Marvel Studios navigates the tricky landscape of a half-hour live-action comedy series featuring CGI characters in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, with mixed results.

Our She-Hulk: Attorney at Law reviews will be adopting a different format than the one we use for MCU shows with longer episodes; more of a breakdown that we hope will still satisfy regular readers but also help those less familiar with the MCU keep up.

The Case: What Happened?

We first meet gamma radiation-imbued lawyer Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) as she is practicing a terrific closing argument for an upcoming case. Friend and paralegal Nikki (Ginger Gonzaga) is in cheerleader mode, supporting Jen before they take to the court, while fellow lawyer Dennis is telling her it would be better if he, a man, took over. Men, eh? Tch!

We see the two catching up several months earlier. Jen and Bruce are pretty close, with more of a brother-sister relationship that makes for some fun banter between them. Their car veers off the road after a Sakaaran Class-A Courier Craft tries to intercept them, and Bruce’s blood ends up dripping into Jen’s arm wound. Bada-bing, bada-boom, we’ve got ourselves a She-Hulk! Jen is not like Bruce, however. She is able to control her Hulk situation a lot more easily, she is still basically herself when in Hulk form, and she has no intention of being a superhero. You can watch She-Hulk Attorney at Law at 4khotmovies and you can also download movies for free from this site.

Ultimately, Jen is determined to go back to her life and career as a lawyer, but it’s not long before she’s hulking out in court against a rampaging Titania (Jameela Jamil).

The Evidence: MCU Easter Eggs

There are plenty of MCU connections in the first episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and most of them are weaved in via Bruce filling in some Phase 3 gaps for us. We find out that the Stark-built hideout in Mexico was where he worked on integrating Hulk and Banner to create Smart Hulk during the Blip, and he and Tony used to sit around there drinking while Tony complained about Steve Rogers.

Bruce references his origin story as Edward Norton and several moments in The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron while discussing how he was historically able to transition from Banner to the Hulk and back again. He also mentions his fully hulked-out two year stretch on Sakaar, though we get no closer to finding out what the denizens of The Grandmaster’s stomping ground want from him this time. Ah, and we find out that Steve Rogers did not “die” a virgin. Hard to know what to say about that one, so in the words of bro and bot king Zack Snyder let’s just go with “canon.”

 

I noticed that Moon Knight is no longer in the Marvel Studios ident, but Jen does have a “See You Later, Litigator” mug sat on the shelf in her office, which of course reminds me of bleedin’ Steven Grant and his chirpy “laters gators”. Not for nothing, that famous image of Oscar Isaac eating Cheetos with chopsticks also sprung to mind when Jen was praising the virtues of the technique with Bruce. Feel free to Google “Oscar Isaac Cheetos” if you have no idea what I’m talking about!

The Verdict: Any Good?

“A Normal Amount of Rage” is a competent introduction to the character of Jennifer Walters and Maslany is, as always, effortlessly good at bringing the person she inhabits to life. Orphan Black fans will be happy to see the actress in another challenging leading role (I’m Orphan Black fans) and so far the supporting cast seem great, especially Gonzaga as Nikki.

As is becoming a tradition with these Marvel MCU shows, the end credits shine brightly yet again, with the art giving us some good-humored context for Jen’s new life as She-Hulk. They end everything on an upbeat note, but the well-documented chatter about the show’s CGI quality won’t be fully put to rest after this first episode. It’s mostly fine, I would say, but there are a couple of moments where it does look a bit dodgy. The overworked VFX artists on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law likely did their best, and She-Hulk’s CGI rarely strays into Polar Express territory, though I regret to inform you that in some of the later episodes I watched it was definitely leaning more that way.