She-Hulk: Attorney at Law – Whose Show is This? review – S1 E9

Welp, She-Hulk’s season finale happened.

Maybe that’s a little harsh? After nine episodes the payoff felt like a hack to avoid the reality that She-Hulk rarely was about anything.

You’ve gotta hand it to the She-Hulk writers. They stayed committed to the bit. Lump any and all criticism of the show into a scathing take on douchebag dudes and call it a series.

The age-old online philosophy is “don’t feed the trolls.” She-Hulk: Attorney at Law came through with UberEats and Doordash to make a whole series for trolls.

But you folks who just wanted She-Hulk in the standard action/personal study series? Sorry, maybe next time.

That doesn’t mean the episode was a total wash. That opening with its riff on the old 70s Hulk TV series? Really fun although the live-action She-Hulk wasn’t nearly as convincing as Lou Ferrigno.

After her savage outbreak, Jen has to take a plea deal after her outbreak. I’m not well versed on superhero law, but wouldn’t this be an ideal time for an attorney who’s also a hero to defend herself? Or call Matt Murdock?

Instead, Jen has to wear an inhibitor bracelet so she can’t transform again. Naturally, this costs Jen her job. Nikki and Pug, the spunky sidekicks who too often end up doing more than Jen, infiltrate an Intellegencia meeting where Pug learns its founder is Todd. And shock of shocks, it’s at Emil’s retreat.

The writers wussed out on committing to a full heel turn for Abomination, which would have salvaged his entire arc as one of the catalysts plotting revenge against a Hulk. Instead when Jen spots him, he just says he’s a guest speaker. This leads to a wild scene where Todd injects himself with Jen’s blood to hulk out, Titania barges in and Hulk arrives to save his cousin.

MORE:

• Marvel Legends action figure reviews
• G.I. Joe Classified Series figure reviews
• Operation Seawolf review
• She-Hulk: Attorney at Law – Ribbit and Rip It review S1 E8

It’s so ridiculous that Jen calls it out and proceeds to go in a clever fourth wall breaking scene where she talks to “Kevin.” No, not Feige, but an A.I. program ensuring the MCU machine runs smoothly. K.E.V.I.N. admits some properties are better received than others but it leaves it to the Internet to decide. That’s funny, you see as it makes any lackluster MCU offering the result of loud online complainers not a reflection of the quality of the series.

There’s some solid back and forth here in this exchange with nods to Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and the X-Men. Some of the jokes land very well while others feel like an explanation for a series that couldn’t just play important plot points out and needed this shorthand summary.

Jen doesn’t want the typical MCU experience for her season finale and has K.E.V.I.N. make some alterations to fast forward through any conflict and right to Todd and Emil getting arrested. Let’s imagine Todd was charged with something that would stick, but the writers sidestepped that one nicely. Suck it online complainers!

The subtle beauty of this — to the writers’ mistake — is leaning harder to the online complaints that women heroes don’t have to work as hard as their male counterparts. This is clearly the biggest example as Jen doesn’t want to deal with the fight and simply asks for a rewrite to make everything work out in her favor with little effort.

Per Jen’s request, Daredevil drops in and hangs in town for the family brunch. Hulk arrives as well fresh off his Planet Hulk stopover where he introduces his son, Skaar. So even though this series and season was all about She-Hulk, the biggest takeaways were Daredevil rocked his yellow and red costume and Planet Hulk occurred.

What to make of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law then? It provided Disney+ content for nine weeks and featured fun cameos from Daredevil, Hulk and Wong. Looking back it feels like there should have been some cool cameo from one of the women heroes of the MCU, no?

So, this episode earns some points for being highly original and fully committing to breaking the fourth wall in a playful manner. As a means of wrapping up everything that played out over the previous eight episodes? Well let’s just call it case dismissed and get hyped for Wakanda Forever.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Photo Credit: Disney

Check out the Savage She-Hulk Omnibus now on sale at Amazon.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.