She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Season 1

I put season one, because there is no way this doesn't get a second season. It is more than deserving. Oh, hello. Welcome to my review of the recently finished She-Hulk series on Disney+. Another in an exponentially growing list of Marvel properties getting TV shows. The money train left the station a long time ago and it seems just about any and everything is getting green-lit. Fortunately, they have all mostly been successful in one way or another. I think this show falls in the success category.

I will put this out here. I'm a little biased. I've been reading every iteration of She-Hulk for almost the last twenty years. She does the fourth wall breaking that Deadpool does, but less annoying. Correction, Deadpool does the fourth wall breaking SHE does. It's just his property got released into the public first. Anyways, I was excited for this show when I heard it was happening. I was even more excited when I heard that the talented Tatiana Maslany was cast as the titular character. I didn't need to hear anything else to get me on board. They did tease that Mark Ruffalo would be returning as the Hulk as well. So I knew they would at least treat this right.

With all this being said, I truly enjoyed this show. It was a delight for me. With nine, thirty minute episodes, it was the right amount of show. I'm sure money is the reason, but I appreciate that Marvel keeps their shows short. They also get the right showrunners who have a vision that is unique to them (re: Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel). In this case it was Jessica Gao. So glad they continue to get female showrunners to run shows about their female characters. Shocking, I know. 

Let's talk about the amount of money spent on this show, real quick. With the initial trailers, I was very worried about the special effects. Behemoths like She-Hulk, The Hulk and Abomination need a big budget behind them to pull them off. So is that possible in a TV show? Eh, well they tried their best. They tried to write around She-Hulk not appearing ALL the time, but her CG was shaky at best. Not terrible in small doses, but the cracks would start to show the longer she appeared on screen.

Fortunately, I thought the writing was good. The humor hit all the right notes for me. There were a lot of deep cut jokes or Marvel Characters (El Aguila?! The Porcupine?! Mr. Immortal?!?!) that tickled me. I also loved the way the fourth wall breaking aspect of the character was worked in. Tatiana delivered them perfectly. I mean they just go and name drop the X-Men? Loved Jen's sidekick, Nikki and their interplay

For a Hulk show, some won't be happy that this show is lacking in the action department. I'm completely okay with that. I feel like it would expose the budget this show didn't have. I liked the focus on the seemingly normal problems for Jen as she navigated the world through herself or her alter-ego. 

I also loved that this show continued to poke the bear that is the white male dominated comic book fandom. This show exists to piss off fanboys like that and I am here for it. So much material can be provided to a show like this by them. With the penchant for fourth wall breaking and working it into the plot itself, they were able to poke at it. 

Finally, the cameos. I know it can play like a who's who of who do we have available, but I loved the choices here. Seeing Wong is ALWAYS a delight. I also loved seeing Tim Roth re-emerge as the Abomination. Then we get to see Charlie Cox return as Daredevil, with the red and yellow costume. The difference here is we get wise cracking Daredevil, not tortured soul, lapsed Catholic Daredevil. Thank god for that. There was just a different, fun energy about him. We're not used to seeing him ACTUALLY smile. Loved his involvement in the show. Oh, let's not forget to mention Madisynn. Spelled with two n's and one y and not where you think. It was a show stealing turn and I liked her unlikely friendship with Wong. Also, thankfully, they didn't go back to that well again THIS season.

Oh! One more thing! We need to talk about Larry from Perfect Strangers being in this show! Good for him finding work. Maybe he has been working steadily, I don't know. Doesn't matter.

This show was a lot of fun, didn't overstay it's welcome and I thought it brought She-Hulk into the Marvel Universe in a fun way. I can't wait to see other cameos at some point in future seasons. It has to happen. 

Werewolf By Night

Sneaky Marvel. This just snuck out to Disney+ with little fanfare, but what a nice surprise it was. I remember seeing a trailer for this a while back and then instantly forgot about it. Being as we're in Halloween season, it's perfect timing. Let me get right to it.

This is the Marvel short we didn't know we needed. It was a lot of fun. It harkens back to the old days of monster films. It's in black and white for the most part, with pops of color here and there to accentuate things. There's the cigarettes burns in the top right corner of the screen as if it was on a projector. The way some of the shots are framed and just the general vibe of it had an old monster feel. However, the action and special effects were not. There was some great hand to hand action mixed in here and that kind of stuff is my bread and butter. There were legitimate moments that made me go, "Oh SHIT", which is the space I like to be in when I see some cool martial arts moves come out of nowhere.

The horror side of Marvel I know very little about. It's not my cup of tea, but I can appreciate some aspects of it from afar. I didn't know anything about the Werewolf by night character, nor did I care. You get what you get here and I thought it was great. I know just a little more about Elsa Bloodstone because they've been trying to give her a push the past few years, including her in video games and more appearances in the comics. She's a certifiable bad ass and shows that here. All of the actors are perfectly mysterious and acted well.

We also get a very cool appearance by Man-Thing, the not Swamp Thing of the Marvel Universe. He looks really good here and I liked that he is used sparingly. Just enough that it makes you want more in the future. I just hope he doesn't get overused like Groot. 

What I really appreciate about this short is that they drop you in the action and you find out a few pieces about the characters as you go. Really it's about a game to win a prize and how cutthroat everyone is in getting it. That's it. For something like this, it is perfect. The musical score is also very appropriate. There's a bit with a tuba and flames to announce when a participant has entered the maze that I loved. Chilling! I highly recommend checking this out for Halloween. At just under an hour, it is the perfect bite sized chunk of content we all need. I wish more things were presented and wrapped up so neatly like this. 

My hope is that this is opening the door to some form of Midnight Suns. A team of Elsa, Man-Thing and Werewolf by Night is a good start. Perhaps Blade can be added at some point and a version of Ghost Rider. We'll see, but if Marvel wants to start dipping into the horror side of their catalog, I'm here for it.