy lately with her work defending only villains, so she accepts immediately. Uh, a really uncomfortable situation. What follows is Jen trying to defend Starfox's character asking fellow Avengers to act as character witnesses. Also, her defense is built around proving that the sexual encounter was actually consensual. It's... not her best moment. At all. But in all this time, whenever she's feeling doubts about the case, or even about her current relationship with John Jameson, Starfox is there to suddenly give her joy and conviction... Anyway, the ending of this mini arc was deserving and yet frustrating, when Mentor of Titan, Eros's father, beams his son out of Earth.
Next issue is a Civil War tie-in. Man, I forgot about events tie-ins and about Civil War to be honest. In the main storyline She-Hulk is pro Superhuman Registration Act, yet in this issue, She-Hulk decides to defend two former members of the New Warriors. There is a website that is doxxing the Warriors and also hosting dead pool of the remaining members. It's dark stuff. So even though Shulkie is pro revealing their secret identity to the government, she's defending their right of anonymity to the public. This tie-in actually works great in this volume. It's all about a legal issue stemming from a new superhero law. Perfect for She-Hulk. Also, in here she's still experiencing Starfox's love powers and she's absolutely infatuated with John Jameson which leads us to the most surprising moment: The Proposal.
Fourth issue collected is a hilarious first dinner with Shulkie's in-laws, J.Jonah Jameson and his wife. Ridiculous moments and a funny ending that provides a well earned break from the drama so far. Next storyline is all about John becoming Man-Wolf again. An old enemy takes revenge bringing back his old curse, this leads to him becoming a star-god... And because of the shenanigans of Jen's colleagues, the love hex is turned off and Jen realises she does not love her now lupine husband.
Last two issues takes us back to Starfox.
When a trial is held on Titan to clear Eros's name, the Magistrati appear to interrupt this sacred ritual called "the Shao-lom mind trial". Given that the nature of the charges are from offworld crimes, they summon their Earth agent, She-Hulk, to act as an impartial observer. Witnesses are brought forward, Mentor, Pip the Troll and She-Hulk herself. But order turns to chaos when Thanos arrives to give testimony for his brother Starfox. And that's when everything set up and built in the beginning of this volume, the discussion about the creepiness of Eros's powers, the accountability for his actions, they are all pretty much absolved and I'm reminded yet again that you can barely, if at all, trust a male author with these kind of topics. Like, I'm sorry but... oh, the disappointment.
Anyway, I was actually loving this trade. The rating would've been so much higher if not for the cop-out at the end that pretty much nullify all that I enjoyed from the beginning. All the interesting discussion about Starfox's pleasure powers, he's even called a walking roofie by one of Jen's co-workers for fuck's sake, all that to waste.
Leaving that aside, this volume suffers a lot by the lack of a recurrent artist. It's quite inconsistent, quite disappointing at times. There's also less and less time with Jen working at her firm and around her regular cast of characters and I am missing that setting a lot.