Ah this article will be discussing my journey of watching this show but if you want the short of it; it was really good. Big recommend if you can sit down for a minute because it ain’t really that long.
Prelude
Anyways, at the beginning of the 2022nd year since the Year of the Consulship of Caesar and Paullus, I had become aware that Disney+ was releasing a show for the superheroine She-Hulk. Now I wasn’t really paying attention to the Disney Marvel shows as I was still going through the Defenders Saga or namely just finished season 1 of Daredevil. I started watching that show because of Charlie Cox’s appearance in No Way Home. So I still didn’t care.
Then it was during the Ms. Marvel release that they revealed the trailer for She-Hulk showcasing stuff I wouldn’t care about. Now at this point, I had watched DD 1,2,3, the Punisher 1 and 2, and Defenders. I had also caught up on all the Disney shows and was watching Ms. Marvel weekly. Now my aversion to the She-Hulk show was actually a disinterest in Disney releasing anything else for the rest of the year. I didn’t care if it was Blade, Deadpool, or She-Hulk, I just throughout they were bum rushing us viewers with a lot. Now in 2021, somehow they only released shows on already established heroes and I saw somehow because it was four of them. They were all interesting or not in their own little way but I still don’t think they reacted to the Blip well enough. That was juxtaposed with movies introducing new heroes like Shang-Chi, Yelena, and the Eternals. Then this year, they released content for new heroes or namely Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and the Werewolf juxtaposed with already known heroes like Thor, Strange, and BP. That keeps things nice and balanced and yet I still felt like I didn’t want to meet anyone new so soon.
“But hey, Daredevil is going to be in the show”. Yes by the time that trailer came out showing off his golden suit, DD had become my all time favorite superhero. In my ranking, he dominates Spider-Man who I only liked de facto of no better character in Marvel. By why would I watch a She-Hulk show for Daredevil? She’s the main character, he’ll probably give a quick inspirational speech to fellow superhero lawyer and dip to deal with Hell’s Kitchen (Of course, I also assumed She-Hulk would take place in New York instead of LA). But towards the end of Ms. Marvel I was opening up more to watching the show, kind of just because. I mean, shit doesn’t have to impress me, just entertain me for 30 minutes.
I will say, I don’t know shit about a female Hulk. There was a show on Disney XD back in the day called Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. That’s SMASH for Supreme Military Agency of Super Humans although all of the agents are hulks. There’s Bruce Banner, Jennifer Walters, Rick Jones (is he even in the MCU?), Thaddeus Ross (voiced by Clancy Brown!?!?), and Skaar. Now I watched maybe two episodes of the show so I don’t remember how the team got started or exactly how their relationship worked. Rick Jones did narrate it with a drone recording their activities and I am not sure I saw the human side of them. I think they were always Hulked out. Anyways, that was my only ever exposure to Jen which wasn’t interesting enough to leave an impact on me. As I am looking at the Wikipedia page for the show, it seems they had a crazy ass plot for their second season, I almost want to watch it.
Now as we were getting closer to the premiere, I would here some news. First of all, the head writer for the show was Jessica Gao. That means nothing to you? She wrote Mighty B!. That still means nothing? Okay okay, well guess what? She was head writer of episode 3 of season 3 of Rick and Morty, “Pickle Rick”. Pickle Rick was one of the most anticipated episodes of the season, since a teaser was dropped before the episode showing the infamous scene of “I turned myself into a pickle Morty!!!”. And it was very well received, specifically, it was one of my favorite episodes. I mean what you have here is a scientist unrivaled in intelligence across the multiverse turning himself into a pickle. Funniest shit I have ever seen. He then excuses himself with the idea that it was a goal unto itself but Morty points out he did it at the perfect time to miss family therapy which serves as the B plot of the episode. So from there, we cut between very cool action scenes of the pickle and scenes of Beth getting deconstructed by a therapist written by Jessica Gao. The conversation serves as a great cause of evolution for the relations of Beth and Rick. Beforehand, she seemed to support him as much as possible with out harming Morty but now she understood how toxic of an outcome that creates for the rest of her relations. So Beth-Rick reaches a second level of more independence on her end and the relationship wouldn’t evolve again until the Clone arc. I also think the comedy of the episode was maybe slightly unique although still in the vein of Dan Harmon comedy that only the smartest could truly understand (lmao). But anyways, I already would like JG’s writing even if I didn’t know her beforehand. Also, Mighty B! was a cool show for me so you go watch it.
Secondly, the show was going to be comedy based and perhaps more of a slice of life. I think what I really hated with the fast fire of new heroes in the last two years was that they just kept doing the cliché origin film. Like Shang-Chi had some nuance but Moon Knight and Ms Marvel were as run of the mill as the mill would run. But if we weren’t going to build a new hero like that, I’m for it. Also, the slice of life factor was something I was in dire need of in between these larger movies. MCU films always feel like the equivalent of special comic runs or large comic events. Shit like Kraven’s Last Hunt, Daredevil’s Frank Miller arc, House of M, and Infinity Gauntlet are perfect stories for a film. There’s a clear start and end, there’s drastic changes to the status quo or at least a challenge to how the hero operates, and it’s jam packed with high stakes action. So with Disney+, I had a small hope for a show that acted more like monthly comics where the villains were smaller and you just got with the nitty gritty of Parker’s dating life. There is a risk in doing this because fans may feel like you’re wasting their time but there is also value in seeing these heroes in moments that a movie can’t waste time exploring. Actually, even with the runtime of the Defenders shows (which still have their own high activity), I still got to personalize more with Matt Murdock verses Tony Stark who is supposedly more important in the wider universe. That’s crazy. So a slice of life for Jen Walters? Perfect. I’ll finish with the fact that Ms Marvel had some of that energy too since most of her heroine life revolved around her regular life events. The convention, Ramadam, and visiting Pakistan all flowed really well into the real reason she should be there. That’s kind of what was boring with Moon Knight. As soon as Steven Grant learns of the suit, we leave his civilian life completely. Which would be great for the plot. In a film. Because it as basically an extended movie. Moving on…
tdwriter 