“She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” is rated TV-14.
Becoming a superhero may be the dream of some people, but Jennifer Walters wanted anything but that — even though she’s the cousin of Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk. All she wanted was to be a successful lawyer and she worked hard to get there.
But everything went sideways when Jennifer stumbled upon the same powers as her dear cousin. Will she embrace the “She-Hulk” within her?
Be warned! Spoilers ahead.
Directed by Kat Coiro and Anu Valia, with Jessica Gao as its head writer, the latest MCU series “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” is set to premiere on Disney+ on Aug. 18, with new episodes out every Thursday.
The nine-episode series is based on the comics from the 1980s, created by Stan Lee and John Buscema. On the printed page, Jennifer was forced to receive a blood transfusion from her cousin in order to live. Bruce’s “gamma-radiated” blood reacts well with Jennifer’s genetics, giving her the ability to transform into a bigger, more muscular and green version of herself, according to Distractify.
In the show, Smart Hulk (Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo) and Jennifer (Tatiana Maslany, “Orphan Black”) get into a car accident when a spaceship appears right in front of them. As Jennifer tries to help Hulk out of the car, his blood splatters over her own wounds, infusing the “gamma-radiated” blood.
That’s pretty close to the storyline in the comics.
Also the same in both the comics and the show is Jennifer’s ability to control her transformations while retaining her personality, unlike her cousin Bruce. This allows Jennifer to live a “normal” life while holding superhero powers.
“Bruce and Jennifer’s dynamic is honestly one of my favorite parts of the series because he comes into it having gone through this very personal journey, and he has a predisposed idea that her experience is going to be exactly the same as his and that he has a lot to teach her,” Coiro told Entertainment Weekly, adding that “it becomes clear that her experience is going to be very different, both physically, literally, and mentally because of how they have operated differently in the world as men and women.”
At first glance, She-Hulk — a 6-foot-7-inch superhero — looks less muscular than Smart Hulk, but when they begin training together, she matches his abilities.
“It was really important for us that she still operated on a human scale. It was never about, ‘Make her smaller, it was about, ‘How can she fit into the world and work in an office and go to a restaurant and walk down the street and still draw attention but still be within the realm of being a human?’ said Coiro, addressing criticism that the show didn’t want to make her “too muscular.”
“We studied musculature and we studied women athletes who were incredibly strong. We really leaned towards Olympians rather than bodybuilders,” the director added.