She-Hulk: Attorney At Law received mixed-to-positive reviews initially despite heavy review-bombing. The show had a clever and strong start, releasing a breath of fresh air into the MCU’s tired-out Phase 4 by departing from the franchise’s standard style of action and comedy, with plenty of lovable characters, new and old, to go with Tatiana Maslany’s Jen Walters/She-Hulk.
But that didn’t last very long. Very quickly, almost as soon as episode three, the fresh air was blown away. The show tried to focus on women’s empowerment, yet did not accurately portray the difficulties of womanhood, give Jen any real antagonists to represent what she was fighting against (except for an algorithm), or even add anything substantial about misogyny, chauvinism, etc.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
Jen never got the chance to really stand up for anything or take on any kind of meaning for the show. She-Hulk may have succeeded if it decided to follow the standard MCU formula, and would’ve been just another MCU entry like the rest. But, trying to stand out by tackling big problems like misogyny and not actually doing so only made the show a failure with audiences and made the fight for better female standards even harder.
She-Hulk Relies Heavily On Tired Tropes
Marvel Studios
The show had some great moments between Jen and her male coworkers in the firm, who engaged in funny situations which subtly displayed their belittling attitude toward her. Jen just goes on to prove that she is more capable in the job. Yet, her coworkers who just maintain a bad opinion of her are the only thing she has to deal with when it comes to her feminine ability, and it’s never confirmed or hinted that their attitude is because she is a woman. They are probably simply jealous coworkers who can’t get over the fact that someone else has a bigger paycheck and nothing more.
Everything, unfortunately, boils down to “Men = Bad,” and other such rote and nonsensical things. The whole show was never able to answer or respond to any of Jen’s problems because it did not give her any problems to deal with, besides a few internet trolls (which are never worth addressing).
Jen Refuses Genuine Help (Or To Give It)
After becoming a Hulk for the first time, Jen’s cousin Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) takes her to his retreat in Mexico to help her. Having been through the same process, he thought she would need help to get through this sudden and extreme change. Turns out Jen gained a pretty quick handle on it and didn’t have a second personality, much to Bruce’s confusion. He actually showed signs of being jealous, understandably, after going through a decade and a half of trauma because of the same thing she had mastered in no time at all.
But she isn’t patient about it at all. Jen essentially accuses her cousin of “mansplaining” something to her that she just learned and that he dealt with forever. She ironically gets mad at him. In the comics, She-Hulk comforted Bruce and helped support him with all his issues. Jen having a better understanding of her Hulk-ness and refusing to help Bruce with his is a missed opportunity, because there was the chance for She-Hulk to actually show the Hulk how to be a Hulk, demonstrating her ability, patience, and love for her cousin, and how a woman can show a man how to be better.
She-Hulk Never Decided What It Wanted To Focus On
Disney Platform Distribution
In the very first moments of the first episode, Jen is delivering a practice speech and asks big questions. What are the responsibilities of those with power? Must they protect those without power? Or should they be able to use their power for their own purposes, regardless of others? For a law show in the largest superhero franchise ever, these are good questions that are really worth thinking about. Later in the episode, Bruce tells Jen that since she is one of the few people who have the power to protect Earth, she must.
Jen doesn’t want to be a superhero. She understandably wants a normal life. While she doesn’t get the typical career she was hoping for, she still didn’t join the Avengers or profess herself a superhero. The show set itself up for an entirely different context than feminism and brought up other issues it didn’t address. The responsibility of super-powered individuals would have been an interesting discussion for a superhero show as well.
She-Hulk repeats the mistake of Captain Marvel. As the first female-led entry into the franchise, Marvel famously said she had nothing to prove to anyone, but the attitude of the film said otherwise. Marvel had to prove that she had nothing to prove, but Marvel still had something to prove. She-Hulk falls into the same trap. Saying that she is just as good as her male counterparts, be they Hulk or coworkers, but constantly trying to prove it to them only makes her issue worse.
The MCU has some real opportunities to further women-led stories. The upcoming Thunderbolts seems to be led by fan-favorite Yelena Belova/White Widow (Florence Pugh), and Shuri (Letitia Wright) taking up the mantle of Black Panther are real steps forward for women in the MCU. Not because they deal with internet trolls, but because they are women who actually get to be heroes.
