
Jeff Parker's Red She-Hulk has been my pleasant surprise of Marvel Now! thus far. I have no idea how Betty Ross became the Red She-Hulk, but Parker is really doing a great job of making her an interesting character in this first arc. He's also calling back to Hickman's S.H.I.E.L.D. series, as Betty discovered the Terranometer--a computer developed by Tesla that can predict the future. The future Betty's seen involves a military super-soldier program called Echelon that results in a super-human armageddon Betty's attempts to shut the program down have brought her into conflict with The Avengers, and Machine Man has been assigned to track her down. As he has studied her however, he starts to sympathize with Betty and eventually joins up with her.
This issue featured the first real Hulk-out for Betty--she lost all control and became a savage beast, which scared the living daylights out of her, as she'd seen the same thing happen to Bruce time and time again. Her unlikely ally in Machine Man is able to get her focused back on finding out how to stop Echelon.
Despite Red She-Hulk rubbing elbows with the Avengers, it seems like Parker is carving out his own little corner of the Marvel Universe with this book, and I like that. Machine Man and Betty Ross is an odd pairing, but it works, and it helps make this book feel just a bit different than most other stuff out there right now.
4 out of 5 Odd Couples