This week: She-Hulk.

Welcome folks to the first of many articles where I will discuss what I as a fan want to see from upcoming franchises, films, TV shows, etc. This is absolutely an opinion piece, not a prediction piece. Though, I will use some of the information we have already to inform my opinions. I guess I am one of those fans, like many of you who dreams up cool ideas for IPs we know are coming, or we’d like to see. Feel free to tell me I’m off my head or disagree strongly with my opinions. Maybe even agree, if we are a little like-minded perhaps? Who knows?

This week I am going to be talking about what I as a fan would like to see from the upcoming She-Hulk Disney+ show. This week has brought forward some interesting potential information about that show, I guess that’s what prompted me to start dreaming up ideas? So let’s get into what we know first, shall we?

What we know about She-Hulk

Up until recently, we knew nothing about She-Hulk other than it was happening. It looks like it may even start filming over the next several months. However, there were two rumors that began circulating across the last week of movie and geek news. Firstly, that the origin of She-Hulk would match the comics, in that she will receive a blood transfusion from her cousin Bruce Banner. Secondly, that the alter ego of (currently) Senator Ross, the Red Hulk could be making his first appearance in the show.

Now, these are merely rumors for now. The Red Hulk side of that rumor has been questioned by other outlets who say Red Hulk will appear in something connected to Thunderbolts for the first time. Frankly, since this is merely an opinion piece, I am going to go with the option I like the idea of most, which is Red Hulk debuting in She-Hulk.

I also have to preface this discussion with an admission that I have never liked the She-Hulk character. I’ve not read a massive amount of She-Hulk comic runs, but I took in a few back in my youth. Clearly though, I remember loving the Hulk cartoon series from the late 90’s, until She-Hulk showed up that is. It was quite a dark cartoon for kids, and it’s the darkness I guess that makes Hulk my third favorite superhero character of all time behind Batman and Spider-Man.

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When She-Hulk was introduced in Season 2 of that show, it was to appease the girls in the Saturday morning cartoon market. That show imploded afterwards and there was no Season 3. Gone was the darkness and inner struggle of Bruce Banner and in his place we had what I consider the extremely sexist She-Hulk. The character was far more concerned with her hair, her modelling shoots, fast cars and anything other than villains and being a hero. I’ll take a guess without checking that there were not many female writers on the staff of that show. It felt like a bunch of dudes thinking they knew what girls wanted to see on TV.

So I am definitely going to come at this from the standpoint of a Hulk fan. This is then how I’d like to see She-Hulk developed within a story involving Hulk strongly. Marvel Studios may well have very different ideas, as said, this is not what I think will happen, it’s what I’d love to see.

The Genesis of She-Hulk

For me, the She-Hulk show should be about how She-Hulk’s origin. To be clear, I’m not asking for an eight-episode origin story where She-Hulk appears onscreen at the end and then it ends. However, I do want to see some time taken to get us into this situation in the first place. I’d be more than happy for it to take two or three episodes for She-Hulk to actually be created. My worst nightmare is for Bruce Banner to cameo in a hospital scene at the start where, as Jennifer Walters is dying. Bruce shows up, injects some of his blood into her and walks away. That would be boring as hell to me.

So if things in the MCU are moving towards a Thunderbolts movie or show, which seems a possibility, She-Hulk could be the catalyst. In my head, I see a situation where Senator Ross is still obsessed with unlocking the secrets of Hulk and still has access to Samuel Sterns. Sterns was only in the MCU briefly in The Incredible Hulk. Though, none of the cast of that Hulk movie, save Ross (then a General), has appeared again. I always thought that was Marvel trying to forget that The Incredible Hulk doesn’t really fit with the rest of the MCU, especially given the actor change. If we add in Sterns, who would now be The Leader, Senator Ross, Jennifer Walters, and Bruce Banner all together, then they can have a bit of fun.

The Pitch

Ok, so what would I like to see? Ross wants to harness the Hulk blood and create an army of super-soldiers, his own Avengers Team (Thunderbolts lead-in). Ross has Sterns working for him with his increased intellect and knowledge of Gamma power. Sterns, of course, has his own agenda. Just like in the comics The Leader has the intellect, but is puny and weak physically. The Leader wants to create a body for himself like Hulk whilst keeping his intelligence. Something you’ll note is that Banner has just achieved within Avengers: Endgame anyway, and is later duplicated in She-Hulk.

The Leader tells Ross he needs more blood from Banner. They could draw Banner towards them with his cousin, or his cousin Jennifer could be with him as this happens and gets caught up in events. The Leader has far less moral standards than Ross does. Therefore, the Leader is willing to test this new process on Jennifer, before using it upon himself. Things (as always happened in the cartoons and comics), go wrong. Banner has to try and help save his cousin (blood transfusion to save her life). In the meantime, fed up with Hulk, Ross actually uses the not ready ‘formula’ on himself and becomes the Red Hulk.

Red Hulk is too strong for Professor Hulk, he needs to get the rage back of primal Hulk to defeat him. Or, The Leader’s experimentation on Hulk once again splits them into two separate entities. By the end we have uncontrollable rage Hulk and an intelligent but super-powered She-Hulk taking down The Leader and his gamma induced goons. Ross would be cured or returned to normal, but with the audience knowing Red Hulk will return at some point. She-Hulk then is a new hero and has to find her place with these new powers and what she can do with them. Hulk, back to square one, disappears, as Banner is once again afraid of what Hulk can do.

This could feature various other Gamma goons of the Leader, including Abomination who still exists in the MCU. This would also introduce The Leader as a viable enemy. Potentially even an Avengers level threat depending on which stories they adapt going forward.

It is also possible to bring in Grey Hulk, or Joe Fixit Hulk as part of this process as well. However, my main desire is wanting to see rage Hulk back again. I liked Professor Hulk for Endgame, but I don’t think the character is interesting enough to remain in that form going forward. This could also lead to either a Thunderbolts movie or a TV show. We also have whatever happens in Falcon and the Winter Soldier to factor in. I think U.S. Agent will be a member of Thunderbolts eventually, maybe even Baron Zemo.

Why?

Hulk remains an underused character for me outside of Avengers and Thor: Ragnarok. He was very much side-lined in Age of Ultron and Infinity War. In Endgame, he went through an evolution that worked for that story. However,  as said above, that character interest me less than the one we saw in Ragnarok last.

She-Hulk is as tricky character to get right, in my opinion. Let’s take the time to make her appearance actually matter in the grand scheme of things. She also represents the perfection of the Hulk phenomenon. She gains Hulk’s strength (not quite of course) but remains feminine and beautiful with serious smarts. Jennifer was a lawyer in the comics and that could allow her to understand justice and create a conflict within herself. Season 2 of She-Hulk would not need to feature Hulk at all. Or if Marvel decides to bring She-Hulk into the movie side, she is now ready with a decent origin story. Kevin Feige has said the new characters introduced into streaming shows will all make their way into the film side eventually.

RELATED: She-Hulk Series May FINALLY Give Fan-Favorite Character Debut They Deserve

This pitch also sets up Ross, his dark secret, and his need for his own team, The Thunderbolts. We also have Sterns, aka The Leader, free and out there as a threat. A threat who will be obsessed by Jennifer and her abilities even more so than Hulk. This could prove a great set-up for reimagining some classic Marvel storylines. This is something I plan to discuss next week in more detail with ‘What This Fan Wants From…Phase 5 of the MCU’.

Feel free to rip this idea to shreds, or join me in my silly expectations. We can even flesh some of this stuff out further for a bit of fun? We do have an LRM Discord up and running now. You can join this fledgling Discord by checking the invite link below. In there we can speculate and wish list to our hearts content.

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