In every installment of “If I Pass This Way Again,” we look at odd comic book plot points that were rarely (sometimes NEVER!) mentioned again after they were first introduced.

Today, we look at a rather novel idea that Roger Stern and John Byrne came up with that never actually came into play really, which is the idea that She-Hulk would be one of the (if not THE) first superheroes to be on two separate teams simultaneously. Now, this was back in the 1980s, long before Wolverine made a whole artform out of being on a whole bunch of teams at once (Wolverine was literally on at least four different teams at once circa 2010, possibly even FIVE, as he was on the regular Avengers, the New Avengers and then a few different X-Men teams. Earlier, when he was only on the New Avengers, he was also on X-Force plus a few X-Men teams. I don't know if it ever got more than four at once, though).

She-Hulk joined the Avengers in Avengers #221 (by Jim Shooter, David Michelinie, Bob Hall and Brett Breeding), which had the following iconic Ed Hannigan cover...

The Avengers were down to just four members after Yellowjacket was kicked off of the team and Tigra then resigned, so they went about recruiting new members and the Wasp specifically tried to get a new female member for the team by hosting a number of female heroes to recruit them. In the end, Hawkeye returned to the team and She-Hulk joined up. However, the two new members had an awkward first meeting...

So anyhow, She-Hulk then served with the team with distinction for the next two years, until in Avengers #242 (by Roger Stern, Al Milgrom, Joe Rubinstein and Brett Breeding), the Avengers are called to a mysterious ring in Central Park. Most of the Avengers, She-Hulk included, enter the ring...and vanish!!

As it turned out, they ended up on a whole other world, a Battleworld created by the Beyonder just to watch superheroes fight supervillains in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1 (by Jim Shooter, Mike Zeck and John Beatty)...

While on the world, the Thing (of the Fantastic Four) discovered that he could change between his Ben Grimm human form and his Thing form whenever he wanted to. He decided that he wanted to stay on the world for a while, to enjoy this new status quo. The She-Hulk agreed to take his place on the Fantastic Four (as John Byrne noted - it's all about the illusion of change. The Fantastic Four lost a super strong member and gained a super strong member)...

She-Hulk then heads over to the Avengers Mansion to check in with the Avengers and the new chairman of the team, the Vision, offers her an intriguing new position - she can be a "detached" member of the Avengers. She's still a member of the team and not a reservist, but she will only be treated as an active member whenever she was available to help out...

Thus, she was now the first hero to be a member of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four simultaneously!

However, did this new arrangement actually WORK?

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The first time it was implemented was three issues later, in Avengers #246 (by Roger Stern, Al Milgrom and Joe Sinnott), which She-Hulk appears with the rest of the team in the corner box...

However, she just happens to be at a party thrown by the Eternal known as Sersis when Starfox and Wasp are both attendees, as well...

And when some bad guys attack, naturally she is going to help out...

She is not in the next issue, but appears on the corner box still...

That doesn't really seem like an actual use of the new set-up, does it? She just happened to be at a party.

Three issues later (in Avengers #249 by Roger Stern, Al Milgrom and Joe Sinnott), she joins the Avengers in helping stop an invasion of Midgard, but she does so along with the rest of the Fantastic Four...

So that doesn't really count, does it?

In Avengers Annual #13 (by Roger Stern, Steve Dikto and John Byrne), she escorts Reed Richards to a meeting of scientists who are meant to examine Bruce Banner's work to see if any of it could be used for good (or to make sure it is not used for evil)...

That doesn't really count, right?

Finally, she meets the Avengers in Avengers Annual #14 (by Roger Stern, John Byrne and Kyle Baker), which I wrote about recently here, but that's just a standard Avengers/Fantastic Four team-up...

Then, she left the Fantastic Four and re-joined the Avengers in Avengers #278 (by Roger Stern, John Buscema and Tom Palmer)...

Therefore, while it was certainly a novel idea, it didn't really seem to actually HAPPEN ever.

Okay, that's it for this installment! If someone else has a suggestion for an interesting plot point that was introduced and then almost instantaneously ignored, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!