She-Hulk Epic Collection, Vol. 4: The Cosmic Squish Principle

She-Hulk Epic Collection

by Steve Gerber

Into the Baloney-Verse! She-Hulk stars in some of her most madcap adventures of all, beginning with a visit to the Village of the Darned - where curse words mean certain death! Then, Howard the Duck waddles in to join Jen in a wacky exploration of the Cosmic Squish Principle that takes them both on a magical mystery tour through alternate realities - including a far-out realm filled with floating lunch meats! She-Hulk shares a batty team-up with Nosferata, and travels through time to meet the All-Winners Squad and her ol' pal Weezie in her prime as the Blonde Phantom! Plus: Jen battles the bounty hunter Death's Head, takes out the trash with Excalibur, and clashes with a host of classic Marvel heroes and villains plucked from across the timestream!

Collects SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK #13-30 and material from MARVEL SUPER-HEROES (1990) #5.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes

448 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2023

About the author

Steve Gerber graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in communications and took a job in advertising. To keep himself sane, he wrote bizarre short stories such as "Elves Against Hitler," "Conversion in a Terminal Subway," and "...And the Birds Hummed Dirges!" He noticed acquaintance Roy Thomas working at Marvel, and Thomas sent him Marvel's standard writing test, dialoguing Daredevil art. He was soon made a regular on Daredevil and Sub-Mariner, and the newly created Man-Thing, the latter of which pegged him as having a strong personal style--intellectual, introspective, and literary. In one issue, he introduced an anthropomorphic duck into a horror fantasy, because he wanted something weird and incongruous, and Thomas made the character, named for Gerber's childhood friend Howard, fall to his apparent death in the following issue. Fans were outraged, and the character was revived in a new and deeply personal series. Gerber said in interview that the joke of Howard the Duck is that "there is no joke." The series was existential and dealt with the necessities of life, such as finding employment to pay the rent. Such unusual fare for comicbooks also informed his writing on The Defenders. Other works included Morbius, the Lving Vampire, The Son of Satan, Tales of the Zombie, The Living Mummy, Marvel Two-in-One, Guardians of the Galaxy, Shanna the She-Devil, and Crazy Magazine for Marvel, and Mister Miracle, Metal Men, The Phantom Zone , and The Immortal Doctor Fate for DC. Gerber eventually lost a lawsuit for control of Howard the Duck when he was defending artist Gene Colan's claim of delayed paychecks for the series, which was less important to him personally because he had a staff job and Colan did not.

He left comics for animation in the early 1980s, working mainly with Ruby-Spears, creating Thundarr the Barbarian with Alex Toth and Jack Kirby and episodes of The Puppy's Further Adventures, and Marvel Productions, where he was story editor on multiple Marvel series including Dungeons & Dragons, G.I. Joe, and The Transformers. He continued to dabble in comics, mainly for Eclipse, including the graphic novel Stewart the Rat, the two-part horror story "Role Model: Caring, Sharing, and Helping Others," and the seven-issue Destroyer Duck with Jack Kirby, which began as a fundraiser for Gerber's lawsuit.

In the early 1990s, he returned to Marvel with Foolkiller, a ten-issue limited series featuring a new version of a villain he had used in The Man-Thing and Omega the Unknown, who communicated with a previous version of the character through internet bulletin boards. An early internet adopter himself, he wrote two chapters of BBSs for Dummies with Beth Woods Slick, with whom he also wrote the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, "Contagion." During this period, he also wrote The Sensational She-Hulk and Cloak and Dagger for Marvel, Cybernary and WildC.A.T.s for Image, and Sludge and Exiles for the writer-driven Malibu Ultraverse, and Nevada for DC's mature readers Vertigo line.

In 2002, he returned to the Howard the Duck character for Marvel's mature readers MAX line, and for DC created Hard Time with Mary Skrenes, with whom he had co-created the cult hit Omega the Unknown for Marvel. Their ending for Omega the Unknown remains a secret that Skrenes plans to take to the grave if Marvel refuses to publish it. Suffering from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis ("idiopathic" meaning of unknown origin despite having been a heavy smoker much of his life), he was on a waiting list for a double lung transplant. His final work was the Doctor Fate story arc, "More Pain Comics," for DC Comics'

Reviews

[Christopher M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Byrne's unexpected departure leaves other writers uncertain of the tone and direction. So it's all a bit self consciously wacky and manic for a bit, and Shulkie seems uncertain if she can still break the fourth wall whilst losing her clothes a lot. Normal service is eventually resumed.

[James Bowman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collecting issues of Sensational She-Hulk, including most of Steve Gerber's run, Simon Furman's run, and assorted other fill-in issues. The Gerber stories are the highlight by far, with the title story and the Nosferata two-parter being particularly fun. (Even if gags like "Big Al G'houl" haven't aged well.) Furman's run is a definite step down, although it is nice to see Death's Head and Excalibur as guest stars. The remaining filler issues are just OK. Still, this collection is worth getting just for Gerber's material. (One more thing: the writers - even Louise Simonson! - were way too eager to destroy She-Hulk's clothes...) (B+)

[Gaute Hjartåker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking forward to spending some more time with the charming miss Jennifer Walters, my favourite Marvel heroine. Good fun is certainly to be had within this volume - but it is an uneven one, so I’ll split up my comments by author.

#14-23: Gerber
Gerber’s run comprises some 60% of this book. And man, that Gerber fella… He sure was a hoot. I mean, “Secret Warts”? “Acts of Peevishness”? C’mon. It’s a silly absurdist riot, and I’m here for it all day long.

The acerbic Howard the Duck joins She-Hulk for the five-issue “Cosmic Squish Principle” arc, and it was great seeing him again. The story revolves around multiverses, and we get to visit places like the Baloneyverse, the Narcissiverse, and the Mediaverse. The arc also feature a lesser-known faction of the Watchers called the Critics, who are compelled to constantly comment on events…

So yeah, welcome to the Gerberverse.

Next up is a parody of the Distinguished Competition, featuring the inmates of Dorkham Asylum: Dogwoman, Three-face, and Big Al Ghoul, to name a few… The story features a gender-switched Batman origin story, where a rich young orphaned heiress takes up crime-fighting and goes up against her nemesis Jack Serious, with the help of Shulkie. Fun stuff, and the story even has some sly satire of Warner’s marketing of the Batman movie.

The last Gerber arc (co-authored with Buzz Dixon) involves time-travel back to the 40s featuring the original Phantom Blonde, along with Namor, Cap and the rest of the All-Winners gang. Silly and entertaining.

And that’s it for She-Hulk by Steve Gerber. I enjoyed it very much, though I do think that Gerber did his absurdist social satire schtick better in the Howard the Duck title in the late 70s. (His style was a good fit for She-Hulk though, he was definitely a good choice to replace Byrne.)

#24-27: Furman
With Simon Furman taking over, the book takes a noticeable dip in quality. It’s still breezy and fun, but the book feels like a much more bland and generic comedy. No skimping on the guest-stars though, with Death’s Head, Thor, Hercules and Excalibur all making appearances. Intermittently entertaining (like some fun scenes with Hercules being chaivinistic and She-Hulk not having it at all), but Gerber’s razor-sharp wit is gone, replaced by corny slapstick.

#28, MSH5: Zimmerman
Dipping further in quality, Dwight Jon Zimmerman pens a tale of the Devil’s Advocate (how clever), featuring Mephisto. His lil’ Marvel Super-Heroes story was kinda cute though, and he did manage to pack a lot of action into only 8 pages.

#29, 30: Simonson
By this time, I can picture the editors going “Dang son, what are we going to do with this book… Any way we can bring Byrne back?” Well yeah, but we’ll have to wait for volume 5 for that; first we have to endure two issues by Louise Simonson. I know she has received praise for her runs on Power Pack and X-Factor, but I feel pretty confident in saying she’s not remembered for her She-Hulk issues. I would do a plot summary if I knew, and/or cared, what was going on here.

So yeah, definitely an uneven volume. Had Gerber done the whole book, I would have given it a solid 4 out of 5 stars. But hey, that’s the beauty of epics - you get everything, (secret) warts and all. I would never have sought out the non-Gerber or -Byrne material by itself, so I’m glad I got a chance to read it here.

Recommended, because Gerber.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steve Gerber should have had the reins on the series for longer, he was a fun guy. He has the sense of humor of a Mad Magazine imitator and a curmudgeonly political bent like a not-libertarian Mike Jittlov. The Simon Furman and Louise Siminson-penned issues are solid as well! Too bad the art is all over the place. One of my biggest issues with superhero comics in general is that the art is frequently wonky and the good artists never seem to stick with one title, and this series is no exception! At least She-Hulk is cute more often than not and Death’s Head is a cool-looking robot guy so I’m (almost) willing to look past the not so great parts of the art.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I laughed more reading this volume than John Byrne’s work in Breaking the 4th Wall, especially in regard to specific parodies of characters (e.g. the Critics) and previous event comics (like Secret Warts instead of Secret Wars), there is a lack of underlining logic across these She-Hulk stories to ground them in a way that feels consistently impactful. These stories are fun and absurd otherwise, with some delightful individual issues.

[Lucy Batson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can see how Steve Gerber looks on paper like a natural choice to follow John Byrne as a writer on a She-Hulk run, but this volume largely doesn't work apart from some Louise Simonson stories at the end, and some early Bryan Hitch art.

[Eligos Vespillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the absence of John Byrne is strongly felt in these issues, some funny, creative stories to love are contained in this Epic, especially Shulkie's trip into the Baloney-verse with Howard the Duck!

[TK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genuinely funny and doesn't rely on pin-up drawings attempting to save it

[Reece · Rating 2 out of 5]

Steve Gerber's attempt to emulate his predecessor's (John Byrne's) style of writing falls flat. The satire of contemporary comics and movies is this run's saving grace.

[Al McCarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the stuff by Gerber and Hitch. Otherwise, not so hot. 4 stars solely for SG & BH.

[Tristan Dunn · Rating 3 out of 5]

the mini arcs throughout the collection were hit or miss for me.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

terribly inconsistent