In the comics, Jennifer Walters becomes She-Hulk because she received a blood transfusion from her cousin, Bruce Banner, the He-Hulk. In a new exclusive featurette from EW, we see how Walters (played by Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany) acquires her Hulk-powers, albeit a slightly toned-down and less rage-fuelled version of those powers.
In a new featurette first debuted on ET, we see the aftermath of what appears to be a car crash (or some other kind of accident) that both Bruce and Jen where some of Bruce’s blood gets into an open wound of Jen’s, giving her powers. It’s not as medically dire as Walters getting into a car crash by herself and receiving a transfusion, but it definitely helps explain why Banner is such a huge part of the series and likely feels responsible for how he’s impacted his cousin’s life.
Also seen in the featurette is a lot of how Attorney at Law will play with one of the classic tropes from She-Hulk’s comics: a lot of metatextual fourth wall breaking. This is a gag from Walters’ comics that has been around since the late 80s. There’s a lot of Marvel-style over-explanation that’s happened since it was first introduced, including a retcon of the choice that described the fourth wall breaks as a “metafictional superpower,” but at least it’s made its way into the TV show in a pretty consistent way — plus, the gag about Jen admonishing viewers that this isn’t one of those Marvel cameo-of-the-week shows, before realising that oh no, it kind of is between Bruce, Abomination, and Wong, that it might be, is pretty good.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law premieres August 17 on Disney+.
Leave a Reply