She-Hulk, Story - Oct 13

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘She-Hulk’ S1 finale instead.

…Actually, the ‘She-Hulk’ S1 finale – ‘Whose Story?’ – is not that much an improvement, either. Instead of returning ‘She-Hulk’ to the series’ MCU roots, the storywriters took the series in a weird direction. Pause.

Let us try again. With ‘She-Hulk’, the MCU tried to do something different from its’ previous installments – a rom-com TV series, just as the ‘Werewolf by Night’ special was supposed to take MCU into the horror genre area. This is not a bad concept, but the thing is that MCU, such as it is, does not fall into the ‘fit one, fit all’ area. Marvel comics are, well, action comics, and action-driven comics, and without that action drive, they… stagnate. Or, at least, they do not go anywhere – hence, the ‘She-Hulk’ series, (so far, but I am not being optimistic by now), which almost didn’t do anything to promote the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe further. Almost, because at the end of this episode the Marvel Cinematic Universe does go further – the actual Hulk returns, Titania seems to be a halfway decent individual after all, Blonsky is morally ambiguous instead of being a straightforward good guy, and so on.

Actually, about Blonsky – Wong does take him back to Kamar-Taj after all; given how neither of them were this season’s ‘Big Bad’, this does raise an interesting question: now what? What will this unlikely male duo do next? In addition, where does Madisynn fit into this?

Another pause. Here is the thing. The ‘She-Hulk’ S1 finale almost redeems itself; almost, because the middle five episodes of S1 had not much to do with either the first two or the last two episodes. These four eps actually have some of the ‘mainstream’ Marvel feel, and they work – more or less. The middle five – not so much. So what?

That is the tough one. On one hand, Disney/MCU can do whatever they want to do at this point – unlike the SW aspect of this juggernaut, the majority of their fans will swallow anything; on the other extremity – Disney/MCU has announced that they’re delaying a lot of their releases not too long after their official proclamation of the schedule, so, clearly, something isn’t going according to the grand plan. Consequently, Disney/MCU can diminish ‘She-Hulk’ to a nearly stationary rom-com; on the other, they may not be able to afford this, as when you think about it, any TV series, (or a movie, or a book, a magazine, etc.), is just a product that its’ maker must sell – to their audience.

…Here is not quite a pause, but more of an admittance: the above statement applies to fiction. In case of non-fiction, the situation is slightly different, as fiction applies to the audience in general, while non-fiction has a more specific, a more defined audience. However, since ‘She-Hulk’ is fiction, it is supposed to be sold to everyone, who cares about MCU…and maybe a few other folks. Instead, it appeared to have become not as successful as ‘Werewolf by Night’ was, implying that Disney/MCU is not as good at playing the market, as it would like to pretend.

This brings us back to ‘She-Hulk’. As an MCU rom-com, it was something of an experiment, here, and as such, it was expected to bring in success if it were to continue. So far, it did not do as well as Disney/MCU expected it to, and the more successful parts were the more old-fashioned and less experimental ones. Consequently, it is anyone’s guess as to where the future will take ‘She-Hulk’, and the rest of MCU, given that there already are delays and what else have you.

(Oh, wait, there is the ‘Wakanda Forever’ film coming in November 2022, but I am not holding my breath about it either, but let us wait for it to come out before we make any judgements).

…Therefore, for now, this is it. See you all soon, instead!