She-Hulk

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: the series the Marvel Cinematic Universe needs [Preview]

The preview of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, the new series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, promises to be one of the highlights of Phase Four of the franchise. After the conclusion of the Avengers, the cycle started in Gulmira in 2008 and ended with the cult generation known as Avengers: Endgame, the continuity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has shown the first failures, a sign of the need to renew a brand that, devoid of its heroes of a tip, it was apparently devoid of a course. 

The great cinematic chapters, such as Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Thor: Love and Thunder, do not seem to have managed to reach the pathos of the previous films of the saga, while the serial sector has tried to give solidity to the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, moving on new narrative impulses that make Phase Four, if desired, the experimental phase.

She-Hulk, from this point of view, is the perfect synthesis not only of the desire to follow a new path, a chance offered by the seriality that dominates on Disney +, but also to dare, as we have been able to see thanks to the preview of the first four episodes. of the series. 

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

We have enjoyed metanarrative experiments like in WandaVision in the past, but what seems to be at the heart of the series dedicated to Jennifer Walters is the desire to give the character a layered complexity, a feeling that is perceived with greater intensity than previous attempts. 

A choice that comes at the right time, considering that the presence of a platform such as Disney’s streaming service allows you to indulge in these narrative excursions, where non-first-rate characters from the Marvelian world of paper seem to finally find a space in which to conquer the cinematic visibility that Stan Lee had been theorizing since the late 1970s. And it is almost ironic that the most convincing series of those seen so far is precisely the one dedicated to the heroine of the House of Ideas born in the first wake of the success of the first Marvelian television experiment, The Incredible Hulk.

Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) is an assistant prosecutor trying to reconcile his career with her private life. She works in an office where she is assisted by her trusted secretary and her friend Nikki, where she daily has to live with retrograde-minded male colleagues, to which she responds with irony and confidence. Her life seems to follow a usual process until, during a car accident involving her with a cousin, she comes into contact with the latter’s blood. 

And the fact that said cousin is none other than Bruce Banner, aka Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), turns this drama into the origin story of a new heroine. Or rather, a potential heroine considered Jennifer Walters does not intend to be a superhero, but she would only like to live her existence as she always has. But when she can become a mighty woman of almost three meters with a green complexion, how can she believe she can live her life without repercussions?

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is not limited to being a superheroic series, but fully honors the Marvelian character by capturing the most iconic nuances, especially in the 80s period, adapting them to the contemporary world and giving Jennifer a role that previously, in the franchise, had never been properly valued: telling a story for women. 

It could be argued that Black Widow first and Ms. Marvel then focused attention on two heroines, but both stories still maintained a heroic force and only scratched a feminine view of the world. The chance offered to She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, on the other hand, was to be able to tell a story that dilutes the heroic aspect within a more everyday and intimate narrative, seen from the perspective of a real, authentic woman. 

Objective achieved thanks to the presence of a female-driven artistic team that has been able to pour on Jennifer Walters and her ‘hulk’ version a compelling emotional solidity, a kaleidoscope of sensations and emotions that will harmonize with the female audience, but that has a magnetism also for the male audience.

Strengthened by an irony that is never banal and intelligent, the writing of the screenwriters and screenwriters led by Jessica Gao has been able to find a winning mix between the desire to be a light series that winks at the sit-com, with the approach of legal drama with superhero background.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

Through the perfect interpretation of Tatiana Maslany, Jennifer Walters stands as a rewrite of the hero who can only benefit the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As happened recently for other heroes of the franchise, such as the God of Thunder seen in Thor: Love and Thunder or Wanda in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the intimate value of the protagonists of She-Hulk is the soul of the series, which behind a pleasant patina of irony does not hide the complex emotions that are faced by these heroes.

In fact, it does not escape that Jen’s reluctance to live her new life as a heroine is a rebellion that is quickly overcome when the woman realizes that her new condition is a part of her that has always been present, but that only after the accident is fully revealed. With intelligence, she is subtly valued as it is She-Hulk who shows the greatest emotional fragility, forced to face the staggered perception of ordinary people or accept how her new condition makes her more of a symbol to be exploited than an individual to be valued.

Jennifer Walters is the ideal heroine for the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Jennifer Walter and her world, her fun but the heartfelt initial rivalry with her cousin Bruce and her desire to carve out a new space in this metahuman community that faces the legal issues of being super (hero or villain) for the first time. narrative strong points on which an exciting and entertaining story is built, with a strong feminine soul that amuses and inspires, capable of giving fun and offering us a lively and bubbly protagonist. 

Admirable how the enhancement of Jennifer’s figure and her story fit best into the continuity of the franchise, which in the preview of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law finds the form of both welcome returns and long-awaited appearances.

The preview of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law left us with the feeling of being in front of a series of the Marvel Cinematic Universe capable of showing both the continuation of the definition of a different perspective of the franchise, more urban and every day and of enhancing traits typical of characters usually not worthily awarded.