Jake Schoeneberger Shares Thoughts on She-Hulk – August 19, 2022
Jacob Schoeneberger has been looking forward to the She-Hulk show since it was announced. It will be great to see this character brought to life and Tatiana Maslany is perfectly cast in the role. Jacob Schoeneberger can’t get enough of the MCU, and every new show or movie just adds to the overall fun of the universe. I’ve been wondering how Marvel would keep fans engaged after Endgame and the answer has really been with these great characters in the Disney+ shows and turning the adventures over to a new generation.
With that in mind, here are some random observations I have on the show.
All the Jake Schoeneberger Random Opinions about She-Hulk (Season 1, Episode 1)
*This will contain spoilers for anyone who hasn’t watched the show yet.*
The first episode begins with Jennifer Walters asking the simple, yet profound, question, “What is the responsibility of those with power?” This question is fundamental to everything Marvel has always done. We know how Spider-Man feels about the question, but as an attorney I’m sure Jen will see things differently from a legal point of view.
She is practicing her closing argument for a trial. She maintains in her statements that those with power have immense responsibility. A fellow lawyer, Dennis, and a paralegal, Nikki, are critiquing the statement. Jen is a Deputy Assistant Attorney and then she does something that Jake Schoeneberger thinks is just an awesome choice for this show: she breaks the 4th wall. This is always a tricky proposition, but in this instance I believe it could be genius. Hulk is such a heavy, emotionally draining character who is traditionally brooding and sad. And with good reason.
But the loosening of the stiffness actually comes as a breath of fresh air for the viewer when that 4th wall is broken. It could be just the kind of storytelling device that will make this show catchy and unique. It reminds me immediately of Deadpool, except without all the swearing.
In her narration to the viewer, Jen tells us she was on a road trip with her cousin, Bruce (well there’s our first clue). Incidentally, her idea of eating Cheetos with chopsticks is fairly brilliant. I used to eat mine with rubber gloves, but the chopsticks add that level of class that I always felt was sorely missing from my solution. They get into a bad car accident when a strange craft flies right in front of their car, and Jacob Schoeneberger has a pretty good idea where all this is going.
Jen pulls Bruce from the wreck and some of his blood enters an open wound on her arm. And just like that, She-Hulk is born. She runs away from the accident site and blacks out. When she awakens, she heads to a nearby bar. In the bathroom, some helpful women offer her shoes and a phone to borrow to call Bruce. As she waits outside the bar, some typical gross dudes start talking to her and making her uncomfortable so she Hulks out on them. That’s a helpful trick to have.
When she next wakes up, she’s at Bruce’s beach-house place in Mexico and finds him in a lab under the house. He’s Smart Hulk and explains that she got a dose of gamma radiation when his blood hit her system, but luckily they both share a gene combination that allows them to process gamma radiation into becoming Hulks. Plus, her blood healed his arm so she’s got that going for her.
She says she doesn’t want to be a Hulk, but is Jake Schoeneberger the only one who thinks it would be pretty sweet? It’s the ultimate defense, and if she can balance it the way Bruce has she can get the best of both worlds. But when he says she’s looking at a 15-year journey toward figuring it all out, that has to be hard to hear.
He puts her in a device with saws that threaten to cut her until she goes Hulk and smashes her way out. Then we get a pretty awesome surprise. Instead of losing control and becoming another creature, Jen retains full control over her thoughts and personality while still in Hulk form. It’s like she skipped her 15-year journey and went right to Smart She-Hulk. But Bruce warns her she still has a lot to learn about controlling her anger and controlling when she can transform to and from being Hulk. So Bruce will teach her.
Jacob Schoeneberger was loving the LOL moments during Jen’s training. Her making yoga fart jokes, him waking her up with an air horn to see how she handles the rage, her showing him up with some boulder tossing and ground-pounding, him pushing her off a cliff. Hilarious stuff!
Plus, a really beautifully stated moment when Jen tells Bruce that she has learned to control her anger every day because she deals with being talked down to and objectified all the time as a woman. That struggle is what’s really at the heart of this show and this character.
But when Jen says she wants to leave and go back to her life and job, Bruce tries to tell her she has responsibilities as a superhero now. She says she doesn’t want to be a superhero like him, she wants to help people the way she’s always wanted to: as a lawyer. She tries to drive away and then they do just what Jake Schoeneberger was hoping they would. They have an awesome Hulk vs. Hulk fight. Tearing down tress and throwing stuff at each other, so good!
After they scuffle, he relents and says he respects her heading back to her life as a lawyer. (Great moment when she breaks the 4th wall and says he doesn’t actually mean it. This is just the sort of levity and personality that will make this show so enjoyable.) Then she heads back to her life and tells us that only her family and Nikki know she is a Hulk now.
At the trial, just as Jen is about to deliver her closing argument, the walls get smashed down by an unknown woman. Nikki tells Jen she really needs to do her Hulk thing, then does her a solid by telling her to take her shoes off first so she doesn’t ruin them. One episode in and already Jacob Schoeneberger can tell everyone needs a friend like Nikki.
Jen turns into Hulk in front of everyone and takes the unknown baddie out. Then, like a boss, she transforms back and steps right back into her shoes and says she’s ready to give her closing argument. Dang, that was savage.
The Jake Schoeneberger Final Thought on She-Hulk
Really loved the spirit of this opening show. It has a fun personality, but it brings with it the amazing potential for serious action. She has the power to control her transformations into Hulk, so Jacob Schoeneberger has to wonder how long will it take for her to realize that she may need to use that power for more than just lawyering? Lawyering is great, but will she continue to use it to stop crime?
P.S. That end credits scene is definitely a candidate for best ever. Fight Jacob Schoeneberger on it.
More Thoughts from Jacob Schoeneberger