Written by: Rainbow Rowell
Art by: Andrés Genolet, Joe Quinones
Colors by: Dee Cunniffe, Bryan Valenza
Letters by: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover art by: Jen Bartel
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: April 19, 2023

She-Hulk #12 finds Jennifer Walters consoling her directionless boyfriend, navigating an increasingly chaotic workload at her law firm, and tracking down an equally strong and invulnerable thief.

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Is It Good?

There’s a story buried somewhere inside She-Hulk #12, but Rainbow Rowell seems to be at a loss as to how to tell it. All the goodwill built up in issue #11 with the start of an arc about a thief stealing from experimental research facilities takes a backseat to slice-of-life meandering that goes nowhere fast.

When last we left Jen Walters aka She-Hulk, she was asked by the Fantastic Four to help investigate anomalous intruder alarms at a secure research building. The alarms turned out to be valid as Jen runs into a thief stealing high-tech equipment. The thief not only escapes, but he makes Jen look like a fool who couldn’t swat a fly.

Now, Rainbow Rowel puts the breaks on that story to show a progress update on Jen’s relationship with Jack of Hearts and his floundering interest in poetry courses, the chaotic state of her job when Mallory Book’s lawyer firm receives a sudden uptick in superpowered clients, and the emotional angst Jen feels when she spends half of the issue hosting a book club.

Rowell’s plot about a superpowered thief gets some page time, but only six pages are devoted to the thief and Jen’s investigation.

Admittedly, it’s very difficult to critique this issue because so much is happening, and almost none of it matters. It’s as if Rowel has five or six story ideas and decided to tell bits and pieces of them in a single issue. I suppose you could argue that Rowell is making a commentary about the chaotic and multi-faceted life of a woman trying to make something of herself in the big city, but that could be said of anyone, and it certainly doesn’t make for interesting storytelling.

How’s the art? It’s decent enough, if a bit bland. Not much of note happens, so there’s not much to get readers excited about, so there’s no need for the artists to do anything interesting with the art. To be clear, there’s nothing technically wrong with the art, but it’s just as boring as the script.

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Final Thoughts:

She-Hulk #12 is a head-scratcher of an issue. The plot about a superpowered thief started last issue takes a backseat to pointless scenes about Jen’s work life, her romantic life, and an overlong backup story about hosting a book club. This title is the very definition of directionless.

4/10