Yeah I know it's capeshit, but I read some of the comics back in the day so I thought I'd give the show a chance and watched the first three episodes, and now I wanna riff on it.
Episode 1: Therapy is for Losers
In ep 1, we get She-Hulk's backstory - she was in a car with her cousin Bruce when a UFO appeared right in front of them and they swerve to avoid it and get in a wreck. Normally, Bruce would Hulk out, but he's wearing an inhibitor he developed - but bc he doesn't Hulk out, he bleeds on Jen, causing her to black out and turn into She-Hulk.
Bruce takes her to an island retreat where he takes the form of Smart Hulk, an integrated form of Bruce and Hulk. He reveals that he, a brilliant scientist, and the only other person to ever be affected by the Hulk condition, has been learning how to deal with it for the past 15 years on both a personal and scientific level, and he offers to share what he's learned.
As She-Hulk, do you:
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Respect the Hulk as a teacher in light of his scientific expertise and lived experience?
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Realize that this Hulk stuff works differently for you, but that your cousin has been suffering alone for a decade and a half, and empathize with him and hang out for a bit to keep him company, understanding that society may one day fear you as a monster too?
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Make fun of everything he tries to teach you, tell him you already know how to handle anger because you're a woman, call him a dumb idiot loser, and immediately leave to go back to your job as a lawyer?
:yea:
Episode 2: Sexist Idiot Douchebag Gets Owned in the Most Lib Way Imaginable
OK this is actually the ep 3 subplot but ep 2 is mostly setting things up so I've chosen to include it here for the sake of pacing my post.
Jen has a former coworker who's name is (or may as well be) Sexist Idiot Douchebag. He does stuff like randomly refer to a woman as "it," and is a very on-the-nose caricature, which is fine, like The Boys is very unsubtle but it works, whatever. Anyway he finds out that he was dating someone who he thought was Meagan Thee Stallion but was actually a shapeshifter, and he sues her because he bought her a bunch of stuff and is accusing her of fraud. The judge takes it to trial, but thinks that any reasonable person would know better than to think they were dating the real Meagan Thee Stallion, so Sexist Idiot Douchebag's lawyer calls She-Hulk as a witness and he's like, "Miss She-Hulk, in your opinion, is my client a sexist idiot douchebag who sucks?" and she's like, "Oh yeah, he super sucks, he's also a jerkwad and a nincompoop, he's totally dumb and self-absorbed enough to think he's dating the real Meagan Thee Stallion," and then the judge is convinced and awards Sexist Idiot Douchebag $175,000 in damages.
In the end, Sexist Idiot Douchebag may not have suffered any material consequences for being a sexist idiot douchebag, but he was held accountable.
Episode 3: She-Hulk Calls a Witness which Solves Everything
In this episode, She-Hulk is assigned to represent a former supervillain who claims to be reformed in a parole hearing - but he just broke out of his cell! He claims, however, that Wong, the Dr. Strange Villain, forced him to go along with it and that he voluntarily returned as soon as possible. So She-Hulk has her friend track Wong down on social media, and he agrees to show up and confess to everything, and he does, and the board agrees to grant him parole after all. Also, the reformed supervillain is very clearly planning to start a sex cult which is a weird thing to include but ok.
Anyway that's pretty much the whole story. Wong teleports in, says he did everything, and teleports out. Oh but he shows up late so She-Hulk has to stall for time.
One frustrating thing I noticed is that neither case needed to be about super-powered people. In the comics, the did some interesting world building, exploring weird legal questions that the existence of superpowers might raise. Can a ghost testify as a witness to his own murder? Where do you even begin to argue that from a legal standpoint? Ah, but She-Hulk has a clever answer - She points out people come back to life all the time in this universe, and letting the ghost testify is no different than letting Captain America or someone testify. That sort of thing is kinda cute and interesting to explore. But like, the shape-shifting could've just been an impersonator, and a prisoner can be forced to escape without powers. So why is this show, uhh, why does this show exist?
Tbh it seems like they mostly just wanna trigger the chuds so people will watch it because it makes people they hate big mad. A lot of it feels more like Twitter owns than actually believable and sympathetic characters. In conclusion, She-Hulk bad.
There’s something about the mediocrity of capeshit that is so fascinating. So much of it is like the blandest pudding you’ve ever had, without flavor, color, or texture, but then you get a ball of something hard and possibly hairy
I watched most of the Marvel films just because I've been a fan of the comics for yonks and i'm curious to see how they bring things onto the screen, but man they are fucking bilge - not because of what they do with the subject matter - give us Beta Ray Bill you fucking cowards - but they are just bad films. Three-act mince that always ends with a fight and something massive blowing up or crashing into something equally as large and then blowing up. In slow motion.
Never was the biggest fan of She Hulk so I have only seen one episode - it's fine - a goofy, sitcom safe take on the character - the fourth wall thing is weak but these shows are all just introductions to them showing up in the climatic two-parter of whatever arc the movies are going through. And if this is the precursor to the characters in their version of Secret Wars then fuck it all, fuck it all into the sun tbh.
You fucking know it. Daniel Warren Johnson's limited series is fucking incredible.
Give me my anthropomorphic horse cyborg with a heart of gold, the hammer of Thor, and an unrelenting wish to beat Sutr's/Galactus' ass into the pavement you fucking cowards!
To be fair, She-Hulk was always breaking the fourth wall in the comics. I thought it was pretty lame until I found out that's what the character was known for. But that aside, there are plenty of reasons the show is still trash.
I'm still watching it, though. Give me my slop!
In the comics I remember her doing work on a case that involved trudging through boxes and boxes of old Marvel comics to find some obscure piece of information, it was fun.
It can still be lame if it's done poorly. Recent runs of Harley Quinn started doing fourth wall breaks and that is so not necessary for the character. DC doesn't need a Deadpool.
Thor's hammer ax is called Stormbreaker so I don't think we're ever getting BRB. They should have called the ax Jarnbjorn like in Thor: God of Thunder.
i've watched capeshit in the past, the marvel shit got really tiring after Endgame, i wished they ended it there but i guess :brrrrrrrrrrrr:
I liked Red Guardian partially because pure aesthetics and partially because he's the only person to have a personality in the entire universe (With the possible exception of The Tom Hiddleston Doctor Who cosplay and Variety Show Hour.) I forget what and who else was in that movie, It genuinely took me a full minute to remember the title.
They had a really great opportunity to do Marvel Universe Harvey Birdman and they blew it.
I would have even taken Marvel SVU (copaganda, but I'm a :sicko-pig: who loves crime shows) or Law and Order.
That's roughly what the Netflix Marvel shows were. I genuinely enjoyed Jessica Jones and Luke Cage.
The best parts of Daredevil was when it was just Matt Murdock: Blind Lawyer Guy.
My partner, who absolutely loathes capeshit, watched the first episode with me. She thought it was basically one long Twitter thread, too.
Also a main driver for conflict and action is "How am I going to pay for this?", super heroes in the show are driven by fear of inability to pay / the moral imperative to pay and also say how awesome one of their friends pays for shit they do (while that friend at the same time holds the wealth above their heads stark).
That’s a theme throughout the entire MCU. Tony Stark literally didn’t give any of the Avengers health insurance or wages.
So after a bunch of the Avengers come back from Thanos’s snap they all have PTSD, no healthcare, and are also broke. It’s a main plot point in the Falcon show.
Stark is dead after the last big movie and left nothing to the other Avengers because he was an alcoholic narcissistic billionaire.
wait, how is the sexist idiot douchebag owned if he was awarded damages?? lol
Being able to call out a chud to the teacher while simultaneously giving them everything they want is the ultimate lib fantasy :liberalism:
So why is this show, uhh, why does this show exist?
Disney feels they haven't bilked enough money from the girl boss demographic
Yeah the first episode was the same for me. Like I know being a woman is hard as I am one, but are you seriously comparing getting catcalled to having split personalities where you black out for years at a time??? Like holy shit that is insanity to even begin to compare. Also the smugness of disparaging that disability made my skin crawl.
The show is just really weird. First they don't even make her legitimately buff looking, which is moral cowardice. Then they frame it all as a girl boss thing. Then they have a rap song as the ending credits for a middle aged white lawyer lady. Really fuckin weird.
So far my favorite capeshit is the Harley Quinn animated series, and honestly it isn't even a contest at this point.
Yeah I was thinking about that scene and it really encapsulates a lot of the shows problems. It's an epic Twitter own that completely flies in the face of both characters' characterizarion. It also doesn't make any sense, because what the Hulk represents is bottled up repressed anger exploding out, so being like, "I repress tons of anger" is like, that means you need more help! But also like, Jen is a confident assertive #girlboss who doesn't take people's shit, while Bruce is a shy nerd who is terrified of being seen as a brute and has struggled for a long time to find a healthy balance between his aggressive Hulk form and his passive Bruce form. Shy nerdy men who struggle with asserting themselves absolutely experience a lot of the same shit of getting talked over and stuff like that, so it really falls flat.
The show wants to have it both ways of Jen being cool, confident, and badass, but then also have her be like, "It's so hard having to make sure I never outperform my male colleagues and make them feel insecure, a thing that I would never, ever consider doing." And they could have it both ways, because they're dealing with a character with two sides! But that would require having the Jen side be more reserved and vulnerable sometimes, and the writers want her to be super cool in every scene and interaction.
They might redeem the scene later by making it out to be a character flaw, but it was presented in a very "Yass Queen Preach!" way so I don't have high hopes.
First they don’t even make her legitimately buff looking, which is moral cowardice.
My biggest disappointment with the show. But not quite as bad as the LotR show having a beardless Dwarve woman.
This sounds great and I’m going to watch She-Hulk now, thank you
I sincerely hope you will write up the synopsis and analysis for the remainder of the series as well, looking forward to it. The conclusion was pretty eye-opening as I am fairly obtuse but I have my moments of revelation usually due to the wisdom of others though. Twitter thread theater, I can see it now.
