"From now on, whatever Jennifer Walters can't handle... the She-Hulk will do!"
The Savage She-Hulk is a 1980 comic book series from Marvel Comics. The first issue is written by Stan Lee and penciled by John Buscema. The remainder of the series is written by David Anthony Kraft,
Set in the shared Marvel Universe, it stars a new character, Jennifer "Jen" Walters, who becomes the titular She-Hulk.
Jen, a young lawyer living in Los Angeles, was surprised to see her long-lost cousin Bruce Banner, who is currently on the run from both the military and law enforcement. Before the two had a chance to really catch up, thugs working for crime boss Nicholas Trask attack them and one of the thugs shoots Jennifer in the back. Desperate to save his dying cousin, Bruce took her to a doctor's office and performed an impromptu blood transfusion before taking her to the hospital. After that, when Banner was gone, the goons arrived to finish off Jennifer. However, as they attempted to knock her out with chloroform, the stress of the situation caused her to metamorphosize into a female (and much smarter) version of the Hulk. After defeating the thugs, Jennifer returns to normal and vows to use her new, gamma-powered other self to fight crime.
The series ran for 25 issues, from February 1980 to February 1982. Eventually, She-Hulk would end up joining both The Avengers and the Fantastic Four before starring in a new, more comedic solo comic titled The Sensational She-Hulk in 1989.
The Savage She-Hulk contains examples of:
- The Adjectival Superhero: The Savage She-Hulk.
- Animal Mecha: Nick Trask's "Silver Serpent" is a huge snakelike mecha with Fast Tunnelling abilities. It has a huge fanged mouth to chew through rock, and can expel rubble from its hollow tail. Trask uses it to steal and transport oil, which it also unloads via the tail.
- Appropriated Appellation: Jen's first transformation is when some of Nick Trask's thugs try to murder her while she's recovering in the hospital. Seeing the huge, green woman she becomes, they name her the "She-Hulk" - and she happily adopts the name.
- Arc Villain:
- Gangster Nick Trask is the main villain for the first five issues. His initial attempt to kill Jen leaves her injured and creates the She-Hulk, with subsequent attempts killing her best friend and almost killing her father.
- For the final arc, the main villain is Shade - a mysterious new gangster in town who's murdering the competition and sending his superpowered enforcers after Jen. Subverted with the reveal that Shade is not in charge - and he's really a tiny mutant steering a Mobile-Suit Human. The real villain is his creator and master, the Mad Scientist Doc, an immortal would-be world conqueror and Maker of Monsters.
- Bathroom Brawl: When Jen flees court after almost losing her temper and transforming, Ultima follows her and realises who the She-Hulk really is. The two of them initially battle in the women's bathroom before smashing through a wall and continuing the fight outside.
- Big "NO!": Nick Trask's last words are a scream of "NNOOOOOO” as his Silver Serpent mecha malfunctions and starts burrowing towards the Earth's core, with Trask still trapped inside. It's presented directly across the panel, not within a Speech Bubble.
- Career-Ending Injury: Jen's second battle with Ultima ends when a car is accidentally dropped on the villain, leaving her mute and paralysed.
- Create Your Own Hero: Nick Trask has no one to blame but himself for She-Hulk existing; it's because of him that Jennifer needed a blood transfusion from her cousin that turned her into the green-skinned amazon. Trask's attempt on the life of one lawyer ironically ended up giving the Marvel Universe one of its most beloved heroes.
- Death by Secret Identity:
- Gangster Nick Trask, the Arc Villain for the first few issues, uncovers Jen's identity when she monologues after smashing his killer robot, without realising that its severed head is still transmitting audio and video to Trask. He uses the information to target her father in one scheme, but then gets killed off at the end of the arc, trapped in a malfunctioning mecha as it burrows towards the Earth's core.
- Ultima, a super-powered champion for her father's cult, works out Jen's identity just before their second battle. However, that battle ends up with a car crushing her spine - she's left confined to a wheelchair, paralysed and mute, so is unable to reveal the secret.
- Decapitation Presentation: After smashing Trask's "She-Hulk" robot, Jen stands on a deserted beach, holds its severed head aloft and monologues about Trask and his Frame-Up scheme. Unfortunately, she doesn't realise that Trask is still getting audio and video from the robot, so the monologue also reveals her Secret Identity to him.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Don't expect to find the usually happy, vivacious and occasionally fourth-wall breaking She-Hulk in this comic; in fact, aside from some sightly better control over her transformation and a more robust vocabulary, the She-Hulk in this comic can be just as ill-tempered and destructive as her cousin.
- Elective Mute: After his super-powered daughter Ultima is left paralysed and mute after her battle with She-Hulk, the Word takes a vow of silence and becomes her carer.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": 'Doc' is never referred to by any other name. He's initially presented as a single-story villain, a young, opportunistic would-be Mad Scientist. But even when he's revealed as the Arc Villain for the final storyline, a would-be world conqueror who's revealed to be The Ageless and The Man in Front of the Man for gangster Shade, he's only ever referred to as 'Doc'.
- Faking the Dead: When gangster Nick Trask's latest attempt to kill Jen kills her friend Jill instead, Jen decides to let Trask think he's succeeded. Monkton, Zapper, Bukowski and the judge presiding over Monkton's trial all know the truth, but almost everyone else - including Jen's father Sheriff Walters - believes that she's dead. Unfortunately, the She-Hulk is blamed for her murder, which just makes the Sheriff far more determined to capture her, even after he discovers that Jen's alive.
- Inspector Javert: Jen's father, Sheriff Walters, is unaware of her Secret Identity and determined to bring the She-Hulk to justice. He becomes a complicating factor in many of her adventures. After Bukowski discovers that the She-Hulk wasn't responsible for Jill Stevens' death, he stops pursuing her - and in the final arc he discovers that she's actually Jen and comes to terms with her double identity.
- Killed Off for Real: As of 2023, Nick Trask, the first Arc Villain for the series, is still dead. His snake-shaped mecha, the 'Silver Serpent', malfunctions, the controls jam and it uses its Fast Tunnelling to dive towards the Earth's core. Technically, he's Killed Offscreen - the scene ends as he realises what's happening and starts screaming.
- Love Triangle: Zapper's fallen for Jen, but she thinks he's too young for her and is more interested in Richard Rory. However, as She-Hulk, who has a slightly different personality, she's much more interested in Zapper than in Richard. All of which is complicated by the fact that Zapper knows that Jen is She-Hulk and Richard doesn't (although it's later revealed that he knew all along, but hadn't told Jen).
- Magic Pants: This time, in the form of a torn-up white dress. No matter how much Jen's clothes rip up when she becomes She-Hulk, the dress is always there. And even when she's almost drowned in a refinery's oil storage tank, it tends to stay white.
- Mobile-Suit Human: The fearsome gangster Shade is eventually revealed to be a small blue humanoid piloting a realistic robot human.
- Parting the Sea: She-Hulk fights a villain, Torque, who can do this.
- Power Incontinence: During the first half of the series Jen is unable to control her transformations and risks shifting into She-Hulk when stressed or emotional. This becomes much less of an issue after Morbius treats her underlying illness - Jen still unexpectedly wakes up as She-Hulk at least once after transforming in her sleep, though.
- Robot Me: Nick Trask acquires a prototype robot, stolen from Stark Industries, then paints it green and disguises it as the She-Hulk before sending it on a killing spree as part of a Frame-Up scheme. Nobody who sees it clearly would mistake it for Jen, but most people who get that close don't survive.
- Secret Secret-Keeper: Richard Rory almost immediately realises that Jen is She-Hulk, but keeps the secret and doesn't tell her he's worked it out. He hopes that if their romance goes well, she'll tell him herself at a later date.
- Self-Disposing Villain: Nick Trask, the first Arc Villain for the series, is killed when his own "Silver Serpent" Animal Mecha malfunctions and burrows towards the Earth's core, with Nick trapped onboard.
- The Unmasking: After smashing Trask's robot "She-Hulk", Jen monologues on a deserted beach, not realising that the robot's head is still transmitting audio and video to Trask. Now armed with her Secret Identity, he decides to target her family for his next scheme. Fortunately for Jen, he dies when another scheme goes wrong at the end of the arc, without making her identity public.
