Another week, more comics, the world keeps spinning around and around. Some pretty good and enjoyable comics this week, like Transformers and the first issue of the hotly anticipated Ultimate Spider-Man #1.

Comic Book of the Week is Sensational She-Hulk for an excellent issue of superheroes being normal people, which I love.

Meanwhile, I watched Echo this past week and I enjoyed it. Definitely nothing special or outstanding, but it’s a solid corner of the MCU that could be further explored in the future. I wouldn’t mind seeing her interact with other heroes and actually play a role. Beyond that, my interest in Project Zomboid is definitely beginning to wane after a few unfortunate deaths. I just wanna play the game and not have to keep restarting! Stupid zombies.

Comic Reviews: Sensational She-Hulk #4, Transformers #4 and Ultimate Spider-Man #1.

Sensational She-Hulk #4
Writer: Rainbow Rowell
Artist: Ig Guara
Colorist: Dee Cunniffe
Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

I mean, would I be fine if Sensational She-Hulk was just a series written by Rainbow Rowell about superheroes hanging out and going to clubs in their civilian identities? Yeah, probably.

After getting into a big fight with the Hulk and her villains last issue, She-Hulk is getting the third degree from all of New York, especially her boss. It’s been a rough week, and she just wanted to relax during the weekend. But Patsy Walker arrives to take her clubbing, and they meet up with Carol Danvers to hit up the latest hot spot (Jack of Hearts was going to go, but he doesn’t want the Avengers to know he’s back yet). They talk, they catch up, and then either everybody else in the club turns into Hell demons, or the Hell demons show up.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

Look, what else is there to say other than I love Rainbow Rowell’s character writing. I loved it to pieces when she did Runaways, and it’s my favorite part of her She-Hulk comics. It’s fun, snappy, good flowing dialogue, and it’s usually between characters in fun situations. I love when superheroes can act like real people and do real people things, so Jen, Patsy and Carol hanging out at a club and talking shop/friend stuff is exactly what I love to read and want to read! Almost the entire issue is taken up by that stuff, and I had a blast with this issue. There were some bonus scenes too that were also fun. I could have read an entire issue of Devil-Slayer hiring Jen to figure out the legal ownership and merchandising rights of the ‘Defenders’ team name.

Honestly, the arrival of some Hell demons kinda ruins things. I know superhero comics have to feature superhero stuff, but man, I was so ready for the next issue being more club time! I want to know the exact hierarchy of civilian friendships among the super-powered women of Marvel. Jen and Patsy are best friends, right? And then Carol and Jessica Drew, and then Carol shows up here and is disappointed she didn’t get invited to the book club (MORE BOOK CLUB, PLEASE!). It’s great, and it’s a joy to read. That is where Rowell really excels. She even did some good work with Jack of Hearts this issue, as Patsy was introduced to the relationship. And the artwork was stellar, drawing everybody like perfectly normal people and having fun with it.

TL;DR: My favorite issues of Rainbow Rowell’s She-Hulk are the ones where the characters get to just hang out and be people, and that was the entirety of this issue, so I was quite pleased.

Transformers #4
Writer and Artist: Daniel Warren Johnson
Colorist: Mike Spicer
Letterer: Rus Wooten

The story continues!

Optimus Prime rushes Spike to a hospital, with the Decepticons hot on his trail. Ratchet is able to juice up enough energy to bring Jazz back to life to join the fight, and our heroes scare Starscream and Soundwave away — but not without cutting all the power to the hospital. So Optimus Prime uses up the Matrix of Leadership to repower the hospital so that the doctors can stabilize Spike. Ratchet is not too happy with Prime using up the Matrix, because they’ve got to think of their own survival. He’s got a different weapon Prime can use to replace that arm he lost: Megatron’s arm!

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

This is a solid storytelling chapter, as the story moves onward and we deal with the injured Spike. We get some great scenes between the characters, both Autobot and Decepticon. Optimus shows how heroic he can be, sacrificing a lot to help the humans, and to help save Spike. While Ratchet chides him for all that sacrifice. It adds some real character depth to the team, which is great. I’m not Transformers fanatic, so I was a little disappointed that when Ratchet teased that they needed firepower to help Prime, that only Jazz showed up. Is Jazz somehow super important in the Transformers universe? I have no idea. But it led to a cool arrival and a bunch of big action moments; likewise with Cliffjumper and Carly. There were a lot of cool character moments, is what I’m saying.

The Decepticons got some good moments too. They fight well, and then they tore Skywarp apart when they realized they needed Cybertronian parts to rebuild their ship. Literally tore him apart. Brutal. Then all the Megatron teases are fun, like Prime using his arm, and then the final page is a tease of Megatron’s body (sans head, maybe?) in the ice somewhere. So a lot is still being set up. But mostly I enjoy the artwork, for sure, and the character beats and the storytelling. None of the Transformers being used are ones I particularly care about, so that spark isn’t there for me (pun intended). But it’s a solid Transformers comic so far, I’d say.

TL;DR: Another issue, another solid storytelling chapter of this opening Transformers story. Good character moments and continuously great art easily carry this one along.

Ultimate Spider-Man #1
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Marco Checchetto
Colorist: Matthew Wilson
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

Welp, here it is, the hotly anticipated new Ultimate Spider-Man. I may have stopped reading Amazing Spider-Man, but it wasn’t because I had any problem with Paul or any of that stuff. So I wasn’t salivating for this new series. But I’m still eager to see what happens.

So OK, the new Ultimate Universe is very different from the old Ultimate Universe. I think I’m mostly caught up. The thing to know is that the Maker, the evil Reed Richards from the old Ultimate Universe, recreated this new one to better suit him. This involved preventing a bunch of classic superhero origins, and then keeping the origin catalyst for himself in his lab. In this instance, he stopped the radioactive spider from biting teenage Peter Parker, and then held on to the spider. Then the new Tony Stark and new Reed Richards (and other heroes) teamed up to stop the Maker and free the world from his grasp, but then a bunch of Maker-loyal characters perpetrated a massive terrorist attack in NYC and framed Tony.

A bunch of people were killed, including Aunt May and Norman Osborn.

This issue picks up with adult Peter Parker, who is married to Mary Jane, with two kids, and he works at the Daily Bugle — alongside his Uncle Ben, who is the managing editor! In this reality, Uncle Ben and J. Jonah Jameson are the best of friends and run the paper together, until the board and owners (including Wilson Fisk) force some editorial changes about the paper’s coverage of the terrorist attack. Jonah and Ben quit in protest and decide to start their own news agency. Peter seems to be floating his way through the issue, as if something is on his mind. They attend the memorial service for the terrorist attack (led by Reverend Matthew Murdock), where Harry Osborn speaks. And then we later see a Green Goblin attacking city officials.

In the end, we learn that Peter has been lost in a fog all day because, the night before, he received a message from the Tony Stark of six months in the future. He’s handing out the superhero origin catalysts that they seized from the Maker’s lab in order to create good superheroes, and he’s provided Peter with the radioactive spider and a new suit. Peter finally feels like he knows what’s been missing from his life, and he accepts the offer.

Comic Rating: 8/10 – Very Good.

As a new, alternate reality Spider-Man story, this issue is a fine start. Jonathan Hickman is writing, so you know all of that is going to be good. And the artwork is phenomenal, keeping everything very realistic, which is what I like. The Ultimate Universe was always about realism, and I love that sort of thing. So I really enjoyed the world-building in this issue. Ben Parker and J. Jonah Jameson make a great team, with Ben apparently providing a calming effect on Jonah over the years. And while Peter Parker has his head in the clouds for most of the issue, we still get a pretty solid look at him and his life, which is what a lot of fans have been clamoring for. It works just fine in this issue. So I’d say this definitely succeeds in creating a new fun, alternate reality Spider-Man story.

My only gripe is with the weirdness of the new Ultimate Universe to begin with. I’ve read the other opening stories, and this is one complicated world. The original Ultimate Universe was all about streamlining things and keeping it simple and straight forward. This new series has a young Tony Stark from six months in the future sending superhero origins in a bottle backwards in time in order to recruit a new world of existing heroes. I really hope we see a lot of exploration of what it means for fully adult, father and husband Peter Parker to suddenly choose to turn himself into Spider-Man. It’s a wild idea with a long, complicated explanation, but I’m confident the creatives involved have given it a lot of thought and will make it work.

We shall see. I’m very excited for Ultimate X-Men. I’d love to see a world where mutants develop and there’s no Xavier or Magneto to sort them into their respective houses.

TL;DR: This issue really delivers on the Peter Parker world-building, setting up a bunch of new status quo details with grace and style. But the jarring nature of the new Ultimate Universe is definitely a hinderance.

The comics I review in my Hench-Sized reviews are just the usual comics I grab from Comixology any given week, along with a few impulse buys I might try on a whim. So if there are any comics or series you’d like me to review each week, let me know in the comments.

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