Janis Joplin. Jeanne d’Arc. Jennifer Walters. What do these three have
in common? They’re women, and their first names start with the same
letter. Oh, and two of them suffered from drug-influenced deaths.
(That’s right, France, I went there.)

Of course Jenn and her green-toned counterpart aren’t dead. Is it even
possible for a Hulk to die? It certainly seems unlikely for her cousin
Bruce, but I don’t really know the specifics about She-Hulk. In fact, I
think few people actually do. Do you know even one die-hard Shulkie
fan? Shoot, no wonder this series cancelled; I don’t think anyone
actually reads the book. (No-one except me, that is, but even then it
was just this once, to pay my respects.) The point is, while She-Hulk
the character is very much alive, her book has once again been put
down. As I have just insinuated, no-one should be surprised.

The other point is whether or not this book deserved to be cancelled.
Unfortunately, as it is in the business world, it’s a matter of
quantity and quality, and quantity is more important in the eyes of
executives. It’s why shows like Arrested Development are cancelled and
why Oreo O’s aren’t sold anymore. (Actually, nevermind, I’m sure that
was due to some horrible lawsuit involving chemical reactions and the
rise in childhood diabetes. I still think Post made a terrible mistake
discontinuing that cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast, but that’s
neither here nor there.) Executives ultimately don’t care how much of a
cult-following something has; their main focus is what is making money
for the company. At some point, the amount of lonely balding men who
worship Walter’s green body drastically decreased in numbers, or
shifted their funds somewhere else – most likely to Ms. Marvel or
anything with Frank Cho’s name on it. The next logical step then became
to cancel She-Hulk’s book.

Enough
about the quantity, though: did She-Hulk go out with a bang? Well, it
certainly wasn’t a whimper. I can tell that Peter David had a lot of
fun writing this series, and religious readers assuredly did as well.
It has everything an honest-to-goodness comic book should have: action,
humor, self-awareness, competent/pleasant art, and just enough
cheesecake to take the edge off. This is the kind of book that Loeb’s
Hulk wishes it could be, and most likely tries to emulate in spirit.
While Loeb’s A-bomb-ination of a book may be one of Marvel’s
bestsellers at the moment, PAD still knows how to write any given
member of the Hulk family with grace and skill. Again, it’s a matter of
quantity vs. quality.

What we are ultimately gathered here today for is not so much the
departure of a ho-hum book, but to acknowledge what good has left this
world after a brief but full life. PAD’s She-Hulk may not have been a
powerhouse masterpiece that is relevant to every single
(crossover/tie-in) event in the Marvel universe, but it led a good
life, and had a good run. Good show.