Marvel Studios' She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

That take on the Hulk is easier to accept when he isn't being written as a Person of Mass Destruction.

A lot depends on who you're spending most of your time with: Bruce or Hulk.

If Hulk gets most of (or even just an equal share of) the focus, then you're going to want Hulk to be someone you can care about and become invested in. However, if you spend most of the story following Bruce, with Hulk only coming out for action scenes, then they can just be a big, dumb, senselessly destructive monster.

That's part of why the Planet Hulk storyline was so good (the comics version anyway) - the Hulk himself was an actual character, not a raging impulsive monster and not Big Green Bruce, but an actual character in his own right who developed over the course of the story.

This is only tangentially related to this show but TIL that Meghan Thee Stallion was shot two years ago, and the perpetrator was just convicted yesterday apparently.

Jen knew how to cope better?

Her life started falling apart after she left Bruce's compound.

Edited by FOFD on Dec 24th 2022 at 4:28:34 AM

Yes, she and she did not immediately "Hulk Smash!". While Bruce needed a decade or so of therapy and self-discovery.

Bruce has no one to blame for that but himself. He spent that decade externalizing that part of himself as a separate "persona" so that he could reject it.

It's no coincidence that "The Hulk and Bruce are different people" suddenly stopped being a thing after Bruce reconciled his problems (offscreen) and became the much healthier Professor Hulk. Seems like that was his problem: Refusing to accept himself. Turns out, Bruce Banner is just a man with anger management issues that can only be resolved by learning to accept and understand what they mean about him. Who'd have guessed?

Jen never had that problem. She resented the inconveniences that this new development in her life placed in her path, but she didn't go so far as to start crying, "Nope, the OTHER GUY is NOT ME, I have NOTHING TO DO WITH IT, it is a completely DIFFERENT PERSON ENTIRELY and DOES NOT REFLECT ON ME OR MY ISSUES IN ANY WAY."

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 24th 2022 at 7:06:55 AM

Bruce has no one but himself to blame... for his mental disorder?

It's a grand tragedy that Bruce never got the help he needed for his issues until it was too late

Once again, it's ambiguous, because we don't know whether MCU Bruce had mental issues before becoming the Hulk, or if they have mental issues as a result of becoming the Hulk.

I mean the reason Bruce never got help was because he was hunted like an animal by the military for a decade.

Or indeed both - he had trauma/issues prior that he maybor may not have been dealing with, but the original Hulk incident was too much on top of said issues.

Entirely his fault.

Yeah, i don't get that either. Especially since he spent most of his adult life running from the government.

Edited by Cortez on Jan 2nd 2023 at 6:33:55 AM

Basically, She-Hulk acts like Bruce wasn't a fugitive and has always been a popular avenger.

I think he’s spent more time as an Avenger than as a fugitive at this point. And five plus years as a popular hero with a catchphrase and a goofy stay in school attitude

Ehhh, that comes with "years as slave gladiator in Sargossa-like Junk World."

As a POPULAR slave gladiator

Hulk seemed seriously thrilled by his life on Sakaar for the most part. Just bummed that Thor would ditch him

Years of his split personality being a popular Avenger while he was locked in the recesses of his own mind.

Plus, Jen probably wouldn’t even know about that (unless he told her).

I mean...the kid literally exists because The Hulk knocked up an alien woman. That would have to require some explanation, no matter how you try to spin it.

Either of them having children raises a lot of questions with the other guy still floating in the brain.

Yeah... I feel like it raises all sorts of Bed Trick questions of who decided to sleep with whom.

Jennifer doesn't have an "other guy" to deal with, but similarly, I seem to remember we had some discussion of whether Jennifer's seemingly increased horniness was the result of being able to take advantage of people suddenly being attracted to the new form, if it was a side effect of hormone changes making her more inclined, or if there might not be another, perhaps slightly more integrated "other guy" that was whispering in her head.

Anyhow, the whole Hulk thing probably does lead to all sorts of interesting consent issues, including that Bruce realistically can claim "temporary insanity" for things that the "other guy" did, although in general he instead takes responsibility.

I mean, Bruce and The Hulk merged their personalities, right? That should, by extension, allow them to merge their memories. So Bruce likely could remember when The Hulk...had that night with the alien woman that would give birth to Skaar, the same way The Hulk likely remembers Bruce losing to Thanos in Infinity War.

During the Planet Hulk phase Bruce pretty much ceded control to Hulk so Hulk was allowed to do whatever he wanted.

Of course in the comics right before they actually got busy Hulk privately depowered in front of Caiera to fully bare his soul to the woman he loved and leave nothing secret. Caiera accepted Bruce, so Bruce did give his consent to the relationship blossaming.

Hmm. Y'know, developing Skaar as a character might mean introducing Caiera, who the comics tragically fridged in order to make World War Hulk happen. Caiera was never a very prominent character, so she was never deemed worthy of a resurrection and remains dead to this day.

But those events didn't happen in the MCU, so we might actually get a Caiera who gets to interact with Skaar in person.

And if she's well received, the comics division will bend over backwards to resurrect her and make her a regular character in the Hulk's ongoings.

That's kinda neat! What other awesome C- and D-list characters can we force Marvel to resurrect by making them super popular in the films? Do I hear Avengers Academy movie prominently featuring Mettle?

She wasn't revived, but her spirit did appearances post Planet Hulk. That spirit did interact with Skaar.

Edited by Cortez on Jan 4th 2023 at 2:55:50 PM