Year: 2017
NB: This is mostly a rework of my earlier She-Hulk POP review, with some updated
notes.
2016 was an
interesting time to be a She-Hulk fan, as *SPOILER ALERT* she was apparently killed
off in Issue 1 of Civil War II. In news that shocked no-one, it turns out that
it wasn’t a real death at all, and now she’s headlining her own series, called
simply Hulk.
Debuting in
1980 as Hulk’s angry female cousin, She-Hulk has been an Avenger, a member of
the Fantastic Four and quite successful in her own right, too. She’s never
attained A-lister status, but she’s carved out her own little niche in the
Marvel Universe -- and to be honest, I find her a lot more endearing than the
Incredible Hulk. Marvel’s female characters have been gaining an increased
prominence over the last few years, thanks to reinventions (like Ms Marvel
becoming Captain Marvel) and new additions (such as Spider-Gwen), so it’s good
to see some of that goodwill overflow to She-Hulk too. Time will tell how long
this new title will last, but unfortunately in recent years poor ol’ She-Hulk
has not fared well in her solo titles.
This is a
re-release of the same She-Hulk we saw a few months ago, but now she glows in
the dark. Most of the other characters from this wave are still easily
available, and it was a good one: Spider-Gwen, Captain Marvel, (comics)Dr
Strange, Dr Octopus and (comics) Falcon. I’m not partial to all of these
characters, but the designs look pretty great on all of them.
 |
| Glow version on left, original on right |
This
particular costume isn't her first one, but most of them have been some kind of
leotard or swimsuit in the purple/white colour scheme, so it slots in well with
most incarnations of the character. However, she first adopted this particular
one after leaving the Fantastic Four and rejoining the Avengers – it’s quite
similar to the one from her FF days, bar the colour.
I mentioned
in my original review that buying a She-Hulk POP would leave you with a
trade-off – how visible the mould line on the chin is, vs how sloppily the
costume is painted. This is still an issue to some degree, but given the
overall “softer” look of the glow in the dark plastic, the mould line is hidden
more effectively – and the paint does seem to be neater than the first release.
Given that
I was correct in guessing that there would be a glow She-Hulk, I still suspect
we could see a few variants further down the line – a Fantastic Four She-Hulk,
and maybe some purple/white paint variations.
As with the
first version, She-Hulk has a great colour scheme that stands out nicely on the
superheroes shelf. The green is a little more muted than the original, but to
the casual observer this will be the main difference between the two. And the
glow feature itself? Funko has had a mixed bag with plenty of its prior
releases, but this one glows nice and brightly. So I prefer this version of the
two, but either is a good choice.
