Beneath the silly She-Hulk gags, trippy world-building, and zippy cameos lies a heartfelt question: what if you dared to be tall?
For Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany), this question literally comes as she is gifted with the powers of a Hulk. Being a Hulk – like his cousin, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and his alter ego – means having super strength, near-invulnerability, and heightened athletic prowess, among other powers. But these gifts come at a price. On several Marvel movies, starting with Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015, we saw Bruce struggle with lack of control, loneliness, and his fear of hurting others. That’s all without mentioning the duty and burden of using one’s abilities to protect and save the defenseless.
Jennifer also struggles with existential questions about what it means to be great, but they affect her differently than her cousin, for an obvious reason.
The fictional MCU Earth unfortunately looks a lot like the real world. Women are asked to shrink to fit their surroundings. Jen had a life where she was told to stay away, to be anyone but herself.
Within these limits, she has carved out a pretty good life for herself. She is happy. She is comfortable. Becoming the She-Hulk threatens all of that, and not just because she becomes a lime-skinned monster of wrath. Her superpowers also instill in her a sense of defiance; they allow Jen to circumvent the rules imposed on her. Her powers offer Jen a tantalizing prospect: that she could create a better life than society has given her. It’s its own kind of scary, especially for someone who’s learned to live a small life.
As she finds out, it’s not easy to choose to be great. It may even require courage.
She-Hulk isn’t about girlbossing, gaslighting, and Guardian superheroics
I guess you could call She-Hulk: Lawyer a “legal proceeding” in the same way you might call Captain America: The Winter Soldier a “political thriller”. It involves a lot of generosity.
In the first four episodes the reviews have been given, there are storylines where Jen has to figure out the legal ramifications of parole for supervillains or how to issue a cease and desist to unlicensed magic users. These cases raise perplexing philosophical questions. For example, what does the MCU have to say about prison reform and rehabilitation? Or how does the law – in which power is mostly abstract – hold actual users of magic accountable? It’s funny conceit, but the legal cases give texture to the MCU and offer insight into the effects superheroes have on civilian life.
Unfortunately, the series never gets that far into how cases are won or, so far, how one can navigate the complicated intersection between the nuanced duties of lawyers and the simpler ones of superheroes. . The good guys are good. The wicked are wicked. The wicked who are reformed are good now. Most of the time, Jen’s side is the only one.
She-Hulk: Lawyer largely works, however, because it’s not really a legal proceeding – it’s more of a comedic origin story. It all depends on Maslany’s airy and charismatic portrayal of Jen. She grounds the character with mountains of approachable appeal, like someone who wouldn’t mind eating a bagel in front of you. His performance cuts through this much-criticized CGI.
Initially, Jen is content with her circumscribed life. She’s a single lawyer with a loving but boring family. Her paralegal (Ginger Gonzaga) is her best friend. She is proud of her work in the district attorney’s office. Jen doesn’t live big, but things could be much worse.
The character’s big goals in life are to date more and have a great job. It is relevant and practical. She probably has a five-year plan. If anyone were to dismiss the idea of an endless, ever-expanding multiverse, Jen would say she wants to live in the timeline where she hasn’t racked up student loans in law school. If given the choice to live the life of a superhero, she would ask if he offered health care (the Avengers don’t).
But she has no choice. Thanks to a freak accident in which she absorbs some of her cousin’s gamma-radiated blood, Jen gains super strength, invulnerability, and broccoli-colored skin. Unlike Bruce, however, she is able to control him. As she explains, living as a woman is already about controlling your anger and emotions; she’s well trained not to come across as too mean, too angry, too much. Switching between his Hulk form and his regular civilian form is easy. That it’s so difficult for Bruce reflexively shows that men aren’t held to the same standards.
Superpowers as a symbol of women’s liberation – and how this empowerment threatens the status quo – is not new. It’s as old as the goddesses depicted in ancient legends or accusations of witchcraft through the centuries. Plus, allegory is present in so many Marvel and DC comics. The show takes up this tradition and is inspired by it. An ongoing storyline revolves around She-Hulk’s impenetrable – that is, thick – skin!
So far, Marvel’s cinematic track record with its female superheroes has been, well, a mixed bag. It took over a decade and 20 movies before the studio made its first female superhero movie in 2019. Captain Marvel. In 2021, Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) got her first movie (a prequel), and that same year Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) got her own series in Wanda Vision. Both were eventually killed – Wanda in Multiverse of Madness and Natasha in End of Game. The model of raising a superheroine to a high level and then having her die by self-sacrifice isn’t exactly a good fit.
Marvel TV deals like Hawk Eye and Ms. Marvel are more promising. They not only allowed its titular heroines to live on, but actually laid a solid foundation for their future. She-Hulk joins Hawkeye’s Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) and Ms. Marvel’s Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) as Marvel’s second generation of female superheroes.
But Marvel still has the sea legs when it comes to on-screen feminism. There are more than a few instances in which, say, Jen has a line about mansplaining or a character jokes about chat calls. These moments seem to exist only because the writers see them as easy signals to the public – flashing neon signs that signal this behavior as sexist. I wonder who it is for. I may be naive, but I hope someone tunes in She-Hulk and wanting to take advantage of it would know that calling a woman on the street is not good behavior.
I guess I’m also deeply cynical in that I don’t think a joke about She-Hulk: Lawyer is the thing that will keep someone from participating in flamboyant misogyny. We’ll see how far Marvel wants to go in examining the sexist world She-Hulk push against.
In She-Hulksuperpowers help her hero find out who she is
What the series does particularly well is deal with Jen’s identity crisis with her newfound abilities. This struggle lands more successfully than the more obvious nods to gender inequality; it includes shrewd observations about how women move around the world.
Being big and strong allows Jen access to a world she was never allowed to be a part of. Ordinary people can’t beat demons, strangle muggers, or save lives, but as She-Hulk, Jen can do all of those things. She wields literal physical power and experiences joy in doing so. Even some of the things that bother her in civilian life — dating, jerking off at work, family life — can be alleviated by punching a henchman.
Her Hulk form also seems to bring her closer to who she really is, and that’s something to be excited about.
Transforming into the Hulk allows Jen to tap into the primal joy of not only being strong, but also being aggressive, loud, flashy, proud, arrogant – things she hadn’t allowed herself to be before. These qualities allow her to thrive in her new job as a superhero lawyer, get multiple matches on dating apps, and become famous. As She-Hulk, she has an extremely hot one-night stand! Good for She-Hulk for being the first MCU superhero to use her powers for excitement.
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Indulging in it feels natural to Jen, so natural that she begins to wonder if She-Hulk is really who she was always meant to be. If society hadn’t taught him to shrink, would it be his life? At the same time, what if she likes the parts of her that aren’t She-Hulk?
Jen grappling with her sense of self and sorting out which parts are the ‘real’ she isn’t tidy.
Being Hulk doesn’t affect his intelligence or work ethic, but it did get him a better job (and better healthcare). But her newfound success shines a light on how Jen has been continually overlooked and learned to undermine herself. Her newfound powers made it clear how unfairly she was treated, and now she has the ability to do something about it.
So why would she want to go back to her old life? And a hero, if he really was a good to the bone hero, wouldn’t he want to change the way this world works?
It seems clear that the series wants us to understand that power is not only a great responsibility, it is also a great privilege. There is a distinction there. One is to acknowledge what you owe others; the other is to recognize what we owe ourselves. And the joy of She-Hulk is that Jen, I think, sees both.
She-Hulk: Lawyer premieres August 18 on Disney+.
Beneath the silly She-Hulk gags, trippy world-building, and zippy cameos lies a heartfelt question: what if you dared to be tall?
For Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany), this question literally comes as she is gifted with the powers of a Hulk. Being a Hulk – like his cousin, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and his alter ego – means having super strength, near-invulnerability, and heightened athletic prowess, among other powers. But these gifts come at a price. On several Marvel movies, starting with Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015, we saw Bruce struggle with lack of control, loneliness, and his fear of hurting others. That’s all without mentioning the duty and burden of using one’s abilities to protect and save the defenseless.
Jennifer also struggles with existential questions about what it means to be great, but they affect her differently than her cousin, for an obvious reason.
The fictional MCU Earth unfortunately looks a lot like the real world. Women are asked to shrink to fit their surroundings. Jen had a life where she was told to stay away, to be anyone but herself.
Within these limits, she has carved out a pretty good life for herself. She is happy. She is comfortable. Becoming the She-Hulk threatens all of that, and not just because she becomes a lime-skinned monster of wrath. Her superpowers also instill in her a sense of defiance; they allow Jen to circumvent the rules imposed on her. Her powers offer Jen a tantalizing prospect: that she could create a better life than society has given her. It’s its own kind of scary, especially for someone who’s learned to live a small life.
As she finds out, it’s not easy to choose to be great. It may even require courage.
She-Hulk isn’t about girlbossing, gaslighting, and Guardian superheroics
I guess you could call She-Hulk: Lawyer a “legal proceeding” in the same way you might call Captain America: The Winter Soldier a “political thriller”. It involves a lot of generosity.
In the first four episodes the reviews have been given, there are storylines where Jen has to figure out the legal ramifications of parole for supervillains or how to issue a cease and desist to unlicensed magic users. These cases raise perplexing philosophical questions. For example, what does the MCU have to say about prison reform and rehabilitation? Or how does the law – in which power is mostly abstract – hold actual users of magic accountable? It’s funny conceit, but the legal cases give texture to the MCU and offer insight into the effects superheroes have on civilian life.
Unfortunately, the series never gets that far into how cases are won or, so far, how one can navigate the complicated intersection between the nuanced duties of lawyers and the simpler ones of superheroes. . The good guys are good. The wicked are wicked. The wicked who are reformed are good now. Most of the time, Jen’s side is the only one.
She-Hulk: Lawyer largely works, however, because it’s not really a legal proceeding – it’s more of a comedic origin story. It all depends on Maslany’s airy and charismatic portrayal of Jen. She grounds the character with mountains of approachable appeal, like someone who wouldn’t mind eating a bagel in front of you. His performance cuts through this much-criticized CGI.
Initially, Jen is content with her circumscribed life. She’s a single lawyer with a loving but boring family. Her paralegal (Ginger Gonzaga) is her best friend. She is proud of her work in the district attorney’s office. Jen doesn’t live big, but things could be much worse.
The character’s big goals in life are to date more and have a great job. It is relevant and practical. She probably has a five-year plan. If anyone were to dismiss the idea of an endless, ever-expanding multiverse, Jen would say she wants to live in the timeline where she hasn’t racked up student loans in law school. If given the choice to live the life of a superhero, she would ask if he offered health care (the Avengers don’t).
But she has no choice. Thanks to a freak accident in which she absorbs some of her cousin’s gamma-radiated blood, Jen gains super strength, invulnerability, and broccoli-colored skin. Unlike Bruce, however, she is able to control him. As she explains, living as a woman is already about controlling your anger and emotions; she’s well trained not to come across as too mean, too angry, too much. Switching between his Hulk form and his regular civilian form is easy. That it’s so difficult for Bruce reflexively shows that men aren’t held to the same standards.
Superpowers as a symbol of women’s liberation – and how this empowerment threatens the status quo – is not new. It’s as old as the goddesses depicted in ancient legends or accusations of witchcraft through the centuries. Plus, allegory is present in so many Marvel and DC comics. The show takes up this tradition and is inspired by it. An ongoing storyline revolves around She-Hulk’s impenetrable – that is, thick – skin!
So far, Marvel’s cinematic track record with its female superheroes has been, well, a mixed bag. It took over a decade and 20 movies before the studio made its first female superhero movie in 2019. Captain Marvel. In 2021, Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) got her first movie (a prequel), and that same year Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) got her own series in Wanda Vision. Both were eventually killed – Wanda in Multiverse of Madness and Natasha in End of Game. The model of raising a superheroine to a high level and then having her die by self-sacrifice isn’t exactly a good fit.
Marvel TV deals like Hawk Eye and Ms. Marvel are more promising. They not only allowed its titular heroines to live on, but actually laid a solid foundation for their future. She-Hulk joins Hawkeye’s Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) and Ms. Marvel’s Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) as Marvel’s second generation of female superheroes.
But Marvel still has the sea legs when it comes to on-screen feminism. There are more than a few instances in which, say, Jen has a line about mansplaining or a character jokes about chat calls. These moments seem to exist only because the writers see them as easy signals to the public – flashing neon signs that signal this behavior as sexist. I wonder who it is for. I may be naive, but I hope someone tunes in She-Hulk and wanting to take advantage of it would know that calling a woman on the street is not good behavior.
I guess I’m also deeply cynical in that I don’t think a joke about She-Hulk: Lawyer is the thing that will keep someone from participating in flamboyant misogyny. We’ll see how far Marvel wants to go in examining the sexist world She-Hulk push against.
In She-Hulksuperpowers help her hero find out who she is
What the series does particularly well is deal with Jen’s identity crisis with her newfound abilities. This struggle lands more successfully than the more obvious nods to gender inequality; it includes shrewd observations about how women move around the world.
Being big and strong allows Jen access to a world she was never allowed to be a part of. Ordinary people can’t beat demons, strangle muggers, or save lives, but as She-Hulk, Jen can do all of those things. She wields literal physical power and experiences joy in doing so. Even some of the things that bother her in civilian life — dating, jerking off at work, family life — can be alleviated by punching a henchman.
Her Hulk form also seems to bring her closer to who she really is, and that’s something to be excited about.
Transforming into the Hulk allows Jen to tap into the primal joy of not only being strong, but also being aggressive, loud, flashy, proud, arrogant – things she hadn’t allowed herself to be before. These qualities allow her to thrive in her new job as a superhero lawyer, get multiple matches on dating apps, and become famous. As She-Hulk, she has an extremely hot one-night stand! Good for She-Hulk for being the first MCU superhero to use her powers for excitement.
Indulging in it feels natural to Jen, so natural that she begins to wonder if She-Hulk is really who she was always meant to be. If society hadn’t taught him to shrink, would it be his life? At the same time, what if she likes the parts of her that aren’t She-Hulk?
Jen grappling with her sense of self and sorting out which parts are the ‘real’ she isn’t tidy.
Being Hulk doesn’t affect his intelligence or work ethic, but it did get him a better job (and better healthcare). But her newfound success shines a light on how Jen has been continually overlooked and learned to undermine herself. Her newfound powers made it clear how unfairly she was treated, and now she has the ability to do something about it.
So why would she want to go back to her old life? And a hero, if he really was a good to the bone hero, wouldn’t he want to change the way this world works?
It seems clear that the series wants us to understand that power is not only a great responsibility, it is also a great privilege. There is a distinction there. One is to acknowledge what you owe others; the other is to recognize what we owe ourselves. And the joy of She-Hulk is that Jen, I think, sees both.
She-Hulk: Lawyer premieres August 18 on Disney+.
