Marvel Comics has seen an increase in mainstream popularity with the recent release of several box-office hits such as “The Avengers.” Since its inception in 1939, the comic book company has created thousands of characters. While not all of them may get their due publicity because of a lack of exposure on the silver screen, each has interesting stories to tell in the print medium.
Do superheroes have civilian lives anymore?
It seems when it comes to superhero stories, what really matters are the panels that detail the Earth-saving exploits, while whatever happens to the hero’s alter ego goes untold.
But whether it’s Ultron, Doctor Doom or Loki that’s been defeated, when it’s all said and done, there are still bills that need to be paid and voluntary crime-fighting doesn’t quite do that.
There are heroes like Doctor Strange who’ve seemingly given up their civilian lives after picking up a superhero mantle. There’s also Falcon, where I have to count on the power of Google to find out his alter ego – Sam Wilson, who works as a social worker – since it’s hardly mentioned in the comics. When it comes to superhero stories, it seems there’s more emphasis on the costume than the person wearing it.
But on the other side of the spectrum you have Jennifer Walters, better known as She-Hulk, someone whose profession as an lawyer is integrated in her character.
On the surface level, it’s easy to see where Walters inherited the green pigmentation and super strength from – her more famous cousin Bruce Banner, the Hulk, after she received some of his radiated blood during an emergency transfusion. But she’s much more than just a female version of her big green cousin.
Banner and Hulk seem to always be at odds with each other – Banner usually seems afraid of the harm he will do as the Hulk, while the Hulk just seems to hate the weakling that is puny Banner. She-Hulk and Walters, on the other hand, don’t seem to have a problem coexisting, In fact they’re pretty much one and the same, so don’t be shocked to see her show up as a legal counsel in a pantsuit matched with some green hair and skin.
The integration of She-Hulk’s profession into her superhero stories is something that helps to separate her from the pack of characters with their own super-powered exploits. It’s something that really drew me in as a reader, well, other than the fact that this is probably the first and last time I’ll get to write about someone who’s also studied at UCLA in this column series.
Walter’s career as a lawyer is so deeply integrated within the She-Hulk that in the video game “Marvel Heroes,” all of She-Hulk’s moves are named after legal terms such as “Opening Statement,” “Bar Exam” or my personal favorite, the aptly named “Surprise Witness,” which summons a random hero to fight alongside Walters.
Walter’s characterization as both a lawyer and a super-strong crime-fighter continues in her most recent solo series, “She-Hulk, Vol. 3.” The 2014 series opens with a sequence that challenges both of her roles in society. The assistant attorney leaves the firm Paine and Luckberg, LLP, to start her own private practice after realizing to she was hired as pawn to get closer to potential lucrative contracts with the wealthier superheroes, rather than for her legal expertise.
Further into the story, Walters engages in a poignant discussion with another superhero lawyer, Matt Murdock, also known as Daredevil. Murdock talks about how, as lawyers, they “go to any lengths to represent their (clients’) interests.” But they are also superheroes, and the added element of their superpowers and roles as vigilantes of justice does redefine their roles as conventional lawyers.
The conversation does a great job of summing up the tone of She-Hulk’s adventures. She’s both a superhero and an attorney, but at the same time neither side is really independent from the other.
Normal lawyers don’t have to beat up killer robots sent by the client’s father that aim to stop said client’s emancipation. Then again, neither do most superheroes help draft patent acquisition contracts for Ant-Man after shrinking down with him and helping him locate a missing inventor hiding in a garden.
A lot of what made Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man one of the most endearing characters in Marvel Comics history was how a number of his stories featured his struggles as Peter Parker and his life as a newspaper photographer, high school physics teacher and scientist at Horizon Labs. Sprinkle in supporting characters from Parker’s or Spider-Man’s life who don’t know about the other and you have a recipe for a best-selling book.
I think She-Hulk does something similar, but to a different degree. Instead of having dual lives, her stories combine both aspects of this life but still do a good job at making her more than a green hero who punches and kicks really hard. She could also have a court appointment later in the day.
If you go ahead and make her angry, you might just get served.
– Aubrey Yeo
Who’s your favorite Marvel superhero not seen on the silver screen? Email Yeo at ayeo@media.ucla.edu.
As an alumni of the UCLA School of Law, this is pretty cool.