She-Hulk (Jennifer Sue Walters) is a Marvel Comics superheroine. She was created by Stan Lee and John Buscema, and first appeared in Savage She-Hulk #1 in February 1980. She-Hulk has been a member of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, Heroes For Hire, Defenders, Fantastic Force, and S.H.I.E.L.D. A highly skilled lawyer, she has served as legal counsel to various superheroes on numerous occasions. Her cousin is Bruce Banner, better known as The Incredible Hulk.
History[]
Savage[]
Jennifer Walters was born in Los Angeles, California to Sheriff Morris Walters and Elaine Banner-Walters. As a child, Jennifer dreamed of becoming a dancer. When she was seventeen years old, her mother Elaine died in a car accident while driving to Jennifer's dance recital. Because of this, Jennifer chose to quit dancing and decided to become a lawyer. Spending most of her time studying, Jennifer graduated with a law degree from UCLA, though most of her classmates had no idea who she was.
Jennifer soon after became a criminal defense lawyer in the Los Angeles area. After several encounters with her father, Morris, mob boss Nick Trask sent hitmen to kill Jennifer as a warning. During the attack, Jennifer was shot multiple times. Her cousin, Bruce Banner, was forced to use his own blood to save Jennifer's life. Unbeknownst to Jennifer, Bruce was the creature known as the Hulk, and the blood transfusion transformed Jennifer into a similar green creature who the press called the She-Hulk.
In her early days as She-Hulk, Jennifer struggled to control her rage and her strength. She was able to retain much of her intelligence in her muscular form, unlike her cousin.
Powers and abilities[]
A transfusion of gamma-irradiated blood from her cousin Bruce Banner (the Hulk) granted Jennifer Walters superhuman powers. In her She-Hulk form, she possesses enormous superhuman strength, that potentially makes her the physically strongest known woman in the Marvel Universe when her emotional state is sufficiently high.
Although She-Hulk's strength originally remained at a set level and did not increase, later in her history her strength has sporadically been stated to increase further from fear, or anger, similar to her cousin. In addition the character possesses superhuman speed, agility, stamina, and reflexes.
As She-Hulk, Walters is exponentially stronger than she is in her Jennifer Walters form; therefore any extra strength gained as Jennifer Walters through intense physical training will be amplified, making her She-Hulk form even stronger. After being defeated by the Champion of the Universe, She-Hulk exercised for several months in her Jennifer Walters form, resulting in a significant gain in strength and muscular mass in her She-Hulk form and allowing her to soundly defeat the Champion in a rematch. At this time she was able to effortlessly sustain the Thing's maximum weight with a single arm, while her strength was greatly restrained by a "Jupiter suit," and she was shown as considerably stronger than Hercules. Similarly to her cousin, her powers can also greatly increase by absorbing radiation.
Unlike Hulk, Jennifer's personality and intelligence are less affected when she transforms into She-Hulk, although she becomes more self-confident and assertive. In court it was proven that her gamma mutant form also has fewer inhibitions, as proven during a trial for the Leader; for example, while Jennifer Walters has only had a few sexual partners, reading back a list of She-Hulk's conquests took considerable time. For a long time, She-Hulk could not revert to her original human form, but that turned out to be psychosomatic due to her not actually wanting to.
Breaking the fourth wall[]
For a time, starting with the Sensational She-Hulk series by John Byrne in 1989, She-Hulk was portrayed with a form of "cross-dimensional" or metafictional awareness to break the fourth wall. In some stories, she showed an awareness of being a comic book character, with visuals of her "tearing the page" or "walking through a page of advertisements" to reach an enemy's control center. She sometimes engaged in arguments with the writer (John Byrne), or appealed to the comic's editor, Renée Witterstaetter. The Sensational She-Hulk #50 (Byrne's last issue) involved Renée locking a bound-and-gagged Byrne in a storage closet while she and Jen tried to find the book's new writer. This trend was briefly carried on during her tenure with the Heroes for Hire, when she "spoke" to the book's narrator and "fired" him for losing the plot. Other Marvel characters that have been written to directly "address" the audience include She-Hulk's friend Louise Mason, Uatu the Watcher (who narrates a majority of the issues of What If by speaking directly to the reader) and Deadpool. On occasion, this practice has also been used for Loki, Rick Jones, Wyatt Wingfoot, and Howard the Duck. The latest series has not acknowledged this primarily-humor-based quirk of She-Hulk's, save for a coda in vol. 2 #3 (#100), in which Stu Cicero, a law firm "researcher" asks Jen if she can "really do stuff like that." She somewhat wistfully replies "No. I can't" – however, the panel is drawn at a somewhat ambiguous angle that suggests She-Hulk may be looking "out" of the comic at the reader. She-Hulk's most recent profile in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe continues to list this "ability" of hers, and confirms that she is simply downplaying it for the benefit of those around her.
The Dan Slott series took a different approach to the metafiction angle, making use of a concept dating back to Lee and Kirby's early Fantastic Four – that the heroes of the Marvel Universe permit licensed comic-book adaptations of their adventures to be published. Since all comics published before 2001 bear the seal of the Comics Code Authority of America (a federal agency in the Marvel Universe), they are considered legal documents admissible as evidence in the superhuman law cases on which She-Hulk works.
If She-Hulk defeats Deadpool as the final opponent in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, she will say "You know, if this game were made in 1991, I'd be the one whacking YOU with a health bar." This references Deadpool's fourth wall-breaking hyper move, where he attacks the opponent with his own life bar, as well as the character's rise in popularity in recent years. In the game's update Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, if Deadpool is her first opponent, before the match starts she will claim that she can break the fourth wall as well. If she defeats him as her last opponent, She-Hulk will threaten to beat him in Marvel vs. Capcom 4 if the game is ever made.