She-Hulk is not selling well.
So we begin with some nude jump-roping.
Five pages of it.
Until the editor comes on panel and tells John Byrne to cut it out.
If you liked her jumping rope, you’ll like this:
John Byrne’s last issue will be the giant-sized #50, so this is his last real She-Hulk story, and the entire arc is about body image.
He has Shulkie teasing another nude scene…
More than once.
More than twice, even.
He references what’s happening to bodies in other comics created by new jack artists. Guys like Rob Liefeld, whose style Byrne deliberately satirizes…
…were turning Marvel comics into a cheesecake factory, and Byrne–who was also known for drawing buxom, beautiful women–had something to say about it all.
Over…
and over…
He also returns to the Fantastic Four…
Who try to “help” when an overweight woman gets stuck in a perfect 10 body.
Across these issues, She-Hulk takes on Spragg the Living Hill, Xemnu…
…skrulls, etc. and meets back up with space trucker US-1. It’s a blast to see Byrne drawing them.
Intertwined with the space epic, John Byrne and his editor keep battling over She-Hulk nudity and body-image stuff. She gets her body switched with a heavier woman and has to manage in her new body.
It’s actually nice to see comics wrestling with this issue. The stories don’t matter–this is all about the 4th wall humor. I could go into more detailed synopses, but ultimately it’s not important.
Nothing really “changes” as a result of these issues.