Let’s play a little game. No
complaining. Let’s pretend you are a lawyer. Your current case is a class
action lawsuit against Iron Man aka Tony Stark. You have a sizeable amount of
evidence and a winning strategy in mind to convince the jury that Mr. Stark
should pay a hefty sum to your clients. You are very confident that you’ll win
this case. And yet, when you look over at Tony Stark lounging in the defendant’s
chair he’s got an incredibly smug smile on his face. Is he drunk? Probably, he’s
been known to relapse, but his air of self-confidence is a little too strong
for drunken delirium. Then his lawyer walks in. A seven foot tall, well-muscled,
bright green but still incredibly gorgeous woman with her own
confident smile. Your stomach drops when you realize that Mr. Stark’s lawyer is
Jennifer Walters, the She-Hulk. By the time her opening statement is finished,
hope is pretty much lost, but you need to still power through. Bad luck, mate.
See, wasn’t that fun? It was for me. Now, on with the show.
She must spend more on clothes than your average female stereotype. |
Jennifer Walter’s started out life
as a small, meek young woman with dreams of being a top notch lawyer in LA. She
was relatively successful, but far from the top when her cousin Bruce Banner
visited her in her office. They’d been very close growing up, in some ways they
were more like siblings than cousin, so Jennifer was delighted to see him. She
became slightly less happy with the visit when Bruce confided in her that he
was the Incredible Hulk and thus a wanted man. Jen, while shocked that her mild
mannered cousin turned into such an aggressive beast, was supportive and
suggested that they discuss Bruce’s problems at length at her home. Unfortunately,
a pair of gangsters tailed them. The two nameless thugs worked for a crime boss
that Jennifer was prosecuting. The second the cousins stepped out of the car,
the gunmen shot Jennifer in the back. Bruce was able to distract the gunmen
with a garden hose and rushed Jennifer to safety. Those two should consider
themselves lucky that Bruce’s fear for Jennifer was greater than his rage at
them for shooting her. We avoided a double helping of Thug Street Pizza. Thank
goodness.
Jennifer was losing blood fast, and
as such Bruce needed to work faster to save her. He got Jennifer to a nearby
clinic, but it was unfortunately closed. He broke, and gave Jennifer an
infusion of his blood. Thankfully they were the same blood type, or this would
have been messy. After Jennifer was stable, Bruce called an ambulance before
escaping out of fear that the police officers also called would recognize him.
Jennifer was recovering in a hospital bed when the Goons that shot her earlier snuck
in dressed as doctors. They restrained Jennifer and tried to smother her with chloroform.
It was at this opportune moment that the side effects of Bruce’s blood became
apparent. Jennifer morphed into the incredibly strong She-Hulk. In her new
titanic body, Jennifer was able to quickly disable the thugs, and force a
confession out of them before returning to her hospital room, reverting to
normal without anyone being the wiser.
Never seen someone more happy to smash things. |
Since her first outing as the
She-Hulk, Jennifer has done incredibly well for herself. She has become a very
successful attorney, and also a regular member of the Avengers. She has
represented several of her teammates and fellow superheroes on civil cases, and
to my knowledge has only lost once, when a supervillain/mercenary named
Constrictor sued Hercules (yes he’s a superhero now too) for excessive force.
She’s subbed in for the Thing on the Fantastic Four’s team roster. And she has
even gone toe to toe with her cousin on one of his really bad days. She-Hulk’s
come way up in the world.
Jennifer Walters is an accomplished
and skilled attorney. She is soft spoken and intelligent, and widely considered
to be one of the best lawyers in the world. In her She-Hulk form she is
incredibly strong, fast and durable. She isn’t as powerful as the Hulk himself,
but she is several times stronger than just about any other character. Her body
is described as having Amazonian proportions, long limbs, lean muscle and yet
still has a healthy amount of curves. Unlike her cousin, Jennifer does have a
degree of control over herself in She-Hulk form, but like Bruce it isn’t perfect.
As a matter of fact, Jennifer has recently realized that she is basically addicted
to her She-Hulk form. Let me explain, as the She-Hulk, Jennifer loses a lot of
her impulse control and inhibitions. She’s loud, boisterous, and ready to throw
down at a moment’s notice. Basically the polar opposite of what her “normal”
personality is like. Speaking as a more introverted person, I can understand
how someone could love and perhaps lose the ability to control the switch that
just turns off their inhibitions. It’s something that sounds wonderful and yet
terrifying. Her She-Hulk personality was so…uncontrolled that for a time she
was asked to leave the Avenger’s Mansion (their HQ) until she got a handle on
things. She has, and is now back on the roster.
She-Hulk vs. Red She-Hulk. I'll be on the moon until this blows over. |
Also unlike her cousin, Jennifer
isn’t a berserker in a fight. What I mean is She-Hulk is an accomplished
hand-to-hand combatant, having been trained by Captain America and Gamora,
which she uses in tandem with her immense strength. So, whereas the Hulk would
stop an attacker by attacking harder, She-Hulk could block said attack and then
counter it. It’s a more efficient way to fight.
She-Hulk has made a few spotty appearances
in the greater Marvel-verse. She’s mostly seen as a guest character on shows
like the Fantastic Four series.
She was a recurring and later primary
character on The Incredible Hulk TV
series of the mid-90s. It’s been years since I watched it, and the only scene I
remember is Hulk seeing She-Hulk on a Hang glider and rather stupidly saying “Jen-I-Fer,
fly?” If that’s enough to get you to check it out, more power to ya.
Is there a Woman's Big and Tall? If not, I shotty this idea. |
She is the only major female
character on Hulk and the Agents of
S.M.A.S.H. She appears alongside the Hulk, Red Hulk, the alien Hulk (and
also her cousin’s son) Skarr, and the blue Hulk, A-bomb. She and Hulk have a
very strong relationship, apparently Bruce is 100% in control of the Hulk in this
universe. In an early episode She-Hulk’s comments that Hulk was so
overprotective of her, he wouldn’t let her take on Batroc the Leaper, a joke
villain in the Disney/Marvel-verse that jumps a lot. It’s not the best show
around, but I’ve laughed a few times at it, so give it a shot if you’d like.
She hasn’t appeared in any film,
though that isn’t through lack of trying. There have been two TV movie attempts
and one real film attempt in the early 90s but nothing came of it. I’d like to
see a live action version of her in the Marvel Movie-verse, but that would most
likely be contingent on another Hulk movie which isn’t happening anytime soon.
I enjoy She-Hulk. It would have
been so easy to make her just a female clone of her cousin, all rage no
substance. Instead she’s an entertaining mix of strength and smarts. While she
isn’t up to the original Hulk in terms of strength, she can run circles around
the burly beast in terms of strategy and general thought. Heck, over the years
she’s become a complex enough character to have vices and rock bottom low
points. Despite the harder points in her life, She-Hulk remains a cheerful and
vibrant character that is every bit as recognizable as the original Irritable
Green Giant. She may have begun her career as a lady sidekick/counterpart to
the Hulk, but she has since grown into a character that is arguably more
interesting than the Hulk. She’s a heavyweight champion both in a fight and in
the courtroom, the incredible She-Hulk. Next time, she’s pintsized but it’s
best to never call her a pixie, the indomitable Wasp.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She-Hulk
http://www.comicvine.com/forums/battles-7/she-hulk-vs-red-she-hulk-531236/
http://marvel.wikia.com/Jennifer_Walters_%28Earth-616%29