Shock the Shulkie

She-Hulk meets up with Louise Mason for breakfast, when Louise complains about not meeting for lunch, Jennifer explains that she needs to pay her electric bill on her lunch break. As they discuss the young would-be superhero known as the Gopher comes literally crashing down on them. He starts leaping about making a mess of the patio until the She-Hulk can grab hold of him and demands to know what the youth is doing. The Gopher reminds her that he was Tommy the intern at Marvel Comics and that he wants to be her sidekick. Although She-Hulk is flattered, she has no interest in endangering a child while battling super-villains. The Gopher then threatens to reveal her secret identity, however, this threat falls flat since everyone knows that the She-Hulk is really Jennifer Walters.

After the She-Hulk wins her next trial she goes to her the Con Max building to pay her electrical bill. At that moment, the owner of the company is unveiling a new miniaturized nuclear reactor. Among the spectators is young Tommy, who got in thanks to the fact that his father works for the company. He tells a strange man in a trenchcoat and hat that he hopes that he gets exposed to radiation so he gets superpowers. As She-Hulk arrives it's just as someone comes rushing to the security desk to tell the guard to call the police immediately. She-Hulk asks what the problem is and is taken to the showroom where the miniature reactor has been taken over by the villain known as Electro.

She-Hulk tries to take him down but he is super-charged by the reactor and quickly blasts her aside. After a couple more jolts, and stopping Tommy from going into action as the Gopher, She-Hulk decides to destroy the reactor. However, the creator of the device warns her that it is nuclear and destroying it will kill millions. Deciding to take another avenue, She-Hulk insulates herself from Electro's powers and pounds into him. Eventually, he runs out of power and realizes too late that someone shut off the power. She-Hulk then knocks him out with a single blow. As it turns out, the Gopher -- using information gleaned from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe -- he learned that the limit to Electro's powers was 100,000 volts. Knowing he was at full power, he shut off the source so Electro's powers would eventually wear out. She-Hulk is impressed, but still refuses to let Tommy be her sidekick. She tells him that when his parents are murdered by criminals and he is mutated into a massive green termite with multiple limbs, then she would consider it. Tommy suddenly disappears, and remembering that she lives in a comic book, She-Hulk realizes that Tommy might be going to do just what she suggested and rushes out to find him.

Recurring Characters

She-Hulk, The Gopher, Louise Mason, Electro

Continuity Notes

• When his threats to reveal She-Hulk's "secret identity" fails, the Gopher comments how this ploy "worked for Bucky". He is referring to the events of Captain America Comics #1 which states that James Barnes was able to blackmail Steve Rogers into letting him be his sidekick during World War II after discovering his secret identity. However, as pointed out in Marvel Project #1, this was actually part of wartime propaganda as part of Bucky's fabricated back story to get American youths interested in the war effort and combat the Hitler Youth movement.

• She-Hulk refers to herself as a "woman of the 90's", this statement should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.