MvDC MVFBB - She-Hulk vs. Giganta

Talented text and Marvelous music by the Avant-garde Aron Orson
Impressive inks and Captivating colors by the Magnificent MuscleGirlsArt

Backstage… 

J-Walters [in thought]: Well, this is certainly something I haven’t done in my entire publishing history. I’m surprised none of the creators who penned my adventures ever considered putting me in a bodybuilding contest—too obvious, maybe? Well, leave it to a couple of lonely undergrads living with their parents to fill that void. 

*Just for clarity’s sake, we are not lonely undergrads.—The magnificent MuscleGirlsArt and accountable Aron Orson.

J-Walters [smugly looking our way briefly]: “EXACTLY what two lonely undergrads would say! Also, didn’t hear a denial of that second part…”

Jen, cut it out—yours and Giganta’s bit is about to start.—Aforementioned Aron Orson.

J-Walters [chuckling as Titania goes on]: “Heh—you do you, Mary. Good luck out there…”

D-Zeul [approaching]: “I thought you two were bitter rivals. From what she told me, at least.”

J-Walters [turning to look up a bit at Giganta]: “Emphasis on were—we’ve reached something of a compromise lately. Haven’t buried the hatchet fully yet, but for now, you could call us semi-frenemies. Meeting every now and then just to blow off a little steam with some brawling does that.”

D-Zeul: “Interesting—I think I know the feeling, in a way, considering how Wonder Woman and I are nowadays.”

J-Walters [realization on her face]: “Oh, yeah, Diana told me about you—Giganta, right?”

D-Zeul [nodding]: “Right—though I do try to have a life outside the animal print and the towering stature. I’m Dr. Doris Zeul, professionally.”

J-Walters: “Jennifer Walters, attorney-at-law.”

D-Zeul [smirk on her face]: “Ah—an ambulance-chaser with a super side. I’ve gone up against your type before—next time you chat with the Amazon princess, ask her about Manhunter. Seems like you two would get along swimmingly.”

J-Walters: “I might just do that.” [Looks Giganta over briefly.] “This might sound weird coming from me, but how big can you get?”

D-Zeul: “At my best? I can go up to about several hundred feet. Though currently, I can’t seem to grow any taller than the ceiling of this place—whatever kind of dampener our ‘hosts’ have set up is inhibiting a good portion of my power, by my estimate. Power Girl seems to think it’s one of the things keeping us ‘contestants’ all in line.”

J-Walters: “Probably the same reason I can’t muster up enough anger to boost my own powers.”

D-Zeul [quizzical]: “Anger?”

J-Walters: “Like my cousin, the madder I get, the stronger I get, but thanks to the non-aggression wave they’re broadcasting—as PG’s guessing—I can’t even get ticked off at our current circumstances. On the plus side, it’s probably allowed me to have the most civil conversation with Titania in a long time.”

D-Zeul: “I know how you feel—being here’s left me and Diana able to talk with one another more casually than we usually do.”

J-Walters: “How did you end up in her rogues gallery, anyway?”

D-Zeul [gives a bit of an eyeroll]: “It’s a very, very strange story.”

J-Walters [smirking]: “Try me—I’ve been written by John Byrne, and he’s put me through a lot of weird stuff.”

D-Zeul [confused]: “Say-what-now?”

J-Walters [in thought, at first]: “Right, not everyone here knows the Fourth Wall. Nothing, forget it, go on.”

D-Zeul [briefly shrugs]: “All right. You can probably already guess, but I didn’t always look like this. I was born having inherited a rare blood disease that would turn fatal when I got older. I got bullied a lot as a kid because someone would find out or what have you. I became determined to study biology and medicine so I could hopefully discover a cure, but always ran into dead ends in my research. One day, a comatose Wonder Woman was brought to the experimental medical facility I was working at. It soon dawned on me that, instead of wasting what time I had left trying in vain to find a cure, I could simply use a device I’d come up with to transfer my mind, my very essence, into the Amazon’s perfect body.”

J-Walter: “Woof--sounds a lot like something I once went through, when some crazy weird scientists called the Headmen tried to graft the head of one of their own—the ironically-named ‘Chondu the Mystic’—onto a clone of my body.”

D-Zeul: “Think that’s bad, ask me about a creep from my world named the Ultra-Humanite. (Now that guy was obsessed with brain transplants…) Anyway, with my assistant Branson’s help, we had the whole experiment underway, but before it was even halfway through, Diana’s sidekick, Wonder Girl, interrupted everything. As a result, my original body was declared dead. But it wasn’t the end of me; Branson discovered that my essence had been unexpectedly stored in the apparatus’ buffer module, and after managing to get it back up and running, she was able to transfer me into one of the lab’s test animals: a gorilla named ‘Giganta’.”

J-Walters [briefly looking our way]: “What is it with DC and gorillas…?”

D-Zeul: “Now, I very well couldn’t live the rest of my life as an animal, so we started looking around for ways to make me human again—and we couldn’t use the device anymore, since putting me in Giganta burned the last of its, unfortunately, irreplaceable components out. Eventually, our paths crossed with two certain people: a foe of the Flash named Gorilla Grodd, who’s from a hidden city of intelligent apes; and the sorceress Circe—the purple-head over there.” [Points to Circe across the room.] “We made a simple deal with them—they restore my humanity, I help Circe take on Wonder Woman, as part of a group she’d put together called ‘Villainy, Inc.’. To that end, Circe and Grodd were able to combine magic and science to hyper-evolve my gorilla body into the brick house beauty you see here now. Where Circe’s magic came in was how I ended up with my size-changing powers—for a while, the only drawback was that the bigger I grew, the more my intellect would decrease, but thanks to Grodd helping me stabilize my powers, I no longer have that flaw. Of course, I still had my bit of servitude to get out of the way, so I oscillated between Villainy, Inc. and Grodd’s version of the ‘Secret Society of Supervillains’. For a while, I was fine with it, since it let me get back at Wonder Woman for initially denying me my chance at a cure.”

J-Walters [whistles in awe]: “Well, that’s certainly one way of hitting it big…no pun intended.”

D-Zeul: “And it’s all the truth—don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, especially if it’s someone from my world named Doctor Psycho.” [Grimaces at her own mention of his name.] “That misogynistic little troll, for some time, spread a rumor of his own making that I started out as a gorilla that he hyper-evolved himself; he also concocted one where I supposedly kidnapped a comatose redhead circus strongwoman named Olga and transferred myself into her body, which already had size-changing abilities. And then there was the one he crafted about me being a hiker who stole some magic powder from a Native American tribe to get my powers. (Even worse was when he outright lied that he and I used to be married…) Say, would any of those fall under ‘slander’ and/or ‘libel’?”

J-Walters: “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

D-Zeul: “I’d appreciate it—anything to get that pint-sized asshole off my back…”

J-Walters: “Have you tried getting out of the ‘life’ at all?”

D-Zeul: “Still am—since I no longer had to fear my own mortality, I made a return to academia, even got a position on the staff at Ivy Town University. It’s also where I met my current boyfriend, who was a big help on his end.”

J-Walters: “What’s he like?”

D-Zeul: “Well, for one, he’s the Atom—the third one, if you must know.”

J-Walters: “Heard the name—think I met his predecessor during the whole business with Krona and the Grandmaster some time ago*.”  

*See the events of 2003’s JLA/Avengers—Archival Aron Orson. 

D-Zeul: “Unfortunately, for a while he wound up presumed dead—I ended up falling in with the ‘wrong crowd’ again in my grief, but it did give me the opportunity to meet and…deal with his killer. (Don’t ask.)”

J-Walters [warily]: “Sure thing.” [Looks briefly towards Power Girl.] “You know, your comment about Ultra-Humanite reminded me—PG told me how, after somehow helping get the guy into a cloned, healthy version of his original body, she gave him a job at her firm StarrWare as a scientist. For a while, it seemed like it took, but later she learned that he hadn’t abandoned his more treacherous tendencies altogether and was pretty much back to running around as an albino gorilla. The way I see it, where she ultimately failed with him, she might better succeed with you.”

D-Zeul [surprised]: “You really think so?”

J-Walters [nodding]: “Why not? If I can mend fences with Titania via ‘fight club’, you can work for a firm striving to help the planet rather than running with supervillains trying to take over or destroy it. I’ll talk to PG, try to sell her on the idea.”

D-Zeul [a smile slightly growing]: “…You know, you’re not bad at all, Ms. Walters. Diana would’ve probably done the same thing for me.”

J-Walters: “I’ll bet.” [Looks around at PG and the other contestants.] “Speaking of PG, she wanted to know—think we can rely on that big brain of yours when we decide to make our move?”

D-Zeul [cracking her knuckles]: “You bet your green buns you can.”

J-Walters: “Good to know.” [Hears the roar of the crowd.] “Guess we’re up next.”

D-Zeul: “Sounds like it. Don’t worry, I know to play along for now—so I’ll make sure to give that audience plenty to see of me.”

J-Walters: “You and me both…”

Main stage…  

Promoter: "And now, ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for our first hero-versus-villain pairing of contestants! First, from Multiverse-A, she’s arguably one of the biggest names in the supervillain game, and I’m talking literally biggest! And it’s not just in terms of her body, as she’s also quite the big brain when it comes to human biology and medicine! Whether as part of Villainy Inc., the Legion of Doom, or the Secret Society of Super-Villains, this woman always leaves a big impression on those she meets! So please, put your hands together now for the sometimes fifty-foot-tall femme fatale: GIGANTA!"

[Needle-drop: “Big Time” by Peter Gabriel.]

Promoter: "Giganta, everyone! Now we meet her heroic opponent from Multiverse-B…The cousin of the legendary Incredible Hulk, a blood transfusion from him turned this highly lauded defense attorney into a powerful, verdant-hued ‘gammazon’ of a woman who’s just as formidable in battle both on the streets and in the courtroom! So, baddies beware—as a superhero, she can just smash you, but as a lawyer, she can destroy you! And like her cousin, careful not to get her angry—you wouldn’t like her when she’s angry…For now, give a big hand to the one, the only, the sensational—SHE-HULK!"

[Needle-drop: “New Attitude” by Patti LaBelle.]