Viewer Log: She-Hulk ep 5

 A legal battle that hits close to Jen's home.

Last time on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Wong sought Jen’s help in dealing with an annoying wizard drop out. A former student, Donny Blaze, had been using a Sling-Ring to spice up his magic show and dropping drunk people into parallel realities. They sue but trying to convince a judge to “copywrite” magic is a bit of a hard sell. Damn. Jen takes the case. Jen’s B-story is that she’s trying to find a date. After striking out repeatedly as Jen, she makes a She-Hulk account and found a hot doctor. She takes the hot doctor home but must put the date on hold to help Wong fight off the demons that he’d predicted Donny would eventually call up. They defeat the demons and get Donny to agree to stop using the Sling-Ring. She gets back home and has her ‘fun’ with the Doctor, but he awkwardly leaves the next morning when he realizes Jen’s natural form is significantly smaller than he’d initially thought. Feeling bummed at that, Jen gets hit with another gut punch by learning that Titania copyrighted She-Hulk and is suing her for misuse of a trademark. Uh-oh. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Episode 5: Mean, Green and Straight Poured into These Jeans

 

That title is a mouthful.

 

This is just gross. lol

We open with Jen cooking dinner when “She-Hulk, by Titania” commercial plays. It’s as generic as a commercial can get, and definitely feels like Titania is saying She-Hulk as many times in a row as she can. We cut to Jen driving, and she is inundated with She-Hulk advertisements. Later, she’s just having breakfast when her cousin Ched comes in and asks for her to sign some ‘She-Hulk’ merch as part of a get rich quick scheme. She explains to Ched that she’s not affiliated with the She-Hulk stuff that Titania is making. Ched gives her that same infuriating remark as the documents guy from the last episode, that legally speaking trademarking is first come first serve, causing Jen to scream.

 

Later, Jen and Nikki go to a Titania conference to try to talk to her. Jen goes through and is disgusted by the fact Titania is literally selling snake oil. She confronts Titania but Titania isn’t budging. Later at the office, Jen laments the situation but pretends that having a literal snake oil saleswoman steal her name to sell said snake oil doesn’t bother her. She crushes her stapler as she says this, so I’m not buying it. Nikki goes to her desk and looks at Titania products when Pug comes up to her. He asks her to stand in line with him to help him get two sets of Iron Man 3 sneakers. She agrees, on the condition he gives her a favor in return. Pug, feeling pretty jazzed, brags that he has a “drip broker” that hooks him up with a lot of rare merch. Nikki, having a lightbulb moment, asks if this guy could make custom clothing for a superhuman sized woman. Pug says ya, so they have a plan. Jen, meanwhile, is watching a Titania press release video, and claiming that she’s over it. Totally, Jen. Totally.

 

Power shoppers right here.

Nikki and Pug go to the location that his friend Alonzo sent him. It’s a boba café. The barista seems confused when they ask about Superhero merch, but once Nikki says they’re not cops (the first time in Chinese, which confuses the not Chinese Barista) he closes the front and leads them to the merch in back. The stuff he has is bootleg, “Avongers” and “Avingers” with color palette swapped characters. Pug isn’t too put out by this and grabs some stuff, but Nikki demands to know who the Barista’s connect is. He says that the guy won’t speak with them, but tells them where to go after buying some more merch. They go… somewhere, the scene transition isn’t clear, and Nikki tries to talk to the designer. He initially rejects her, but relent when Nikki claims that she’s there on behalf of an Avenger. The designer agrees to a fifteen-minute consult and that his assistant will set it up with them. They do a celebration dance, which he sees, before leaving.

 

Later, Jen is in a meeting with Holliway. Holliway is… confused about the Titania She-Hulk situation. He doesn’t really care about the reason “why,” he just wants Jen to fix it. Jen says she’ll fix it, but Holliway says “no,” and assigns Mallory Book to her case. Mallory was the other lawyer that said no to doing Dennis’s case a few episodes back. Mallory makes it clear that going forward, they aren’t colleges, Mallory is the lawyer and Jen the client and that’s how this is going to work. Jen explains that she didn’t think to trademark her name. Mallory, being really good at this, comes up with a strategy immediately and says they’re going to countersue and claim that it’s Titania profiteering off of Jen’s name recognition. She says that Jen needs to dress like she respects herself for this to work and orders Nikki to get on that. Nikki says she’s on top of it.

 

The case begins. Mallory comes out swinging, stating the facts that She-Hulk wasn’t a *thing* until Jen came around, and that Titania is using the goodwill that Jen generates (plus a big dose of what Bruce generates too) to see non-FDA approved cosmetics. After Titania tries to pitch some of her products as evidence, her lawyer changes tactics and claims that because Jennifer Walters wasn’t “interested” in the name She-Hulk until the products took off. He uses clips of Jen saying that She-Hulk is a name she isn’t interested in. Mallory counters with Jen’s interview claiming the name, and Mallory swears they have more evidence of Jen using the name in a professional capacity. The judge gives them until Wednesday to get ready.

 

I honestly love this man, so much.

Later, Jen and Nikki go to the consultation. We meet Luke Jacobson, the eccentric fashion designer for heroes. He’s initially very dismissive of Jen, but Nikki pitches her as a future megastar to hype her up. Jen wants just a basic business suit, but Luke doesn’t do basic. He tries to kick them out, but Nikki then points out Jen’s unique requirements, as she needs suits that fit as both the 7 feet tall She-Hulk and the… we’ll say 5’6”… maybe 5’7” Jen. Luke, intrigued by the perimeters, agrees and orders extra stretch wool immediately.

 

Jen and Nikki return to the office and see Mallory with one of her bad dates, Todd Phelps. He’s the creepy one that talked to her like she was a lab rat. Turns out, he’s a big client at GLK&H. Mallory is his lawyer, and while she works with him it’s clear she’s creeped out by him too. Swell. He says they should reconnect soon and walks off. Later, Jen and Nikki have lunch and talk about how awful Todd is. This gives Jen a lightbulb moment, realizing that by using the name on a dating app she established a pattern of use for it. Nikki points out that this’ll required Jen to “parade all the questionable men you dated through a courtroom” and that that’ll be real embarrassing for her. Solid wingwoman, Nikki.

 

Really don't see her appeal to be honest.

Wednesday rolls around, Mallory reading off the cringy info in Jen’s bio as part of the evidence. They then call in the dudes. Weightlifter, weird director guy, Todd, and hot Doctor, all show they’re terrible in different ways and prove that Jen is using the name She-Hulk. Hot Doctor says that he wouldn’t have gone out with Jen Walters but was attracted to She-Hulk. The Judge finds in favor of Jen and that all She-Hulk products need to be recalled. Titania swears this isn’t over, and then walks off with the weightlifter. As they leave, Jen is clearly depressed at how they won even though they won. Mallory, being a nice lady despite her impartial attitude, tells Jen that she can do better than those guys, that she deserves better. Jen offers to buy her a drink.

 

They get drinks. Mallory compliments Jen being willing to humiliate herself like that to win a case. They bond over the insanity that even with superpowers, those fairly average weirdos thought they could do better than She-Hulk and the general “women got to try harder” thing. Mallory thanks her for the drink and then remarks that she thought Jen was getting better clothes.

 

Matt's upgrading, it seems.

We cut to Jen picking up her suits. Luke has a few business suits along with one that’s ‘special.’ We don’t see it here, but Jen’s superhero costume is great. As Jen tries stuff on, Luke notices that a mask box was left out without a top. He quickly gets the box ready, revealing a familiar pair of horns sticking from the box. Ooo, Daredevil tease.

 

This was a very funny episode. While having been a fan of superhero media for about as long as I can remember, I can say with confidence the legal hoops that one has to jump through for one’s name and image is a plot that is rarely brought up. I think there’s a recurring Spider-Man joke about how he’d love to get a royalty check for a lot of his merch but the whole “having to give my real name and address” thing turns him off. This episode does a great job at making Titania seem like just the worst to deal with. Smarmy and smug, just the worst. She has such a punch-able face. I like Mallory Book, too. She’s very businesslike and cold, but with great comedic timing. I like that her general exasperation at how hard Jen made this case by pushing the She-Hulk label away. Luke Jacobson is also a great addition. Sure, the mean fashion designer that is ever so slightly turned on by the idea of making a costume for a protagonist has been done, but Griffin Matthews really sells it. It’s nice to have an explanation, retroactively, where a fair number of super suits came from. Like, maybe original suits might be homemade, but the newer suits could be Luke’s. He does good work, and we’ll see more of that going forward. So, Jen now has suits that fit both forms, and legal control of her own name. What’s next? A wedding. Joy. See you then. 

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