There are many discussions surrounding what is going on with Marvel. While some believe they have lost their edge, it’s hard to deny (even if the web tries) that recent events shook the entire industry in an unprecedented way. What seemed like a straight-forward march into 2020 ended up derailing an entire industry for years to come. As such, costs were exploding beyond what you’d usually see with shows, especially in a streaming war to produce the best “content” possible (even if that wording has soured quite a bit in the industry).
She-Hulk, Attorney at Law was one of the shows that seemingly suffered, as in a new Variety report they claim that a single episode would end up being more expensive than even the final episodes of Game of Thrones. However, it’s not surprising given just how big Marvel was that they’d invest heavily to promote the streamer as much as possible, especially with a purely CG character as part of the cast and we know that Marvel has a bad habit of generally reshooting many sequences leading to more CG work.
It definitely isn’t a good sign if their costs continue to pile up and who knows if the current strikes also affected the 2024 releases. We may not know until next year, but it wasn’t a secret that the Disney+ shows cost a pretty penny, especially grounded shows like Secret Invasion saw its costs balloon during production in recent reports.
Marvel Studios wasn’t quite prepared to start a new venture like long-form storytelling and then getting hit by a pandemic that completely threw everyone off. We’re still feeling the aftermath of that time as it was still just under a year ago that we were living it. Now, we are also facing strikes that are redefining the entire industry, at this point while Marvel is certainly facing shaky grounds, it’s not something that seems specific to them looking at how few films performed in 2023.
She-Hulk, Attorney at Law did a lot as a series, as it not only gave us Marvel Studios’ first venture into sitcom territory but also added some interesting new elements to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. of course, all eyes have been on the addition of Daredevil finally making his return to the franchise, it also gave us some heartfelt moments with Jennifer Walters’ cousin, the Hulk himself.
The biggest reveal came at the very end of the series when Hulk introduced everyone to his son, Skaar. His design has left many scratching their head, as it was quite a departure from the original that many spent time reading in the comics. Surprisingly, it seems that they had one version as revealed by concept artist and illustrator Constantine Sekeris on his ArtStation. It’s definitely closer to what we know from the comics, especially the long hair and sword.
His design in the series is definitely a departure from the comics and sadly it seems we might have to wait a bit longer before we get him to look a bit more like his comic counterpart. Still, there’s some excitement to see what they may have planned for a character like Skaar in the MCU. The franchise is expanding in new and curious ways, which adds to the potential of what he may look like once the character returns to a project later down the line.
With the conclusion of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law’s nine-episode run came the end of Marvel Studios’ streaming series for 2022. The year kicked off in March with a six-episode journey into the mind of Marc Spector in Moon Knight, starring Oscar Isaac; continued in June with Ms. Marvel, which also ran for six episodes and introduced Iman Vellani’s Kamala Khan to MCU; and concluded with Tatiana Maslany’s fourth-wall-breaking Jennifer Walters. Each series certainly had its own, distinct flavor and, as with all things, didn’t satisfy the palates of all fans. Team MM watched and covered them all, so with them now behind us, we thought we’d share which series were to our taste in the return of the Team-Up!
Joao Pinto
Moon Knight might not be the MCU series that better managed to stick its landing—especially not when compared to Loki, Ms. Marvel, or She-Hulk—but its build-up was indeed special. The character work developed by Oscar Isaac is likely to still be unparalleled in the MCU, and the psychological components made for an incredibly compelling experience ahead of the lackluster and uninspired finale. The weeks while the show was airing were incredibly stimulating both as an audience member and as someone who got to write about the show, perhaps in a way that I hadn’t yet felt, and likely haven’t since, when it comes to Marvel Studios Disney+ series.
Being a fan of Jeff Lemire’s Moon Knight run it was wonderful to see so many elements from it being adapted to the small screen, as well as witnessing the unfolding of the future of the Gods in the MCU, with established connections to both Thor: Love and Thunder and the upcoming Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The somewhat tedious series finale is unlikely to remain as the final Moon Knight chapter in the MCU. So being, the amazing work developed in the first five episodes will still surely be given a proper climax, one that highlights just how impressive the show really was…if you leave out the finale.
Mary Rowe
She-Hulk is my favorite MCU series of Phase Four. It introduced a main character that represented a very down-to-Earth person, whose super adventures only added to the baseline personal story. It was hilarious, the final two episodes were absolutely phenomenal and memorable, and Marvel seemed unworried about portraying very real women and not shying away from important topics and concepts that are often ignored because they shine a bad light on (a) reality for women, and (b) the “fandom” and general internet’s misogyny. But even without that, it was the most enjoyable show by far, and I can’t wait to see more of this kind of comedy and creative approach in the MCU going forward.
Torbjorn Frazier
My favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe series from Disney+ this year was She-Hulk: Attorney at Law with a bullet. While Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel both had fantastic high points, the latest series from Marvel Studios was most consistent with its high quality. Led by a phenomenal performance from Tatiana Maslany, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law felt like the first MCU project to fully embrace its status as a television series within the greater universe. The stakes weren’t as catastrophic as many of Phase Four’s contemporaries, but they were very much real and resonate in the modern world (it truly was a marvel to watch the show so accurately predict the bad faith negative commentary that would come from toxic corners of the internet). And then of course, the back two episodes of the series provided Marvel’s creative high points of the year thus far. Daredevil had a natural transition from Netflix to the MCU-proper, and then the creative team provided a masterful adaptation of fourth-wall shattering akin to many seminal She-Hulk comic runs.
Before principal photography on She-Hulk: Attorney At Law ever got underway, rumors had the legal comedy pegged for a 10-episode first season. Similar rumors hovered around Marvel Studios’ first streaming effort, WandaVision, which like She-Hulk, ultimately consisted of nine episodes. With most of Marvel Studios’ streaming series consisting of 6 episodes, these two stand as outliers. So what determines just how many episodes will comprise each series? According to director Kat Coiro, the episode count for She-Hulk wasn’t something that was predetermined by Marvel Studios.
Talking with The Direct, Coiro explained that She-Hulk was fairly deep into development before the number of episodes started to come into focus.
One of the most amazing experiences I’ve had as a creator and as an artist is Marvel is not bound by the same rules as, you know, other TV shows that have to be 22 minutes. And the story really dictated the length of the season. And so as the story came into focus and as we started putting the pieces together, it landed at nine. It could’ve been eight, it could’ve been eleven. And it’s the same with the length of the episodes. There isn’t a number you have to hit. It really is, ‘What’s best for this episode,’ which, in my opinion, is how it should be.
Kat Coiro
One of the benefits of owning your own streaming series is being able to play a little fast and loose with things like runtime and episode count. And while that may seem obvious, it’s something that Marvel Studios has struggled with throughout their first round of streaming series. Criticisms of rushed or crammed finale have been levied against series like The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and Hawkeye. On the other hand, Loki’s total runtime seemed just right. Perhaps as Marvel Studios continues to evolve as a “television studio”, they’ll continue to learn the right lessons and let the story dictate the runtime, not let the runtime dictate the story.
Of all the obscure comic book characters introduced over the 9-episode run of She-Hulk:Attorney At Law, it was an original character developed for the show that captured the hearts of fans. Patty Guggenheim’s Madisynn was undoubtedly the surprise star of her time on the show. Her “bestie” relationship with Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme, Wong, played by MCU vet Benedict Wong, played out wonderfully throughout Episode 4, “Is This Not Real Magic”, and continued on into a hilarious post-credit scene. As it turns out, while She-Hulk featured several scripted post-credit scenes, Madisynn’s “Wongers” scene wasn’t one of them.
According to director Kat Coiro, the idea for the scene developed as the crew delighted in the on-set chemistry between Wong and Guggenheim.
You know, when Wong and Madisynn have their little moment, that was not scripted but they had such incredible comedic chemistry that, at the end of the day, I had them sit on the couch, and threw a couple cameras on them and said, ‘Go. Go forth and make comedy.’ And they sure did. So, part of what was amazing about this process was the collaboration and really leaning into the strengths of our actors. And part of the secret of comedy is letting people get loose, and have fun, and play around. And so, whenever we had the opportunity to do that we would.
Kat Coiro
It’s great to see that the creative team of She-Hulk was able to recognize the comedic gold they had on their hands in Madisynn. Noboy’s asking for a Mr. Immortal spinoff, but MCU fans are definitely wondering when they might see Madisynn again!
The season finale was all about fourth wall breaking by doubling down on the few times Jen did just that in the previous episodes. She now literally breaks the fourth wall by breaking out of Disney+, going into the real Marvel Studios HQ all while demanding script changes from K.E.V.I.N., an in-joke for the Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige.
Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 9
Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 9
This, the breaking out not just to connect with the viewer/reader but going a step beyond and conversing with the creator itself, questioning his decisions and proposing something more to her liking, is fairly similar to what happened in the John Byrne’sThe Sensational She-Hulk #37. Here, Jen, after getting into a dispute with the Living Eraser, mishandles his Dimensionizers and erases herself blaming Byrne for such a poor decision.
The Sensational She-Hulk #37 (1992)
This serves as a prime example of the kind of impact that Byrne had on the character since, at the time Stan Lee wrote her first issue, 1980’s The Savage She-Hulk #1, her ability to step out of the comics wasn’t yet a thing. It wasn’t until Byrne’s iconic 1989 run that she truly became one of the most distinct Marvel characters by gaining such power. But instead of just breaking the fourth wall, Byrne’s She-Hulk made use of it. She tore pages apart so she could skip ahead to the villain more quickly and when things weren’t going her way she would request to basically skip over a fight she knew she would lose. She would even try to convince Byrne and the Marvel editors to change her looks whenever she felt her hair looked bad. The Sensational She-Hulk really made a tremendous contribution to both establishing a comic paradigm shift and dismantling comic book physics.
And the same can be said regarding the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even if K.E.V.I.N. identified the programming error that allowed Jan to step out of the show into the real world, making sure to say to her that this was the last time she would be able to do that, there is no denying that the level of self-awareness the character may yet instill into the MCU is substantial. That is, if the other characters actually believe her on that, something that both She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and the comics hint at, as these panels from The Incredible Hulk #412 can attest to.
The Incredible Hulk #412 (1993)
If Marvel Studios ever decides to introduce a character that is also in on the gag, much as Marvel Comics did with her boyfriend Wyatt Wingfoot and the Blonde Phantom that decided to make a comeback as a She-Hulk sidekick while breaking the fourth wall herself, in The Sensational She-Hulk #4, there are surely a number of possible contenders. Even if this may somehow make Jen’s powers feel less unique, in the context of the MCU it is a concept that will surely thrive. With the upcoming Avengers: Secret Wars, why not introduce the idea of a universe where every single Marvel character grew bitter and disgruntled by knowing their free will, their freedom to do otherwise, and the power of self-determination was in the hands of a random writers’ room on Marvel Studios HQ?
The Sensational She-Hulk #4 (1989)
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is now streaming, in its entirety, only on Disney+.
The big fourth wall break in the middle of the She-Hulk: Attorney at Law finale may be the most memorable part of the episode, but the very beginning was also iconic. The opening was a stellar homage to the opening credits of The Incredible Hulk television series starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno that aired on network television in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was not too off-the-wall that the self-aware show would reference the classic Marvel show, but head writer Jessica Gao recently opened up about the somewhat surprising way it came about. Speaking to Comicbook.com, Gao said:
One day, out of the clear blue — this was post-lockdown, so everyone’s just working from home — my fiance, Truck Torrence, just walks into the room that I’m in working. And just announces, ‘I think you should do an opening that’s like an homage to the 1970s Incredible Hulk. That is all.’ And then he just walked out of the room. And I thought, ‘That’s a great idea,’ and then it just snowballed from there.
Jessica Gao
The idea luckily worked in practice at the end of the day. Even if some younger viewers did not immediately make the connection, most did and the aesthetic was absolutely on point. Gao continued:
And I am so tickled that we actually got to do it…[i]t looks fantastic. Our second unit director, who is also our stunt coordinator, Monique Ganderton, directed that. And you could tell that Tatiana and Mark had so much fun in those ’70s clothes. In the scripts I wrote ‘Ruffalo is in a Bill Bixby wig.’ But what was great is Mark naturally has this beautiful curly hair, so we didn’t need to put a wig on him. Like his hair naturally could support that wonderful ’70s volume.
Jessica Gao
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is now streaming on Disney+.
Considering She-Hulk brought back major references to 2008’s maligned and often ignored The Incredible Hulk, many thought that additional characters from that movie might make an appearance. Specifically, some theorized that Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns, who was last seen beginning his transformation into the supervillain known as The Leader, would be the overarching or background villain of the series, especially after he was announced to be returning in Captain America: New World Order.
While The Leader was nowhere to be found in She-Hulk, head writer Jessica Gao says he was in her original pitch for the series. Speaking to Comicbook.com, Gao stated:
In my original pitch, I did have The Leader in there. Just as an option, as a suggestion, you know?…[b]ut really, I can’t remember why [it was taken out]. I don’t remember if it was organically taken out, because we just came up with other stuff, or if we were told no. I honestly don’t remember. But there was thought about either bringing him back or doing some version of a new version of Leader, or some relation to him. But, I mean truly, this was three years ago, and the show has evolved so much that I don’t remember what actually happened.
Jessica Gao
Now having seen the full She-Hulk series, The Leader’s absence did not weighing heavily on the character or story. Still, Gao’s comments add fuel to the growing theory flames that Marvel Studios is plotting a grand and expansive Hulk-related plotline in the future.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is now streaming on Disney+.
With She-Hulk: Attorney at Law having wrapped up its first season on Disney+, fans have begun further anticipating the next venture involving a superheroic lawyer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Charlie Cox has received generally rave reviews for his performance in the final two episodes of She-Hulk, greatly raising the level of interest for Daredevil: Born Again, which arrives on Disney+ in 2024 with 18 episodes (an unprecedented move for Marvel Studios projects on the streaming platform). While talking with Variety about his return as Daredevil, Charlie Cox discussed the concept of an 18-episode series and how it will impact the production and story of the new series.
It’s mad. I have no idea; your guess is as good as mine. Just in terms of shooting, physically it’s going to be a real slog and that will be a challenge in and of itself, which I’m excited about. It’s such a bold move. The character being a lawyer lends quite well to that. There’s a lot of story you can tell, just outside of the superhero element.
Charlie Cox
With Daredevil: Born Again being primed to be such a deep dive into the titular character and his world, questions will be asked of how much from the original Netflix series will be folded into this adaptation in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When asked about who from the original series Cox would like to reunite with, the actor played it relatively coy. However, he did go fairly in-depth into the concept of being curious about where the character’s “canon” will be when the show streams.
It was an absolute delight to work with everyone on all of those shows at Netflix. They were the beating heart of all of those shows. I would be honored and thrilled to work with any of them again. I would hate to single anyone out and I would hate to speculate because I just don’t know what the plan is going forward. That’s way above my pay grade. There are so many great stories to tell. There are stories to tell again. That wouldn’t be inconsistent with what they do in the comic book universe. Often a new writer and artist will take over a book and they will start from beginning. So maybe we’ll be doing that, but I genuinely don’t know. I’m just thrilled that I’ve been invited to the party.
Charlie Cox
Charlie Cox makes some interesting points here about the possibility of Daredevil: Born Again being a true fresh slate for the character away from what he did before. The specific status of “canon” within the Netflix universe of Marvel characters, however, does still remain nebulous. That said, the inclusion of Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin alongside rumors about other returning Netflix characters can lead to the belief that at least some of the core story beats will remain intact.
The growing romance between Daredevil and She-Hulk caught the attention of fans, and She-Hulk, after showcasing strong amounts of chemistry in the latter two episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Fans have begun to ask questions about whether Jennifer Walters will make some sort of appearance in Daredevil: Born Again. Charlie Cox addressed the idea.
I don’t like to speculate; I’ve learned over the years that when you get excited in an interview and you talk about things that could happen, the problem is that they then litter the internet. People talk about it, and then if it is a good idea, you end up ruining it for the fans. The only thing I’ll say is that I had such a blast working with Tatiana. She’s such an extraordinary actor, and the characters’ chemistry was really strong. There’s more fun to be had there, so whether we can go on that journey a little longer and our lives can collide again, I don’t know but I’d certainly be in support of that, if it can happen.
Episode 8 of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law saw Charlie Cox guest star as both Matt Murdock and Daredevil and fans ate up both his performance and the chemistry between his character and Tatiana Maslany’s Jen Walters. Since the episode debuted, fans have been clamoring to see more of the two together and while they got a few seconds of screen time with one another in the finale of She-Hulk, it didn’t quite satisfy the need of fans nor, apparently, Maslany.
In an interview with THR, Maslany joked that she’s been texting Cox daily, trying to find a way to guest star in Daredevil: Born Again, which is currently set to stream in 2024.
I keep texting him being like, ‘Am I required for set today?’ And he says, ‘We’ll let you know by lunch.’ But he just keeps putting it off. I’ve been waiting outside the set in my She-Hulk costume, so just put me in, coach.
Tatiana Maslany
While fans wait for word on a potential second season of She-Hulk and what future the character has in store in the wider MCU, it’s wonderful to see Maslany campaigning to keep the fire hot between Jen and Matt!
All 9 episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law are now streaming on Disney Plus.
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