1. She-Hulk #1 by Charles Soule and Javier Pulido (Marvel)
The All-New Marvel NOW! launch has been astonishingly good. Usually with a range of new titles, you'd expect a 50% hit ratio but from what I've read, they've all been terrific, and continuing the success is Charles Soule and Javier Pulido's She-Hulk #1! For those unfamiliar with the character, She-Hulk is Jen Walters, an attorney whose life was saved when her cousin, Bruce Banner, donated his blood to her. However, his gamma-irradiated blood turned Jen into a Hulk-like monster with the pleasant side effect that she was able to control herself enough to not become an enraged, out of control beast! She continued being a lawyer and a superhero with membership of the Avengers and FF. Charles Soule is aptly suited to write this character as, like Jen who's got two-full time jobs one of which is as a lawyer, he holds down a full-time job as an immigration lawyer AND he somehow finds the time to write seven - SEVEN! - ongoing monthly comics! So that must mean his comics suck, right? Nope! I don't know how he's doing it (maybe he's part Red Bull?) but he's managing to write seven regular comics every month and make them really good too. Plus his law experience really lends itself well to a lawyer character. In this opening issue Jen uses her connections to the Avengers to help out a waitress whose deceased husband's design for repulsor cannons may have been stolen by Tony Stark. What follows is a bizarre but brilliant journey that utilises both of her skill-sets perfectly as she takes on Tony's deadpan head lawyer simply named Legal, and Tony's Iron Man-esque robots who get in her way when she wants to talk to Tony. Javier Pulido, the fantastic artist who recently worked on Matt Fraction's Hawkeye, provides the art which is, of course, beautiful. Legal's office in particular is awesome, drawn like a surreal Coen Brothers-esque scene with a really long room decorated sparely with small yellow round lights dotted on the sides and a single desk at the end. His designs for Jen are also amazing who looks very pretty in her lawyer clothes, and that first splash page more effectively introduces readers to the character than a summary could. Also on the art team is Muntsa Vicente, the colourist from Brian K Vaughan and Marcos Martin's The Private Eye digital comic who helps make She-Hulk look the best it can be with her expert artistic eye. She-Hulk #1 is a really strong first issue for what looks to be a series tonally in keeping with Hawkeye and Ms Marvel, sure to make it easily one of the finest Marvel titles being published. Great writing, excellent story, and even better art makes She-Hulk #1 the comic to read this week. Check it out! Those are my picks for the comics of the week let me know what you thought in the comments below. I'm on Twitter, @NoelThorne, and if there are any comics you think I should be reading, hit me up for some recommendations.
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