There are previews of the first few pages of She-Hulk #27 up on Comics NewsI. The dialog seems OK and Val Semeiks' art looks pretty terrific. (I'll still miss Shawn Moll, though.)
Is it possible the scripting for She-Hulk is getting better?
She-Hulk #27 Preview
March 22nd, 2008 | posted by Lingster
Definitely improving
I hope you got to read She-Hulk #27. The artist is much better and now there's a direct link back to Dan Slott's series. The only reason that PAD jumped so far ahead in time at the start of his run was because he writes his books way ahead of time than Slott does. I wouldn't be surprised if Peter had finally read the last issue of Slott's run before writing this issue. In an interview, PAD had said that Slott couldn't tell him how his run would end because those issues hadn't been written yet.
Dan Slott was very current and topical with Civil War and Two-Gun Kid, and the ever-shifting climate at the Bullpen probably warranted him waiting until the last minute.
So hopefully now the story of Jen's disbarment can be told. PAD has always been respectful of the writers before him. It takes time to warm up to a new creative team, and I hope the readers will return.
#27 not out yet
Sorry, I don't get review copies. I'll pick up #27 when it comes out later this week.
I think that Dan Slott and Peter David represent two extremes in attention to continuity. Slott obviously loves continuity - he chews it up in his writing and uses it as a major plot driver regardless of what he's writing. Peter David seems to me to be largely oblivious to it. He does not seem to be terribly concerned about what other writers have put down before him. And to the extent that he does use continuity, it's often to justify the abandoning or departing from that continuity. For example, the "Earth Angel" storyline in Supergirl and his work on the Hulk. Sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn't.
The problem with his approach is that comics are a continuity-dependent medium. When you tell a serial story - whether that's comics or soap operas - the fact that there is a certain unifying history or context is a big part of what brings people back month after month. People feel they have an investment in the story and want to keep up on what's happening. When a writer or publisher decides to scrap that unifying experience, he puts the entire franchise at greater risk.
Marvel recently scrapped decades of Spider-Man continuity - and I'm sure the company figures that the character is so popular that it can get away with that. But She-Hulk? Not so much. The comic was never a huge seller and alienating the base has so far not been a smart move.
I, too, hope sales recover. I'd also like to see Peter David leave the title.
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