She-Hulk: Attorney at Law feels almost too meta to exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and this is discounting all the fourth-wall breaking that its protagonist does. Throughout the second episode, now streaming on Disney+Hotstar, the show uses Jennifer Walters’ superpowers as a euphemism for her gender, and the resultant social ostracisation in both cases feels eerily similar.
The character never wallows in this, and the show actually finds a much more quippy tone as the episode progresses. If the pilot propelled the character forward, this one establishes the world. Walters (played by Tatiana Maslany) struggles to deal with her increased fame and decreased employability after revealing her superhuman side, and for once we feel like the side characters are just real people.
Most men around her nurse a fractured masculinity and Walters’ biggest fear is that her new job will be attributed to her genetics rather than talent. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law does a great job of not just depicting how suffocating male-dominated workplaces can be for women, but also the matter-of-fact attitude they carry to deal with it. A particularly savage punch pertains to Walters’ superhero name, as she remarks how her very identity is a derivative of the Hulk. Given Bruce Banner’s negligible screen time in this one, it’s evident that the show won’t do the same.
It also sets up what we think will be the central conflict going forward. We have the long awaited return of Tim Roth’s Abomination, who has a hilarious rebranding as a spiritual polyamourous gold digger seeking parole (read that sentence again). After being rejected from every law firm in the city, the only job left for Walters is to represent her cousin’s ex-villain and become the poster girl for superhero law. We can’t wait to see how these arcs are handled.
And yet, it is the smaller aspects that make She-Hulk: Attorney at Law such a fun watch, like how Walters’ lockscreen is the buttock of Captain America (as Tony Stark said, it is America’s A**). The showrunners deserve credit for giving She-Hulk an episodic arc, exploring some of Marvel’s more grounded conflicts surrounding the impracticality of vigilantism (what happens to Hawkeye’s arrows after he shoots them?).
This is a rare Marvel outing that isn’t about spectacle or action, as we get to see genuine character moments like Walters using her super strength to carry water canisters for her dad (while an insecure male relative says that he could do it too). This definitely wouldn’t have been possible if the character was given a two-hour movie that had to double up as an origin story.
