She-Hulk finale smashes the fourth wall in the show’s biggest comics Easter egg

Ask most comic book fans who Marvel’s most famous fourth-wall-breaking hero is and the answer would likely not have been She-Hulk. Since Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness’ fan-favorite run on Deadpool, the Merc With a Mouth has undoubtedly taken on the title of Marvel’s most meta hero.

But as Jen Walters’ fans know, she’s been breaking out of the gutters, talking to readers, and blurring the line between fiction and reality since the ’80s. It’s The She-Hulk: Attorney At LawThe latest version of Disney Plus’ final episode, which is its most outrageous acknowledgement of the MCU yet, was just released. But how did She-Hulk’s quippy FleabagCompare her Comic Book Commentary to the first episode of her gen-inspired series? Let’s dig in.

She-Hulk’s (and Marvel’s) history of breaking the fourth wall

She-HulkDisney Plus finally brings forth-wall-breaking metahumor to its MCU. But it’s nothing new for the House of Ideas. Since the very beginnings of Marvel Comics, we have been testing the fourth wall. You can find the fourth wall here. Fantastic Four #4 from 1962. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby depicted Johnny Storm looking at a 1940s Sub-Mariner comic. Johnny found out that the Namor featured in the comic was sitting right next to him. Stan and Jack brought it up in the issue that followed, as Johnny read an old copy. Incredible Hulk Marvel’s #1 issue, published just a month prior FF #5.

John Byrne turned this meta mentality on its head in Marvel Comics Presents#18, late 1988. Jennifer Walters focused on her own history of comic books in this Christmas tale. She-Hulk finally opens up the Marvel box with a Marvel gift for Christmas, and it’s full of Marvel superheroes. Sensational She Hulk #1 comics. In the final panel, She-Hulk addresses the readers directly. She is obliterating fourth wall as she informs fans that her new series will be published in the New Year. This was only the beginning as Byrne grabbed She-Hulk’s hand and changed her character for ever.

Image: Richard Starkings. Gregory Wright. Bryan Hitch/Marvel Comics.

Byrne imagined She-Hulk to be a bridge between readers and stories. On her first cover, She-Hulk directly threatens anyone who picks up her comic that if we don’t buy it she’ll find us and rip up all of our X-Men comics. Byrne’s status as fourth-wall breaker allowed her to have constant conversations with readers about not only the story but also about comics and how they interact with their stories. The book was hugely successful, changing the face of comic books storytelling and the heroes. Combined with Grant Morrison’s iconic concurrent run on Animal ManDC was the epicenter of a new kind of meta-storytelling. It took an old tradition of placing creators alongside their characters to another level.

Once Sensational She HulkIn 1994 the meta-take ended. It remained dormant for 10 years. In 2004, writer Dan Slott and artist Juan Bobillo resurrected She-Hulk’s self-referential tradition. Less focused on the nature of actually breaking the fourth wall, they instead had She-Hulk work for a law firm — GLK&H, the same one Jen works at in the show — where they used Marvel Comics as evidence. This took She-Hulk’s meta commentary to a whole new level, allowing her to directly comment on the content of other heroes’ stories rather than just her own. The connection also goes back to Marvel’s original Marvel fourth-wall breaking when Johnny read a Sub-Mariner Comic in FF #4.

Disney Plus’ She-Hulk is echoing the comic origins

From the very first moments of the pilot She-Hulk The fourth wall has been broken in a manner that is very evocative to the comics. The show begins with Jennifer prepping us with what’s to come, breaking out of a conversation with her bestie Nikki to reveal that she’s already a Hulk and we’re about to find out how that happened. Apart from the exposition, the interaction provides a commentary on the MCU as well as the fan expectations regarding projects in the related universe. Jen knows that the audience would love to see Bruce Banner in a cameo. Jen, as well as her writers, know this. They want us to be aware of what they are doing, in She-Hulk style. It’s an expansion of the conversation that Byrne established between readers and the creative team, but it’s been repositioned for the prestige TV “cinematic universe” age.

While the trappings and tropes of the MCU have long been a conversation starter — and ender — in the real world, the characters within the MCU have never had the chance to comment on them themselves. The closest we’ve gotten are moments like the one featured in Hawkeye Broadway shows feature an imagined version of the MCU movie. Clint Barton is a bit meta here as he discusses the shortcomings of Rogers, The MusicalIts inaccurate adaptation. But that’s still entirely within the world of the MCU. She-Hulk There are no restrictions on her. Jen is constantly aware of the fact that she’s in a spinoff of a popular movie series and that she’s a lesser-known character. She often jokes about the fact that guest stars are well-known characters and that many viewers watch the series due to them. The She-Hulk comics readers love most is akin to this commentary.

Also, the show leans towards the bigger meta-space that features conversations and talk points that have proved popular among viewers. Is Captain America a virgin? Does the Avengers offer health care? These fan theories are based on podcast conversation and MCU thoughtpieces that have been made canon. These themes can be further developed by the inclusion of well-known characters, who have been knowingly named as such. Here’s Man Bull *nudge nudge wink wink* and El Aguila *viewer reaches for their phone*; you probably haven’t heard of them but they are perfectly fitting for a series about a hero who has historically represented some of the most underused, strange, and forgotten superpowered people that Marvel has to offer.

Disney Plus has Shulkie listed as a Narrator. This is what we can see in the movie. FleabagFourth-wall breakaways that reflect a feminized culture are less personal and more about the individual. When she wants to shade Bruce or react to a particularly bad date, we’re the ones that Jen turns to. Although the creative team looked to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s beloved series for our hero’s humorous narrative stylings, this is also totally in line with how Jen treats the reader in the comics. We are often updated by her on thoughts and observations about her heroes. It’s particularly effective on screen for She-Hulk as it’s so different from anything we’ve seen in the MCU. This allows us to get to Jen more than any other hero.

Though the first eight episodes added a new dimension for the MCU, they weren’t necessarily groundbreaking TV in a post-DeadpoolAnd Fleabag world. After all fourth-wall breaking on screen goes back as far — if not further than — the Marx Brothers. While She-Hulk’s narration takes on the legacy of the comic book, in enacting a conversation with the audience it rarely breaks the convention of the prestige television format. It’s understandable, since comics as a medium make it easy to have characters literally break barriers — between panels, pages, and expectations — while the TV medium makes that far harder, and it seemed She-Hulk wasn’t going to change that. But the finale upended that expectation with a truly astonishing and ambitious take on the trope that singled it out from other fourth-wall-breaking shows and makes it stand alongside the groundbreaking fourth-wall breaking of She-Hulk’s comic book past.

Image: Marvel Studios

With a fun and nostalgic nod to the past, the final episode of Season 3 begins. Incredible Hulk show. We are playing with our perception of what the Hulk looks like and blurring the lines between how the MCU portrays the Hulks. That is only one glimpse at She-Hulk’s plan to break through the fourth wall. Jen is forced to put on an inhibitor in the finale and learns about the Intelligencia. After losing her job she heads to Emil Blonsky’s retreat for a “mental health break” after nudging the fourth wall by proclaiming, “We’re not doing narration; we’re not that off the rails.” And that thought foreshadows Jen’s growing discomfort with the direction that her finale is going. After a messy fight at Blonsky’s retreat, Jen has had enough, and she decides to do something about it.

Jen complains that Todd was her first date, but she is in fact HulkKing. EvidentlyHulk-like powers are a result of her stolen blood. The series returns to Disney Plus. From there, Jen smashes out of her tile to “our” world, heading to the Disney Lot in Los Angeles to confront the writers room, including creator Jessica Gao and writer Cody Ziglar. It’s classic She-Hulk, a throwback to when she would bother John Byrne for writing something she didn’t like.

For viewers, this is a completely new concept. Fleabag’s fourth-wall breaking was for all intents and purposes a simple twist on narration, told through fourth-wall breaking and always within the world of the show. The bit gets more interesting as She-Hulk travels to KEVIN (a mechanical being who is in charge of telling the MCU’s stories), This is a big riff on the MCU’s head honcho Kevin Feige that allows the show to laugh at the critiques that fans often have. Jen complains about the MCU films ending in the same manner every time. Jen even questions when the X-Men are coming to the MCU. Jen acts as the ultimate character. She is the one asking the power that be every question, story, or concern.

The She-HulkJen was able to have control of her own story through finale, which gave her agency. Jen was able to choose her own ending using the fourth walls. There’s no lip service or semi-commitment to Jen’s agency here. Instead, she takes complete control over her story. She breaks out of conventions and sets new expectations about what a superhero story should look like and transforms them. Although Jessica Gao is known to be the creator, Jen does the actual work. It’s an interesting use of the fourth wall that expands the world of the MCU and acknowledges the reality of how it gets made. It also fits with what we know of She-Hulk and her comics history, using that to inform her story here in a more direct way than we’ve seen in most MCU projects.

We can expect more from Deadpool when he enters the MCU. The MCU, just as the comics made it clear to fans that Jennifer Walters was the one who achieved this feat first.