This blog and blog series is being written by Adam Singer, who handles social media and forward-facing content for the Consilium Institute. He has read the She-Hulk comics, and will be analyzing the TV series in terms of how it portrays legal issues and court procedure; we will also cover events from the comics, which often explore Jen Walters’ (AKA She-Hulk) legal cases in depth.
Although these media portrayals may not necessarily comport with real-life legal issues, when they do, at some point in the blog series Judge Julie Field (ret.) and Heidi Webb may weigh in directly upon the events portrayed in this show. So… stay tuned!
I won’t sugarcoat it: She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law has been underwhelming thus far. When the law firm of GLK&H was introduced in the comics (with Jen as part of their ‘Superhuman Law Division’), it was a clever and well-written setting for creative storytelling. A live-action version of that firm and its employees (some of whom are in the show’s cast) seemed like a terrific opportunity for legal drama in the world of superheroes.
But instead, She-Hulk relies upon formulaic tropes and thin characterizations to trumpet a stereotypically progressive female agenda. In the comics, Jen Walters is a powerful and empowered woman–but the showrunners (and various writers of the show) chose to use their expensive and unique platform to make safe and uninspired statements about gender politics.
(Our most recent blog in this series, “She-Hulk: Virtuous or Virtue-Signaling”, explores this issue in more detail.)
As this isn’t a media critique blogspace, discussing the artistic merits of this series was never my intention. Rather, my goal before its premiere was to use the show as a jumping off platform to dissect legal issues covered in the show, as the written comics have often done, and done well.
To my great disappointment, in the first half of its nine episode season the depth of legal content tackled by She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law had been scanty at best. That having been said, I remained hopeful about upcoming episodes and our ability to give them real-life context.
The comics provide some thought-provoking and well-researched legal framing and finally in Week 5 of its nine-episode run, the showrunners present us with some meaningful legal material.
Copyright and The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is famously litigious about protecting its content, and for many years, the company held its creators to high standards. Therefore, it’s somewhat unsurprising that (in Episode 5) issues surrounding copyright infringement are the only legal complaints the showrunners explore in any meaningful way.
The cliffhanger of Episode 4 involved a process server delivering to Jen a lawsuit Complaint filed against her by her archnemesis Titania, a superpowered-influencer who has trademarked the name ‘She-Hulk’ and is suing Jen for the misuse of that trademark.
Upon learning of the Complaint, Jen’s boss at GLK&H informs her that the copyright infringement action is an embarrassment for the firm, and she will have to defend herself in court. At this point in the story arc, it becomes apparent that seemingly everyone else in Jen’s life has realized this before Jen. The script and Jen’s cheerleading supporters tell us that she’s a highly-skilled lawyer, but by playing her ignorance for laughs, the showrunners further undercut their own agenda of portraying empowered women.
In court, Jen is defended by Mallory Book (Jen’s GLK&H workplace-rival in the comic). Although Mallory is a significant part of the comic’s supporting cast, she has only been given one line previous to this episode. The substance of that line was her quick rejection of a blatantly Toxic Guy (Dennis), who gives her a variation on “Hey, you could be my next fiancée!”
The term ‘straw man’ applies to this interaction and many others within the show, so I want to briefly define it. The showrunners are setting up a target (Dennis = a straw man) for easy critique, who exists purely as a sleazy male lawyer. This is a tactic they employ often in the show, so he is worth observing as a particularly oleaginous instance of a walking strawman argument.
The Case for the She-Hulk Trademark
Then, for the first time in this show, the opposing counsel presents viewers with a cogent argument. Titania’s lawyer brings forth video evidence of Jen denying the monniker, and thereby weakening her claim to the name.
Faced with an actual legal theory that needs rebutting, Jen and Mallory are forced to think of another defense to demonstrate Jen’s right to use the She-Hulk name rather than Titania. Their solution is to call Jen’s swipe-app dates as witnesses, to attest that Jen had set up her dating profile as She-Hulk, and identified herself as such on their dates.
While this plot does attempt to incorporate a legal topic into the series, it still hinges upon using Jen’s dating life to defend her professional life. This emphasizes the shallow nature of the men Jen dated in the previous episode. As mentioned with Dennis, they are strawman characters, whose existence is based not upon actual character motivations or backstory, but simply to present viewers with toxic and oblivious men who Jen can triumphantly reject.
Closing Argument
Considering the show’s solid premise and its marketing hype, it is disappointing to see all that potential for a superhero legal-comedy being squandered in favor of cheap laughs and painfully-inserted social commentary. I hope there will be more legal substance to discuss in the final four episodes of the show, but my hopes are not high on this front.