She-Hulk #5
She-Hulk (2004) #5 is the first appearance of Southpaw (Sasha Martin), the rebellious teenage granddaughter of Holden Holliway whose arc — from juvenile super-villain to, in a future-timeline glimpse, New York City's most accomplished superhuman lawyer — became one of the quiet emotional throughlines of Dan Slott's entire celebrated run. The issue also introduces the Big House, a Hank Pym–designed maximum-security facility that shrinks its super-powered inmates to microscopic scale, a high-concept Marvel Universe institution that enriches the series' central premise of superhuman law in practice. Packing in more than three dozen recognisable villains — the Wrecking Crew, the U-Foes, the New Warriors, Sandman, Rhino, Scorpion, and many more — as spectators to a miniaturised jailbreak, the story is a showcase for how Slott used Marvel's deep continuity as comedic and dramatic texture rather than mere fan service, a storytelling philosophy that the later Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law drew on directly.
In "The Big Picture Part One: More Than a Handful," She-Hulk takes a surprising turn when she goes on her first date with John Jameson—only to swap romance for a high-stakes mission. With Holden, she infiltrates the Big House, Hank Pym’s prison for shrink-sized inmates, to free Southpaw, a girl whose fate is tied to Holden’s past. The tiny prisoners launch a jailbreak, but their tiny rebellion goes unnoticed in the larger world. Written by Dan Slott and illustrated by Paul Pelletier, with inks by Tom Simmons and Don Hillsman, and colors by Avalon Studios, the issue’s cover by Mike Mayhew captures the scale of the adventure.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Writer Dan Slott pitched the 2004 She-Hulk series with the high-concept elevator line 'Ally McBeal with muscles,' centring Jennifer Walters' career at the superhuman law firm Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway. Issues #1–4 were illustrated by Juan Bobillo, but penciller Paul Pelletier stepped in beginning with issue #5, bringing a more traditionally rendered superhero aesthetic to the 'Big Picture' two-parter. The issue was edited by Tom Brevoort with assistant editors Andy Schmidt and Nicole Wiley (Boose), under editor-in-chief Joe Quesada — the standard editorial configuration for the series throughout its 12-issue first volume. The run was later collected in its entirety in She-Hulk: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 (2014) and in the She-Hulk by Dan Slott Omnibus.
Trivia · 7 facts
- First appearance of Southpaw (Sasha Martin), created by Dan Slott and Paul Pelletier — a teenage super-villain wielding an extraterrestrial gauntlet who is revealed mid-issue to be the granddaughter of law-firm partner Holden Holliway.
- First appearance of Warden Roberto Dawber, the Big House's warden, and of the minor villain Silencer, both introduced in this issue.
- First in-series appearance of the Mad Thinker — revealed in the subsequent issue #6 to be an android duplicate secretly substituted for the real Mad Thinker at some prior point; he orchestrates the Big House jailbreak from inside.
- The issue marks the debut of penciller Paul Pelletier on the series, inked by Tom Simmons and Don Hillsman, replacing Juan Bobillo who had drawn issues #1–4.
- The story is Part 1 of 'The Big Picture,' the first multi-part arc in the 2004 series, with Part 2 concluding in issue #6.
- Jennifer Walters and John Jameson go on their first date in this issue, a plot thread that develops through the rest of the first volume.
- The issue is collected in She-Hulk Vol. 1: Single Green Female TPB (2004), She-Hulk by Dan Slott: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 (2014), and the She-Hulk by Dan Slott Omnibus.
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Reprinted in She-Hulk #1 (2004), She-Hulk by Dan Slott: The Complete Collection #1 (2014), Die offizielle Marvel-Comic-Sammlung #37 (2014), Marvel. Официальная коллекция комиксов #101 (2017), She-Hulk by Dan Slott Omnibus #[nn] (2020)
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