Sensational She-Hulk #47
Sensational She-Hulk #47
Title: “Master Puppet!”
Writer: Simon Furman
Penciller: Rik Levins
Inker: Keith Williams
Colors: Glynis Oliver
Editor: Renee Witterstaetter
We interrupt the She-Hulk's ongoing space saga with a fill-in issue:
She-Hulk is meeting with her new client, who is telling her his side of the
story. He tells her about a puddle that just appeared in the middle of his back
lawn one morning, with an island in the middle of it, where talking puppets
would come out of. His kids loved them, so he didn't see any harm in letting
them play with them for a few days, but then they started getting bigger and
moving out of his yard! He tells Jen that the puppets set fire to his neighbor’s
house! Jen sighs, and wonders if she should plead insanity as Mr. Anderson's
defense. However, Jen feels that something about his story rings true. Jen asks
Ralph Anderson to help her understand. He is charged with setting fire to Mrs.
Hull's house with her inside it, but then he rescued her. He's charged with
tipping Mrs. Hull's car, with her dog trapped inside, into a creek. No one
rescued the dog. Only his fingerprints were found on the gasoline can; he has a
prior history of arguments with Mrs. Hull; and his alibi is that he was at home
sleeping, but his wife and kids are away so no one can back-up that claim.
Their conversation is interrupted by the police chief, who wants to talk to
Jen. He says that he may have been wrong to dismiss Anderson as insane… there
are more reports coming in of disturbances on his street, and the squad car he
dispatched isn't responding. Jen says not to worry, she already sent her own
investigating team there, and they should arrive shortly.
Jen phones her "investigating team”, Weezi and Wanda, and Weezi says they are
almost there. Wanda is in the backseat, changing into her Phantom Blonde
outfit, and wondering how Superman manages it in a phone booth. As Weezi pulls
into the neighborhood, she confirms that she has spotted some disturbances!
Several houses have been completely destroyed, leaving huge craters! Planes and
UFOs are flying through the air! Odd vehicles are driving through the streets!
A lake has swallowed much of the neighborhood, and in it their is a boat being
chased by a fish-shaped submarine!
She-Hulk and the police rush to their neighborhood! Jen takes in the weirdness
of it all, but then notices a couple trapped inside one of the burning houses.
She is about to rush over to rescue them, when a strange vehicle with the
letters WRN on the side, drives up and extends a rescue platform to the trapped
couple. Once the couple is safe, She-Hulk rips open the side of the vehicle and
demands answers. A man-sized puppet walks out, and explains that he is from the
World Rescue Network."From a small, family-owned island, just off the coast of
Chile, our organization uses advanced Thunderhawk technology developed by our
scientist, Big Head, to save those who cannot save themselves. We are, of
course, a top-secret operation."
The puppet then leaves to rescue a cat from a tree. Jen asks someone to pinch
her to wake her up from this dream. Wanda dives at her, and knocks her out of
the way of a ray blast from one of the puppets! Even though they are puppets,
their weapons appear to be real enough! She-Hulk grabs a garbage can lid and
throws it like Captain America's shield, knocking down the puppet!
Wanda notices that the puppets' strings disappear in mid-air. Jen feels the
strings and says that they are still there, but that it feels like her fingers
are somewhere else. Jen says that this is starting to seem a bit familiar, but
before she can put her finger on it, another puppet approaches. He quickly
assures them that he isn't there to attack… he came to thank them for stopping
the other puppet, Agent Noir. While he is talking, Noir pulls out his gun and
blasts a hole in Agent Rouge! Wanda kicks Noir in the face...and his head comes
flying off!
She-Hulk checks on Rouge. He has a hole blasted through his chest, but he is
still fine. He returns to fighting with the decapitated Agent Noir. Jen just
shakes her head at the insanity of it. She returns to her car, to go have a talk
with Anderson.
Elsewhere, the whole event is being observed by the
Critic. The Critics are a splintered faction from the Watchers, who provide
commentary on the events they observe. The Critic complains about this being a
loose end. "I thought I'd got them all, but no, someone managed to hide one
from me! It's the same plot all over again!" He worries that the selective
amnesia he created in She-Hulk and the others were break down. He also
complains that the villain involved doesn't have a worthwhile goal.
She-Hulk has brought Anderson to the neighborhood to witness the chaos. He
tells her that he can't talk, otherwise the Master Puppet will kill his family.
It had taken them to ensure his silence. Jen scoffs at that idea. How would this
Master Puppet imagine that an island growing in the middle of Queens would go
unnoticed? Jen starts to tell him that it is spreading and expanding out into
the world, and that the real world will be squished out of existence if they
don't stop it. As she is speaking, this is becoming more and more familiar to
her.
Anderson tells her that he is a prison guard at Ryker's. One day he found that
one of the prisoners had disappeared, and in his place was a strange black
shape. Anderson reported the missing prisoner, but not the shape… instead, he
took it home to study it. He discovered that it wasn't solid, and one day he
reached inside and pulled out a puppet! At first the puppets just played with
the kids, but eventually they got bored and started creating their own disasters
to "rescue" people from. Unfortunately, no one rescued Mrs. Hull's dog in time.
By now, She-Hulk's memory of this has returned. She
reminds Weezi about the compaction frames and the mess they nearly made of
Earth. At first Weezi doesn't know what she's talking about, but then her
memory returns too. She remembers the Critic gathering up all the expanded
universes. Jen says that he must have missed one, and that what they are
dealing with here is a Puppet-verse! Jen says they have to rescue the Andersons
and stop this madness before the Puppet-verse spreads any further. Wanda points
out that they'll need help against an entire world full of puppets. Weezi
suggests recruiting the World Rescue Network for help!
Soon, they are racing to the island where this all started aboard WRN hoversleds.
The bald-headed little man who is controlling the puppets sees them coming, and
orders a bunch of fishmen puppets to attack! They open fire on the hoversleds!
She-Hulk jumps off and starts punching, while Wanda uses her sled as a battering
ram. Weezi, meanwhile, pulls some scissors out of her purse and begins cutting
the puppet strings! The puppets immediately fall to the ground, helpless!
She-Hulk and Wanda quickly start cutting as well, and soon all of the fishmen
puppets have been immobilized. Then a giant puppet calling itself the Master
Puppet smashes through a nearby wall! While She-Hulk charges at the puppet,
Weezi catches sight of the little bald man through the hole in the wall.
She-Hulk gets smacked down by the Master Puppet, and he prepares to stomp on
her, but she grabs his foot and pushes it back, sending him toppling over! The
giant puppet is about to get back on its feet, when suddenly Weezi comes up
behind the bald man, pressing her fingers against his back and pretending it is
a gun! The man, who turns out to be Puppet Master, surrenders.
Soon, Puppet Master explains that he would never have hurt the Andersons, he
just needed to buy time to figure out why the Puppet-verse was expanding and how
he could reverse it. He explains that he was hoping this would be more than just
an escape from prison… he wanted it to be an opportunity to start fresh, in a
Puppet-verse, which could truly be a place of his own. Then the Critic
appears, complaining that just "wanting to be left alone" is a rather lame
motivation for a villain. Then, after revealing that the puppet-verse expanded
due to Puppet Master's contamination, he takes the puppet-verse and disappears.
She-Hulk sends Puppet Master back to jail. "In the future, before I accept any
case, I am going to make very sure… there are no strings attached!"
Site for Sore Eyes rating: 4 out of 10
Review by Dermie