Book Review: She-Hulk Diaries by Marta Acosta

The She-Hulk Diaries by Marta Acosta

Genre: Superhero, Women’s Fiction

Publisher: Hyperion (for Marvel Comics)

Publication Date: June 2013

Wendy’s Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

This is the first novel that we’ve read for our Ladies Comic Book Night book club, but the decision to read it should be an obvious one.

Apparently, the She-Hulk Diaries as well as Rogue Touch, are Marvel’s attempt to “target women readers with stories of dynamic female super heroines who split their time between fighting villains and searching for a decent guy to date.” [X]. I can’t say this concept impressed me, any more than their attempt to bring in Black female readers by marrying Storm off to Black Panther [X]. But for the sake of my ladies at the club, I was willing to overlook my dislike for anything chick-flicky in nature in order to read this book. Thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed. I can’t say it was the greatest read ever and I would love to read more like this, but it was pretty entertaining.

We also had the opportunity to interview author Marta Acosta on Twitter at our recent meeting.

First of all, if you are a previous She-Hulk fan you might find this a bit disconcerting. Acosta chose to separate the She-Hulk and Jennifer Walters personalities, with the greater focus being on Jen as she tries to sort out her personal life and career. I only vaguely knew She-Hulk before reading this and decided to check out the new She-Hulk #1 by Charles Soule to see if my recollections of her were correct. As in, I was certain I remembered her being all green, all the time, which turns out to be the standing canon.

Shulky makes appearances from time to time as the unapologetic party girl who’s antics have gotten her kicked out of the Avengers Mansion. The bifurcated personality is addressed in visits to a psychiatrist, where Jen adamantly refuses to accept that she and She-Hulk are the same people.

We were pleased with Acosta’s decision to split the personalities when she explained her rationale:

“It was also commentary on internal conflicts women have. Society gives us mixed messages & punishes women who don’t conform. The more I thought about She-Hulk, the more I saw her as Jen’s superego, being the woman we’re told NOT to be. She-Hulk is big, loud, sexual, funny, strong. She’s not a nice easy to manage little girl but a powerful woman.”

The opportunity to spend more time with Jen is handled well as she manages her social life and her career. The latter collides with her love life when she comes face to face with a former rock star flame who has apparently been crooning his love to her since their weekend of romance, but is now engaged to Jen’s new nemesis, Amber. Amber is my biggest complaint in the book, as she comes off as the one-dimensional bitch queen archetype. Still, the rest of the book is engaging enough to overlook this. It’s particularly fun when Jen does let Shulky out to play. Although she’s been banished from the Avengers Mansion, she’s still called on to handle the menial criminal tasks and of course, the Jade Goddess will party hard afterward.

As I said, this was an entertaining read. It didn’t impress itself upon me as a female reader, since it’s not really my style, but it has successfully introduced me to a new character whom I’m now regularly reading in her comic form. I’d say that’s a win. Well played, Marvel. Well played.