The Marvel Cinematic Universe has seen its heroes battle hyper-intelligent AIs, evil aliens with infinite powers, multiverse-travelling witches, butchers of gods, and so much more. But no one has ever had a battle like She-Hulk just had — in a courtroom, with her literal identity on the line. By doing so, the audience finally (we think) got a clearer idea of what the Disney+ show is aiming for, with plenty of wit and humour along the way.
Episode five of She-Hulk, “Mean, Green, and Straight Poured Into These Jeans,” picked up right where the fourth episode left off. Jen (Tatiana Maslany) is still reeling from the copyright infringement lawsuit Titania (Jameela Jamil) served her over the name “She-Hulk.” Titania is all in on “She-Hulk,” releasing a line of skincare, beauty, and wellness products. Jen sees the billboards on the Sunset Strip and even tries to confront Titania at her popup at the Grove (all of which are very specific LA references that made me feel like I was watching an episode of Entourage, but in a less problematic way). The social-media superhero has gone full Kardashian with Jen’s superhero name, and Jen pretends like she doesn’t care, but she does.
Jen’s boss does not like seeing the name and person he invested in, She-Hulk, being used to promote products like “Booty Boost” and urges her to clean up her own mess. He makes Mallory Book (Renée Elise Goldsberry) take Jen’s case and very quickly it’s obvious this was the right move. Mallory has confidence and swagger Jen doesn’t and decides to countersue, alleging Titania stole the name just to profit off it. The problem is, she needs to prove Jen was using the name before the lawsuit. Hmmm, wonder how she’d do that.
Meanwhile, in a very funny but very tangential side story, Pug (Josh Segarra) asks Nikki (Ginger Gonzaga) to help him wait in line for some limited edition sneakers (the Iron Man 3s, in case you were wondering), and he brags about his “Drip Broker,” Alonzo, a man who can get him anything. Nikki wants Jen to get some new clothes, so the unseen Alonzo directs them to a seemingly innocuous boba tea shop. The shop is supposed to secretly specialise in superhero clothing, but what it really sells is bootleg Avengers merch. (Much more on this in the random thoughts below.) This isn’t the type of clothing Nikki was talking about, so after some back and forth, she and Pug end up at the door of a man named Luke Jacobson (Griffin Matthews). Luke is the MCU equivalent of Edna Mode from Pixar’s The Incredibles and again, after some negotiation, he agrees to make Jen new outfits that don’t make her look like “Shrek,” according to Titania.
Speaking of Titania, Jen comes up with the perfect strategy for her and Mallory. Jen realises that she had been using the name “She-Hulk” in her dating profile well before the lawsuit, and trots out all of the men She-Hulk went on dates with in the previous episode to prove she was using the name. It’s a very embarrassing, very awkward move, but it works. She-Hulk gets her name back, and Titania is none too pleased.
After some post-victory bonding with Mallory, where the two lament about how so many average men think they can do better than a literal superhero, Jen goes back to Luke’s place to see her new clothes. We’ll have to wait until next week to see them, but we do learn about another one of Luke’s clients: none other than that other MCU lawyer superhero, Matt Murdock himself. Daredevil.
So what does all of this have to do with what I said at the start about She-Hulk revealing its purpose? Well, it’s becoming rather clear that even though we’re sure Jen’s going to show down with (at least) Titania, this show isn’t about her as a superhero. It’s about her as a person. A person who is trying to figure out who they are. Whether that means training with your cousin, grappling with fame, looking for a significant other, or even just coming to terms with a name you don’t like, by the end of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, the balance of power in the MCU probably won’t change, but a fully formed, confident superhero will have emerged — at least we hope. There are still several weeks to go.
Random Thoughts
- Really? No end credits scene this week? How do you establish over multiple weeks a pattern of funny end credit scenes and then just stop? I hope next week, Jen directly addresses this.
- But while the end credits this week lacked an additional scene, the illustrations did up their game significantly. We saw that Pug got his sneakers and that Mr. Holliway (Steve Coulter) may not want She-Hulk’s name on Booty Boost, but he’ll try some himself.
- I loved the She-Hulk by Titania stuff. The flashy commercials, the labels, the title card of the episode, it was all so damned fun.
- What’s up with that Todd guy, played by Jon Bass? I called last week that he would be back but now it seems like he’s less obsessed with Titania and more just a rich arsehole. Is he a rich arsehole looking for a superhero to defeat to prove himself? I don’t know, but something along those lines seems possible.
- Finally, the “Avongers” and “Avingers” merch was created by the artist 100% Soft, aka Truck Torrance, who we have interviewed in the past. He’s engaged to She-Hulk showrunner Jessica Gao, so not only did he pop up as one of Jen’s matches in the previous episode, but his famous Dumpster Fire toy makes a cameo this week, and he designed the She-Hulk logo as well. I wonder if any of that Avongers merch might be available at some point in the future… hmm. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram just in case.
