She-Hulk Disney Plus Series To Remove Bruce Banner’s Role In Jennifer Walters’ Origin, Depict Her As Being The Better Hulk

Spencer Baculi |

Jul 29, 2022

Source: Official Trailer | She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Disney+ YouTube

To the surprise of few, the latest previews for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law have confirmed that Marvel’s next Disney Plus outing will be a textbook example of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s current direction, as not only will the series portray the Jade Giantess as a stronger and more competent version of Bruce, but also change her comic book origin in order to make her story more independent from her male cousin’s.

The former aspect of her character was first revealed in the series’ trailer which made its public debut on July 23rd as part of Marvel’s San Diego Comic-Con debuts.

Therein, Jen can be seen responding to Bruce’s demonstration of how to use her newfound super strength by hurling a larger boulder than the one he did with far less effort:

Meeting Bruce’s instruction in the use of yoga as a method of Hulk-control with an incredibly dexterous display of the apparent fact that she’s already mastered her abilities:

And even blowing the Avenger away with what seems to be her first use of the signature ‘thunder clap’ move:

It should be noted that at this point in the MCU’s timeline, Bruce has lived with his Gamma-fueled other self for at least 15 years – having already been the Green Goliath for a few years before his chronological MCU debut in 2008 – while Jen has been a member of the Hulk family for (and this is being extremely generous) presumably no more than six months.

Regarding the aforementioned change to her origin, this was detailed by She-Hulk actress Tatiana Maslany in a separate, behind-the-scenes featurette released on July 28th.

Speaking to the events that leave her character feeling green, Maslany explained, “Jennifer Walters is an attorney who has accidentally taken in the Hulk’s blood and become She-Hulk.”

In footage playing underneath the actress’ voice over, this accidental exposure is shown to come from her rescuing Bruce from a wrecked vehicle after the two are involved in an accident:

This depiction of Jen’s origin deviates drastically from the one depicted in the comics, as while the Disney Plus series keeps her cousin’s blood as a factor in her transformation, as seen in her debut within the pages of the Stan Lee-penned Savage She-Hulk #1, it does its best to all but eliminate Bruce’s role in facilitating the start of her super hero career.

Originally, rather than through her own heroic efforts, Jen’s was exposed to her cousin’s Gamma-radiated blood after being gunned down by a hit man hired to prevent her from defending someone they had framed.

Unable to find any immediate medical assistance and taking note of the fact that she had already lost an worrying amount of blood, Bruce makes the executive decision to perform an emergency blood-transfusion between himself and Jen, saving her life at the cost of setting her on the path to an eventual membership on the rosters of the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and Marvel vs Capcom 3.

In an interesting aside, the lowered standard of being able to receive derivative powers from a simple exposure to the Hulk’s blood rather than an explicit combining of one’s own blood with his directly retcons established MCU canon.

As seen in The Incredible Hulk, after accidentally consuming a bottle of soda tainted by Bruce’s blood, an old man – played by Stan Lee – falls ill with radiation poisoning rather than turning into any sort of ‘Aging’ or ‘Gray’ Hulk.