A Superfans review: She-Hulk Episode 1 and 2

Step aside, Bruce Banner, there’s a new Hulk in the MCU and she’s SUPER awesome!

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, the latest Marvel offering, debuted on its partner channel Disney + on Thursday 18 August 2022 and it’s already receiving smashing reviews. Starring Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters aka the She-Hulk, The Good Place’s Jameela Jamil as super villain Titania , Champion‘s Ginger Gonzaga as Jennifer’s best friend and paralegal Nikki. The show has a very special Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) guest star: Mark Ruffalo, as the Hulk!

Recap:

Jennifer becomes a Hulk after an unfortunate car accident with post-Avengers:Endgame Bruce in his human form. His gamma radiation infused blood drips into her open wound and BOOM! She-Hulk is born. Most of episode 1 is focused on Smart Hulk teaching Jennifer to accept her new powers and conveniently filling in some details of the missing five years after Thanos blipped half of the population out of existence.

Turns out the late Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) did have a heart and loved his Science Bro after all because he built a kickass secret lab and bar in Mexico for our green giant. This scene cut me deep:

Jennifer doesn’t need her big cousin’s help – as it turns out, she’s better at this whole Hulk thing than he is or ever was. Unlike the constant Banner/Hulk body control conflict that dominated most of Hulk (2003), The Incredible Hulk (2008), Avengers (2012), Avengers: The Age of Ultron (2015), Thor:Ragnarok (2017) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Jennifer remains herself when she transforms into She-Hulk.

While Bruce tries to encourage Jennifer to become a superhero, our heroine is more interested in squaring her inner Hulk away and returning to her life as an attorney at law. This doesn’t last long of course, as first she needs to rescue a jury from her new enemy Titania AND then represent Bruce’s old foe Emil Blonsky aka the Abomination (a worthy return by Tim Roth as his 2008 character).

Jennifer is hired by the law firm Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway (GLK&H) to head up their new Superhuman division. Here, our heroine needs to juggle being hired literally for her Hulk looks and the desire to prove she is a damn fine lawyer. We’re in for a wild ride and a fight for justice!

Impressions:

As is the case with Hawkeye, She-Hulk has gotten the Mouse treatment i.e. wacky humour, OTT villains, breaking the fourth wall (I feel like Deadpool is going to have some wisecrack remark about this!) and an overall extremely family-friendly feel.

Ok, maybe not TOTALLY family-friendly, as the recent unnecessary but funny discussion about the fallen Captain America/Steven Rogers’s virginity, proves:

I’ve often discussed this with Tendai – I, as was the rest of the MCU fandom, was worried when Disney bought FOX, and shut down the Netflix Marvel shows, thinking they would destroy the memory of all of that content in favour of their own. As with Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness, Kevin Feige and his team have pleasantly surprised me with how they are bringing all of the universes and actors together as one.

There are several scenes where Ruffalo references events that happened to Edward Norton’s Hulk as either confusing things that happened to him or cheekily says things like “I was literally a different man back then”. LOL.

I respect the fact that the showrunners don’t want a Multiverse of Hulks like the Spidermen in Spiderman: No Way Home and are rather making everything that happened to Norton and Eric Bana’s Hulks canon for Ruffalo’s Big Guy.

With guest appearances from the Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong) and our returning Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, Daredevil (welcome back Charlie Cox!), She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, is calling in ALL of the big guns.

She-Hulk goes hard on the “anything men can do, women can do better” stance. I am all for super girl power, especially in a franchise that has given their female characters the “fridging treatment” all too often but there is also something as too much of a good thing. We, the audience, do not need to you to Hulk Smash us over the head with feminism, Marvel. We get it. Girls rule. We always have.

Let’s hope that this is just a teething issue for the first two episodes and that the more Jennifer and her actress hit their stride, the better the show will be for it.

Jennifer’s new job is going to be an interesting way to bring the long-forgotten Sokovia Accords, which drove the Avengers apart in Captain America: Civil War, back into the MCU. With Daredevil’s day job as a lawyer, this will no doubt be how our two heroes meet too.

Theory:

Abomination’s escape from prison, after Blonsky swore to She-Hulk that he was a reformed man, is going to cause boulder- sized headaches for our titular hero all season long. Bruce is seen flying off into space which I am assuming means he is returning to Sakaar, the planet where he was reunited with Thor in Ragnarok. He is likely looking for answers to how he was able to turn Jennifer into a Hulk.

MVP:

Jennifer’s dad Morris (Mark Linn-Baker) is an absolutely legend. My favourite line: “It’s not even the first time we’ve had to deal with a Hulk in the family!”.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law airs every Thursday on Disney +.