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Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk: Breaks the genre's macho topoi
Photo: Marvel Studios / Disney+
Boom, the thick folder lands on the table: Bruce Banner says it took him several years to learn to control his alter ego, the so-called Hulk, which was induced by extreme gamma radiation.
The monster who cuts everything to pieces takes control whenever the scientist gets stressed.
Those who are familiar with Marvel's superhero comics and the successful "Avengers" films are well acquainted with the bright green fury bolt.
He meticulously documented how he managed, with great effort and length, to control his fears and anger, so that he now appears in a mannered manner as a "smart hulk" with glasses and a balanced mind.
This is to benefit his cousin, who came into contact with Banner's blood in a traffic accident and now also has a Hulk personality.
But Jennifer Walters has no problem keeping her new super personality in check: “Control my anger?” she hisses at Bruce in the first episode of the new Marvel series “She-Hulk”, “I do that all the time!
When I'm mobbed on the street, when incompetent men explain my own subject to me, I do it every day because if I don't, I'm labeled emotional, difficult, or literally in danger of being murdered.
So I'm an expert at controlling my anger, because I definitely do it more often than you do." The whole well-intentioned,
but grossly paternalistic anger management lessons from Hulk to Hulk feel to her "like a lot of shit is being projected onto me."
She doesn't say "men shit," but it's clear what is meant.
»She Hulk«, an initially nine-episode series of half-hour episodes, is the latest entry in the now quite extensive TV portfolio of the comic and cinema giant, and after only four episodes have been shown to the press, there are indications that it is one of the hitherto could be best.
Thanks to series creator and screenwriter Jessica Gao (»Rick and Morty«), episode directors like Kat Coiro (»Marry Me«) and last but not least the great leading actress Tatiana Maslany, who played around a dozen in the clone saga »Orphan Black« played different versions of her role character, femininity is not so often bapped onto masculine patterns like a pretty alibi sticker, the macho topoi of the superhero genre are rather completely unhinged with inherently feminine humor and self-deprecating comedy.
So not only does Jennifer reject the pseudo-smart lessons of the Hulk male, she also gives a damn about his solemn drivel about great responsibility and great power, that eternal heroic dialectic that their superpowers supposedly bring with them.
"Sorry, but are you quoting from a comic book?" she laughs at Bruce: It's only for dysfunctional psychos, she says.
She is not ready to have her life taken away.
There is nothing heroic about the loneliness of the strong woman
Jennifer finds her new, soon-to-be-spectacled role increasingly disruptive to her career as an aspiring lawyer.
In any case, she is rid of her job as Deputy Prosecutor after a heroic She-Hulk operation in the courtroom.
The opposing law firm, on the other hand, is happy to hire her - not primarily because of her legal skills, but because of her superpowers: She is supposed to represent clients who, like her, belong to the ranks of freaks and super beings in a media-effective manner.
This also includes the fact that she constantly has to show Jennifer in her She-Hulk form, which is elaborately animated with motion capture suits and CGI.
At first she finds this frustrating because she's afraid of disappearing behind her six-foot-tall, green-skinned superego, oversized business suit or not.
But the highlight of this series is precisely that Jennifer's transformation into the Hulk is not accompanied by a change in character: "She-Hulk" shows in a self-confident way that every woman has a superheroine within her, she is only too often not unleashed - or not recognized by the woman herself as an empowerment tool, but as an alien who intimidates or scares men away.
So Dating As She-Hulk Is Actually Difficult,
when she carries a muscle-bound beau to bed in her arms after a date - and the next morning the guy struggles with his manhood and is severely irritated when confronted with the "normal", vulnerable Jennifer.
There is nothing heroic about the loneliness of the strong woman.
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"Okay, this is completely new territory," marvels original Hulk Bruce Banner in one scene, naming the big step that Marvel is making with this heroine and this story when it comes to portraying female characters as authentic, complex, away from male fantasies and self-determined.
For a long time, Marvel's heroines had to eke out their existence in the comics as pin-ups and busty, scantily clad sidekicks of super guys, and »She-Hulk«, invented by Stan Lee and artist John Buscema in the early eighties, was no exception for a long time.
In the meantime, Marvel's heroines, including Black Widow, Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel, whether on paper, screen or television, are more emancipated and diverse and are no longer written by men, but increasingly by women.
More and more they are therefore allowed to show character instead of skin and curves.
»She-Hulk« is the most successful example of this development so far.
Dramaturgically, too, Marvel is breaking new ground with this first comedy series after experiments like "Wandavision" and "Loki", because a lot of humor is generated in "She-Hulk" through the self-referential comments that Jennifer addresses to the TV audience by using the breaks through the so-called fourth wall of the television room.
In addition to the fan-favorite Hulk Mark Ruffalo, there are other Marvel stars who have had successive guest appearances - a common practice among comic book publishers, concerned that female heroes might not resonate with the predominantly male reader or viewer.
Nevertheless, this isn't your usual every-week-a-new-cameo-show, She-Hulk wisely lectures us in one of her direct speeches - and insists on being the main character: "Don't forget whose series this is actually! «.
how could you
»She-Hulk«: From Thursday, August 18th, weekly on Disney+
