Warning: Spoilers for She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, episode 5.

In She-Hulk: Attorney At Law Marvel has unwittingly admitted to having a problem with adding so many MCU heroes. In episode 5 of She-Hulk Jennifer Walters is mostly preoccupied with Titania's lawsuit, which revolves around Titania's trademarking of "She-Hulk" to name several of her lucrative products. Meanwhile, in the episode's B-plot an eccentric fashion designer, Luke Jacobson, inadvertently shines a light on this potential problem when he refuses to design a superhero suit for Jen unless she is an Avenger.

She-Hulk: Attorney At Law is the fourth Marvel Studios series to release in a busy 2022, behind Moon Knight, Ms Marvel, and I Am Groot. It follows Jennifer Walters, a single attorney in her 30s whose life is complicated when her cousin, Bruce Banner, accidentally turns her into a Hulk. Although Jen adapts well to controlling her new Hulk powers, she finds herself increasingly challenged in a world that regularly objectifies and undermines her. She-Hulk is often light-hearted and self-aware, with Jen regularly quipping to the audience about the MCU and She-Hulk's structural elements. However, Luke's dismissal of Jen as a "top tier" hero until she becomes an Avenger perhaps hits the MCU a little too on the nose.

Related: How Powerful Is The MCU's She-Hulk Compared To Smart Hulk?

However, it's interpreted, Luke's dismissive attitude to Jen in She-Hulk could cause Marvel problems. On the one hand, Luke's attitude could be a self-aware nod from Marvel towards any anticipated real-world dismissal of She-Hulk as not being a legitimate "top-tier" hero in the MCU. This interpretation fits She-Hulk's tone which has been fairly light but deliberate in portraying Jen as undervalued, particularly by men. However, with She-Hulk being review-bombed, and Jen Walters undervalued as a legitimate hero, this is still an issue Marvel needs to address. On the other hand, Luke's dismissal could be interpreted as Marvel accidentally admitting that they have saturated the marketplace with new MCU heroes, making it difficult to keep track of and care about all the latest additions to an already crammed list.

Does She-Hulk Need To Be An Avenger?

She hulk the avengers

Perhaps Luke is right: for Jennifer Walters' She-Hulk to be taken seriously as "top-tier", she has to become an Avenger. It's also feasible that She-Hulk could become an Avenger, given that Bruce Banner is her cousin. However, simply making Jen an Avenger doesn't necessarily fix the problem. If anything it feeds it. It is worth noting that although Luke initially dismisses Jen, he does still agree to help her, even if he is suspicious that Nikki has lied to him about Jen's Avenger status. It's also worth noting that She-Hulk includes characters who are hugely popular in their own right and who are not Avengers. Jen even quips about the audience's excitement at seeing Wong appear in She-Hulk, and there is a lot of anticipation surrounding Daredevil's incoming appearance.

Despite this, the most significant reason why Jennifer Walters doesn't need to be an Avenger is that it would ultimately hurt She Hulk's message. She-Hulk is about not defining people by shallow labels but understanding their merits through the depths of who they are. Jen's becoming a Hulk initially gets in the way of her already successful career, rather than elevating it. For Jen to become an Avenger would undermine She-Hulk's message that Jen's powers and Hulk status do not define her, nor should they. Instead, the challenge for Marvel ought to be to ensure that all the new heroes they introduce are as deeply developed as the Avengers who came before them. All that isn't to say that through She-Hulk: Attorney At Law the MCU hasn't accidentally admitted to flooding itself with too many new heroes. Rather than making them all Avengers, however, Marvel ought to allow, these heroes to develop over time and become the parts of the MCU they need to be.

New episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law release on Thursdays on Disney+

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