Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics | Tagged: aaron kuder, imperial, Planet She Hulk, stephanie phillips, wiccan

What If… Planet She-Hulk Hadn't Been Cancelled By Marvel? (Spoilers)

What If... Planet She-Hulk hadn't been cancelled by Marvel Comics with issue 6? And what of Wiccan? (Spoilers)

Planet She-Hulk #6, the final issue, by Stephanie Phillips and Aaron Kuder, was published yesterday by Marvel Comics, and is a gorgeous look at what could have been but isn't. It is also accompanied by the final issue of Wiccan: The Witching Road #5 by Wyatt Kennedy and Andy Pereira. Both titles spun out of the Imperial event launched by Jonathan Hickman last year, which was brought to a screeching halt. The mini-series spun off into five ongoing series: Planet She-Hulk, Imperial Guardians, Nova, Exiles and Black Panther: Intergalactic. The creators of each title worked on a one-shot and received ten-issue contracts, as has been standard at Marvel Comics of late, as part of an ongoing series.

But every spinoff series has been curtailed or turned into a five-issue mini-series. Apart from Exiles, which never came out at all. And other series that were meant to follow have been memory-holed. Talking on the Comic Pals podcast, Planet She-Hulk and new Daredevil writer Stephanie Phillips said, " It was not what any of us wanted across the Imperial line. Hickman, Jed McKay, any of us. And it was a surprise to all of us… Planet She-Hulk, for me, ends at issue five. That is where my story… you'll see there's a massive change that happens… and now issue six has to pivot to accommodate the change… You'll see what it is, issue five and be like, okay, this was meant to be a pretty massive universe story. And then, unfortunately, six will be something totally different."

Indeed. Planet She-Hulk #5 gave us the big battle… as She-Hulk has to prove herself to the planet Sakaar En Nevo, the population of Skaar, and herself. It turns out that if you live by the sword, you will be anointed by the sword.

Also that strange women distributing swords is indeed a basis for a system of government. We would have had a Queen She-Hulk run, but that's now been denied. We presumed that she would have to reject the throne and come back to Earth in her final issue. Instead, we got something weirder…

Planet She-Hulk #6 begins on Earth, She-Hulk conducting a case in court, defending The Rhino. Only for Juno, one of Hiro-Kala's many widowed wives on Sakaar. who travel to Earth to find her She-Hulk… only to discover that She-Hulk has no memory of her, or being on Sakaar. Which, given how much of Imperial has been memory holed is a little on the meta-side.

But hey, this is She-Hulk. It comes with the territory. And with Jack-Of-Hearts as her stay-at-home partner, it seems as if the entirety of Planet She-Hulk had been erased.

Even when she gets all her memories back, they don't make a lot of sense. And she needs the cliff notes of everything that happened after issue 5…

Even though she does have an unreliable narrator here. And while she got Jack-Of-Hearts back, it came at a price.

And it seems that price was her own memories of Sakaar,  and what memories they would have been, in battle for the planet, its people and herself as its Queen.

And also, it seems, the memory of Elloe Of The Thousand Eyes, suggesting a relationship between them, one that has been deleted by the powers that be.

So we find out what could have been if Planet She-Hulk continued. Indeed. giving us multiple options for stories that maybe hadn't all been tied down yet. And that includes her relationship with Elloe, reverted to the status quo. But there's something she did know would happen.

She-Hulk would not be queen. No one would. She would introduce a form of democracy to the planet. Not the only Hulk trying to do that right now. And as for that fourth wall breaking…

… it's catching. And seeds planted in that one-shot would have germinated, if they had been allowed to. But maybe there's a little addition to the status quo of She-Hulk being a lawyer, living in New York with her boyfriend that the series can leave the Marvel Universe with, even if all these stories have bow been deleted…

They have a new roommate. Roommates. More are on the way… but as Jennifer Walters is no longer Queen and it turns out it's a role she would have rejected, over in the Wiccan: The Witches Road finale by Wyatt Kennedy andAndy Pereira, Billy and Teddy, Wiccan and Hulking are dealing with Teddy no longer being Emperor of the Kree/Skrull Empire…

…and are not as minded to let it all go as Jennifer seems to be.

Two Imperial spin-off books with, it seems, very different takes on the concept of monarchy… who knows where this might have ended up?

• Planet She-Hulk #6 by Stephanie Phillips and Aaron Kuder
  CLOSING ARGUMENTS! She-Hulk has been trapped on Sakaar much longer than she'd planned and has gotten much more involved in the planet's politics than she'd ever dreamed. Will she take the throne in order to save the planet from itself? Or will she be tossed back into the pits in disgrace?
• Wiccan: Witches' Road by #5 by Wyatt Kennedy and Andy Pereira
  THE FINAL BATTLE FOR WICCAN'S WITCHCRAFT! PAGING THE YOUNG AVENGERS! Wiccan finds himself outmatched and overwhelmed against two great old sorceresses…but fortunately, he's never alone! Time to call in his closest allies – the Young Avengers! – and some extra help from the Avengers

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