She-Hulk: Attorney at Law review: a lean, green, uncanny valley machine

She-Hulk is not a telepath herself, but Disney Plus’ She-Hulk: Lawyer knows exactly what you were thinking when you first saw its stately heroine in all her uncanny VFX glory, and appreciates any feedback. While She-HulkThe frequent trips to the eerie valley feel like an undeniable sign of the less than ideal conditions under which the visual effects were produced. something new terribly familiar.

After multiple stages full of hero-origin series like daredevil and Moon Knight who gradually teased how their titular vigilantes got super, She-Hulk: Lawyer changes things by dropping you right into the depths of Jennifer Walters’ (Tatiana Maslany) life with little warning. Like her counterpart in the comics, She-HulkJen is an extraordinarily talented yet pathologically sheepish lawyer whose entire world is turned upside down by a freak accident that gives her a set of superpowers very similar to those of her hulking cousin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo).

The exactly circumstances of how the MCU’s Jen — normally a mouse-like, easily dehydrated woman who plays Maslany very much in the middle — wakes up super strong, over a foot taller, and a striking shade of green are somewhat different from how it plays out in the comics. But enough of the beats from the source material are there to make it clear that She-Hulkis well aware of its own absurdity, and the show wants you to join in its jokes about itself. Almost from the moment Jennifer was introduced she has been breaking through the fourth wall to keep it up She-Hulk is not exactly a superhero show and that nothing about her life needs to change, even with her new Hulk powers, because she is always in complete control.

This couldn’t be further from the truth of course, and She-HulkThe first few episodes are largely a comedic study of what happens to an ordinary person who suddenly becomes an “enhanced individual” in the MCU. But instead of simply framing Jennifer as yet another bleak hero who must realize himself before taking a code name and donning a costume, She-Hulk presents her reluctance to become a known super quantity as something crucial to understanding who she is. Hulk powers or not, Jennifer prefers to fight in court alongside her paralegal Nikki Ramos (Ginger Gonzaga), where she knows they can use their legal prowess to change lives in ways none of the Avengers ever could. More importantly, Jen really isn’t that interested in being a superhero, even if this is what the whole world and her own TV show expect of her.

More than the great heroes or villains that Jen encounters in a professional capacity, it’s managing people’s ideas about who and what she is that gives her the most trouble. She-Hulkthe first season. Whether she’s dealing with her sexist coworkers or her well-meaning cousin, hardly anyone in Jennifer’s life really trusts her. hair ability to make smart decisions. But that’s not quite the case when she’s in her She-Hulk form, and while that double standard understandably pisses Jen, it’s once she starts using it to her advantage that She-Hulk really starting to stand out.

Image: Marvel Studios

although She-Hulk’is sure of Jen Ally McBeal-inspired “lawyer show”, it’s also one of Marvel’s more focused attempts to tie together disparate parts of its multiverse to remind you that many of these characters from different movies and series know each other more or less. As Earth’s incumbent Sorcerer Supreme, it makes sense that Wong (Benedict Wong) would call on She-Hulk for delicate matters requiring understanding of mortal laws, and his presence in Lawyer adds a keen sense of timeliness to the series.

Like Wong, Tim Roth’s Abomination returns here to remind viewers of the last major Marvel movie he starred in and to help She-Hulk delve into the details of the universe it’s set in like only an aggressively nerdy and rather horny legal comedy can. Although the star power of She-HulkGuest stars vary from week to week, with each of their subplots, the show finds different ways to make the MCU feel like a more inhabited place, where a countless number of people were only recently wished back to life. As foolish as many of her cases and clients are, Jen does what she does to act as a force of justice in the world, and She-Hulk leads with the idea that people like her are exactly what the public needs in times of crisis.

When She-Hulk: LawyerFirmly in comedy mode, playing out the influence of John Byrne and Dan Slott’s comics or hammering away at an important idea about the importance of rehabilitation rather than incarceration, the show feels like it’s in a pretty good place. But at times where She-Hulk tries to switch gears, the series intervenes a bit every now and then, almost like remembering how much it’s trying to do and panicking.

Image: Marvel Studios

That same haunted sense of panic arises in the same way in a number of She-Hulk: Lawyer‘s more technically complex scenes featuring Jen in her huge, curiously proportioned Hulk form that looks a lot more like Maslany than Smart Hulk does Ruffalo. There’s no denying how much work has gone into creating a She-Hulk model that’s more compelling than not. But it’s also impossible to ignore how from shots of the character in motion usually are, especially when the show draws attention to her luscious, but often distracting hair reminiscent of the way In people Medusa treated.

Considering how much more consistent She-Hulkable to create the visuals for characters like Smart Hulk and Abomination who aren’t all that new to the MCU, it makes sense that Marvel plans to refine her take on She-Hulk as she shows up in more projects. Even if that’s the case, it’s still strange to see She-Hulk repeatedly fall face-down into the eerie valley on her own TV show, while Marvel needed to know the risks involved in building a whole series centered on a CGI character whose voice should be dubbed during post-production. Surprisingly, the audio mix on both She-Hulk and Smart Hulk actually stands out more than the characters’ tendency to read (visually) more cartoonish than Marvel probably intends.

Individual, none of She-HulkThe downsides make it unwatchable, and when they all work together, the show can get it by relying on its irreverent sense of humor and ability to laugh at itself. While Jen may need a new game plan if and when she ever makes the jump to the Marvel movies, She-Hulk: Lawyer‘s approach to the powerhouse works quite well for the small screen, and it’s almost certain it will be one of Phase 4’s more inspired entries.

She-Hulk: Lawyer also plays Jameela Jamil and will premiere on August 18.