Mariko Tamaki opens up a different story in the Hulk universe

Writer Mariko Tamaki admits that she's just "one gear in the large mechanism that is Marvel," but her work on the latest female superhero, Hulk, is signaling a profound sea change in the comic book universe.  

Hulk follows the story of Jennifer Walters, Bruce Banner's cousin who follows in Bruce's footsteps when a blood transfusion turns her green. Much like Yona Harvey's work on World of Wakanda, Wolverine's clone-daughter X-23 and Jane Foster as Thor the Goddess of Thunder, Tamaki's work is helping push comic book characters into new territory, away from its male-centric history.

"I do think that there is the idea that those characters could be male or female, it just makes sense to me," Tamaki says, as a response to the recent updates. "A lot of superhero-ness is passing on a torch so why wouldn't you pass on your super suit to a woman instead of a man?

"At the heart of every super hero is a person of some kind [...] they could be from anywhere and they could be from a lot of different family experiences. That can only enhance a series."