She-Hulk’s breaking the fourth wall to show you what real power looks like

The first episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, "A Normal Amount of Rage," caught up with its star's cousin, giving the show its first connection to the larger MCU. It seems like Bruce Banner would be the perfect person to teach Jennifer how to live a gamma-irradiated life. Just like She-Hulk is going to put its hero through her paces with a straightforward origin story episode, this isn't one that she will enjoy.

The first episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law has been published.

The way in which the character had evolved since first appearing in 2008's The Incredible Hulk was illustrated by the fact that "Smart Hulk" was able to tap into his powers while retaining Bruce Banner's genius intellect. It seems like it is still part of his life when we meet him again in She-Hu, since he has become a celebrity since learning to live as aHundred.

Soon after the accident that exposed her to Bruce's blood and left her with a host of powers similar to his, he whisked her away to a remote beachside lab in Mexico to study his cousin. When Bruce fills her in, Jen rolls with the situation, even though she can't remember how she woke up in his lab.

It is easy for Jen to assume that Bruce is capable of building devices to help her control her powers, even though she knows that he is. Bruce tells Jen that it will take about 15 years for her to get control of the character. Despite her shock, Jen can understand why it is important for her to learn more about her new self, and that she should not wallow in the tragedy of her circumstances.

The real big bad spotlight in "A Normal Amount of Rage" is a set of ideas rather than a person, and She-Hulk's first season is full of living, breathing villains who all want to tussle with Jen. Despite Jen's insistence that she feels fine and the variety of ways she demonstrates a rather quick mastery of her new Hulk body, Bruce is reluctant to take her at her word. Bruce is concerned about the large amount of harm he knows himself to be capable of if he were to become a superhero. As you watch "A Normal Amount of Rage", you can see how in control Jen seems to be as She-Hulk and how much that frustrates Bruce.

As a PhD with a chip on his shoulder, Bruce Banner wouldn't think of himself as being sexist or small minded about women. There is a kind of casual, almost passive sexism at work in how Bruce assumes that Jen will experience the same things as him. He can't even consider that not being the case because doing so would require him to fundamentally rethink his way of looking at the world.

When Jen tells Bruce that anger and fear are emotions that women have to contend with on a daily basis, she isn't just talking about how often women have to think about their safety. Bruce is one of the men who refuse to listen to what women have to say about their own lives.

He doesn't want her to return to her normal life because he's been alone and isolated for so long. It is not possible to tell whether Jen was more perceptive than Bruce about what was happening in other people's heads. She-Hulk is going to be fascinating to watch over the course of its first season because she has a unique way of understanding the world.

Image: Disney Plus

The introduction of the ability to break the fourth wall of whatever medium she is in is set up by the way She-Hulk uses SmartHulk in "A Normal Amount of Rage" Being fully honest with Bruce about how much help he still needs might not be the best idea, and so she tells the audience directly to the camera.

Jen has been aware of her existence as a fictional character since the late ’80s, when she took control of the story she was in by tearing through its pages. Though She-Hulk mostly used that power to joke about her show not being like other MCU shows, "A Normal Amount of Rage" almost frames it as Jen's answer to Bruce's anger. It gave Jen pause when she realized who she was talking to when she spoke to the camera, like the way Bruce was stunned to have his spirit snatched out of him in the movie. After Jen breaks the fourth wall for the first time, she is back in the swing of things because she is a busy woman with a life.

The two cousins are able to be there for one another in ways they need because of the way Jen vented to the audience because she was so frustrated with Bruce. The combination of She-Hulk's strength and powers of perception make her a force to be reckoned with, even if she doesn't have the same kind of training as Bruce.