Please note the trade paperback collects Hulk (2016) #1-11 and She-Hulk (2018) #159-163, in case you were confused by reading order. But the collection puts everything in its proper position so you might not have to deal with it.
So: I read Civil War II when I was just getting into comic books, knew nothing about the original Civil War and came out of it with the wrong idea of who Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel was, an idea I mourn because I liked it. Amongst other bullshit that happened in that event Hulk died (spoilers, I guess, but he got better) and Jen, his cousin, almost died but was left so traumatized by it that her Hulk form changed to gray as part of a larger psychological mechanism. From this we got the phenomenal Immortal Hulk and I was introduced to Al Ewing for the first time, so I can't say it was all bad. And this original series introduced me to Mariko Tamaki.
It's... good. It's not as good as I remember it, and it's hard to go back and realize there were some flaws I was unaware of. The art style changes quite often, which doesn't really help with a consistent tone. And the pacing is rough at times, and on occasion the plot has some incoherence (in particular, there's a bit where Jen is transforming into gray She-Hulk at the end of an issue, and the next issue starts with her turned back... it's not really explained why she transformed in the first place).
The good things also weren't quite what I remembered from them. Yes, there's a great focus on Jen's psyche and what the gray Hulk form means for her; where her green form was an enhancement, something that takes her base personality and makes it better, more outgoing, the gray form is a shell to protect her from further harm and the memories of her cousin's death and almost dying. Through this physical manifestation we explore Jen's psyche, and what it takes to get her back to normal, so to speak. But they're small moments, little things in an otherwise light book, which may not entirely be a flaw.
I once heard a description of Castlevania that I think applies here, paraphrased from Overly Sarcastic Productions: brooding and withdrawing is not attractive. Taking a shower, taking some time to clean up and trying to improve yourself, that's attractive, that's what makes someone attractive. In much the same way, Jen's struggle to what she was before isn't glamorized at all, showing she's barely holding on through watching baking videos that calm her down. And for all there are light moments in this book that made me annoyed to get away from the psychological angle, it's ultimately necessary to pull her back to who Jen is supposed to be, so even if it bugs me it's something the book needed to do. It makes me look at Bruce Banner and realize "Oh, that guy's fucked up and he's never going to let anyone save him".
This book is also sillier than I remember. There's three issues where characters break the fourth wall, including the penultimate issue where Jen finally has an emotional breakthrough, and yet somehow they all work. I think they were necessary to make the darker elements pop, this normal, slice-of-life thing Jen has going on that's threatened by her psychological issues she's not dealing with; she can spend a whole issue at work dealing with clients and complaints, but as soon as she's alone the thoughts she's kept buried come roaring back. It's to the point where the gray Hulk form doesn't show up fully for like half the first run, but it's necessary to show how she's recovering from when Thanos punched a hole in her chest, and how unready she is to help herself, let alone anyone.
The last third does, unfortunately, fall off a little. The antagonists of the first parts were thematically-relevant to Jen's struggle, one being someone who had withdrawn and the other being someone also turned into a monster, but the Leader comes out of nowhere for the final bits and pushes Jen to a conclusion pretty bluntly. The last two issues pick up to give a good finale, though.
Ultimately, I think any comic book fan would enjoy this book, with one caveat: it has a pretty linear view of mental health. I don't think this is a unique problem with this book or even solely comic books, but this book being a journey about Jen's journey back to picturesque mental health can feel disingenuous to those of us who struggle with mental health (so, basically every comic book fan).
It's not the fault of future writers either, but the fact this gray form hasn't been revisited feels like creative cowardice: a story about Jen's trauma resurfacing could be an excellent continuation of her struggle to accept what happened to her. But that's just me, vexed over the structure of comic books; in all the subjectivity of this review, this paragraph feels the most subjective.
But then, because I like to test my own theories...
Surprise! It's a secret review, and it encapsulates everything I was talking about with Jen's trauma. This was during Jason Aaron's controversial run on The Avengers where Jen got suped up as She-Hulk and became strong and stupid. This issue combines everything going on with Jen at the time and paints a picture of where her head's at surrounding dying. It's fantastic and you should give it a read; if you're not interested or satiated by Mariko Tamaki's run this is a good, short read. This is because Al Ewing is the GOAT.
