Awesomed By Comics

This special double-sized* episode of Awesomed By Comics is brought to you by "inch time foot gem," which proves there is sadly no such thing as a LOLBuddah, or something. In yet another week where good books get fricking canceled, we tip our hats to She-Hulk and Blue Beetle, but say a warm, desperate hello to the healing pencils of Takeshi Miyazawa on two favorite titles. Be sure to stay tuned (or fast forward if you get bored) until after the closing music, when Saddest Guardian™ Scar brings you a not-to-be-missed bonus Origins & Omens backstory about Evie and Aaron.

*"Double-sized" in the way that She-Hulk and Incredible Hercules were "double-sized" this week, in that we went over our normal show length by like 20% or so.

Download/subscribe to the show in the right sidebar, and leave an iTunes review! Tell us what you think in the comments, or visit our show forum.

Cover(s) of the Week

Evie's pick, from Nova #22, cover by Juan Doe:

Aaron's pick, from Gigantic #3, cover by Eric Ngyuen:

Panel(s) of the Week

Aaron's pick, from Ultimate Spider-Man #131 by Brian Bendis and Stuart Immonen:


Evie's pick, from Incredible Hercules #126 by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente, backstory art by Takeshi Miyazawa:

I'm on a listserv of mostly women music and arts journalists, and we've been talking quite a bit about "Iron Man" and the problems it perpetuates in the context of the dearth of strong female characters and leads in the summer blockbuster line-up. And I agree with all of it, and am disappointed that Selma Blair as supporting hero Liz Sherman is essentially going to carry our gender in this department for the foreseeable future and I don't even read Hellboy.

However, on the suspension-of-feminist-criticism visceral level of movie-going sheepie, OMGDUDEIRONMANWASSORAD.

As 7,368,902 people have mentioned, Robert Downey, Jr. was sublime, the writing was actually good and the effects were smokin. And even though the science was ludicrously implausible, the screenplay had Stark doing enough work and calculation and calibration that it became not quite out of the question. I have some criticisms of details, but you don't care what I thought about the Vanity Fair chick thing or the insta-sober thing or whatever. The point is, I left the theater like all "Sabbath RAWKS!" and stuff, and that's not a bad feeling to have every once in a while.

But that doesn't mean I wouldn't have dug a nice, lesson-teaching tangle with She-Hulk.

That's the real punchline to the joke "What do you call 500 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?," according to my friend the brilliant comedian Andres du Bouchet.

And I'm pretty sure that if they had such a thing, Mallory Book would be a perennial keynoter.

Mallory's spectacular showing in She-Hulk #27 reminded me why, love her or hate her, she's such an exceptional character in mainstream comics--a regular, non-powered human woman who routinely rescues or undermines superheroes and villains through sheer will and brains. Not only that, she does it within the context of her profession as an attorney, all within a set of laws that she shrewdly navigates and exploits. She's no vigilante, rogue bandit or maverick of the night who "lives by her own rules"--she doesn’t win battles by doing any old crazy thing her imagination cooks up to manipulate people. Yeah, she gets creative with the system's technicalities, takes on morally reprehensible clients and flattens others' will like a freight train, but she does it without tech-armor or eye-beams or telekinesis.

And yes, Mallory's character is problematic. She's the stereotype of the smart, ambitious woman who got where she is by being unrelentingly assertive (although that’s probably not the phrase most people would use). She's the reason certain people hate Hillary Clinton, who unwittingly represents every snippy know-it-all girl in chemistry class who had to raise her hand twice as fast and be twice as smug in order to be acknowledged as the smart one. She resents the hell out of people who get fame and recognition that she feels they didn't earn--people like Jennifer Walters, whom Mallory thinks gets way too much credit as a lawyer because she also happens to be a massively strong and popular superhero. Mallory Book is that ice queen who supposedly confirms that incredibly successful women must be miserable.

But she is also the woman that sweet, tragic Awesome Andy was deeply in love with--so much that he refused to keep her under the spell that was causing her to return his affections. She was horrible to him when she came to, of course, because Mallory Book is not ok with not being in control--but her pride isn't so spiny that she couldn't swallow it soon after for a paralysis-overcoming declaration of love for the Two Gun Kid (I've never quite figured that one out, by the way, because come on, the Two Gun Kid? I’ll admit I don't even know his history beyond the recent She-Hulk appearances, but that name is about as sexy as Mr. Fantastic).

In She-Hulk #27, Mallory swoops in to undo the arrest of a man who was tragically unlucky enough to get caught in the middle of one of She-Hulk’s conflicts. She saves Jen’s ass—that being the ass of the strongest woman in pretty much the universe—by coming up with a story that gets the case dismissed in about ten seconds. When Jen thanks her for the unexpected favor, Mallory says it was no favor, that “I came to see you squirm, watching me do what you can’t anymore.” Of course Mallory probably didn’t have entirely vindictive motives, but she’s not about to let Jen know that—all she wants Jen to focus on is that Mallory can do this and Jen can’t, now that she’s disbarred. Big strong green goliath, can't even file a little motion, can't save the day. Jen has a lot of self-esteem issues, and while becoming She-Hulk helped her deal with a lot of them, her successes as a lawyer, even a small, mousy one, had a hell of a lot to do with her overall confidence. And that’s why Mallory Book in all her sour, litigating glory can be stronger than the strongest woman (and most men) in the world.

Let's just hope she doesn't get caught in the path of a cosmic ray or dumped in a vat of radioactive waste, because yikes.