I have to confess two things. The first, my absolute homage to the Hulka stage written by John Byrne, with its continuous and exaggerated breaking of the fourth wall and the game with the medium itself. The second, that the first two episodes of ‘She-Hulk: Lawyer Hulka’ had left me frankly sad. The humor that one was used to in comics, original, meta and self-parodic, seemed to be completely diluted and turned into jokes suitable for everyone, with the flag of not scaring the average viewer by flag. Fortunately, episode 3 has come to (start to) change my perspective on the matter.
Obviously, if this is a review of ‘She-Hulk: Lawyer She-Hulk’ episode 3, there will be spoilers. Not many, but there are.
green mood
If until now the series had been more based on the future of the life of Jennifer Walters accompanied by a couple of moments of smiles a little bit wrong, in this third episode the thing turns and little by little becomes what we were promised. : a superhero legal comedy. The jokes work (that Wong Linkedin), the pacing is frenetic, and the trials aren’t skipped to show random fights, as one might fear after Titania’s appearance. There are two trials, yes, with all of the law (pun intended), which in this case offer us a -a priori- farewell to the fabulous Abomination 14 years after his first appearance in ‘The Incredible Hulk’.
But also, for the first time, jokes work, one after anotherpartly because they have found an excuse for Jennifer Walters to speak to the camera beyond “She does it in the comics too”: Hulka knows that she lives in a series, something that at the moment gives rise to meta comments (“Plots A and B together”) but in the future it can affect the narrative as it did in Byrne’s comics. I wish!
The weekly cameos (as much as we are promised that this series is not a weekly cameo) are from Wong and the first appearance of the Wrecking Crew, armed with artifacts stolen from Asgard and that are a very good set-up of the group of B-series villains that premiered in 1974 and that until now had only had a role in animated series and movies. The fact that the series dares to rescue such ridiculous concepts to update and unite them with the rest of the UCM it is only indicative of the absolute affection he has for the universe to which he belongs (and parody). Oh, and there’s also Megan Thee Stallion, perfect for taking the series out of the geek realm.
Team He Hulk
Also, this third episode anticipates the comments on any website, YouTube video or social network against the fact that Hulka is a woman. In fact, they have been completely successful in the parody to the point that more than one has to be licking their wounds when seeing themselves reflected on the small screen with their “Why are all the superheroes now women?” or “I have nothing against superheroines, but don’t take other people’s names.” If ‘She-Hulk: Lawyer Hulka’ hits hard, she does it without fuss.
Probably, instead of leading to a reflection and interiorization of a toxic speech, many fans will redouble their efforts to show the world that they are not sexist, but. The She-Hulk series, pleasantly surprising, has become more subtle in its criticism of machismo than in the pilot episode (where, let’s face it, he was a bit shoehorned in). using irony and sarcasm that suit you much better.
There are still jokes that don’t quite work, but the series seems to have found in this chapter the right traction, the point where she feels comfortable moving on and laughing at nearly fifteen years of Marvel while paying homage to it. If the first episodes of ‘Ms Marvel’, before it collapsed, treated the UCM as something real and tangible on the street beyond the struggles and powers, showing its part in the popular culture of the 616 universe, in ‘She-Hulk: Lawyer Hulka’ goes further, dropping how superheroes affect other strata of societyas a kind of B-side of the movies.
Properly progress
If until now the new Marvel series seemed to be careful not to upset anyone, in his third episode he has completely let his hair down, not treating his own characters seriously and showing that perhaps it is not a series as light as it is believed. In fact, Abomination is the best stopper in a chapter that has time to joke around with Asgard, Thor, Wong, the Wrecking Crew, and the She-Hulk herself. She still has some way to go to be hilarious, but if you walk in instead of seeing her angry, it’s hard not to laugh heartily at least a couple of times.
There are still six episodes ahead in which Daredevil has to appear, but by now it is to be hoped that fans of the blind vigilante are already prepared to be disappointed. when there are more jokes than epics and very serious action scenes. In the end, ‘She-Hulk: Lawyer Hulka’ is not fooling anyone or promising what it is not. This third installment of her adventures is an episode marked by comedy despite everything, the satire of the viewers themselves and a universe with serious symptoms of stagnation but that through laughter he lets us rediscover his breadth and his connections.
Being a series that apparently flies low, ‘She-Hulk: Lawyer Hulka’ You can do whatever you want with both the universe and the environment., taking advantage of humor and parody as the ultimate weapon. We will have to see if it goes in crescendo or this is it everything you can achieve in terms of narrative innovation. At the moment, it is progressing well.