Hilarious, fast-paced, and uncompromisingly Marvel in spite of its constant self-critique, She-Hulk might be the freshest addition to the MCU’s television branch since Daredevil.
Before I get into everything that I loved about the show, I have to admit that the first episode was a bit hit-and-miss for me. I had heard a lot of complaints online about the woke-ness of this show, and how She-Hulk’s existence was emblematic of a studio’s desperation to become politically correct. Most media that reported on this attributed these complaints to ‘misogynistic trolls’, but regardless of where the complaints were coming from, the end of the first episode did have me feeling that the show was a bit preachier than I had hoped for.
“Here's the thing, Bruce,” Jenn says as she learns to manage her Hulk powers from the original Hulk himself. “I'm great at controlling my anger. I do it all the time. When I'm catcalled in the street, when incompetent men explain my own area of expertise to me. I do it pretty much every day because if I don't, I will get called emotional, or difficult, or might just literally get murdered. So I'm an expert at controlling my anger because I do it infinitely more than you.”
I get it – women sometimes have to deal with things that men don’t. And if she was talking to any other man, I think this would go down a bit smoother. But she’s talking to the Incredible Hulk – the only guy on the planet who could knock down a building with his bare hands if he lets his anger get out of control for even a second. To claim that Jenn controls her anger infinitely more than the Hulk seems more than preachy – it seems ridiculous to me. Again, if she had said it to any ordinary guy, I wouldn’t have had as hard a time with it. But it felt like the narrative was taking a backseat to the perspective on gender disequity. Maybe I’m lacking understanding – I’m willing to be proven wrong.
The other part of the pilot that rubbed me the wrong way was the scene at the bar. Jenn finds herself in a women’s bathroom, receiving support and compassion from a group of random women. She then heads outside, where a group of men begin catcalling her, resulting in a Hulk-out moment where she deals forcibly with her assailants. Neither of these moments strain credulity – girls helping each other out is totally normal, as is men being idiots outside of a bar. The problem for me was how the back-to-back nature of these moments seemed to imply that women are inherently compassionate, whereas men are inherently dangerous. Again, many women are compassionate, and many men are dangerous. But when you look at this scene in context with the scene where Jenn asserts her mastery of emotion over the Hulk, the result comes across as decidedly anti-man.
It sounds like I’ve got a lot negative to say, but honestly, that’s where my critiques end. In fact, I love the way She-Hulk tackles issues of gender throughout the rest of the series. Jenn is a fully three-dimensional character. She has desires, strengths, and faults, and it’s hard not to love her fourth-wall breaks that function in much the same way that Jim Halpert’s looks to camera did on The Office. As she struggles with managing her personal life with the added weight of superpowers, she goes through many of the issues that women deal with in a way largely unique from that of men. Dating, work, family – each one gets impacted by her new persona, but we also see how her womanhood plays a role here as well. I didn’t ever feel preached to for the rest of the show. Everything felt natural.
Part of the fun of the show was seeing all the guest stars involved in one way or another. We got Wong from the Doctor Strange films, Abomination from the original 2008 Hulk film, and of course Daredevil in a long-awaited return. Daredevil’s had a lot of his edge taken off in his formal re-introduction to the MCU, but that edge has been replaced with six spoonfuls of charm. I wouldn’t be surprised if some people were upset with this reinvention, but I for one was too giddy about seeing him again to care. And honestly, I’m totally down for Daredevil and She-Hulk being a thing. I’ll take more of that any day.
I can’t finish a review of this show without talking about the spectacular season finale. An absolute mess of a fourth-wall break, She-Hulk literally pauses her own show, exits, and enters the writer’s room to protest how the story is unfolding. If you don’t take it too seriously, it’s a ton of fun – especially the K.E.V.I.N. scene. On the other hand, it’s also the wildest moment we’ve seen yet in the MCU. You could chalk this up as a moment of inter-dimensional travel, but I’ve been thinking about She-Hulk’s antics for at least twelve hours and the only way I can make this make sense is by accepting that it doesn’t make sense. And maybe that’s okay – maybe the story is more important than its adherence to worldbuilding.
All in all, my wife and I loved this show, and can’t wait for more of it. She-Hulk is charismatic, instantly lovable, and the supporting cast all knock it out of the park too. There wasn’t one episode that was devoid of laughs or heart. Bring on Season 2!