Sensational She-Hulk #9: Long Distance Relationship?

Sensational She-Hulk stars a superhero but cares much more about her everyday life. Jen’s law practice, friendship via punching, and love life exist at the center of the series more than anything else. Now, even as the Avengers appear more and more in Jen’s future, Sensational She-Hulk #9 holds to what makes the series special.

Jack and Jen return to her apartment in the Sensational She-Hulk #9’s opening pages only to find it a disaster thanks to her house guests Ransak and Karkas. Jack stays to help put the apartment back together while Jane goes off to Punch Club to take out frustration. Carol Danvers drops in to give Jen the hard sell on the Avengers. She takes Jen to the team’s headquarters in the Impossible City, shows her around, and introduces her to the current team. But the biggest question is what being an Avenger would do to the rest of her life.

Most solo series would make a big deal about their main character joining the Avengers. And  while Rowell doesn’t necessarily downplay it, she doesn’t abruptly shift the tone in Sensational She-Hulk #9 to one of primarily superhero concerns. The opportunity was certainly there after the previous issue saw both Jen and Jack declare their love for each other. Rowell could have started to downplay that ongoing storyline as well as the law practice that was absent in recent issues in favor of transitioning the final issues to more standard superhero fare. But she doesn’t. The series keeps to its dramedy style, and Rainbow focuses the aftermath of Captain Marvel’s pitch to how it would affect her relationship with Jack.

The conversation in Sensational She-Hulk #9 is relatable despite the extremely unorthodox situation: one half of a romantic couple just received an incredible out of town job offer, and now the two of them must decide how to make it work. This relatability, a term so often applied to other series, truly is at the center of Sensational She-Hulk. The series wears its heart on its sleeve. And Rowell manages to keep the romantic tension between Jen and Jack fresh without using a predictable “will they, won’t they” scenario–as is on display at the end of this issue.

Rowell sneaks in one of the great 2001: A Space Odyssey jokes.

Sensational She-Hulk #9, as with almost every issue in the series, succeeds in no small part because of Genolet’s art. He draws Jen with truly open expressions, and it allows readers to experience the character’s highs and lows like a friend’s. He does the same with Jack, though not quite to the same extent. Genolet draws a steadily increasing comfort level throughout the issue as Jen learns more and more about what being an Avenger might mean to her. Rowell doesn’t have to provide dialogue to that effect. She writes an ordinary conversation between Jen and Carol while Genolet handles the emotional progression.

Genolet then shoulders a lot of the responsibility communicating what’s going through Jen’s mind in the final pages. This kind of comic, and this issue in particular, doesn’t work without an artist who truly knows its characters inside and out–something that Genolet proves every month.

A visual hallmark of Sensational She-Hulk is Cuniffee making color choices that contrast with Jen’s green skin. He avoids green and tends toward lighter blues. Jen seldom gets lost amidst whatever else is going on in a panel, especially in wider views. The Impossible City hallways don’t contrast with her particularly well, and at times Jen slips out of focus, overshadowed by other characters. It doesn’t appear to be an attempt to line up with the Impossible City as seen in Avengers which is not uniformly blue, and is instead a very rare misstep in his coloring.