Welcome back to yet another From page to Screen focusing on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. In the show’s first week, we looked at the differences between the comics’ and series’ versions of Jennifer Walters’ origin story. The following week, viewers got a live-action introduction to Jen’s new legal job, taken straight out of Dan Slott’s and Juan Bobillo’s 2004 She-Hulk run—Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway (GLK&H). Episode 3 introduced a reimagined version of comic book villains and in its fourth week, the show decided to focus on Jen’s love life. As for episode five, it shed some light on Jen’s nemesis, Titania.
We had already gotten a quick glimpse of her on the show’s premiere, only for She-Hulk to bring her down with a single punch as she raided a courtroom. This, so far, has been the only actual physical confrontation between the two on Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. As for the comics, the story has been quite different as it is Titania’s strength and endurance that have propelled her into becoming one of She-Hulk’s lifelong adversaries.
When a cosmic being known as the Beyonder whisked Marvel’s best fighters to a mysterious realm known as Battleworld during the catastrophic events of Secret Wars, Titania (then Mary MacPherran) saw her life forever changed. She was unintentionally included in the group, just a regular citizen who had grown up being teased by peers for being from a low-income household and diminutive in stature. She and her buddy Marsha are then sent to Battleworld after making up a connection with Spider-Woman when Doctor Doom eventually finds them stuck there. He promises to equip them with cutting-edge alien technology in exchange for their participation in his army, which he intends to use to battle the Marvel superheroes on Battleworld. Once they agree, both of them undergo transformations: Mary becomes significantly taller and gains superhuman strength, endurance, and durability; Marsha can turn her entire body into blazing plasma.
Following this, the two of them change their names to Titania and Volcana, respectively, and join forces with Doctor Doom to become villains. Titania then battles She-Hulk for the first time, achieving a rare win that would later develop into a protracted conflict between them.
As for the show, and per the initial casting call when the character was referred to as Lucy, Titania is described as a glamorous Social Media influencer, a Kardashian-type if you may. Her origin is bound to differ from the comics’ since we’re still a few years away from the events of Secret Wars, with little to no guarantee that the upcoming movie will even play out in a way similar to the 1984 comic run where Titania made her debut.
Although her super-human strength appears to still play a big role in her character, she has found other ways in which to confront Jen. According to Jameela Jamil, who plays her on-screen, her biggest superpower might actually be “being annoying.”
Titania stands out because I think she’s the most annoying of them, actually. I think she almost doesn’t need to use her strength; she could just annoy you to death…and I think that is a superpower that we haven’t really utilized enough. She’s also very glamorous… and I like the fact that she’s completely unselfconscious. She’s completely unselfconscious and so, so weird.
Jameela Jamil
With Tatania deciding to face off with She-Hulk in a court of law instead of going the more traditional route of punching herself out of a situation, the series has deprived itself of the more action-orientated approach the comics usually go for, but the outcome of said decision is likely going to make her rethink strategy. With four episodes to go, and given the relevance given to the character, it’s perhaps pretty likely that a brawling face-off is in the cards, even if Titania doesn’t quite feel as the big bad the series has been teasing for a while.
The first five episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law are now streaming on Disney+.
