In her first origin tale, she appears as She-Hulk: Lawyer She-Hulk on Disney+. The character also echoes memories of the classic show The Bionic Woman, a spin-off from The Six Million Dollar Man, a connection that lades the early Marvel worry about rights. The studio feared that the popularity of the Incredible Hulk with Lou Ferrigno would push producers to bring a live-action She-Hulk to the screen, so Marvel leaned into creating their own version to secure the rights.
Edited by Stan Lee with cartoonist John Buscema, the female iteration of the green and mighty hero starred in The Savage She-Hulk, a comic series from 1980 to 1982 that follows Jennifer Walters, a criminal lawyer who survived a gunshot wound thanks to a blood transfusion from her cousin. With Bruce Banner as her relative, the blood tie becomes a powerful, albeit less monstrous, source of transformation—an oversized green Amazon in a legal world that sometimes feels equally dramatic and absurd.
After appearances in Avengers and Fantastic Four, She-Hulk returned for another late-80s comic arc, The Sensational She-Hulk. This era captured the core spirit of the series: irreverent, satirical, and self-aware. Walters would even acknowledge she lived inside a comic, sparring with her cartoonist and writer. John Byrne helped shape that anarchic tone, and later writers like Charles Soule and Javier Pulido carried the tradition forward in 2014, continuing to reflect on the media itself while keeping the character’s wit intact.
Tatiana Maslany’s casting and the evolution of Hulka
She-Hulk’s animated phases ran from 1982 to 1996, but the live-action portrayal sought a different kind of realism. The 1990s offered a tantalizing possibility by a script from Larry Cohen, famed for Mad Cop, and a casting of Brigitte Nielsen, whose height of 1.83 meters could shape the character’s presence on screen.
Ultimately, Tatiana Maslany stepped into the role. Slightly shorter at 1.63 meters, she carried a remarkable talent for transformation, having embodied up to eleven distinct characters in Orphan Black. Her version of Hulka arrived not through blood alone but via an accidental contamination involving her cousin’s guest blood after a space-borne collision. This origin reframed the character’s birth as something scientific and extraordinary rather than purely familial.
In the premiere episode, viewers glimpse Walters undergoing intense training to master her transformations and harness their energy. She retains her sharp wits as she becomes a stronger, more capable version of herself. Joining the ranks of a superhuman defense unit, she must advocate for Emil Blonsky, portrayed by Tim Roth, the same Blonsky who turns into the Abomination and once attempted to kill her cousin in The Incredible Hulk. The villain’s reminder—“On your government’s orders”—adds a burden of duty that seldom leaves Walters behind.
Marvel’s Entertainment shift toward comedy
After experimenting with Scarlet Witch and Vision, Marvel pivots back toward a sitcom voice with a show that blends exuberance and restraint. It features striking special effects alongside light, everyday humor—jokes about stinging barbs, friendships that bend and sometimes break, and moments that show a superhero dealing with ordinary life. The tone channels echoes of Ally McBeal, while Jessica Gao’s writing and the show’s sensibility push the format toward a more playful, self-aware edge—almost a playful punditry on the genre itself, with nods to Fleabag and Better Call Saul as touchstones for tone and craft, plus a nod to American Crime Story’s people-focused drama.
Directed by Kat Coiro, renowned for her work on comedies that balance sharp dialogue with heartfelt moments, She-Hulk: Lawyer Hulka leans away from existential dread and toward a lighter courtroom and dating-life narrative. Walters navigates a world where legal battles, online dating, and workplace dynamics collide, all while embracing her green alter ego. It’s a portrait of a heroine whose strength comes not from isolation but from navigating relationships, careers, and public perception with a candid, sometimes messy, sense of humor—an attitude that makes her more relatable than ever.