She-Hulk S01E09 Review: Broken Fourth Wall

She-Hulk, Season 1, Episode 9: Whose Show Is It Anyway?

Yeah, I'm... I'm not the biggest fan of this one. Admittedly, it's a very, very brave, ballsy move. And I can respect that. My hang-ups over this episode doesn't come from the frankly underwhelming plot about the Intelligencia storyline, but rather about the massive fourth-wall break that happens around halfway through the episode. 

It's just that... well, I do really think that She-Hulk: Attorney at Law didn't really try to commit too hard into the fourth-wall breaking that her comic-book counterpart does, which makes this complete shattering of the fourth wall as a huge part of the climax feel a bit more bizarre than funny. Compare, I guess, the Deadpool movies where the fourth-wall breaks happen at a much more frequent rate. Although... I suppose the show might've gotten a bit too annoying if they had done it a bit more often? Eh. 

The actual events that followed up the cliffhanger of the previous episode were a bit more procedural, if not the most exciting way to spin it. The other lawyers meet Jen in Blonsky's old cell, there's a nice little talk about how Jen doesn't get the 'anyone would respond like this' since she's not just 'anyone', but a Hulk. She gets a power-inhibitor cuff slapped on, she's fired from her job and we get to see a montage as she ends up moving back with her very supportive parents. At least dad is, anyway. Jen and Nikki try to hunt down Intelligencia and bring them to justice, which leads Nikki to use Jen's high school dance video to get a way into Intelligencia. And because they assumed a 'him', Nikki uses Pug to infiltrate the douchebag gathering, leading to Pug having to meet the Intelligencia members who are all frat bros who bitch about Lady Thors and She-Hulks and other 'females' and all that. Very obviously, Todd (the 'Wakanda spear' guy from last episode) is actually the mastermind of all this, which... sure, why not. 

With the power of coincidence, Jen takes that time to take Blonsky's offer up on using his mountain retreat, not realizing that the retreat is where Intelligencia is having their little retreat in. Also, Blonsky, or rather, Abomination, is the guest speaker in this location... but the episode doesn't really make it particularly clear whether Abomination is actually the secret mastermind or sponsor behind Intelligencia or that he's just there to make money with his Abomination form. It leans more towards the latter since Abomination helps Jen out later on, but I don't know... this 'revelation' of Abomination entering the room feels kinda cheap. 

And then things go absolutely off the rails. Todd injects himself with Jen's Hulk blood and turns into a deformed Hulk. Titania shows up! Hulk shows up, and mistakes Abomination protecting Jen as an attack!

And while I do agree that things kinda make sense, Jen... punches through the Disney+ Marvel menu. Okay? She decides to swing into "Marvel: Assembled", the behind-the-scenes show about the MCU... where she proceeds to basically take the role of a fictional character that's self-aware that she's in a show and talk to the writers. We get jokes of the massive Disney-Marvel NDA, we get jokes of the 'all just a dream' cop-out from the writers, and she comes face-to-face with Kevin Feige. Or rather, K.E.V.I.N., an AI entertainment algorithm that creates movies based on a formula -- poking fun at how Marvel themselves do admittedly fall into using formula. 

There are a couple of fun jokes here, the best part of which is KEVIN telling She-Hulk to transform into her human form because 'She-Hulk' is expensive... and for the camera to cut away to the animation team doesn't have to animate her transformation. All the while, of course, KEVIN himself is a CGI robot. It's probably the funniest joke in this episode. 

Jen and KEVIN have a bit of an argument, and Jen's argument is that the main story of her show is that her balance between her Jen and She-Hulk lives... and KEVIN agrees? Okay? Which... ends up returning to a superior climax, right? Except there really isn't any climax to speak of, because what we return to after KEVIN rewrites reality seems to be a retconned version where Todd never uses the 'derivative Super Soldier serum', Emil gets arrested, and... what happened in this sequence is muddled and Jen never really got her comeuppance against Todd and that other douche she slept with (who didn't even appear, right?) and... I don't know. I'm not going to trash-talk this episode just because the climax didn't agree with me. Because it's definitely experimental, and I know there's a lot of people who like these sort of comedies... but I don't know. Maybe I'm just old. 

At the very least, I would've liked them to at least show how things went down in this 'fixed' version of events? With perhaps showing how the She-Hulk blood didn't work on Todd, or something? Or an actual conversation with Emil that explains what he's up to? No, instead we get Daredevil dropping down from the sky (literally!) and while it's always welcome to see Matt Murdock again, it feels far more shoehorned than Titania or Hulk in the 'bad' climax. Oh, hey, I guess KEVIN also sneaks in Hulk back into the family barbeque, with the completely out-of-nowhere introduction of Skaar, Son of Hulk. Okay, sure. 

And... uh... yeah, I guess the final shot of the episode is She-Hulk going back to lawyering. Wong breaks Abomination out of prison. And... I don't know. This climax does try to be clever, it does try to be different. I respect that. The whole season has felt very experimental, really... I guess this just isn't a show for me, but I respect the fans of this show. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The episode opens with a shot-for-shot parody of the 1977 The Incredible Hulk TV series, although obviously with She-Hulk in place of Hulk. 
  
• Despite the bizarreness of Jen's fourth-wall breaking, Sensational She-Hulk #31 did have Jen break through her comics and demand explanations from Marvel offices. 
• K.E.V.I.N. is, of course, a reference to head of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige.
• Skaar, Son of Hulk, is the son of Hulk and a Sakaarian in the comics, which he conceived during the events of World War Hulk which was very, very loosely adapted to Thor: Ragnarok.
• Wong and Abomination talking about the Wi-Fi password in Kamar-Taj is actually a reference to Mordo and Dr. Strange's discussion about Wi-Fi there (the password is Shamballa).
• Jane Foster's Thor is mentioned as one of the female superheroes that Intelligencia is complaining about, using the moniker of 'Lady Thor' which Jane in-universe loathes. 
• She-Hulk mentions the X-Men, rightfully asking KEVIN when they're going to be added into the MCU. 
• Black Panther's music plays when KEVIN talks about how the SFX team has moved to another project. 

She-Hulk S01E08 Review: The Frog and the Devil

She-Hulk, Season 1, Episode 8: Ribbit and Rip It

Daredevil Daredevil Daredevil Daredevil Daredevil Daredevil Daredevil Daredevil

Yeah, no disrespect to She-Hulk, but man, I really like Matt Murdock. Specifically, Charlie Cox's portrayal of everyone's favourite Man Without Fear. The Netflix Marvel side of their gargantuan media universe did not always deliver in the crossovers, and I did have certain thoughts about Daredevil's second season... but overall? That show instantly catapulted Daredevil from one of the weirder superhero concepts ever into one of my unabashed favourite superheroes of all time. The fact that season one of Daredevil was also when I first started reviewing a lot of these superhero shows regularly on this blog is probably a huge factor, too. 

So yeah, when Daredevil and his supporting characters started to appear outside of their little Netflix-TV bubble and into shows like Hawkeye and Spider-Man: No Way Home, I am jubilant. JUBILANT, I say!

And, of course, this is still She-Hulk: Attorney at Law so the story still ultimately focuses on Jen. And the tone is still a lot more comedic than anything the Daredevil show ever did, but I'm just happy to see my favourite blind lawyer devil back! 

After several rather slow She-Hulk episodes, this one fires on all cylinders both on the superheroing side and the lawyer side. Our client this episode is Leapfrog, a.k.a. Eugene Patilio, who goes around trying to be a hero. Or, more accurately, being the shittiest adaptation of Batman ever possible. He has terrible catchphrases, hires a bunch of goons he calls 'tadpoles', and dresses up with frogs as a basis. And his superpowers basically involves hiring Luke Jacobson, throwing daddy's money at him, and commissioning him for a super-powered suit. So Eugene demands Jen's lawyer firm to sure Luke for the allegedly fraudulent suit. 

This puts Jen at massive odds with Luke, of course, who immediately destroys a dress she pre-paid for and calls his own lawyer... who, of course, is everyone's favourite blind lawyer, Matt Murdock. Matt very quickly puts a kibosh on Jen's case, though we do get some nice nods that Jen herself is already not very happy to represent the spoiled twat that is Eugene Patilio. There's some actually interesting superhero-lawyer stuff involving the court demanding Luke's client list, which Matt goes to talk about how protecting a superhero's secret identity is immensely crucial not just to Luke's career and credibility, but also to the safety of the superhero and those around him. 

Eugene, of course, is a complete dumbass, and basically admits to putting jet fuel into his rocket boots -- which Matt sniffs out. There's a particularly funny line where Matt goes "he's lying, don't ask me how I know. I just know" and the judge dryly telling Matt that, yes, everyone present can see that.  

Of course, Matt and Jen kind of make it up by hanging out at the local lawyer bar, and Matt does the 'I've been doing the superhero thing' coy bit, with Matt encouraging Jen to use her She-Hulk powers to do some good when Jen can't do it. There is, of course, some flirting, which, honestly, both actors exhibit reasonably well. After a brief distraction with a douche that tries to creep on Jen, she gets a call from Eugene, who is being attacked by an initially unseen assailant. 

So of course Jen suits up in her superhero outfit for, I think, the first time since the original training with Bruce. She takes up on Matt's initial advice and decides to rescue Eugene from his assailant... which, of course, unfortunately for Matt, is Matt himself in his Daredevil guise. And, yes, I do agree with Jen's later assessment that the ketchup-and-mustard look is nowhere as flattering as his original armoured Daredevil suit, but can we just appreciate how cool it was for the show to finally give us a decent action scene and have Daredevil and She-Hulk fight each other?

I do like how the show handles the fight, too. The far more experienced Matt manages to run circles around Jen, even surviving that bit when she caused the whole floor to crack into a fissure, and Matt's completely focused on taking down Eugene. But She-Hulk is, well, a goddamn Hulk, and all it takes is a well-placed thunderclap to bring the devil down to his knees. A bit cheating, yes, since Daredevil is super-sensitive to anything involving his hearing, but the misunderstanding is cleared up pretty quickly. 

There are some great lines in the meeting between the two, and I do appreciate them keeping the blind jokes to non-offensive ones. "Do you pretend to be blind? Because this is really problematic!" is a very, very fair complaint from Jen, and I loved her little pissy note that she thought the guy dressed as a devil is the villain. Turns out that Eugene has kidnapped Luke to force him to build a new supersuit for him, but... also isn't very smart, because he is hiding in his Lilypad. His secret frog-themed super-base, with a giant 'LILYPAD' in neon lights above the roof. 

There's a fun bit of banter as Matt and Jen argue the differences between 'henchmen' and 'goons', and we get a classic Daredevil corridor fight -- even if it's not anywhere as elaborate as his own show. Also, She-Hulk smashes in, taking out a second wave, and the two basically team up to fuck up Leapfrog and his tadpoles. There's more fun banter about the insanity plea so commonly seen in this comic book, but then Leapfrog kind of decides to run away, jumping out of the window... and, well, breaking his legs in the process. Ha! Very fun. 

The two have a nice, cute moment decompressing on the rooftop about the superhero and lawyer life, and they hook up afterwards, because of course they do. Not much to say here, although I do find that this is probably She-Hulk's fourth-wall joke that actually landed for me. The episode should have closed at this point, right? She-Hulk had a superhero's night out with another superhero lawyer, gets some nice pointers about stuff like balancing lawyerhood and superheroing... 

Until, of course, Jen lampshades that this is the penultimate episode... and there's the whole best female lawyer gala to attend to, and the overarching Intelligencia subplot to talk about. Intelligencia hacks the ceremony to ruin She-Hulk's speech and showing the sex-tape on-screen. Apparently Jen doesn't deserve to be called a Hulk cause "she's a slut", and... uh... it's a dumb plot point that kinda makes me roll my eyes, but I can actually get behind Jen's reaction of reacting with righteous rage and bashing the monitor and going all berserker in trying to get the other guy who's obviously recording her. The episode ends with the cliffhanger of the whole world watching her break down after keeping her cool for practically the entire series. Again, I do like this, even if I am not particularly invested in the sex tape storyline being taken as one of the main drivers of the show -- having one of the moments so dear t Jen's heart be stolen from her and turned into a moment of ridicule by people who have nothing better to do but to be dicks to her is... a pretty valid reason to unleash the mean, green savage monster within you. It's a powerful moment, even if I'm not entirely sure that the faceless Intelligencia is going to be a paritcularly engaging final villain. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• 
  Daredevil last appeared in the MCU in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
• His Netflix show's theme song plays in the background as he enters the court room. Matt also makes mentions to how he works in Hell's Kitchen, as well as how he works mostly pro bono cases. 
• Matt discusses how people misusing a super-suit could make someone look bad, undoubtedly inspired by the climax of Daredevil's final season, where Bullseye stole his armoured costume and committed crimes as Daredevil. 
• Daredevil's costume in this show is inspired on the very first costume he wore in his first couple of appearances before the full-red suit stuck. 
• Leapfrog (Vincent Patilio) is a Daredevil enemy. An inventor prior to his career as a supervillain, Vincent was a low-achieving novelty toy inventor whose inventions never got it past the patent office. When he finally made something that works -- a leaping coil technology -- he went to a life of crime and was swiftly defeated by Daredevil. In contrast to him, his son Eugene Patilio would become a superhero (if an equally bumbling one) as the Fabulous Frog-Man.
• MCU's version of the character keeps the Leapfrog name and the more villain-leaning tendencies, but gives him Eugene's name. 
• During the trial, Matt mentions the Sokovia Accords from Captain America: Civil War, citing that it has been repealed and the restrictions it causes on superheroes no longer exist.
• When Jen and Matt are talking after the fight, a billboard for Rogers: the Musical (from Hawkeye) can be seen in the background.
• She-Hulk makes a joke about how she might fight 'another Hulk who's red'... a reference to the Red Hulk (Thunderbolt Ross) and later Red She-Hulk from the comics. 
• The 'fridged' bit is a reference to the infamous practice in comic-books of killing (usually female) love interests, particularly in reference to how DC's Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, had his girlfriend unceremoniously killed offscreen and stuffed into the fridge for cheap shock value. 
• More of a nod to Batman, but Leapfrog's goons in the background seem to be working on a Frog-Signal. 
• The creep that hits on Jen buys a Wakanda spear and says the iconic "Wakanda Forever" line. 

She-Hulk S01E07 Review: PORCUPINE!

She-Hulk, Season 1, Episode 7: The Retreat

A bit better than the previous episode, although I'm not sure if it's thanks to the random, colourful group of obscure Marvel supervillains that showed up which I will readily admit is pretty fun. "The Retreat" is basically a bottle episode, focusing almost entirely on Jen. We get a brief scene of Nikki in the beginning and Josh in the framing scenes at the beginning and the end, but otherwise it's all Jennifer Walters and the rest of... 'Abomaste'. Did I get that right?

And well, it still feels like the episode ran on for a bit longer than it needed to be, and there were moments where I'm not sure if they're kinda mocking the process of therapy, which media really likes to do... or it could just be the mutated bull-person and the guy in a porcupine battle-suit with a gas mask that's making the process inherently funny. 

And, well... the 'main plot' elements basically can be boiled down to a single sentence. To the surprise of absolutely no one, Josh is actually secretly evil, probably working for Intelligencia, gets close enough to Jen to make love sleep with her (as Jen insists on the terminology) to get her asleep so that he can get the blood sample that the Wrecking Crew weren't able to get. But for Jen and for the majority of the episode, they think Josh is just a dipshit who got close to have sex then ghosted her. 

Again... very American humour, but at least the comedy for this episode works a bit better than the wedding episode. The setup isn't particularly interesting, but once we get Jen and Emil meeting each other at the Wi-Fi deprived retreat, Jen quickly discovers 'Abomaste' that in her anxiety-ridden wait for Josh's reply. We get a bunch of colourful supervillains like Man-Bull (the result of a science experiment gone wrong, and has a lot of rage at people who wants to stab him), Águila (self-identifies as a swashbuckler, not a matador), Porcpuine (refuses to leave his spiky suit) and Saracen (he identifies as a vampire, but might actually be one). 

And... there's a lot less 'haha what a dumb concept' maliciousness here, because... well, I don't know. Maybe it's my love for the Superior Foes of Spider-Man run, or anything that DC comics does with the Rogues, that makes me love anything to do with a group of bumbling C-lister supervillains. Except these guys, at least from what little we see of them, aren't even supervillains and are just a bunch of weirdos that are working through their issues with Emil. A lot of it is treated for laughs, of course, but thanks to not focusing on just a single topic, the comedy in this episode flows a bit better. 

It even has some point, because Wrecker comes in. Jen demands the show do a 'Previously On' on him, which is nice since I don't recognize him without his hoodlum costume and his crowbar. But Wrecker is here taking 'radical responsibility', and Emil's wonderful dad voice ends up causing Jen to take a sit and share... and basically it's an outlet for Jen to earnestly share her insecurities. That everyone is only interested in She-Hulk and not Jen, and it's a very earnestly delivered by Tatiana Maslany. The C-list supervillains are all pretty charming and supportive, first by almost going off and murdering Josh where he lived, and later on just being a bunch of supportive people who convinces Jen to delete Josh's number. 

This one... I kinda liked. It moved a bit faster-paced and the wacky sights along the way felt more like a superhero comedy show than just a generic comedy show. Tim Roth's Emil Blonsky might not be what people expected from the character (and I'm kinda sad that he's not heading the therapy as Abomination) but it's actually a pretty pleasant episode to watch. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Jen refers to the process of transforming into a Hulk as 'Hulking Out', the franchise and the fandom's term for it. 
• In addition to Abomination and the Wrecker, we get the following villains:
• Porcupine has been a couple of villains over the years, but the most well-known one is Alexander Gentry, who created the Porcupine battlesuit for the U.S. military but received only laughter for his efforts. He ended up becoming a supervillain and facing off against Ant-Man.
• Águila (Alejandro Montoya) is a mutant that's able to channel energy through his sword, and became a villain of Iron Fist and Luke Cage.
• Man-Bull (William Taurens) is a scientist who kidnapped people to experiment on,  but eventually tested his creations on himself. He menaces Daredevil. 
• Saracen is an immortal vampire that lived underneath the Vatican and fought Blade. 

She-Hulk S01E06 Review: Wedding Blues

She-Hulk, Attorney at Law, Season 1, Episode 6: Just Jen

Mmm, yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of this episode either. I do think that structurally and thematically it might flow a bit better than the previous one? Because at least even Jen herself is acknowledging that this is a supposedly 'bottle' wedding episode with no real tie-in to the greater tapestry of the universe. And after being mostly a cipher in previous episodes, Titania gets to show some more personal animosity towards She-Hulk in this one. 

It's just that... I got pretty bored in this episode? And I do have some pretty high tolerance for nonsense, considering I watched all of DC's Legends of Tomorrow.  I do see some happy reviews about this episode out there so it might just be me not 'getting' the comedy of this episode, and, yes, I would readily admit that wacky wedding hijinks, very American bridesmaid-related wackiness and catfights are definitely not anywhere on my radar of what I would consider appealing fiction.

I guess after the previous episode had Jen confront that her She-Hulk persona has grown into a positive aspect of her life. But this episode forces her to accept the Jennifer Walters side, with her jackass friend-that-got-distant Lulu telling her to go around as 'just Jen' and not She-Hulk. Titania, of course, shows up to crash the party and provoke her, and... I don't know. I get that without her relationship with Absorbing Man, Titania gets reduced to the 'angry brute' trope of supervillain and that can't really carry a show, but 'catty TikTok bitch bully' just isn't engaging at all for more than a single episode. And while seeing drunk Jen is funny, I really didn't care all that much for Titania's conflict with She-Hulk, as well as Jen's romances with Josh. 

There are, on paper, moments that would be a pretty great showcase of Jen's poor headspace and her juggling of her two identities... but the whole wedding plot and its jokes that didn't work for me just made watching the episode a bit of a chore. Anyway, Titania breaks her teeth or some shit after slipping on the ice, and hey, we get yet another rather underwhelming action scene.

The B-plot isn't particularly funny either, with Nikki and Mallory (neither of whom really have much of a personality at this point beyond 'gossipper BFF' and 'serious rival'. Nikki's funny, at least) having to handle the case of Mr. Immortal. Which... I'm not familiar with the character from the comics, but he's completely transformed in the adaptation from a kooky young superhero with a dark-comedy superpower into an old scammer who keeps killing himself to run away from any problems in his life. The divorce settlement ends with barely a punchline, other than the fact that Nikki and Mallory figure out that from the case there's some kind of dark web online grup called the Intelligencia that's spreading a lot of hate about She-Hulk and they want to kill her. So basically Reddit or something.  

...and I don't know. It sure is a very 'new age' supervillain, but until we see more, I'm just not feeling it? The way the episode is cut, it's kind of obvious that Josh or whoever the handsome guy at the wedding is called is probably associated with Intelligencia, but I find that I can't work myself up to really care. Thankfully, despite what Jen might say, this doesn't really land in an unconvenient spot in the season. In the middle of the season where you don't have to make a huge first impression or a bombastic finale is exactly where an episode like this should be. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Mr. Immortal (Craig Hollis) in the comics is a mutant with the power of immortality that is normally associated with the West Coast Avengers and the Great Lakes Avengers. While a kooky and darkly comedic character, Mr. Immortal is more or less working as a superhero in the comics. 
• The Intelligencia in the comics is a group of super-intelligent supervillains gathered by M.O.D.O.K. that menaced the Hulk.

She-Hulk S01E05 Review: Influencer Wars

She-Hulk, Attorney at Law, Season 1, Episode 5: Mean, Green, and Straight Poured into These Jeans

After spending the first four episodes with cameos from the wider MCU, She-Hulk's fifth episode is the first one to have the show's central cast attempt to stand on their own and... I'm not sure they really succeeded? Admittedly, the plotline of this episode is another one that really didn't interest me at all. Reinventing She-Hulk's nemesis Titania from a brawny meathead into a catty social media influencer is a very questionable decision, and I'm really not sure it paid off. 

The main plotline is that Titania has been trademarking the name She-Hulk for her line of beauty products, and Jen has to fight her in court. It's... it's nowhere as interesting as the show thinks it is. Sure, there are a couple of funny moments, and I guess using last episode's Tinder profile (and the montage of Jen's terrible dates) as a way out of the solution is kind of cute. Jen and the lawyer representing her, Mallory Book, end up doing another 'humiliate the client to exonerate her' plotline, which feels a bit too similar to the same trick Pug did to win the douchebag lawyer case against the light elf in episode 3. Mallory's an all right foil to Jen, and a surprisingly serious character compared to the rest of her kookier workplace buddies. This does make her kinda boring, though. 

And... I don't know. Maybe I'm just old and grouchy and not quite 'hip' with the younger audience who probably appreciate the social media and dating app jokes and whatnot, but it's just... well, not really doing a whole lot for me. The show never quite delves into being straight-up bad, but I really did find it hard to pay full attention to the show.

The B-plot of this episode is Nikki and Pug going around to look for the 'drip broker', someone who sells bootleg superhero merchandise. Which eventually leads to obvious Edna Mode expy, the kooky Luke Jacobson. Who's fun, yes, and it seems like he's taken over Melvin Potter's role from Daredevil as the resident superhero outfit creator for anyone not associated with Stark Industries. (Hey, he's literally making Daredevil's suit!). We don't quite get to see the full She-Hulk outfit that he gives Jen at the end of the episode, but it's coming. 

There is, I suppose, the running theme of Jen finally appreciating the moniker 'She-Hulk' as something that's not a derivative name shoved on her by random reporters, and finally making the atrocious appellation into her own. With how so many superhero shows and movies are so loath to acknowledge superhero monikers and really like to make fun of it, it's actually pretty nice to devote an episode for Jen to embrace the name She-Hulk and actually defend it. Makes sense if they want the character to be called She-Hulk in-universe too, and not have it be a name Jen refuses to be associated with. Unfortunately, while it's a good story in and of itself, the trial over beauty product copyright just isn't strong enough to carry the half-hour. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner: 

• Mallory Book is Jen's rival within GLK&H in the 2004 She-Hulk run. Luke Jacobson is a very minor character from the obscure spy-themed Marvel comic Dakota North. 
• Daredevil's helmet -- coloured yellow instead of red, in honour of Daredevil's first comic-book appearance -- can be seen in Luke's shop.
• "Iron Man 3" is the title of an MCU movie, one of the few MCU entries that use numbers in the sequels. 
  
• The credits show Pug flaunting his sneaker collection. Including the Iron Man ones and some obvious Avengers, we get a surprising 'cameo' of many superheroes and supervillains that have yet to appear in the MCU (thanks to copyright issues). Most notable are ones based on Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Deadpool, The Thing, Dr. Doom and Nova. 
• Existing MCU shoes that I can tell include Falcon (albeit a comic-book based one), Quicksilver (also comic-book based), Captain Marvel, Green Goblin, Spider-Man, Moon Knight, Black Panther, Ghost Rider and Captain America. 
• Titania calls She-Hulk 'Shrek' when she enters the courtroom. There's a lot of memes in the build-up to She-Hulk that refer to Hulk and She-Hulk as 'Shrek and Fiona'.

She-Hulk S01E04 Review: Trademarking Magic

She-Hulk, Attorney at Law, Season 1, Episode 4: Is This Not Real Magic?

Mmm, yeah. The fact that She-Hulk: Attorney of Law is a nine-episode series that's mostly comedy means that the show can take its time doing more episodic, one-off wacky episodes like this. And... it's all right, for what it is. It's light watching, which isn't something that I really can say for a lot of the Netflix/Disney+ Marvel shows, which are far more serialized in nature. It doesn't necessarily 'twitter-armour' the show (regardless of Wong's presence) since the tone of the show is still much more comedic in nature, and this episode probably is the wackiest so far? It's jarring mostly because the comedy is kind of different compared to most of what MCU's comedy tend to be. 

But as Jen herself points out through a fourth-wall break, Wong is a welcome character to bring back, and he's the client for this episode. Wong's always good for a laugh, and... well, it is kind of odd to see the otherwise-super-serious Kamar Taj sorcerer just hanging out on his couch watching TV. Our main 'villain' here is Donny Blaze, a hilarious ripoff of Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider, who apparently is a Kamar Taj dropout who has been using a sling ring to do wacky shit in his magic show in Las Vegas. Through a series of typical wackiness, he sends a lady called Madisynn* through a portal to hell, upon which she makes a pact with a goat-demon named Jake, then gets dropped on Wong's couch holding a heart. And spoils the Sopranos for Wong, which prompts him to contact She-Hulk for the plot of the episode.

*who most people thought is the best thing ever to come out of the episode. I mean, I guess she's funny, but she's no Darcy or Luis...

And... as much as I like Wong, even the character himself points out that he could've just Mirror Dimension'd Donny Blaze and his hype-man/manager. I think being Sorcerer Supreme grants you permission to do that? I don't know. I get that we kinda need this for the show to go on with the episode, and that this isn't a super serious show, but... I felt like the setup could've been done better. Not that the Donny Blaze trial is particularly interesting to watch, mind you. It's not bad, the jokes about Kamar Taj not having NDA's and stuff are kind of expected, Madisynn and Donny Blaze are serviceable hammy guest stars. But... it's just... there. 

The secondary plot of this episode is Jen and She-Hulk trying to get a date on copyright-friendly-Tinder, and she ends up finding really no luck, getting either creeps or weirdos. Again, the comedy's serviceable, but I find the brief scene with Jen and her father discussing the She-Hulk's mugging last episode and Jen's dad bringing her a shovel (for the bodies) to be infinitely more funny than anything else in the episode. 

Both plots kinda come to a head when She-Hulk, in the midst of going for a snu-snu with the handsome oncologist she picked up, ends up getting pulled into action by Wong, who drags her to help with the transforming demon-bat invasion. There is some action -- and better ones than the laughable She-Hulk/Titania fight in episode one. This leads to Donny Blaze getting scared shitless of the demons he accidentally summoned to drop the lawsuit, and She-Hulk gets lucky with the handsome doctor who gets instantly turned off when she sees Jen in her human form. Okay? And we get the cliffhanger for the episode as... Titania trademarking the name She-Hulk and suing Jen over it?

I don't know. Again, I know comedy is subjective, but both the plots of this episode (the Donny Blaze one and the Tinder one) feel like they're B-plots to a more interesting A-plot. I don't even want this show to be super-serious, but... but things like the Abomination trial or the upcoming Titania conflict could really carry an episode more than both storylines in the episode. It's a bit bland, really, and while I wouldn't say that the episode itself is bad, it is probably the weakest in the episodes I've watched so far. 

Random Notes:

• "Donny Blaze" is a play on the alter-ego of the Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze.
  
• Wong thinks doing things 'by the book' refers to the Book of Vishanti, which played a major role in Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
• One of Jen's dates uses the word 'incredible', which is of course an adjective often used for her cousin Hulk.
• On Jen's schedule, a trial of "Kraft v. Soule" is mentioned. David Anthony Kraft wrote almost the entirety of the 1980 Savage She-Hulk comic run, and Charles Soule wrote 12 issues of the 2014 She-Hulk run. "Lee v. Bryne" refers to Stan Lee (who wrote the first Savage She-Hulk issue) and John Byrne, the artist who wrote and drew She-Hulk in Sensational She-Hulk and Fantastic Four.

She-Hulk S01E03 Review: Emil's Haikus

She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, Season 1, Episode 3: The People vs. Emil Blonsky

Not my favourite episode, no, although I would readily admit that I genuinely don't get a whole lot of the more sitcom-esque comedy in this episode. Still, the episode is light-hearted enough as Jen heads up the parole hearing of Abomination/Emil, and it's... well, basically the whole argment ends up being complicated by the fact that the key witness and instigator of Abomination heading off to fight in the underground superhuman fighting ring is Wong. Who isn't the easiest to get hold of, and Wong himself is... a bit of a kooky guy. 

Now it's kind of obvious that Wong's lying as a favour to cover up Abomination, but this episode and the previous one, plus Tim Roth's acting, did genuinely make Emil feel pertty likable. Tim Roth, Benedict Wong and Tatiana Maslany are all pretty great in their roles, but the whole plotline is... well, it's not that funny, I guess? I kind of feel like the show is more of a parody storyline and it kind of is, but... I don't know. I guess they're trying a bit too hard to stretch this over two episodes and the solution of Wong telling his story and Emil proving that he can turn into the Abomination any time but never did in captivity just doesn't prove the real oomph that I feel this episode needed, y'know?

Then there's a B-plot of Jennifer having to deal with her success, and the fact that the media keeps hounding her. And... I guess the media's perception of a superhero has been a tale as old as time, ever since Spider-Man has to deal with J. Jonah Jameson, but maybe I'm just old and seeing all these wacky tabloid-style social media trying to spread sensationalism for Jen went on a bit too long. Having the MCU social media go through the same 'wah wah they're making our superheroes into women' stuff that the real world complains about is neat, but they don't really go anywhere with it since Jen's attempt to take Nikki's advice and 'take control of the narrative' gets brushed under the rug. 

There's another B-plot about how one of Jen's team, Pug, is representing the douchebag Dennis in a defrauding case as he was bamboozled by a shapeshifting light elf. The nod to the oft-ignored Nordic parts of the Thor mythos is admittedly nice, and I get the need for the show to give us a couple extra metahuman cases for the legal team to handle, but... it's not that interesting, and it went on for a bit too long before the climactic joke -- that Jennifer arrives as a witness to convince the entire courtroom that Dennis is a delusional pig with an inflated self-esteem of his attractiveness -- isn't that funny. 

(Also, I am out of touch with modern pop culture, and maybe the joke and the much-maligned twerking scene with Meghan Thee Stallion would work if I actually know who she is. As it is, the joke just flew over my head.)

As perhaps a bit of a hint to the overarching plot of the show (beyond just being wacky courtroom sitcoms), we have the MCU adaptation of the Wrecking Crew (who apparently mugged an Asgardian construction worker) who jump Jen, who effortlessly goes She-Hulk and sends them running away. Wrecker and his buddies are sent by someone who wanted them to get a sample of She-Hulk's blood, so the show does have a proper antagonist.

And... well, I don't know. The Jen/Wong/Emil stuff are fun, and I appreciated the Wrecking Crew's appearance, but this episode just kind of fell flat for me. Ditto for the fourth-wall-breaking jokes for this particular episode. There is a degree of subjectivity of comedy and I know there's probably a market for this somewhere so I won't be too harsh on it. I just personally didn't really get too excited for this episode in particular. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The Wrecking Crew, consisting of Wrecker, Bulldozer, Piledriver and Thunderball, are a classic group of enemies that received super-powered equipment after their leader Wrecker was mistaken for a disguised Loki by Karnilla the Norn Queen. Since then, they've fought a whole lot of other superheroes as one of the more 'classic' Silver Age villains. 
• Wrecker wields a magical indestructible crowbar, Thunderball has a demolition chain, Piledriver has piledriver-eesque fists and Bulldozer is the one with the helmet (the most impractical one!).
• I guess I should take time to also mention that Pug, Holden Holliway and Dennis Bukowski are all supporting characters that first debuted She-Hulk comics. Pug and Holliway are recurring supporting characters, but Bukowski only has a single appearance. To my surprise, Nikki Ramos isn't based on a pre-existing character. Runa shares her name with one of the Valkyries in Earth-616, but it's likely the name reuse is a coincidence.  
• Wong, who interacted with Emil in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, appears here to give a recount of their action there. Wong's promotion to Sorcerer Supreme was told to us in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Wong also lampshades that he's not going to 'wipe anyone's memories' since it's messy, referencing the plotline of that movie. Wong also offers to use the mirror dimension (seen in Dr. Strange; No Way Home; Endgame) as a way to deal with the mess. 
• Runa the light elf quotes Thor's "Asgard isn't a place, it's a people" quote from Thor: Ragnarok. Unfortunately, it's not admissible in court. The existence of Nordic light elves in general is shown in the background of Thor and Thor: the Dark World, though they don't play a large role. 
• Emil's original prosecutor is named Gideon Wilson. In the comics, Gideon Wilson is Sam Wilson/Falcon's brother, and is related to the Hulk characters by being a member of the Gamma Corps.
• One of the reporters asks Jen if she got her powers in a 'mafia hit gone wrong', which was the circumstance in which she got her powers in the comics. 

She-Hulk S01E02 Review: Attorney For HIre

She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, Season 1, Episode 2: Superhuman Law

Where the previous episode focused more on She-Hulk's origin story and Bruce giving him a whole lot of warning about living as a Hulk, this one dives more into how Jen's very public transformation into the She-Hulk in the midst of a courtroom ends up fucking up her life. She goes from "attorney at law" to "attorney for hire" which even the logo jokes about, and... well, it's not a good day for Jen. She loses her job because of how everyone now sees her as 'She-Hulk' first and a lawyer second (the exact opposite of what she insists when she addresses the audience in her pilot episode) and, obviously, the media stuck her with the questionable moniker of She-Hulk.

And... this episode is kind of a breezy one, and it kind of jumps from one comedic scene to the next. I did find this episode to be more or less refreshing since the jokes are more... character-based, I guess. References to last episode's dissection on how Jen can hold her liquor as She-Hulk but not as Jen -- leading to the hilarious scene where she gets fired. There's that 'omg my embarrassing family' sequence as she goes to meet her parents, which has that nice sort of lived-in feel as they just launch into diatribes where different members of the family insist on knowing or wanting to tell different things. 

And then there's the bits where it's genuinely nicely acted. Jen's frustrated rant to Nikki about how she's basically being punished for doing the right thing of saving the jury from Titania's rampage; or her brief heart-to-heart with her dad in the garage. Even the brief moment where Jen checks in with Bruce (who gets put on a space-bus out of the show) and has a motor-mouth moment about taking the Abomination case is realized very well, highlighting both Jen's independence (she's going to take the case regardless of Bruce's blessing) and her kindheartedness (her motor-mouth tells us that she's actually nervous about insulting Bruce with taking the case). 

Which, I guess, brings us to the main story for this episode and the next... the trial of one Emil Blonsky, a.k.a. the Abomination. Now admittedly they've severely rewritten Abomination's character since the 2008 movie where Abomination debuted. I just rewatched The Incredible Hulk last year, though, so I do have the benefit of remembering the movie a bit more freshly, and Emil was a consummate, borderline-psychotic killer. It has been almost two decades in-universe, and, well, to be fair, Emil was following orders. Some really great acting moments from Tim Roth, who plays Emil as someone who's kind of trying to act rather badly to fit with the narrative of someone who deserves a parole because he was a victim of a superhuman act during the early days of superhumans being in the public eye. He's kind of a weasel, but you can sympathize with him when you realize that Emil was just following orders and there's probably some part of him that thought he could be the next Captain America. 

Jen needs to take this case because that's the only lawyer job that wants to hire her... to have a superhuman lawyer to represent superhumans. Which means she has to show up to work as She-Hulk, in addition to taking the Abomination case. Again, some really great moments of acting on Jen's part as she goes from frustration to joy to confusion as she originally refuses to take the Emil case. 

Again, a lot of what makes the whole episode work is Tim Roth's acting. And sure, the writing for Emil is absolutely comedic, but... it somehow works? It does manage to garner enough sympathy from the audience and from Jen, while still leaving room for any twists to convincingly crop up later in the series. 

...and, of course, the big wrinkle and cliffhanger at the end of the episode is the revelation that, yeah, Abomination had that whole cage-match in Shang-Chi a couple years back. Oops!

While Jen and the pre-existing MCU characters have been pretty fun, the rest of her supporting cast are... just kind of there. Nikki so far is literally just there so Jen has someone else to talk to. Bukowski is cartoonishly entertaining at how over-the-top sexist he is, which I guess fits the tone of the show? Jen's first boss is a non-entity, I did actually like the very well-realized scene where he tells She-Hulk to shrink down to her regular size because it's obvious that he feels intimidated by her.

Holden Holloway is probably the supporting cast that's the most interesting, but that's by virtue of being a consummate professional who's a dick enough to pull the move that cost Jen her job, but also smart enough to hire her. By dint of his character archetype, though, Holloway isn't particularly likable or memorable. We also get introduced to an overly-friendly guy called Pug, who is part of Jen and Nikki's team. 

Anyway, again, I'm not someone who cares about law dramas, but the situation with superhumans is admittedly interesting enough to get me to pay attention. And if anything else, Emil's return is surprisingly light-hearted and fun that this episode is a breeze to go thorugh. The comedy doesn't always land for me, admittedly, but I feel like maybe the detractors are being unfairly harsh on this one. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The Abomination's cage fight against Wong in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is shown verbatim as evidence against Emil's parole. 
• On the side of the website where Jennifer is looking for jobs are two Easter Eggs:
• The first is a news about a man with metal claws fighting in a bar brawl, seemingly a reference to Wolverine's iconic first live-action scene in X-Men. 
• The second is a question why there's a huge man sticking out of the Earth, a nod to Tiamut's state after the climax of Eternals.
• Bruce noting that he's a "different person back then, literally", is a sly nod to how during the events of Incredible Hulk, Bruce Banner was played by a different actor in that movie. It fits in-universe as a nod to how he was angry rage-Hulk in that period of time, but She-Hulk looks at the camera to confirm the meta joke to the audience. 
• Damage Control first got introduced in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and has had antagonistic roles in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Ms. Marvel. 
• Hawkeye gets mentioned by one of Jen's relatives, who wonders if he collects his arrows after he's done with them. 

She-Hulk S01E01 Review: Sensational She-Hulk

She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, Season 1, Episode 1: A Normal Amount of Rage

Okay, yeah, this most recent Disney+/MCU show had an... interesting public reception. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law faced a rather odd problem. The character itself is very derivative of one of the more iconic Marvel heroes despite She-Hulk being probably one of the oldest characters that is a 'iconic Silver Age character but genderswapped', plus having several whole well-defined comic-book runs of her own. Plus, her show is billed as a comedy with fourth-wall-breaking moments, so... it is a bit odd.

I have said in my reviews of Daredevil that courtroom drama is never my thing as far as genre fiction goes, and both the comedy and the fourth-wall-breaking stuff... yeah, I felt like they didn't quite go far enough with it if they had wanted to introduce it at all. And while I feel like the amount of what the kids nowadays describe as 'cringe comedy' isn't exactly as bad as social media made it out to be, I would also admit that some of the jokes didn't exactly land. 

And as far as the CGI goes... eh. Maybe it's because I'm kinda old, or I never really try to pause each frame to count the skin pores on She-Hulk's skin, or maybe I just have a very high tolerance to uncanny valley CGI... it looks all right. Some of the ones in motion are rather off based on MCU standards, sure, but I wouldn't really think that it's anything to raise a fuss about. 

Unlike She-Hulk's immediate predecessors Ms. Marvel and Moon Knight, which were both only tangentially tied to the MCU, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law feels more like a show that ties in intimately with the superhero side of the MCU. It features Bruce Banner/Hulk as a major supporting character for a huge chunk of this episode, and I really do feel like the Bruce and Jennifer scenes are the best part of this episode -- or, really, the three episodes of She-Hulk that I've watched at the time of writing this. 

The two of them have such a great catty-cousins dynamic to them which I felt was refreshingly done, and the fact that Bruce very pig-headedly wants to be a superhero mentor to Jen; while Jen wants to pig-headedly just return to her lawyer career as soon as she has the barest control of her transformations... both Hulk cousins have pretty great points to their arguments, with Jen having a great point that being a superhero really isn't something good to aspire to and that Bruce might be projecting a bit too much of his efforts; while Bruce... well, he's dealt so much with all the angst he's been through, and he's not wrong in that anyone who has their amount of power and none of the responsibility could easily be the next Abomination or whatever. While there's a huge amount of helicopter-parenting (helicopter-cousining?) involved, it's clear that the two of them care about each other a lot. 

And I do really like them arguing with each other. Yeah, there's a "women suffer more than men" speech tossed in there, but it's probably one of the better-integrated ones of these sorts of things because it's weaved in seamlessly to Jennifer and Bruce arguing about controlling their anger. Jen notes just how many aggression she has, especially in a workplace where many of her male co-workers don't respect her. Agree or disagree with the comedy of the show, but the acting done by She-Hulk's actress Tatiana Maslany is pretty great. 

The show also quickly showcases that She-Hulk and Hulk are similar but not exactly the same. Bruce is perplexed that Jennifer is able to control her transformations a lot easier and faster than he is... though in addition to having a mentor, Bruce is also surprised at finding that Jennifer doesn't have an 'alter' -- Jennifer is already stable from the get-go, unlike Bruce and Hulk who were fighting over their mind pre-Endgame. Oh, and Jennifer's ability also gives her a bit more regeneration abilities, which ends up giving her blood that heals Bruce's Infinity-Gauntlet-shattered-arm. 

Speaking of which, I also like that this universe's Bruce Banner isn't stupid enough to do a blood transfusion to his cousin, and the blood transfusion happens by accident when Jennifer was trying to grab Bruce out of a car crash and Bruce's blood literally splatters into Jen's open wound, triggering some werewolf-esque transformation sequence before Bruce finds her and calms her down. 

Again, perhaps it's because I'm not actually all that interested in the lawyer-y stuff, but the episode is bookended by two scenes of present-day Jennifer Walters and her buddy Nikki Ramos, who's handling a court case. Jen keeps insisting to the audience that this is going to be a show about lawyers and how she's a "lawyer first, Hulk second"... but of course, this is a superhero show. And supervillain Titania crashes the court-room at the end of the episode, which ends up causing Bruce and Nikki's words to Jennifer to ring true. She's forced to Hulk out to beat up Titania. 

And, well... credit where credit's not due, I genuinely didn't realize that... well, that's it for the She-Hulk vs. Titania fight. I thought that this episode's fight scene was the introduction and the second episode would have a proper brawl, but, well, the fight here really isn't all that impressive. The two Hulks tossing rocks around felt far more oomph-y than the actual superhero/supervillain fight! I guess there's something to say to immediately and forcibly rip off the band-aid and have the world (and not Bruce in his island bar) show Jennifer Walters that, yeah, she has to be the She-Hulk now. The whole episode has been Jennifer ignoring and denying the fact that her world has changed. Except, well, she is a superhero now, like it or not. 

Anyway, it's... it's a fun enough first episode, I feel, that doesn't feel tiring to watch at all. Again, most of what I love is the talk between Bruce and Jennifer throughout the main body of the episode. Lots of fun moments like Bruce just casually mentioning moments from Thor: Ragnarok or Avengers: Endgame or Age of Ultron or Incredible Hulk, all of which make the show feel like it's actually drawing from the franchise's rich continuity. Some really great moment even from Bruce himself, where it's clear that despite his strong front, poor 'smart' Hulk is still processing the death of one of his closest friends. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The Savage She-Hulk, or Jennifer Walters, is the cousin of Bruce Banner/Hulk. After getting injured by a mob hit which was directed at her father, Bruce was forced to give Jen a blood donation, which gave her the ability to transform into the She-Hulk. While originally just being a minor supporting character to the Hulk and associated characters, the 1989 Sensational She-Hulk series redefined the character as one of the first few Marvel comics characters to break the fourth wall, sometimes addressing the reader at times. 
• Titania, a.k.a. Mary MacPherran, is a supervillain who gained powers during the events of the crossover event Secret Wars, where she and her friend Marsha Rosenberg were given metahuman powers by Dr. Doom, becoming Titania and Volcana. Since her debut, Titania has basically graduated into becoming She-Hulk's recurring villain. 
• Bruce calls his merged post-Endgame form "Smart Hulk", likely a nod to "Professor Hulk" which the form is based on.
• The starship that knocked Bruce and Jen's car off is one of the Sakaar ships used when our heroes were running away from the Grandmaster's minions in Thor: Ragnarok.
• The post-credits scene has Hulk note that Captain America fucked a USO girl in 1943, which would line up to the time when a pretty girl flirted with him during the USO tour in The First Avenger.