'She-Hulk: Attorney at Law' on Disney+ stars Tatiana Maslany and a parade of Marvel cameos

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic

August 17, 2022 at 12:24 PM·4 min read

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Breaking the fourth wall with a wink and a nod can be fun for an audience, a brief pressure-relief valve before getting back to the dramatic business at hand.

But “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” winks at the audience so much you’d think it had something in its eye. Yes, it’s a carryover from the comic-book version, but still. It all plays into this being the latest, and most self-referential, entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A little goes a long way in the new limited series that starts streaming on Disney+ on Aug. 18.

It stars Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters, a prosecutor whose hard work appears to finally be paying off. Maslany, incidentally, is a fantastic actress who can play anything; in “Orphan Black” she did just that (check it out, it’s amazing, as is she).

Here she’s got more of a focus, though she still alternates between two characters, or at least two versions of the same one: Jennifer and She-Hulk.

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Jennifer’s cousin is Bruce Banner — yes, Mark Ruffalo shows up, Hulked out, one of several MCU participants who hang around for an episode or two. In the first episode we learn how she came to share her cousin’s, um, condition, and her struggle to come to terms with what it means.

Although that’s played mostly for laughs, as she and Hulk knock each other around an isolated island where he lives. Pro tip: Because of the metabolism change, a Hulk can drink all night and not get drunk. But the hangovers when you revert to human are brutal.

Jennifer wants to continue her law practice, not be a superhero. “That is for billionaires and narcissists and adult orphans, for some reason,” she says.

But a normal life is unlikely, Bruce tells her. She’s now a superhero and needs to accept it. Eventually, though not by design, she comes to a kind of compromise that allows her to defend superhuman clients. This, along with the MCU’s adoption of the Metaverse, opens the door to all sorts of possibilities — and guest spots.

For instance, Tim Roth shows up as Abomination. Benedict Wong appears as Wong (and Jennifer, naturally, tells the camera she knows everyone loves Wong and wants to see more of him). It works, actually, because, at least in the four episodes sent to critics for review, there isn’t a big overarching storyline. It’s more of a case-of-the-week set-up. (Of course this could change.)

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Fine with me — I always loved the monster-of-the-week episodes of “The X-Files.” The conspiracy ones? Not so much.

There is some good stuff here. The series opens with a close-up of Maslany’s face. “What is the responsibility of those with power?” she asks. An homage to Spider-Man? A personal credo? It turns out to be practice for a closing statement in a trial, but it works as a mission statement for the series, as well.

Maslany is reason enough to stick around to see where 'She-Hulk' goes

The show, and Jennifer, anticipate toxic fanboy reactions in what seems like a throwaway line, but really isn’t. Jennifer, who is grudgingly accepting her powers, complains when a TV reporter calls her She-Hulk. “I can’t even exist without being a derivative of the Hulk,” she says.

Of course, thanks to Maslany’s talent, she can. Her version of a Hulk is different than Bruce’s. She has more control over the transformation, and over herself after it occurs. Thus, to her dismay, her new boss insists that she appear in the courtroom only in She-Hulk form.

At this point it’s difficult to guess where “She-Hulk” will go. The first four episodes feel like an origin story that’s a little overly pleased with itself. But Maslany, for the most part, avoids going along with that vibe. While it’s not as wildly creative as “WandaVision” or as trippy as “Loki” (at least not yet), Maslany alone is reason to hang around longer to find out what “She-Hulk” will become.