Captain America: White Issue #0
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Jeph Loeb: Writer
Tim Sale: Artist
Dave Stewart: Colors

For the uninitiated reader (and to recap for those in-the-know), the acclaimed creative team of Jeph Loeb as writer and Tim Sale as artist have been developing a unique style at Marvel of providing their own limited-series reinterpretations of the early years of key Marvel superheroes.  Often known as the color-coded series, the team began in 2002 with Daredevil: Yellow and progressed to Spiderman: Blue in 2003 and Hulk: Gray in 2004.

Now in 2008, Loeb and Sale give us Captain America: White, with Marvel publishing this month an issue #0 as a precurser to the upcoming six-issue miniseries.  Issue #0 consists of a 17-page story, followed by an 11-page combination black-and-white sketchbook and interview with the creative duo as conducted by Richard Starkings.

Created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon for Marvel's predecessor Timely Comics in 1941, Captain America is often referred to as Marvel's All-American superhero equivalent to D.C.'s Superman, and was a key American popular culture icon during World War II in rallying the American public for the war effort.  A super-soldier created by the U.S. Army, Cap and his teenage sidekick Bucky fought the Nazis and the infamous evil Red Skull.  The comic was discontinued in the mid-1950's and revived to immense acclaim by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the Silver Age 1960's, continuing up to now with many interpretations too numerous to address in this review.

The current run of Marvel's She-Hulk is at issue #34.  I was a faithful reader of this comic in its first Eisner award-winning year, and looked forward to revisiting it this week to see how its been holding-up.

Lawyer Jennifer Walters has the ability to transform into She-Hulk due to a blood transfusion from her cousin (guess who!) Bruce Banner, the Hulk.  After bouncing around the Marvel Universe for over 25 years, Marvel began a new She-Hulk storyline that's now up to the current issue #34.

The first 12 issues put a fresh and humorous face on the She-Hulk franchise, centering on Jennifer's legal work in the Superhuman Law Division of a New York law firm.  It was an extremely fresh and funny spin on comic plotting; picture one of the law firm-based television dramas with both good and evil superheros as clients and you have an accurate idea of how the storyline was structured.

As issue #34 shows, a lot has changed for Jennifer in a few years.  She's no longer a practicing lawyer, instead partnering as a bounty hunter with a female Skrull partner named Jazinda.  In this issue, Jennifer assembles Jazinda, Valkyrie, Thundra and Invisible Girl Sue Storm into a team known as the Lady Liberators.  The plot centers on the team planning and beginning a mission to the third world country of Marinmer to force that country's dictator to release withheld earthquake disaster aid to his suffering subjects.

Initially, I was very disappointed that the superhero law firm world is now history in this comic, and I was apprehensive that the comic might have taken a turn for the worse.  Luckily, I was happy to find that the quality writing that made She-Hulk a premiere hit three years ago is still front and center here.  Writer Peter David maintains the same successful balancing act of equal parts comedy and timely drama.  The comedy in this issue works well in providing both Valkyrie and Thundra, two starchy and overly-serious characters, with a goofy side to their personalities.  The serious plot thread addresses the too-real problem in our world of oppressive regimes sometimes withholding disaster relief from their own populace.  Its clear that the fictional "Marinmer" is based on last year's real situation of the military regime of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, withholding international disaster aid from its own population after a devastating earthquake.

The basic plotline here is not brand new; many comics over the years have given us stories of superheros frustrated by world political and social problems to the point of trying to break through the bureaucratic system and take matters into their own powerful hands.  The quality of this particular effort at this theme is good enough that I for one want to stick around and see how it plays out.  My fellow reviewer Dave LeBlanc tells me that Marvel is scheduled to end this current run of She-Hulk at #36, so this is basically a three-issue storyline.  My recommendation is to definitely read issues #34 through #36, then enjoy the previous issues in the graphic compilation volumes that are currently available.

So an enthusiastic paws-up from the assembled citizens of Bongo Congo for both of this week's Superheroine issues.