‘She-Hulk’ Struggles to Find its Identity

If you were to distill the MCU’s Phase 4 down to one theme, it’d be identity. So much of this post-Endgame reality is about old characters grappling with loss in the wake of a massive tragedy or new faces figuring out how to define themselves as they set out on a new path. So much of the MCU’s Disney+ output—WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Hawkeye, and Ms. Marvel—fall into the latter half. The latest series, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, follows suit, although its approach to accomplishing this Phase 4 goal is meant to carve out an inherently unique identity for itself as a 30-minute legal comedy in the style of Ally McBeal.

Created by Jessica Gao (the writer behind another famous green character: the “Pickle Rick” episode of Rick and Morty), She-Hulk sticks to the origins of her comic book counterpart. While traveling with her cousin, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) gets into a car accident. In the resulting chaos, the two end up injured, and as Jen drags Bruce away from the wreckage, blood from Bruce’s wounds intermeshes with Jen’s open cuts. The resulting transfusion causes Jen to hulk out—but before she can cause any significant damage, Bruce snags her and begins to mentor her accordingly.

The training is for naught; when you’re catcalled on the street or spoken down to at a meeting by a demeaning man, you learn to effectively regulate your anger. Jen thusly returns to Los Angeles to continue her legal career, but her life is only so normal when she’s a Hulk. Before long, she’s heading up a superhero law division at a glitzy firm—but not as Jennifer Walters. Instead, the firm wants the newly named “She-Hulk” to be the literal face of the practice.