Issue Description

She-Hulk is on the phone with editor Bobbie Chase, demanding to know what is going on. She is not in her proper apartment, her clothes are wrong, she isn't drawn correctly, and she doesn't recognize the names of this issue's writers and penciller. Bobbie explains that the issue was running very late, and she had to find someone at the last minute. She promises to make sure that the writer has the proper reference material before the next scene, and asks Jen to make do for now. Jen agrees, and apologizes for snapping at her.

Jen goes to her room to change into something more her style. After that she goes outside--to discover she is in London, England. Jen groans, and guesses that Hitch is British.

Elsewhere, the mentally unbalanced Madcap is reading the current issue. He talks to the readers about how much funnier he is than the She-Hulk, and demonstrates his abilities by sawing off his own legs, and then putting them back on. He decides that he is perfect for the title, and he should take over the book from She-Hulk. He flips through his copy of the issue to see how it ends, but every page shows his present moment. He walks off to go confront She-Hulk, while singing little rhymes.

He finds her in Central Park, getting some ice cream. Madcap climbs onto the top of a building, and starts calling out, gathering an audience. She-Hulk recognizes him and decides to keep an eye on him. Madcap dives off the top of the building, and breaks his neck on the ground. Jen tells the people around that he isn't dead--his bones mend as fast as they break. "He thinks this is funny. Well, I don't see anybody laughing, or even smiling!" Much to Jen's chagrin, the people burst into applause as Madcap gets to his feet. Some of the kids even say they want to be just like him. Jen tries to tell them that he is a lunatic. Madcap responds that everyone has a little insanity inside them, and then he proceeds to demonstrate it by using his mind-altering effect on everyone in range. The people around start to act very silly, spouting gibberish phrases, putting ice cream cones on their heads, and even taking off their clothes. Jen sees that some of the kids have climbed onto the roof to imitate Madcap! She rushes to save them, but Madcap calls her a spoilsport and leaps into her arms. He pulls up part of his mask and puckers up for a kiss, and then uses his power on She-Hulk!

Jen begins to lose her grip on sanity as well, and when the kids jump off the roof, instead of simply catching them safely, she starts juggling them! Moments later, Jen begins to regain her senses, and she lowers the kids safely. She confronts Madcap, and tries to tell him that this is all pointless. However, Madcap just agrees completely. His whole philosophy is that life is meaningless. He then zaps her again, and Jen's sense of reality is warped again. She mistakes a large whale display for a real creature, and she begins swinging it around. While she's doing that, Madcap slips away.

Jen calms down again, and realizes she could have hurt some of the kids while swinging that whale around. She sets it down, and chases after Madcap again. He has retreated into a fake castle, and he has a trio of children acting as his personal guard! The kids attack, but Jen manages to handle them without hurting them. She-Hulk yells at Madcap to come down, and he jumps down and bounces off her head. She chases him again, but falls victim to his insanity zap again. She-Hulk immediately begins snacking on garbage. Madcap laughs, while he plays with a knife. Another group of kids are nearby, and they ask him what's so funny. He says "me!" and runs the knife through his head. The kids don't laugh, but just stare at him. Madcap pulls the knife out of his head and admits that wasn't funny. As She-Hulk grabs him and drags him away, one of the kids says "he's jes stoo-pid!"

She-Hulk grabs Madcap and leaps away with him, where there are no more innocent bystanders to be hurt or manipulated. She begins pounding him into a pulp, but with his regenerative abilities, he just keeps getting back up. Jen finally gives up, saying she can't see any point in fighting him. Madcap tells her she has to fight, unless she is going to admit that everything is meaningless, and she might as well let him take over her book. She-Hulk rips the page apart and crumples it up, trapping Madcap inside. "THIS...IS...MY...BOOK!" She stuffs the page in a garbage can and sets it on fire. Jen, who is now standing in an empty void, assures the audience that Madcap isn't dead since he was just a drawing. She then asks Bryan Hitch to draw her a background, but not to pull any gags like drawing a lake underneath her so she falls in.

Hitch puts Jen back in Central Park, but has a rhino charging at her!

The Sensational She-Hulk

Publisher

Marvel

Volume Description

Sensational She-Hulk Volume 1

This is one for the record books. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, Marvel had a breakthrough in new ideas. Ghost Rider was being printed on all black pages, the junior team New Warriors was at bat, and She-Hulk was making us laugh. Not in the conventional "What The--?!" (a series back in the 1970's) way, but in a parody of Marvel and the comic book industry. Before this book, She-Hulk was a secondary character: her story lines were arguably medium to weak and featured lesser-known characters. She suffered much as Supergirl had suffered in the shadow of her big cousin.

Then, something weird happened: John Byrne relaunched her long cancelled solo book. He was the same writer/artist who had put the She-Hulk on the Fantastic Four and developed her from a 2-D character to a very well-rounded and lovable hero. At first, the title followed the Fantastic Four pattern: there was an alien invasion in issue 2, a classic Golden Age hero in issue 4 (the Blonde Phantom), and the villainous Doctor was in issue 5 (Dr. Bong, not Doom - though she met a Doom later).

The rules were thrown out the window: She-Hulk was jumping pages, tearing holes in the paper of the page to escape, and often yelling at the writer. The series was stand-alone, as in not part of the dozen or so crossovers with an X-Men or Spider-Man title. Remember when the X-Men were funny? She-Hulk was sort of like that... with more laughs.

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