Et was to be expected that there would be many critical voices about the television version of She-Hulk. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s female version of the destructive green monster first introduced in 1962 by the small-chested and shy physicist Dr. Bruce Banner has been as popular as it is controversial since it was invented by Stan Lee and Jack Buscema in 1980.
She-Hulk is the alter ego of young lawyer Jennifer Walters, who after an accident becomes a mega-strong six-foot-tall woman and struggles with her new appearance in her job and private life. She-Hulk bears far less monstrous features than her cousin Bruce Banner and, unlike him, remains intellectually herself during the transformation – she embodies, as the writers wanted it, an ideal version.
So can She-Hulk be read as a feminist statement – the unleashing of female power and liberation from the fear of male aggression? Or does she stand for the rejection of everything female in a character that becomes a superhero with masculine muscles? Or is She-Hulk just the figment of male fantasies, “a giant green pornstar,” as screenwriter David S. Goyer (“The Dark Knight,” “Man of Steel”) put it in a 2014 podcast?
Jessica Gao’s version of Superwoman attempts to playfully combine all of these perspectives—but, as far as can be seen in the show’s first four half-hour episodes, she prefers to stay on the surface rather than make a post-MeToo statement. Gaos Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) is a super-smart young lawyer who has the makings and ambitions of a great legal career but is plagued by self-doubt in her private life. When she becomes a green giant after a life-saving infusion with the gamma-irradiated blood of her cousin Bruce (Mark Ruffalo in one of numerous guest appearances by other Marvel characters), she is met with the admiration of those around her. But her new size turns out to be a career obstacle. And the handsome, sensitive guy she found as She-Hulk on a dating app promptly bolts when she shrinks back to her normal five-foot-five in the morning.
“What could be more depressing,” asks Jennifer, “than being in your thirties?” It’s supposed to be a Bridget Jones moment, of course, which contrasts the lawyer’s insecurities with her super alter ego. Many a person was disappointed by this tendency towards old-fashioned relationship images. Sunday Times columnist Charlotte Ivers wrote after seeing the She-Hulk trailer that she was “ready to give back my right to vote” in the face of this “attempt at feminism.”
The story is based on Dan Slott’s 2004 comic “Single Green Female” and is an extremely entertaining negotiation of feminist issues. In Slott’s story, Jen is fully settled into her new power body. She-Hulk seduces men to top People Magazine’s “Sexiest” list, and a disappointed male lingerie model wishes for “more depth” in the relationship. She-Hulk is kicked out of the Avengers mansion by Marvel’s venerable saviors because of her excessive partying (Hulks are pretty hard drinking) and the resulting devastation, and she loses her legal job in part for using the firm’s color copier for silly Misuses photos and doesn’t show the required seriousness, as her boss decides. Only as the story progresses does she realize that even her more vulnerable form makes her stronger than she dared hope.
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