Review | She-Hulk: Attorney At Law (1x07 The Retreat)

“She-Hulk delivers a fun and surprisingly heartfelt episode.”

It’s Thursday so we are back with another review of She-Hulk. It is time for our weekly dose of Marvel content. After this one, there are only two episodes left. This season has passed so quickly. So I am grateful this is a nine-episode series and not the usual six. And as a reminder, next week is going to be a double Marvel dose with Werewolf by Night on Friday!

JENNIFER AND SHE-HULK

Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer “Jen” Walters/She-Hulk in Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.

One of the many reasons I love She-Hulk is that this series goes beyond the “superhero-ing.” Indeed, it explores both sides of the character – Jennifer and She-Hulk. We see how she deals with the different aspects of her life. It is actually a struggle for her. She-Hulk is the version of her that gets all the attention because she is a Hulk. Though, people don’t pay attention to Jennifer. For her, this is problematic. The whole dating arc has been compellingly dealing with that. This episode continues to show that struggle. It’s nice to see her talking about it with other characters. In fact, it is surprisingly heartfelt. Superheroes are not perfect, they hurt too. This series really humanizes them in a relevant way. A sitcom is a right format to focus on all these different aspects of what it is like to be a superhero.

COMICS GOODNESS

(L-R): Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk/Jennifer “Jen” Walters, Nate Hurd as Man-Bull/William Taurens, Joseph Castillo-Midyett as El Águila/Alejandro Montoya, and Tim Roth as Abomination/Emil Blonsky in Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. © 2022 MARVEL.

Furthermore, this episode brings back Emil Blonsky. Thus, we can see what he has been up to since his release. I like this change for the character. It has allowed Tim Roth to revisit Emil and play him in a fun way. Characters are never one-sided. Honestly, I do hope we get to see him again in a future Marvel project.

Emil brings with him a peculiar group of characters – Man-Bull, El Águila, Porcupine, Saracen, and Wrecker of the Wrecking Crew (seen in a previous episode). These are all characters from the comics, some are more obscure than others. But for comics fans, this series is a goldmine. It is not necessarily characters we would have thought would ever appear in live-action and yet, this series has found a way to do it. I have said it before but Phase 4 is full-on embracing the weird aspects of the comics. I am all here for this.

(L-R): Jordan Aaron Ford as Porcupine/Alexander Gentry, Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk/Jennifer “Jen” Walters, Joseph Castillo-Midyett as El Águila/Alejandro Montoya, Nick Gomez as Wrecker/Dirk Garthwaite, Terrence Clowe as Saracen, Nate Hurd as Man-Bull/William Taurens, and Tim Roth as Abomination/Emil Blonsky in Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2022 MARVEL.

As usual, this episode makes great use of the fourth wall. With the Deadpool 3 coming in 2024, I can’t stop imagining what a She-Hulk and Deadpool team-up would look like. Both of them breaking the fourth wall at the same time would be pretty cool! For characters like this, it works just fine!