Marvel Studios is too good with its ‘Word Building’. She-Hulk Episode 1 emphasizes this fact with many easter eggs. There were a many instances where there were a few items lying around in the background referencing past events. Hulk even mentioned Tony Stark and Steve Rogers a few times in this episode.
Here are the top 5 Easter Eggs for She-Hulk Episode 1:
1 – Tony Stark
Just after the initial few scenes, Jennifer Walters wakes up in Bruce Banner’s beach house, some where in Mexico. That itself is a big reference to Tony Stark as Hulk says that both the lab and house was gifted by Stark. In addition to this, the equipment in the lab is also gifted by Stark.
He then also shares how Stark and him used to sit at this bar table here while Stark was complaining about Steve Rogers. It’s clear that Hulk misses his friend Tony Stark
2 – Steve Rogers / Captain America
In one of the promotional clips itself, Walters and Banner are discussing about Steve Roger’s private life. Jennifer Walters makes up a story that just after Rogers becomes Captain America, he never had the time to explore his romantic side and never got a partner.
In the post credit scene, Walters also expresses her sadness on Steve Rogers dying a virgin. Hence, she mentions the phrase “America’s Ass” deserved better. To which Hulk replies that Rogers lost his virginity to a lady on USO tour in 1943.
If what Hulk says is true than Marvel Studios has adopted one of the fan theories and made it true. The theory was that Steve Rogers lost his virginity to Peter Quill’s distant relative.
3 – Blast from Hulk’s Past
There are few things included from Hulk’s past and I’ve combined them as one.
First is Iron Legion Helmet from Avengers: Age of Ultron which was kept on a table. Now it’s very easy to confuse this helmet with that of Iron Man but its one of Ultron’s robot’s helmet. Bruce kept this as a reminder of his and Stark’s past mistakes.
Second is Hulk’s gladiator helmet which he wore in Thor: Ragnarok. This is reminder of his days on Sakaar as Hulk fighting with others. Along with this he also mentions that he doesn’t remember anything from that time he was Hulk for 2 long years.
After this there are some more references by Smart Hulk as follows:
- Banner locked himself up for 18 months after the events of Avengers: Endgame so that he could get Smart Hulk.
- Smart Hulk mentions how someone used to knock Hulk out so that Banner could take over.
- Similarly, he also mentions how Natasha used to sing a lullaby.
4 – Grandmaster’s Spaceship
I’ve already done a separate post for this.
The spaceship which we see here is the Saakaran Class-8 spaceship as per Smart Hulk. It’s possible that Hulk’s son Skaar and his wife maybe inside this ship
5 – The Incredible Hulk Reference
Jennifer Walters has to accept the fact that she is Hulk and hence Smart-Hulk trains her.
The training part is in fact one of the best parts of this show. Smart Hulk shows Jennifer Walters how to do the Thunder Claps. This is the same move which was used by Hulk against Abomination back in 2008. It’s a reference to The Incredible Hulk.
Jennifer Walters than does her own version of the Thunder claps. Her single clap isn’t as powerful as Bruce Banner’s but doing that multiple times proves to be effective.
She-Hulk Episode 1 Review
She-Hulk begins directly with Jennifer Walters practicing her closing statement for a case. So, most of the episode is a flashback of how she gains her powers.
The episode overall feels rushed as the script hardly wants to justify the character. At no point does the script focus on Jennifer Walters. Rather, you can feel the entire episode as a summary of what happened to Jennifer Walters while also focusing on Bruce Banner.
Related: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Plot and Post Credit Scene revealed
A very big red flag for the CGI of Jennifer Walters. The reason for this is her character isn’t captured with motion capture. She-Hulk’s green form is played by a stunt double of around 6’7″ and then graphics are applied in post-production. Whereas for Hulk, Mark Ruffalo wears a special black suit with several red dots which act as a reference for Hulk’s character.
Marvel could have done the same with Tatiana Maslany. The effects in She-Hulk are surely a downgrade.
Even in the last scene, the camera edits are very poor and again the effects are of terrible quality.
She-Hulk vs Hulk
There are two crucial points which I can conclude after watching the first episode.
- Unlike Banner, Jennifer Walters doesn’t have a split personality, which means she has better control over her powers than Hulk. Hulk and Bruce Banner are different personalities and hence, Bruce had always had trouble controlling Hulk.
- She-Hulk is a lite version of Hulk. She is strong, swift and powerful but Hulk is clearly the superior.