She-Hulk Comic Writer Firmly Shuts Down MCU Show Accuracy Criticism

She-Hulk comics writer Dan Slott firmly defends the new MCU adaptation, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, from criticisms that it's unfaithful to the source material. The Disney+ show, which first premiered in August of last year, chronicles the life of lawyer Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) as she attempts to balance her career with her newfound superhero abilities. While the show was met with a positive response from critics, some fans took issue with its self-aware comedy and overall departure from the more typical MCU tone. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law concluded its 9-episode season 1 back in October, and it's currently unclear what the future holds for Maslany's new hero.

Although much of the criticism for the show revolved around its depiction of Charlie Cox's Daredevil, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law also came under fire for what many perceived to be a departure from the Marvel source material. Now, Slott, the writer who penned more issues of the She-Hulk comics than anyone else, in addition to a slew of other comics across Marvel and DC, defends the show from this particular critique. Check out two tweets from the prolific comic writer below:

The She-Hulk Show Was Ahead Of Its Critics From The Beginning

Jennifer Walters breaking the fourth wall in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.

In a stark departure from other MCU shows and movies, Maslany's Walters often breaks the fourth wall to talk to the audience, which is in keeping with the comic book source material. This breaking of the fourth wall in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is used to great effect to call out toxic MCU fans, with the writers proving that they were aware far in advance that Walters would ruffle some feathers. On one occasion, Walters even jokes that featuring Wong (Benedict Wong) in the series gives the show "Twitter armor" for a week, with many fans briefly setting their complaints aside due to their love of Wong.

In addition to breaking the fourth wall, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law also cleverly comments on certain aspects of the Marvel fandom through its use of the villain character, Todd Phelps (Jon Bass). Todd, who is clearly sexist, believes that She-Hulk ultimately hasn't earned and doesn't deserve her powers, and he launches an online harassment campaign against her through an organization he founds known as Intelligencia. Before the show was even released, a small subset of sexist Marvel fans voiced their displeasure at the prospect of She-Hulk's MCU introduction simply because she is female, and the show even uses some of these real social media posts within the context of Todd's harassment against Walters.

While there have certainly been many valid fan criticisms of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, the series clearly understood where some of the more toxic forms of criticism would come from and worked these into its actual narrative in a clever way. The show's unique tone was always going to be divisive, but the response from certain fans actually ended up working in the show's favor in terms of its meta exploration of fandom. Although the effectiveness of various aspects of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law will continue to be debated, Slott's latest comments fairly conclusively debunk the argument that the show is too much of a departure from the Marvel comics.

More: She-Hulk Proves Just How Badly Marvel Handled A Bruce Banner Story

Source: Dan Slott