I thought Tuesday was a huge press day for Star Wars. Vanity Fair dropped a stunning photo shoot with a full story on the four big Disney+ Star Wars projects slated for the next year. A comment Kathleen Kennedy made about Solo stirred a bee’s nest in the fan community, but beyond that it was a triumph, creating excitement for Lucasfilm’s slate of marquee projects, all on Disney+: Obi-Wan Kenobi (May 27), Andor (late Summer), The Mandalorian Season 3 (end of 2022), and Ahsoka (2023). Suffice it to say I’m excited for them all.
Turns out it was a pretty big day for Marvel too, as later that day a trailer for the upcoming Disney+ series She-Hulk hit the Internet.
Fan discourse has gravitated towards what many are calling poor CGI, saying that they expected something a little more sophisticated than what the trailer showed us. Some have even likened Jennifer Walters’ Hulk form to the graphics of an old PC game. While the effects in this trailer weren’t the best I’ve ever seen, they didn’t bother me that much. I feel like I did with the debate surrounding the Grand Inquisitor’s head in the first Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer; fixating on a visual effects element like that has the potential to distract from a discussion of the kind of story a trailer foreshadows.
Image Credit: Forbes
The new trailer for She-Hulk clearly conveys that the series will be not only be a comedy, but a comedy that focuses on the experience of those who identify as young, single women specifically. When Bruce Banner says to his cousin, Jennifer Walters, that fear and anger typically trigger the Hulk transformation, she says, “Those are like the baseline of any woman just…existing.” So the she in She-Hulk is going to be a theme, though it’s unclear how prominent.
On the one hand, I’m very excited at the prospect of a female Marvel character headlining her own series. WandaVision was already a great step in that direction, though Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness may throw a wrench in that. She-Hulk, in contrast, has the opportunity to tell a lighter female character-driven story, without the burden of processing serious trauma and grief. The idea of Jen Walters being a high-powered yet mostly ordinary lawyer who then becomes a high-powered superhero — and that’s the most exciting thing happening to her — sounds great.
If the show is a legal comedy, as the full title, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law implies, that sounds really fun. I never watched much Ally McBeal, but this trailer reminded me a little of my vague memory of that show. The William Shatner and James Spader comedy showcase, Boston Legal, also comes to mind.
Abomination might be a client in need of legal defense. We see him twice in this trailer, first appearing in human form as Emil Blonsky, jailed, and then later in his full creature form. Maybe Jen Walters’ law firm will appoint her to defend Emil Blonsky? The trailer shows an older man, presumably her boss, telling her that he’d like her to be the “face” of the superhuman division of the firm. Courtroom comedy with iconic Marvel characters sprinkled in sounds fresh and new (and, again, fun).
Image Credit: ComicBook.com
In the comics, Abomination is typically an enemy of The Hulk, but in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, we see him fighting Sorcerer Supreme Wong in a fighting ring, only to realize that Wong seems to be coaching him. Actor Benedict Wong (who plays Sorcerer Supreme Wong) appears on the cast list for She-Hulk, so whatever is going on with Abomination is likely a continuation or explanation of what we saw in Shang-Chi. I also noticed Jameela Jamil (who plays socialite Tahani in The Good Place) on the list. I went back to the trailer and realized that the flash of a woman wearing a ridiculous costume must be her. Some light Googling reveals that she will play Titania, an anti-hero rival of She-Hulk.
Image Credit: Screen Rant
A lot of this trailer, however, makes me a little trepidatious about how this show might try to be “for women” in the same way Bic markets pink pens as “Bic for her.” If this is the case, it will likely backfire and become a problematic representation of women. Jen’s friend says, “Can we get some shots, please? It’s an emergency” when they’re at a bar together. And later on, when Jen is in She-Hulk form but wearing a civilian’s cocktail dress, another woman says, “Girl, your ass looks crazy right now.” She-Hulk’s posture here is very odd, drawing attention to her Hulk body in a way that we would never see with Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk.
Image Credit: Game Informer
If all this is an attempt to represent a young, single career woman’s daily life, trying to balance friends, work, and a complicated dating life, that’s great. But these moments in the trailer give me the impression that this may rely on stereotypes of single working women, even if they are ones that have been historically glorified by shows like Sex and the City. And if I’m being unfair to Sex and the City, please feel free to defend it. I never got into it in its heyday, but I know a lot of people have fond memories of it and saw it as a revolutionary, feminist show at the time. It’s obviously okay to like designer clothes and boozy brunches, but writers need to be careful when making a taste for those things the punchline of a joke. Are we laughing at women or with women?
I want She-Hulk to be a show about a single woman rather than a show presuming to be for all women. I would would want a show that has more bite and 21st sensibilities in the way that Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag does. The content would have to be less R-rated than that show to be Marvel-friendly, of course.
Image Credit: Variety
Head Writer Jessica Gao’s resume gives me hope. She’s responsible for the “Pickle Rick” episode of Rick and Morty, a show that has vat-of-acid-levels of bite. (That specific episode is also an all-timer.) She’s also worked on Silicon Valley, Robot Chicken, and a Kung Fu Panda spin-off series. All of these titles have varying degrees of parody built into them, so hopefully She-Hulk will be more of a send-up of Sex and the City-inspired stereotypes rather than un-ironic attempt to make a Marvel version of them.
She-Hulk premieres on Disney+ on Wednesday August 17.