The Sensational She-Hulk 49: I Only Love You When You're Fat

Creator John Byrne's penultimate issue on the title continues to, likely unknowingly, portray She-Hulk's father as a major creep.  This time he gets drunk and breaks in on his girlfriend Weezi's television talk show taping to tell her that she's a freak and he liked her better when she was dumpy looking (presumably because he can't push around a woman who could beat him up).  The shock forces Weezi to give up She-Hulk's powers just in time for her to kick the shite out of Titania who up until that point had been taking advantage of She-Hulk's loss of powers to kick the shite out of her.  Here are some more random thoughts on this issue:

*The credits are given as a poem, which is clever.  Byrne continues his streak of ending on some strong issues.  Many of his previous runs on comics (even his fabled Fantastic Four run--how's that for alliteration, Stan Lee?) tended to either peter out or just end abruptly, presumably because he fought with the editor or got a better offer, so it's nice to see him end a run gracefully.  Admittedly, he's still drawing pages with only three or four panels on them, but at least this issue is much better than many of the ones that preceded it.

*So Weezi and She-Hulk's dad (he does have a name, but honestly does it matter?) haven't seen one another for almost a year's worth of stories (our time, but since She-Hulk and Weezi have been up in space, I suspect it's been awhile in Marvel time too), and they still live on opposite coasts of the U.S., but they're somehow still madly in love.  Wow, characters that one can just push around for the sake of the plot certainly are easier to deal with then those ones who are more fully-characterized, aren't they?

*The tv show Weezi appears on is a parody of the Oprah Winfrey show.  With She-Hulk's dad being drunk and busting in on the tv taping though, it really should be a parody of the Jerry Springer show, but it only started in 1991 and wasn't as widely known then.

*Twice in two issues, whoever wrote the letter column (Byrne probably) can't remember which issue the Christmas story appeared in.  Last issue it was 38 and this issue it was 8 (it was 36, guys).  Maybe She-Hulk's drunk dad pretended to be his daughter--that might explain it--but otherwise how can Byrne or whoever not remember an issue from only a year ago?

*The postal service statement reveals that She-Hulk sales went up about by about 10,000 copies a month since Byrne's return.  The series was selling about 60,000 copies a month, slightly pathetic for the time, but today it would be a top twenty seller.  It's no wonder that comics are getting more accepted in the academy.  That's their future.  Despite the hype and the films coming out of comics and whatnot, the actual comics medium isn't popular anymore.  I still love it though and so do enough other people that it will always be around, but it's going to more of a fine art than a popular one.