Marvel Studios has just wrapped up the run of its latest streaming series, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, with the most self-aware sequence in the MCU to date as Jen Walters confronted cybernetic Kevin Feige. As a legal procedural sitcom that constantly broke the fourth wall, She-Hulk was by far the most comedically driven show from the MCU’s streaming content.
Some of Marvel’s Disney+ shows have been more dramatic, dealing with heavier subjects, like Moon Knight and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, whereas others are more lighthearted and comedic, like Loki and Ms. Marvel.
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law
Marvel Studios’ most recent Disney+ series, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, was the closest thing in the MCU to a straightforward sitcom. With half-hour runtimes, dovetailing A-plots and B-plots, and a cast full of wacky supporting players, She-Hulk was a traditional TV comedy about the foibles of a lawyer looking for love.
From the beginning, the series and its eponymous protagonist were more interested in legal proceedings than superhero action. Plus, the show’s fourth wall breaks gave it the sly self-awareness to call out Marvel tropes in real-time. Tatiana Maslany’s Jen Walters even confronts a robotic Kevin Feige at Marvel Studios’ headquarters.
Ms. Marvel
Anchored by Iman Vellani’s enthusiastic performance, Ms. Marvel is a typical high school dramedy that happens to involve a superpowered bangle. It has the relatable teenage antics of Freaks and Geeks with the dazzling visual style of Scott Pilgrim. Kamala Khan is one of the MCU’s funniest protagonists, but there’s also a ton of drama in her life – she has no idea that her best friend is in love with her.
The show has some hilarious moments, like Kamala’s anticlimactic superhero training, and moving emotional scenes, like the painfully authentic mother-daughter arguments.
Hawkeye
Clint Barton took eager young archer Kate Bishop under his wing in the Hawkeye series, training her to eventually take his place on the Avengers roster. This show was a holiday delight last year, capturing the festive spirit at the perfect time. Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld carried the series with a fun on-screen dynamic.
The series has some dramatic moments, like Clint fearing for Kate’s life and trying to ban her from vigilantism to protect her from suffering the same loss he has, but it’s primarily a Die Hard-style Christmas actioner full of slapstick gags and quippy one-liners.
WandaVision
The MCU’s Disney+ content got off to a stellar start with WandaVision. Visually, WandaVision homages every era in the history of situation comedies, from the black-and-white heyday of The Dick Van Dyke Show to the meta mockumentary style of Modern Family.
But thematically, it’s a show about the complex emotions of grief as Wanda uses a fabricated sitcom fantasyland to help her through the various stages of mourning Vision’s untimely death.
Loki
When the trickster god finally got his own solo project, it was less of a medieval fantasy series and more of a time-bending sitcom. Loki is a sci-fi procedural following the day-to-day operations of the bureaucrats who keep the “Sacred Timeline” in check. With its fantastical investigations and adventure-of-the-week storytelling, Loki plays like Marvel’s very own X-Files.
The show wrings more than a few laughs out of Loki’s self-absorption and his TVA partner Mobius’ deadpan reactions – nailed by Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson – but his romance with his multiversal self Sylvie is played straight as a dramatic arc.
The Falcon And The Winter Soldier
Marvel Studios’ second streaming series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, is a “buddy cop” show revolving around the mismatched duo of Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes reluctantly working together. Like the action comedies that inspired it, the series has plenty of lighthearted banter between the title characters.
But it also deals with a lot of heavy subjects like terrorism, with the Flag Smashers, and America’s history of institutionalized racism, with Isaiah Bradley’s tragic backstory. This series has some of the MCU’s darkest moments, like John Walker’s gruesome murder.
What If...?
As the MCU’s first anthology series, What If...? is a mix of different genres. The zombie-infested episode adhered to horror tropes, while the murder mystery episode adhered to whodunit tropes. There are some serious dramatic episodes, like the one with a corrupted Stephen Strange, as well as some silly comedic episodes, like the one where Party Thor throws a rager on Earth.
The show also has a few standard action-driven installments like the Captain Carter and Star-Lord T’Challa episodes, which combine elements of both comedy and drama.
Moon Knight
Marvel’s Moon Knight series is a full-blown psychological thriller that plays like an MCU version of Fight Club. With uncompromising violence and a deep dive into a fractured psyche, Moon Knight is easily the darkest show that Marvel has premiered on Disney+ so far. The title character has a harrowing backstory in which he unwittingly allowed his brother to die.
Oscar Isaac gives a stunning dual performance as cold-blooded mercenary Marc Spector and his mild-mannered other self Steven Grant. With two distinctive personalities and a third one on the way, Marc’s mind is a house divided against itself.