She-Hulk: Attorney At Law Explains Smart Hulk's Transformation

Editor's note: The below article contains spoilers for Episode 1 of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law.One character that was always guaranteed to show up in She-Hulk: Attorney At Law was Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner. Not only is Banner close to Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) since they're both cousins, but he plays a major role in her transformation into She-Hulk. The first episode shows that transformation, with a car crash leading to Bruce's gamma-irradiated blood seeping into Jennifer's wounds and transforming her into the She-Hulk — but the rest of the episode also reveals more about how Bruce was able to merge his two separate personalities into one whole Hulk.

Throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe's tenure, Bruce was always haunted by the destruction the Hulk wrought. He was constantly on the run in The Incredible Hulk, and in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) took over his mind, which led to a fight with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) that nearly wrecked half of South Africa. And as if that wasn't bad enough, he spent two years in Hulk form during the events of Thor: Ragnarok. It finally came to a head in Avengers: Endgame, where it was revealed that Banner managed to merge his psyche with the Hulk's — retaining his intellect as well as the Hulk's massive strength.

The She-Hulk pilot expands further on this: during the five-year gap between Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, Banner constructed a lab in Mexico with the help of Tony Stark. There, he worked on merging his two personalities into one. It's also where he takes Jennifer after her first Hulk-out, as he wants to help her control her powers as he did. This winds up being a moot point as Jennifer has more of a handle on her Hulk strength, even being able to change back and forth between forms at will. And it turns out that she may be even stronger than Banner — when he tries to stop her from leaving the island, she responds by battering him halfway across it!

Image via Disney+

RELATED: 'She-Hulk': Tatiana Maslany Shows Off Series' Meta-Humor in New Clip

The pilot even explains a plot development from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. In that film's mid-credits scene, Banner appeared with Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and Wong (Benedict Wong) to discuss the origins of the Ten Rings that Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and his father Wenwu (Tony Leung) wore. Banner, however, was not in his Hulk form but was human — and wore a device that had a strange green light. In the She-Hulk pilot, he explains that the device helps him revert to human form while also healing the damage that he received to his arm when he wielded the Infinity Stones in Endgame. The device breaks during the car crash, meaning that Banner reverts to his "Smart Hulk" form, although he uses Jennifer's blood to heal his broken arm — an injury sustained when he snapped his fingers while wearing the Infinity Gauntlet.

As for the reason behind the car crash? That is also related to Banner's time on Sakaar during Ragnarok, as the ship is extremely similar to the one that he and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) used to escape the gladiatorial planet. And for Hulk fans, that may hint at a potential adaptation of the Planet Hulk storyline. In that storyline, Hulk became a gladiatorial champion on Sakaar and ended up being the planet's prophesied savior. With the gladiatorial elements of the storyline adapted into Ragnarok, the stage has been set for a potential Planet Hulk movie or TV series. And given Banner's presence in She-Hulk, as well as the return of the Abomination (Tim Roth), it looks like the jade giant will continue to have a major influence on the MCU's future.

CL Report

Dive into the world of entertainment with Collider, delivering the latest news, reviews, and exclusive updates from movies, TV, and pop culture Subscribe

CL Report

Dive into the world of entertainment with Collider, delivering the latest news, reviews, and exclusive updates from movies, TV, and pop culture Subscribe

By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.

She-Hulk: Attorney At Law premieres with new episodes every Thursday on Disney+.