Oh, She-Hulk, did you ever stand a chance? In October 2014, IGN reported that Marvel decide to cancel the relatively new She-Hulk series written by Charles Soule and drawn by Javier Pulido. The cancelation came as a bit of shock, considering the series had just debuted in January. Nevertheless, Marvel announced that the series was set to end with issue #12, released earlier this month.
While some Marvel fans couldn't care less about the loss of another superhero series, others took it pretty hard. After hearing of the cancelation, A.V. Club writer Oliver Sava dedicated an entire article on why the series needed to be saved, imploring Marvel not to allow "one of its best series [to] disappear." Although he admits that sales for the series weren't spectacular, he claimed the series was the perfect way to reach a new audience dynamic.
"She-Hulk is the perfect comic for fans of TV shows like The Good Wife, offering sophisticated legal drama focused around a multi-dimensional female lead," Sava said. "But also incorporating humor and a classic sense of superhero fun to keep the tone light and breezy."
Despite the the heroine's "sophisticated" story lines and strong support from fans, She-Hulk isn't a character that's been taken very seriously over the years—on the page and on the screen.
Fans have certainly enjoyed hypothesizing who could play Jennifer Walters if a live-action solo film were to ever come to fruition. Names like Jessica Biel, Zoe Saldana, Alexandra Daddario and Aubrey Plaza have been thrown around, but every year there's still no word on a She-Hulk film project. The only thing keeping fans' hopes alive at this point is that she'll make an appearance in a new Hulk film, which is still only a rumored project in itself for the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase Three.
There is one tangible outlet of entertainment where the She-Hulk still has seen ongoing success, however—pornography. Case in point, the She-Hulk XXX Parody. Yes, the movie is just as funny as you would expect any porn parody to be that has XXX actress Gracie Glam playing the role of Jennifer Walters while a green-painted former pro wrestler (Chyna) takes on the role of She-Hulk. But even with it's ridiculous premise, the film has been quite popular thanks to what Geekscape describes as the perfect blend of geeks' passion for superheroes and pornography.
Even if you're not a fan of WWE (or such explicit content), there's still one positive aspect about the movie that those looking for a more traditional mode of entertainment can enjoy. If you start to get the itch to read some new She-Hulk comics after the series cancellation, you can always read the story included with the movie. According to Adam and Eve, each purchase of the DVD comes with an eight-page comic book.
As Sava points out, "one thing is for certain: If you want more fun, smart, dynamic titles like She-Hulk, you need to buy them, and you need to buy them in print because those are the numbers that matter most to publishers." I'm pretty sure XXX comic books don't count towards their numbers, though.