The first episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law was pretty good. She-Hulk the character is awesome. Are you wondering who she is? You’re in luck because I’m bored so I’ve decided to do one of these Marvel explainers for the first time in awhile.
Stan Lee created She-Hulk in 1979, the last character he created for Marvel Comics. Her origin was similar to that in the pilot of the TV show. She’s attorney Jennifer Walters, cousin of the Hulk. Bruce Banner in the comics gave her a blood transfusion after Jen ran afoul of the mob in a court case and got shot. She got Banner’s gamma-irradiated blood and was able to turn green and had immense strength.
At first, She-Hulk was a big green monster like her cousin. Her comic was titled Savage She-Hulk and she would get angry and transform. Her clothes would rip in the transformation like the Hulk’s, so she would be running around wearing a ripped purple dress, similar to the Hulk’s purple pants. (In the comics, superheroes wear costumes made of unstable molecules, invented by Reed Richards, so their costumes do not stretch or rip or burn. The Hulk was an outlaw for many years and presumably could not get these unstable molecules, so it was ripped pants for him.)
She-Hulk is one of the strongest mortals in Marvel, but is not quite as strong as the Hulk, who is not lying when he growls, “Hulk is the strongest there is!” While Jen isn’t as strong as her cousin, she’s much more stable, and there are some key differences between the cousins. Bruce Banner is haunted by parental abuse and his anger makes him transform into the Hulk. He’s spent most of his publication history being on the run after destroying property and terrorizing citizens. (But not killing them. To make the story more palatable for kids, Marvel explained the Hulk’s lack of a body count by saying he had an unconscious sense of knowing how to cause a pattern of destruction that never took any innocent lives.) These days the Hulk goes back and forth between personalities but for his first 20 years, he had no intelligence and was just savage. He would help save the world sometimes but he would destroy three square blocks doing it.
Jennifer Walters isn’t haunted by anything. She keeps her personality and intelligence at all times. She’s mild-mannered in non-superpowered form, but her She-Hulk form kind of liberates her. There was a bit of “savage” in the beginning but she’s long since developed to become someone who enjoys her power. Unlike the Hulk, she doesn’t have any baggage—at least, no more than a normal person. She-Hulk is just fun!
After her first solo title got cancelled, She-Hulk joined the Avengers in 1982. Two years later, she became a member of John Byrne’s Fantastic Four, subbing for the Thing, who remained on Battleworld to explore after the Secret Wars maxiseries. After that ended, She-Hulk returned to the Avengers, where she’s had a decorated career on and off (the Avengers come and go) ever since. She’s had a long grudge with the villain Titania, who is strong but not quite as much as She-Hulk, who is the woman who burst through the courtroom in the pilot. She-Hulk was one of the last classic line-up Avengers to show up in the movies. (The only one we’re missing is Simon Williams, aka Wonder Man.)
During the ‘80s, Jen lost the ability to become human and was stuck in her She-Hulk form. She was unfazed when she found out, saying, “So what’s the bad news?” She just very much enjoys being She-Hulk, and I find that refreshing in a world full of angsty superheroes. In 1989, Byrne started writing her second solo title, Sensational She-Hulk, which is what the show is based on. It was a humor book, with She-Hulk lawyering while being a superhero. She had the superpower of breaking the fourth wall and addressing the readers, which they allude to in the show.
There have been a few transformations in the last few years, like She-Hulk being spurred to transformation by fear, something about a Red She-Hulk, and the Avengers Disassembled story, where She-Hulk lost control and tore the Vision in half (I hated this story so much, since it trashed the Scarlet Witch’s character, and did a lot of other pointless, depressing damage, that it made me back away from comics).
But I prefer the She-Hulk who loves being in her own skin and can kick ass on the courtroom and the battlefield.
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