Viewer Log: She-Hulk ep 9

 Jen faces off against her most powerful foe, a producer. 

Last time on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Jen went up against her greatest opponent yet. She was forced to represent “Leapfrog” aka Eugene Patililo against Luke Jacobson. Eugene burned himself badly using the suit’s rocket boosters. Luke cuts ties with Jen when she tries to get him to settle out of court. In court, she meets Luke’s lawyer, Matt Murdock. The New York lawyer quickly deduced via smell that Eugene used jet fuel in the boosters, which went against the manufacturer’s instructions. At the bar, Jen and Matt meet and bond a little about both being lawyers. She’s called to help Eugene while he’s being attacked by a mysterious man. She dons her super suit and faces off against Daredevil. She catches him and learns he’s Matt. Matt tells her that Eugene is the villain here and he’d kidnapped Luke to make him a new suit. The two team up and attack the “Lilypad,” Eugene’s super obvious hidden base. They defeat Eugene’s goons, and Eugene breaks his legs in his attempted escape. Jen gets back into Luke’s not-the-worst graces, and he’ll restart Jen’s dress for a big gala. Jen and Matt “celebrate” back at her place. The next day, Jen goes to her big gala and is one of several winners of Female Lawyer of the year. Her win is ruined by the HulkKing and Intelligencia whom post all the info stolen from her phone and leak a sex tape that Josh secretly made with Jen. Jen freaks out and smashes up the place. She grabs a mysterious figure she thinks is involved but stopped and seemingly arrested by Damage Control. Damn. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Episode 9: Whose Show is This?

 

Well, this is awkward.

         We open with a weird opener that explains the premise of the show, but in the style of the 70s Incredible Hulk show. There’s a bit that made me guffaw where Jen is arguing with online trolls but on a super old and clunky 70s computer. We learn that she’s been arrested after her outburst. We just to the real world, where Jen is visited in Blonsky’s old cell by Pug, Nikki, and Mallory. Pug has tried getting in contact with Bruce but he’s still off planet. Jen wants to start suing the people that leaked her info, but Mallory says the need to focus on her own case. While Jen’s reaction was 100% understandable, witnesses are just focusing on the “she hulked out and wrecked the place,” so they have to deal with this. Mallory got her a plea deal, but it requires her to wear an inhibitor ankle bracelet like Blonsky’s. Jen is released, and clears out her office, with some help from Nikki and Pug, since no She-Hulk means no GLK&H job.

 

Jen’s story is all over the news cycle. Reporters are camped outside her apartment. Her parents are trying to put a good spin on things, but ya know, there’s no good way to live with your parents in your 30s. She is forced to move back in with them, though as she can’t find a job. There’s a good bit where her dad scares off reporters with his hose when they try to swarm her. Later, Jen has a whole cork conspiracy board thing set up and Nikki comes by to help her. She can’t find much on these guy’s, though, because their faceless internet trolls. Jen has investigated the Intelligencia site itself and it’s run by shell companies outside the US. Nikki says that it’s a group of dumb dudes, so one of them is going to slip up and gives them what they need. Elaine comes in with snacks and derails the conversation with an old dance video Jen did back in law school. She’s shoved out of the living room, but then Nikki gets an alert that Dennis Bukowski is on a news show called the Conversation and trying to get his 20 minutes of fame out of this.

 

Jen flops onto her bed, and muses how this feels all wrong. She breaks the fourth wall and points out that this isn’t really a reluctant superhero story, she’s just getting screwed over. The dramatic 70s Hulk narration kicks up again but Jen cuts him up. Jen tries to text Bruce but gets nothing. Jen then tries to text Blonsky, but his phone is also out of service. Deciding that anytime includes ‘now’ Jen decides to head up there anyway, as a mental health break.

 

Nikki, back at the office, uses the video that Elaine gave her and posts it on Intelligencia using the dummy account she set up with Mallory. She prays to Jen to forgive her for this transgression as she does. 15 seconds later she gets a message from HulkKing telling her about a private meeting he’s setting up that she’s now invited to. She accepts, but then realizes that she’d either presented as, or HulkKing assumed she was a dude. She runs off to see if Pug is still at the office and willing to do her a favor.

 

Jen makes it to Blonsky’s retreat and meets Dirk. And by Dirk I mean Wrecker, I don’t think they’ve used his real name yet… Anyway, he says it’s perfectly okay for her to show up to get away from things and will set up a guest room for her. Jen spends some time reading Blonsky’s book, Deep Haiku’s, but she shuts it saying it sucks.

 

Nikki and Pug arrive at the meeting. Nikki is forcing him to go in despite his discomfort because Jen’s life is on the line. There’s another laugh out loud moment when Nikki reminds him to only refer to women as females while in the meeting and Pug groans like he’d just been told to kick a puppy or something equally distasteful. She has him wear an earbud and will be talking with him via the phone. Pug walks around, but Nikki is forced to get in close because the reception is real bad. Pug gets into a conversation with some dudes complaining about both She-Hulk and Mighty Thor. Pug initially can’t participate, but he pulls back and tells himself “Be gross,” before getting back in there with a “Females” line that instantly earns all their respect. Turns out, Todd Phelps is there (Nikki: Todd? Oh, wait, that tracks). He hugs Pug and then goes into a She-Hulk hate rant. Nikki keeps giving Pug what to say and learns that Todd made Intelligencia and is in fact HulkKing. Nikki loses the call at this point, say’s it’ll be fine and Pug can improvise, remembers she’s talking about Pug and runs to try to find someway to help him. In the meeting, Todd starts a big speech about how proud he is of his troll collective for hacking Jen’s phone and ruining her life.

 

Jen, meanwhile, is getting tea with Dirk. He says that Saracen turned him onto this tea, but she should be careful if he makes it for her, as he likes to slip chicken blood in it. Jen wants to talk to Blonsky, as he went through a similar character assassination as this. Dirk tells her he’s at some meeting out at the lodge. Jen goes to find him, and Dirk muses that he kind of misses the chicken blood in his tea.

 

Ohhhh, I see where this is going.

 

Et tu, Emil?

Todd introduces his guest speaker, the Abomination. Blonsky comes out and he’s in full Abomination form. He starts his speech as Jen starts walking toward the meeting. She comes in and sees him. Blonsky hulk’s down and explains that he does speaking engagements but for money, he doesn’t believe it. Nikki comes in and she and Pug explain about Todd being the HulkKing. Todd, super proud of being a toxic asshole, reveals that the bit of his plan where Josh also stole her blood. He reveals that his team synthesized a means to give him her powers and injects himself with it. Jen asks him, and the camera, if we’re actually doing this. Todd starts transforming as Jen objects to this being where the seasons was going. Titania bursts in, Jenn commenting that isn’t the scene messy enough? Blonsky hulk’s up again and saves Jen from Todd’s charge, but then Bruce bursts in, sees Blonsky holding Jen and attacks him. Blonsky objecting as they do.

 

Seeing a character in real life has gotta be weird.

Jen breaks her inhibitor and breaks the fourth wall. She breaks into the Disney+ menu and goes into her own Marvel Assemble to get answers. Jen slips into the office of the She-Hulk writing staff and demands to know what’s happening. She yells at them for doing the “villain steals my blood to give himself powers” cliché, and asks why can’t they do the story their own way. They say this is the story that Kevin wants, and Jen then wants to talk to Kevin. The writers laugh at the idea, one of them saying they’d murder her to protect Kevin, and Jen storms off to talk to Kevin. She has to sign an NDA, but the guy up front pushes the security button anyway. Jen beats her way through some guards and then meets Kevin. Not Kevin Feige, though, KEVIN. Knowledge Enhanced Visual Interconnectivity Nexus is what his acronym means. He looks a lot like OTTO from WALLE but wearing a baseball hat. He promises to answer her questions, but only if she de=hulks. Why? Because she’s very expensive to animate. She does, off screen because the visual effects team is working on another project, and he begins explaining.

 

KEVIN is all powerful!

He makes all the decisions and uses the most advanced algorithm to make nearly perfect product. When Jen asks about “nearly perfect” the robot shrugs and says some are better than other but he leaves the debating up to the internet. Jen says she’s not happy with her show, but KEVIN says that doesn’t matter. Jen wants to focus on this being a legal comedy and asks to make her closing statement to fit that mold. She talks about how the MCU is a bit formulaic, and that doing the formula distracts from Jen’s stakes. Jen’s stakes being her life falling apart just as she was figuring out how to be Jen and She-Hulk. KEVIN is interested by her point and asks what sort of ending she’s proposing. She begins by asking to erase the Todd gets Hulk powers part, as he is the villain, not the powers. Then, cut Bruce swooping in and saving the day in her story. KEVIN says that was going to introduce some stuff, but Jen says save it for the movies. He then asks about Blonsky, and Jen says she just wants him to hold himself accountable. She asks for the climax to be in the daylight, to which KEVIN acquiesces. Jen asks if she can see Daredevil again, because a woman has her needs and sits to asks about the plethora of daddy issues in the MCU and when we’re getting the X-Men. KEVIN says their done, and that She-Hulk won’t get access to KEVIN again. They fixed the glitch that let her break reality. He sends her back to her show.

 

She-Hulk returns to her story, Titania is streaming everything that’s happening, cops are arriving and she’s looking pissed. She de-hulks and tells Todd that she’ll see him in court. Daredevil leaps in out of nowhere looking to help and seems kind of bummed he missed everything. Pug’s mind is blown that his friend clearly has a thing with Daredevil. She goes to talk to Blonsky, who is signing a confession to his actions. He’s going back to jail for 10 years for violating parole, and he’s happy to do it to earn back some good karma for his actions.

 

Jen and Matt have a nice outdoor dinner with her family. Matt getting grilled about what he does by Aunt Rebecca. The family seems to like him, though, so that’s a win. Bruce then shows up, and introduces his son to them, Skaar. Oh neat. … Time moves differently on Skaar, and aliens are often shown to mature faster than humans, so Skaar being a teenager despite him being what… 10 is doable. Good on the Walters/Banners for just rolling with this. I suppose after two scions of your family become hulks, there’s very little that will surprise you.

 

She-Hulk a few days later heads into court and says that she’s going to hold people like Todd and Intelligencia accountable for their actions. When the reporter she’s talking to asks if she means in court or as a superhero, she says both. And the credit’s roll.

 

Damnit, Wong, we talked about this.

In an after-credit’s scene, Blonsky is in prison again. Wong opens a portal into his cell and breaks him out again. Oh my, I wonder what this is building to.

 

Well, that was certainly a bonkers ride. I’ll get to the fourth wall break in a second. I liked the set up here, with Jen hitting the most rock bottom she could and then going to Blonsky because they’ve both been through this only to find out his affiliation with HulkKing was well done. Like, her reaction to having her private information put on display and seeing an extremely personal moment put on display, yeah, I’d start breaking stuff too. Unfortunately, the legal reaction also makes sense. When you have as much power as She-Hulk has, she had to have been making people nervous from minute one. Nikki and Pug were great in this episode, too. I appreciated that Pug was getting visibly ill and uncomfortable with every word he’d make to seem like an Intelligencia Proud Boy. “Come on, Pug. Get Gross” being a major standout. Nikki was also brilliant. Yeah, kind of scummy to post a video of your friend embarrassing themselves, but that was key to getting in to the Intelligencia convention. Okay, now onto the fourth wall break. … I’ll be honest, I loved it. Seeing Jen get meta about the formulaic nature of the MCU and advocating for her show to do something different was fun. I also loved that KEVIN, much like Kevin Feige, was wearing a baseball cap. I much prefer the ‘corrected’ version of Jen’s finale overall… but I do have one complaint. That Jen was dropped in once everything was sorted out. I would have preferred them restarting from when Jen walked in and going from there. The arrest and Jen’s “I’ll see you in court” were perfect, I just wish she hadn’t marched in like that. Also, why was Titania there? I can accept Matt appearing because KEVIN respected Jen’s libido, but not even a “Nikki texted her and she hates Intelligencia too,” explanation? Okay… I’ll be curious to see where the post credit scene goes. Wong seems to imply he’s been busy, and I wonder if Blonsky is going to be involved now. Or if Jen is going to have to go Abomination hunting in season 2. So… yeah, I enjoyed the show, liked the finale overall, I just wished they’d made it more diegetic when Jen reappears. Oh, and I hope Dirk keeps up the retreat even with Blonsky gone. It was weird to see Wrecker with any personality traits beyond “yell at his subordinates and break things,” but I enjoyed this guru in training. And the guys need someone who can help them, or else Man-Bull and El Aguila will never get over their codependency issues. Yeah, fun show. Tomorrow, for Halloween, it seems only fair to talk about Marvel’s special. See you then. Ahrooooooo!

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: She-Hulk ep 8

Player 2 has entered the battle. 

Last time on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Jen had a good thing going with Josh for three days before he ghosted her. She dwells on that for most of the episode, even when she’s stuck spending a Sunday at Blonsky’s retreat after two of his guests wreck her car. She ends up being in a group therapy session with several reforming villains, including Wrecker of the Wrecking Crew. He’s the guy that tried to jump her in episode 3. They help Jen talk out some of the anxiety and negative feelings she’s been having, both about Josh and about being She-Hulk, and ultimately encourage her to delete his number and try to move on. She has a nice session in a yurt and things seem to end on a high note. Until we see a flashback to three days prior where Josh is revealed to be working for HulkKing and that he stole her blood and copied her phone data. Oh no. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Episode 8: Ribbit and Rip it

 

Why... why is the frog flying?

We open with a stupidly dressed teen trying to fight off some guys steeling some flatscreen TVs. This is Eugene Patililo aka Leapfrog. He’s an idiot with too much money trying to be a superhero and it shows. He hurts himself more doing his jump kick than he hurt either guard. We jump out of the scene to Jen and Eugene in Jen’s office. Back to the scene, Eugene narrates (making it sound way cooler than it was) him embarrassing himself in front of these two thieves who kick his ass. He tries to escape (he framed it as deescalating the situation) using rocket boosters on his ankles, but the crashes after flying several feet into the air and catches on fire. His suit was supposed to be fireproof, but instead he got third degree burns on his legs. The thieves escaped, and Eugene is looking to sue the guy who sold him the suit. Luke Jacobson. … OH, this is going to get complicated for Jen.

 

Jen has a meeting with Holliway. She’s really hoping to pass the case to someone else, as she loves the suits that Jacobson makes for her and he’s literally the only tailor that she’s found that can make a size changing suit. Yeah, I could see that as a pretty niche market. Holliway isn’t willing to shift lawyers, though, as Patililo sr. is one of their biggest clients and Eugene is super excited to have a Hulk as his lawyer. Holliway suggests Jen go speak with Jacobson and see if they can’t settle out of court. They both mock Eugene’s catchphrase “Ribbit and Rip it” as Jen walks out.

 

At Luke’s office, Jen tries to politely ask Jacobson to settle out of court. Jacobson, upon hearing Eugene is calling his defective, throws a spectacular fit, ripping up the dress he was making for Jen’s big gala and telling her they’re done professionally. Well… at least she got a few suits beforehand, right? Jen is rightly upset as she prepaid for the suit and storms off angrily.

 

She's never getting more clothes...

We jump to the day of court. Jen is clearly annoyed to be dealing with Eugene still, and Luke, interestingly, is present without his lawyer. Is he representing himself? No, his guy was just running late. Who is his guy, you may be asking? Why, none other than Matthew Michael Murdock. Matt comes in with perfect dramatic timing. He starts by asking that the judge block Jen’s request to compel Luke to provide a client list. Luke has a very strict confidentiality policy, as a certain Devil from Hell’s Kitchen is extremely aware of. Matt says the list isn’t relevant, Jen thinks it is since she could use it to find other potential defective merchandise. They have a back in forth for a bit, Jen pointing out all the reasons why she should have the list, Matt pointing out all the reasons why she should not, but it ends up being a moot point. Why? Eugene pulls out the suit when the Judge sides with Matt, and Matt is able to smell jet fuel from the suit’s rockets. Luke’s instructions specifically told him not to do that. Eugene tries to backpedal, everyone can tell he’s lying, even the people without super hearing, and the judge finds in favor of Luke Jacobson. Jen tries to apologize as Luke walks out, because, again, she has basically no other option for suits. Luke gets her hopes up for a second before saying “No. Because I hate you now.” I really love this guy.

 

Jen goes to the bar and is given an appletini… courtesy of Matt. Everyone’s favorite blind lawyer is trying to extend a peace offering to her, and Jen is willing to listen. She asks him his story. He explains that he owed Luke a favor after Luke made him a few suits, and that he in fact prefers doing pro bono work for clients that need a skilled lawyer. But he does a few higher profile cases on occasion to pay to keep the lights on. He describes it as “one for us and one for them.” Jen admits that that’s noble, but she personally doesn’t have the gas to do more as she works for “them” full time. Matt disagrees, saying that Jen can help people in the court, but maybe She-Hulk can help when the law fails people. I wonder where he got this idea from? Ha. He walks off to check a call, and Jen turns to the camera and asks if we all felt that. To which I say, yes, we did all feel the electricity between them. The moment is ruined by Jen getting a text from Todd, the rich creepy dude she went out with once and is a big GLK&H client, saying he has a legal issue to discuss. Matt has to leave for a work thing, and Jen is strong armed into meeting with Todd. Her firm has a 24/7 policy for guys like him.

 

Jen meets with Todd. Todd brags about getting an authentic Wakandan war spear at an auction. He claims to have studied abroad there and creepily does the Wakanda Forever salute. So the legal issue he had was with Wakanda demanding they get the spear back because it was taken by colonizers, which is a solid point, but he admits this meeting was more about him making a pass at She-Hulk. Jen says no, shoves the table at him and storms off, saying she billed him for the whole hour.

 

She makes it home and drops on her couch, just in time to get a call from Eugene. He’s being attacked by someone and needs Jen to bail him out. He adds her on Find my Friends and beg her to save him. She agrees to help and suits up.

 

She finds Eugene racing down a parking ramp, leaps in the way and stops the car, hurling his assailant from the roof. Got to say, I dig Jen’s suit. Luke Jacobson does do really good work. The guy stands up, and it’s none other than Daredevil. He’s rocking a new yellow and brown version of his suit. Daredevil tells her to back off, but Jen is like “And waste this outfit?” She tells Eugene to go and she proceeds to fight Daredevil. She-Hulk outclasses him in physical strength by an absurd degree, but Daredevil is second only to Spider-Man in dexterity and easily dodges her heavy, concrete breaking blows. She collapses part of the parking lots top floor with one punch, Daredevil dodges, and acrobats his way to group level. Eugene just passes him, shouting “Ribbit and Rip it” as he does. Daredevil goes to chase him, but She-Hulk lands in front of him, cutting him off. She grabs at him, he dodges, and then she throws a car at him. He dodges a few more times, but then Jen tries the Thunderclap. That throws him off his feet and stuns him, because ya know, loud noises hurt him a lot. She-Hulk rips off his mask, and it’s Matt Murdock, what a shock.

 

She-Hulk de-hulks back to Jen and asks the obvious question “are you just pretending to be blind? Because I find that very problematic.” Matt explains his ultra-hearing thing. Matt explains that Leapfrog is the bad guy here, as he’d just kidnapped Luke Jacobson. When Jen asks why he didn’t open with that, Matt asks why she didn’t ask before trying to whoop his ass. In her defense, I would probably also assume the guy in a devil costume is the bad guy. They banter a little before going to save Luke.

 

It's an okay costume, ngl.

Inside, Eugene is forcing Luke to make him a new suit. He wants all the bells and whistles for version 2.0, bulletproof shields, British AI, and poison darts. Luke, clearly pissed, tells Eugene to find whoever told him that he could pull off Green and shoot them. As Eugene workshops the name “Leap Squad” for his guys, Jen wonders how this idiot could have henchman and goons. Matt explains that goons and henchmen are different, goons are hired muscle while Henchmen believe in their boss’s cause. So yeah, the Leap Squad are very much goons. Matt detects 25 goons scattered around the building. Jen is disbelieving of Matt’s heartbeat hearing, but then he points out hers is beating pretty fast. Matt wants to take them out stealth-fully, but Jen is all for just breaking in and wrecking the place.

 

Matt goes to do his “thing.” He starts taking out the goons one at a time, but then Jen busts in an takes out five of them in one go. “She-Hulk smash” she says as she does. She-Hulk and Daredevil burst into the main room. Jen frees Luke while Matt takes out the rest of the goons. Jen tells Eugene to just stop before he wracks up more charges. Jen says they might be able to spin it as a mania episode, Matt (while still beating guys up) says that that’s murky ethically speaking and suggests maybe trying undiagnosed PTSD instead. Jen lets us know that ninja + lawyer = doing it for her. Eugene tries to escape out a window, falls and breaks his legs. Whoops.

 

In the aftermath, Eugene is wheeled out to an ambulance and Luke forgive Jen after he helped save her. Jen asks him to make her the gala dress, to which he agrees and gives her a backhanded remark about not getting bloated between now and then. Jen is happy they’re strained professional acquaintances again.

 

Great way to end a team up.

Jen and Matt meet on the Lilypad sign. They bond a bit while play arguing who was the lead hero on this case. Jen asks when he flies out, Matt says tomorrow and says maybe he can take her out next time he’s in town. Jen prefers now vs. later, so they head back to her place and finish their team-up episode in style. Ha ha.

 

The next day, Daredevil is seen walking away from Jen’s place with boots in his hand and whistling. Jen comes out into her living room and wonders why we’re still here, since it seems like the episode should be over. Nikki comes in and reminds her about the gala. She points out that she saw a guy in a devil costume doing the walk of shame, but then compliments Jen when she learns his walk started at her place. Jen, upon realizing that we’re doing the gala tonight, has an existential crisis when she realizes that this is the penultimate episode of the season. She wonders if the big twist is like “there’s another hulk but he’s red,” or “I’m about to get fridged” but is willing to roll with it.

 

Jen looking FIERCE.

That night at the Gala, Jen and Nikki meet with her parents. She sees that creep Todd again and does her best to avoid him. At the award presentation, Jen wins along with a few others because that’s the kind of award this is. Mallory also wins, so that’s neat. Jen gets the mic and begins thanking her friends and family, but then HulkKing and Intelligencia take over the projector. They put up all of Jen’s personal info that Josh stole and then the sex tape Josh made with her. Dude, not cool, her parents are in crowd. Jen, despite Mallory’s warnings, gets pissed and smashes the wall. Alarms start blaring and people run. She sees a dude in a mask run out, jumps through the wall, and grabs him, but is stopped by Damage Control. The episode ends with Jen breathing heavily and in custody.

 

Let’s be real, everyone was waiting for this episode pretty much since She-Hulk was announced, and that Charlie Cox was going to come back as Daredevil. Two of Marvel’s most iconic lawyers facing off in court and then teaming up in their superhero identities on the street? No one would with any sense would say no to that! Again, love Jen’s suit, it’s a nice spin on one of her comic suits. Matt’s I’m less in love with, I was partial to the red and black, but it at least looks better than it did in comic form. Yeah, the brown and yellow costume is his canonical first suit. And he wore it for years. It was also fun to see how their fighting styles clash. Jen, obviously, all brawn. She can’t be hurt and can throw around 90% of things, so she rushes in like a bull. Matt relies more on ninja tactics, cornering opponents and overpowering or out classing them. It’s a brain vs. brawn situation, and I’m happy it’s gender swapped from the two of them. Also, them hooking up makes total sense. What, they’re both extremely attractive lawyers that fight crime on the side and are lawyers? You’d need to spray them like cats to forgo that conclusion. Tatiana Maslany and Charlie Cox had solid chemistry between the two of them, so the meet, flirt, fight, flirt, and… the last f word, makes a lot of sense. Don’t look at me like that, my mom reads these on occasion so I try to keep it classy as best I can. Matt doing the next morning walk in full costume was hilarious too. I refuse to call it the walk of shame when the scene makes it clear he had the smuggest grin on his face the whole way back. Eugene was annoying but I enjoyed him. He’s an eventuality that ya know definitely exists in any world of costume heroes, the idiot that tries to buy his way in. I enjoyed every single time when he got hurt because of his actions. It was cathartic. The reveal at the end was dark as hell. I figured that HulkKing and Intelligencia would ruin the big night, but was not expecting them to go that hard. I am looking forward to the finale and all its fourth wall breaking splendor. See you then. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: She-Hulk ep 7

 A retreat with Supervillains, what could possibly go wrong?

Last time on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Jen had to go to a wedding. Parts sucked, like the bride telling her “no She-Hulk” at the wedding; parts were good, like Jen meeting a cute guy named Josh and them hitting it off; and parts… started sucky but turned out okay, like Titania weaseling in as a plus one but Jen got to deck her and see Titania have a huge public gaff. High fives all around. Meanwhile, Nikki worked with Mallory Book on a… complicated divorce settlement. Craig Hollis aka Mr. Immortal, had over the last several years been married multiple times only to sort of fake his death because he’s too much of a wuss to have a conversation. I say “sort of” because while he survived, the things he did would have killed someone without immortality. The exes had found him after a video of him surviving death popped up on Intelligencia, Reddit for incels. Nikki is able to work out a settlement that satisfies all the exes and she and Mallory have a celebratory drink. While having that drink, they learn that Intelligencia has a Cancel She-Hulk page full of death threats. Mallory wants to not tell Jen, as there’s very little point telling her about Trolls, but Nikki tells her immediately. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

Things start off well.

 

We open on Jen having a few dates with Josh. Things seem to go well with him, those first few days of a new relationship are universally exhilarating, aren’t they? But, by Friday, coincidentally the day after they slept together, he starts ghosting her. Now that feels awful. At the office, Nikki tells Jen that she’s been nominated for Female Lawyer of the Year, but Jen doesn’t react like one should upon hearing they’re up for an award. Why? Still waiting for Josh to text back. Nikki tells her to stop looking at her phone or she’ll drive herself crazy.

 

By Saturday, Jen still hasn’t heard anything and spends her day with her phone nearly constantly in her sight. I mean, she can’t even enjoy the Great Muppet Caper, she’s checking her phone so much.  What? It’s a good movie. Saturday rolls into Sunday and first thing that day she gets a call. No, sadly, not from Josh letting her know he’d been in a coma for 48 hours or something. The call is from Chuck Donelan, Blonsky’s parole officer. He lets her know that Blonsky’s inhibitor is malfunctioning, Chuck has to go check it out, and he’s hoping she’d be willing to meet him at Blonsky’s ranch incase Blonsky isn’t feeling cooperative. She agrees to help and heads out to meet him. Refreshing her phone constantly as she does.

 

Man-Bull and El Aguila are delightful.

She meets Chuck at Summer Twilight Ranch. It has a gate and everything. Jen honks her horn to try to get Blonsky’s attention, but Chuck is feeling jumpy. He asks her to hulk up, just in case and they go inside. They find out that Blonsky’s inhibitor is malfunctioning, but Blonsky is still being extremely chill. Blonsky thinks it might have been due to a shock he got from an electric fence while trying to get his favorite chicken back. Chuck recalibrates the inhibitor, and books it out of there. I kind of get it, as Blonsky’s retreat is for superhuman criminals trying to reform themselves. Jen prepares to leave, but her car gets hit hard by two of Blonsky’s… patients? I guess? They are Man-Bull, a bull-human hybrid, and El Aguila, a man dressed like a matador. I can kind of get why there’s friction here. They smash up the car a lot, but Jen stops Man-Bull from hitting her car and impaling El Aguila. After the fighting stops, both men are chiller than they seemed initially. They’re working through some aggression, I guess, because while El Aguila insists he's not a matador, he looks like one and that is a bit triggering for Man-Bull. Blonsky asks Man-Bull to push the car into the garage, he says “My name is Man-Bull, not Mechanical Bull,” and everyone judges him for how planed that sounded.

 

Blonsky tells Jen that the mechanic can’t arrive until later, but that’s good news so Jen can relax at his retreat. She’s not super jazzed for this, as she’s still waiting for a Josh text. He leads her to a sweat yurt and offers to let her relax but she’s not interested. The retreat doesn’t have wifi or cell reception, so Jen is incredibly screwed on the text and work front. Blonsky tells her he’ll be around if she needs him and walks off. Jen spends a while searching for service but can’t find a single bars worth of it. Eventually, she stumbles on a bar of cell service, but also Blonsky’s group therapy session. It consists of him, Man-Bull, El Aguila, Porcupine, and Saracen. Porcupine is dressed in a head-to-toe spiny costume, and Saracen thinks he’s a vampire. Jen tries to get service while the guys talk about El Aguila’s identity issues and his dislike of being called a Matador. The others all think Man-Bull and El Aguila are in an unhealthy codependency thing, and that Porcupine really should take off his suit and be vulnerable with them. They’re then joined by none other than Wrecker. Remember him? He led the group with Asgardian construction tools. He was in the Yurt and lost track of time. Jen recognizes him and calls up a previously on this guy to remind everyone. She hulks up and throws him. Blonsky tells her go to sit in the calming chair. Wrecker, or maybe Dirk since he doesn’t have his crowbar, offers to talk with her so they can work through their issues.

 

"What did I say about Bioelectricity?" funny line.

He’s apparently given up his magic crowbar and trying to not be a “supervillain.” The circle senses that Jen is dealing with some things that she’s not wanting to talk about. They get her to talk about Josh and how he hasn’t texted her in days and how she made it worse with some cringe worthy “looking for you,” texts she sent in the meantime. The guys talk about how she was probably ghosted. Jen explains that she met Josh as Jen and he seemed to like Jen more than She-Hulk, so that’s probably why she’s fixating on him like this. She feels like She-Hulk is that more popular friend from high school that got all the attention, and that being able to change back and forth feels like Cheating. The group agree that they should go kill Josh, except Dirk, who suggest maybe they should try to find a healthier way to handle this. The group give her some life advice, Dirk and the others agreeing that maybe Jen feels this way because she’s not spending enough time as Jen. Which is a shame because they’d all like to get to know Jen. Jen de-hulks and this encourages Porcupine to take off his mask too. He stinks to high heaven, but the gesture means a lot. The group tell her to delete Josh’s number, so she does and feels a lot better, and agrees to use the yurt. She comes out of the yurt sometime later and gives them the thumbs up.

 

As she leaves, the group give her a goodbye card and wish her well. Blonsky gives her a little more empty advice, Jen thanks him and then leaves with the tow truck guy.

 

The support group was right, they should have
hunted him down and killed him.

We flashback to Thursday night, where it’s revealed that after having sex, Josh cloned all of Jen’s phone contacts, took a picture of her and texted the HulkKing that he got her blood. Oh no.

 

I’ll start by giving a shout out to the Villains support group. I loved these guys from minute one and how they helped Jen get through the Josh situation. Nathan Hurd as Man-Bull, Joseph Castillo-Midyett as El Aguila, Terrence Clowe as Saracen, Jordan Aaron Ford as Porcupine, and Nick Gomez as Wrecker/Dirk were all great in this supportive support group. The joke about Man-Bull and El Aguila being codependent and how that’s a bit weird gets me every time. I wasn’t expecting to see Wrecker as a member of the group, and I got to say I like this version of him as a dude trying to get his life together with some new age healing. Wrecker in basically every other adaptation is pretty one note, he commits crimes and yells at his boys when they commit crimes. Not a lot there, but I think Nick Gomez adds a lot to the character. And Jen’s whole journey through the episode was great. While not the five stages of grief, I think everyone who hasn’t married the first person they dated has gone through the high of the new relationship followed by the crash when it falls apart. It especially sucks when one is ghosted, since like Jen showed, you spend way more time than you should trying to figure out what went wrong. The whole bit about her being conflicted about She-Hulk and admitting she likes how being noticed like she does in hulk form feels good and that she feels bad about it feeling good is true to the comics too. It’s been years since I read a She-Hulk story, but if memory serves a recurring plot point for her is that Jen is kind of addicted to being She-Hulk. She doesn’t have to battle the inner demons like Bruce, but the transforming from a meek introvert to a superpowered extrovert is a battle all on its own. I think they handled the explanation of that well here, with digging into the ick factor. Comic She-Hulk has some impulse control issues and might be a sex addict, depending on the writer. It’s good that they found a way to explain how Jen feels about the difference between her as base Jen and as She-Hulk without dipping into that particular can of worms. And the reveal that Josh was just getting close to her to get her blood for HulkKing just hurt. Like, damn, they found a way to make it worse than him just ghosting her after getting laid. Awful. Next time… a devil comes down to LA. See you then. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: She-Hulk ep 6

Cash bar at a wedding, truly the devils work. 

Last time on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Jen had to fight to keep the name she’d initially hated. The situation was complicated by her early rampant rejection of the name She-Hulk. She’s paired with fellow Superhuman Law Lawyer Mallory Book to make her case. After a back and forth, Jen has the lightbulb moment that she can use the dating profile for She-Hulk to prove she was using the name in a non-professional capacity. It’ll prove that she considered the name her “name” and not a something she’d think to trademark. It works, but only because Jen brought in the scummy dudes that she went out with to prove it. It’s as painful as it sounds. But, on the plus side she earns Mallory’s respect. On the even bigger plus side, Nikki (with a little help from Pug) tracked down the superhero fashion designer Luke Jacobson and got the designer to make some clothes for Jen. This includes several size changing suits and one unseen costume for her. High fives all around. There’s also a tease of Luke sending a Daredevil helmet to Matt Murdock. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.

 

Episode 6: Just Jen

 

We open with Jen getting an invite to be a bridesmaid for an old friend of hers, Lulu. Lulu went kind of insane on the glittery and such, just saying. Nikki comes over to help Jen as she packs for the trip.  She is just as anxious as the rest of us to see the She-Hulk super suit, but Jen’s not pulling that out just yet. We also get the first canon use of a popular She-Hulk nickname, Shulky, by Nikki. Jen explains that Lulu is an old family friend, knows all the Walters/Banners, as her cousin Ched is DJing. Jen feels a bit weird about it because they haven’t talked in a while. While Jen is away, Mallory Book is going to have to take on a Superhuman divorce case, which Nikki is excited for since she also really likes Mallory and is happy to work with her more. There’s a fourth wall break where Jen basically explains “Yeah, this is a poorly timed wedding story, much like they appear in real life.” Jen packs up and heads out.

 

Jen as She-Hulk rocks the big and tall section.

She arrives at the rehearsal as Shulky. She really rocks the dress Luke Jacobson made her. All of her and Lulu’s mutual friends seem impressed by her, but Lulu obviously feels threatened on minute one. She comes up to Jen and pulls her aside and asks her to de-hulk for the wedding. Jen promises that she will as it is her friend’s wedding and she doesn’t want to draw attention away from her, they hug, and Lulu is clearly weirded out at being boob level on She-Hulk. Jen dehulks and learns she’s going to be paired up with someone named “Jonathan” for the wedding.

 

Craig's avoidance strategy is worse than just dealing
with stuff, ngl.

Back at GLK&H, Nikki and Mallory meet with Craig Hollis aka Mr. Immortal. He’s looking for help in his divorces. He reveals that he’s ended multiple marriages by semi-faking his death rather than be an adult and properly break up with his spouses. I say “semi” as he literally does things like walks into traffic and is hit by actual, factual cars, but because of his powers, that’s a much less fatal experience to him than anyone else. Mallory and Nikki are both clearly disgusted by this, but they have to work with him, as he’s already paid. They both kind of, sort of start yelling at him for being a terrible person, causing Hollis to literally jump out a window. I guess faking his death to avoid conflict is just a reflex now. He crashed into a car, but quickly recovers before running away.

 

Jen and Lulu chat at the rehearsal. Jen tries to talk about herself to Lulu, but Lulu isn’t really interested in the superpowers or the big career stuff and is really just using this as an excuse to put Jen down for being single. She’s pulled away by other guests, and Jen is horrified to see that Titania is also at the wedding. Titania is her usual catty, horrible self. She’s “dating” a friend of the groom and it’s how she got invited. Given that the dude looks like a pretty normal guy in a bowtie, it’s pretty obvious this is a “I’ll ruin this social outing, Jen!” moment for her. Lulu isn’t willing to believe that, though, because idiot. Jen storms out. Outside, she meets Josh, a friend of the groom. He’s a bit awkward, but charming and Jen seems to like him immediately. Lulu rushes out and asks Jen to help tidy the place up as, it’s heavily implied, she’s being a bit of bridezilla and scaring off the staff. Thanks for ruining the moment, Lu.

 

11/13 people in this shot hate Craig. Maybe 12/13
I don't know how that guard feels.

The next day, Nikki and Mallory with Hollis meet with his exs. There’s eight ex-Mrs. Immortal (all under various pseudonyms) and one ex-Mr. Immortal. They’ve all got issues with Craig, ranging from crippling financial debt due to his spending habits, him abandoning them with his child, and the mental scarring of thinking your husband died. The exes inform Mallory that they learned that Mr. Immortal was still alive after getting a link of one of his miraculous recoveries on the website Intelligencia. It’s mostly used by “hateful man babies,” Mallory’s words, but I guess it was useful this one time. Mallory pulls the other two back to confer, yells at Hollis again for the multiple death fakings, multiple fake identities and points out that his exes could technically file criminal charges against him. She says she’ll get him the best deal she can, but he will have to pay.

 

Later, Jen joins the other bridesmaids, learns she’s on “ironing duty” because the dudes wrinkled their shirts, and her groomsmen Jonathan is in fact Lulu’s dog. The slaps keep slapping.  

 

Craig offers to split the shares of Apple he bought in 1981 and the gold he has from his first wife Baroness Cromwell with his eight exes and call it a day. While a good deal, the exes start fighting amongst themselves to determine who gets how much. One ex points out that she and Craig were together for 18 years while another ex was only with his for 3, that ex points out that she had his kid, and the whole thing breaks down amazingly fast. Craig tries to get up to fake his death again, but Mallory stops him.

 

We cut to the reception, DJ by DJ In-ch-ch-chedible Hulk. I’m just so entertained by Ched. Jen tries to get drunk, learns it’s a cash bar, grunts, pays up, and starts getting drunk and have fun dancing. This is a pretty classic move at all the weddings I’ve been to, not going to lie. Ha.  

 

Back at the office, Nikki is sitting on the table and has broken down Craig’s assets and seems to be giving each of the exes a custom payout. The settlement that made me laugh out loud was that one ex just wants him to give her a sincere apology with at least 15 seconds of eye contact. They have a little chant of “never again,” and laugh as a group. Craig tries to get out of the eye contact thing, but Nikki ups it to 20 seconds for that. Everyone agrees this is for the best and Mallory compliment’s Nikki on her negotiating.

 

This probably felt SO DAMN good.

Back at the reception, a buzzed Jen tries to call Bruce, but he’s still well outside of his cell phone companies network. Josh dances over and they flirt a bit. She admits, because she’s drunk, she’s a bit bummed that she hasn’t been able to show off to Lulu and her other old friends, to show them she’s doing well overall. Josh says he’d love to see her as She-Hulk, but she can’t change here. She mentions that everyone is always saying how great She-Hulk is, and Josh says she’s, “pretty great,” as is. The moment is ruined though, as Jen has more or less lost her alcohol tolerance since Hulking out and goes outside to throw up. Titania follows her out and decks her across the yard. Titania admits she’s here to publicly humiliate Jen and destroy her. Jen tries to fight her as is, but she’s still pretty drunk and seeing double, so she doesn’t do well. Titania admits she hates Jen for getting all this attention for something that she didn’t even want, so she needs to green up so they can fight. Jen Hulks out, a little, breaking her shoes but can’t go all the way green initially. She is able to change, though, and sends Titania flying with a stomp. She Jumps at Titania and Ched announces, “We’ve got a wedding fight!” and plays the electric slide. After an initial brawl, Titania tries to charge Jen, slips, and cracks the veneers on her teeth. Titania has a temper tantrum, steals the cake, and marches off. Probably to her dentist. Lulu comes in, Jen initially thinks she’s upset, but Lulu seems drunk enough that she doesn’t care. The party resumes.

 

Sinister as hell.

At GLK&H, Mallory and Nikki are having a celebration drink as they watch the Intelligencia video of Mr. Immortal’s window jump. Mallory points out that it’s insane that Craig is so afraid of conflict but got married 8 time, and that it’s crazier he convinced 8 people to marry him. Nikki scoffs and says that Mallory must not be single in LA, to which Mallory confirms that she is not, has been married 11 years and in fact has a 10-year-old kid. Lot of Mallory Book character info dropped in this one scene. Nikki sees a Intelligencia post that she wants to see, but it’s by the “HulkKing” and is in a private server. Nikki creates an account and basically writes all the worst things people have said to her on the internet in the application. It’s accepted immediately, and she gets access to the “Cancel She-Hulk” page. It’s full of death threats and hate speech. Nikki wants to tell Jen, Mallory says to not to because they’re just trolls, but Nikki calls Jen and tells her immediately. Jen, meanwhile, is enjoying fries with Josh. We cut to some science types working for HulkKing preparing a syringe to get She-Hulk’s blood. Oh my.

 

I’ll start the summary by reiterating that I love Ched and that he’s a great show-only character. I laugh pretty much every time they bring him around. Using Intelligencia as the name for the Reddit clone website that will serve as Jen’s main antagonist going forward. In the comics, the Intelligencia is an evil team comprised of some of Marvel’s smartest villains. It’s the group that made the Red Hulk and temporarily stole the Hulk’s powers. Rebranding it as such is… weird but fitting. What? Making internet trolls Jen’s real enemy is kind of brilliant. The wedding plot overall was fine. It just felt like how many of Jen’s buttons can be pushed until she flips out, really. I guess it gives some insight into how people viewed her before her hulk powers, but damn, Lulu and the others were awful. I do appreciate Jen getting to show up Titania one more time and get to see Titania hurt herself worse than She-Hulk got to was fun. I liked the B-story with Mr. Immortal too, even though it hurt a little. For those who don’t know, in the comics, Mr. Immortal is a member and leader of the “Great Lakes Avengers” the local Midwestern superhero team. It’s largely a joke team and being reminded of them by Mr. Immortal hurt. I feel like a scene was cut where Nikki started her big negotiation gambit, which is a shame, because I’d have loved to see Nikki taking charge. The fact that she got them all to agree on anything was something of a miracle. It was a fun little B-story episode. Next time, Jen checks in on Blonsky. It’s going to be fun. Have a good night. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

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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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: She-Hulk ep 4

 Stage Magicians always look like real assholes, just sayin'. 

Last time on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Jen began working on ironing out the trouble that a leaked video of Blonsky fighting Wong in the fighting ring with Macau. She and Nikki track down Wong and get him to agree to testify on Blonsky’s behalf. At the hearing, Wong runs late, but we get a quick montage of the various prison staff and inmates testifying the Blonsky is a model prison and seems to have genuinely improved. But Blonsky is just so smarmy that it still sounds like a line. Wong arrives, explains he let Blonsky out against his will. Fighting strong opponents is important for the growth of the Sorcerer Supreme, I guess. The board still seems iffy on this, though. But, the B-plot helps out. Jen’s dick of a former coworker Dennis is suing his ex for defrauding him, she was a Light Elf from New Asgard whom had been pretending to be Megan Thee Stallion. Jen comes to the rescue to testify that Dennis is the sort of creepy, overly confident asshole that would 100% believe he met Megan Thee Stallion on a dating app and charmed her. The court finds in favor of him, and Runa the Light Elf gets thirty days in prison for impersonating the judge to try to drop the case against her. It’ when Dennis muses that somehow taking her powers away would be a real punishment, Jen has a lightbulb moment. She is able to get an inhibitor from Bruce’s lab… somehow… and tells the board that Blonsky will wear this and be unable to transform. And, obviously, if he takes it off, they’ll know. Blonsky gets paroled and high five are had all around. Later, she’s jumped by four guys with Asgardian construction equipment, Wrecker, Thunderball, Piledriver and Bulldozer aka the Wrecking Crew, who try to steal her blood. Jen easily overpowers them, and they run off, telling their bosses the needle they were given couldn’t penetrate the hulk skin. Enough recap. Let’s get to it.  

 

Episode 4: Is This Not Real Magic?

 

Madisynn don't give a F***.

            We begin with a magic show. The magician, Donny Blaze, shows off a few tricks that look kind of impressive: levitation, sparking fingers, that sort of thing. They’d probably be more impressive if Thor and Dr. Strange weren’t “a thing” in the MCU. Getting desperate for applause, Donny gets a volunteer from the audience. The volunteer, Madisynn (how she spells it, but it’s pronounced Madison) is brought up and he does a trick of changing white roses to red. No one is impressed. Encouraged by his manager, Donny puts on a Sling-Ring and opens a portal to a creepy looking village.

 

Cutting to Katmandu, Nepal, Wong is getting ready to enjoy some Sopranos (the mob show, not a musical number) when a Sling-Ring portal opens, and Madisynn drops in. She still seems fairly drunk despite it being at least a few hours after the show, explaining that a cut rate magician (Wong’s words) sent her to a different dimension and a talking goat helped her get home in exchange for six drops of blood. Wong offers to bring her home, but Madisynn is rather out off it. She notices he’s watching the Sopranos, spoils the episode, and Wong vows revenge against Donny Blaze. I can respect this man’s priorities.

 

We cut to Jen, who uses her fourth wall breaking powers to muse about how great Wong is and how his presence basically gives the show Twitter Armor for a week. Her dad stops by to help beef up security at her place. I respect the paternal instinct, but I’m reasonably certain in his shoes, I’d leave things like her protection up to my daughter who can become seven feet tall and largely invulnerable at will. Morris is annoyed to hear that Jen didn’t call the cops and report the assault, but Jen’s extremely blasé about the whole thing and walks off.

 

At the office, Jen makes a dating profile for herself. Excellent use of office hours. Nikki comes in and turns on a rerun of Jen’s big interview, commenting that they need to get her better clothes. Jen points out that there’s limited options for Women’s big and tall, but their conversation is interrupted by Wong’s arrival. He tells her about his issue, Donny Blaze was a student at Kamar-Taj, but was kicked out after a week when he summoned three kegs and his fraternity brother Ky-Dog into the sacred wizard training facility. He wants to stop Donny from using portals and putting the fabric of reality at risk for applause. Jen thinks it’s a pretty open and shut case… until Wong reveals that Kamar-Taj doesn’t have students sign anything to keep them from doing shenanigans like this, legally speaking. Jen is still willing to help, but it’ll take her more time. Wong gives her his card before he storms off.

 

That night, Jen is avoiding talking to Nikki about her dating profile by doing legal work at the bar. This is a subplot about Jen not getting a date is one that I do not get, as I would 10000% swipe right on the woman with superpowers and is the head of a full legal department. I would be completely okay being the non-powered househusband. But Jen has dating issues… because. They’re interrupted by a sleezy guy hitting on them, poorly. They shut him down hard and the guy walks off. The interaction gives Nikki an excuse to good naturedly bullies Jen into giving her phone and starts swiping for Jen. She also suggests maybe Jen make a She-Hulk profile. Jen isn’t interested in being She-Hulk in her off hours and feels validated when she starts getting matches.

 

Donny is exactly as douche as he looks.

Later, she and Wong have a meeting with Donny Blaze and his assistant Cornelius P. Willows about their cease and desist. Donny and Willows refuse, believing you can’t copywrite magic. Wong and Donny almost get into a magic fight, which Donny would have lost so fast it would have been spectacular, but Jen stops them, gives Donny the Cease and Desist and tells them they’ll see them in court. They leave but stop for a second when Jen gets another match on her dating app. When Donny notices she’s on “matcher” he is super creepy about it and tells Jen to swipe right for a hot date, which she ignores, and they leave for real.

 

We cut to the first, but not last, of Jen’s terrible dates. Dude is an idiot with no life goals and has the audacity of telling his friend as he leaves the ‘date’ that Jennifer Walters (who looks like Tatiana Maslany in this universe, because actress) is ‘like a six.’ My rage at that line was intense.

 

Dream team.

At court, Jen and Wong start their case against Donny. To prove their case that Donny’s show shows “gross negligence,” Wong is forced by Jen to open a portal and bring Madisynn in as a witness. She’s at a club of some kind, but walks in and is incredibly happy to see “Wongers” before Jen quickly tells her what’s happening. And correcting a misunderstanding about how defensible the “texting 911” excuse is, which is to say it isn’t defensible at all. As she walks to the booth, Wong prays to the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Guanyin, to be extra merciful for the next few minutes. She talks about her experience with Donny, which lead her to making a pact with a demon, probably that talking goat, to return to this dimension. Jen tries to lead Madisynn with her questions, but Madisynn is either too drunk or too stupid (both?) to get it and instead makes it clear she wasn’t particularly scared the entire time she was in that demon dimension. Donny’s lawyer motions to dismiss as Donny’s tricks are harmless, for now, and that there’s precedent that you can’t copywrite magic. Jen points out a magician’s sleight of hand and deceptions aren’t truly comparable to actual magic, which these idiots scoff at for some reason. Wong tries to make a passionate speech to sway the judge, but I think it kind of goes over her head. The judge disagrees with Madisynn when she announces Case Closed, and says that she’ll review the case and give judgement in a few weeks. Jen tries to get an injunction to stop Donny from using the tricks while the judge… judges but can’t get it. Wong suggests sending Donny to the Mirror Dimension, he probably won’t even die, but Jen says no. He and Madisynn go to get froyo and talk Sopranos while Jen does legal stuff.

 

That night, Jen is at home doing work when she’s reminded by Nikki that it’s Friday night. Jen, feeling insecure and bummed that she’s not getting attention as herself, Hulks up and makes a She-Hulk dating profile. She quickly swipes and starts getting matches galore. I am calling bs again on anyone who looks like Tatiana Maslany having trouble getting a date. She-Hulk has a bad date with a weightlifter, and creepy dude who seems more into the power than Jen herself, and then finally with a hot Pediatric oncologist. Guess which of these three goes *extremely* well.

 

Meanwhile, Donny is doing a show and does the Sling-Ring portal trick. The most recent assistant doesn’t want to go through the portal and get stranded, so Donny tries something a “little different” and creates a bird from magic. Said bird lays an egg and it hatches into some species of demon. It attacks, but he kicks it into another portal to get rid of it. A huge swarm of the demon rats come pouring out of the portal. Whoops.

 

Wong is relaxing on the couch watching a movie when Donny portals in and lets him know what’s happening. Wong says he’s going to help to save the universe, not Donny, and that Donny can help by calling Jen.

 

Jen is hitting it off with the doctor, but she keeps getting calls from Wong. She ignores it, twice, and is about to get some when Wong opens a portal to her living room and asks why she’s not answering her phone. He needs her help to stop the demon things. Thoroughly pissed off at the interruption, a begrudging Jen follows Wong through the portal. She is tasked with distracting the demons while Wong tries to get rid of them. They hit a bit of snap when Jen is unable to permanently kill them, but then Wong has her fling them through a portal to some mountainous region. He’s able to seal the portal to the demon’s home realm and they swap to throwing demons through the portal. Jen points out that missing her actual good date is bad, but being at a magic show is worse, and then get all but one of the demons through the portal. Jen uses the last one to make Donny and Cornelius agree to the Cease and Desist, and then gets rid of it.

 

Jen returns to her apartment and she and hot doctor… enjoy the evening. Wink wink, nudge nudge.

 

The next day, Nikki texts Jen about getting the details of the date but tells her to check the news because Titania is doing something crazy. She’s been freed and cleared of all charges for that courthouse incident. Jen is briefly distracted when the hot doctor comes out and is clearly weirded out to see her as Jen. It’s super awkward, and he leaves. Jen tries to play it off, but she’s clearly hurt. A knock comes to her door. She immediately spots the delivery guy is a process server here to serve her court documents. Titania is suing her, claiming that Jen’s misusing the trademark on She-Hulk. Which Titania trademarked. Jen remarks this is a bummer way to end the episode and the credits roll.

 

I'd legit watch a show that is just their movie nights.

In the post-credit scene, Wong and Madisynn are hanging out and watching a movie together while Madisynn quizzes Wong on what drinks he’s had. These two are adorable.

 

I agree with what Jen said at the start of the episode, it’s just fun when Wong shows up. Loved every second of him in this, from his meeting of Madisynn, his (what seems to be) intense hatred of Donny Blaze, and his escalating frustration at not being able to stop that idiot. Benedict Wong seems to have a blast playing Wong, and the energy is infectious. Madisynn was a whole bunch of laughs too, as I’m 90% certain she (the character) was buzzed the entire time. Her liver is powerful indeed. Especially loved her dubbing Wong Wongers and his inability to get her to stop. Only flaw is the show spoiler thing, but like, come on, Wong, Sopranos has been over for a while. Donny Blaze was also a great antagonist for this episode. Smug, stupid but with just enough knowledge to screw up all of reality, it’s a deadly combination. Though the comparing his sleight of hand tricks to actual portals in space time was… odd. The plot point I had the most trouble with was Jen having trouble getting a date. Like, a successful lawyer that runs her own branch of a big company with an infectious smile and looks like Tatiana Maslany… she’d be getting more matches than she’d know what to do with even if she kept the She-Hulk thing on the down low. But I suppose they’ve got to show that Jen’s having a bit more fun as She-Hulk than she was initially. Even if the hot doctor ditching her the next day was completely insane. Like breaking up with a woman after she washes her makeup off. Bro, she can be big and green again at any time, this isn’t a spell that breaks at midnight thing. But what do I know, I’m just a nerd. Oh, and the twist with Titania suing for the trademark was a great ending. Like, I feel like it’d be pretty easy to prove that she only trademarked She-Hulk after Jen started being called that. Like, surely the date of trademarking would have to be several days at least after Jen’s big story broke… but if it were that easy, we wouldn’t have a plot for the next episode. Whatever, guess we’ll see where this goes. Have a good night, everyone. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero