She-Hulk Series Redo Pitch
To start off, I thought the changing of the origin to fit in some MCU nonsense was weak. I think the origin has a solid striking vibe to it and makes sense to be the one that happens. This won't be really touching on the political red tape the show and/or some of it's viewers may have, on really either side, to me. And it does, I think, still play in the wheelhouse for what I think the show was wanting to do with the origin. For this, here is the idea that God, if He wills, has blessed me with:
If you must, the episode can still open with the wacky Jen talking to the audience scene and how yes, she's a hulk, and all that. But her origin is limited to 1 striking scene at the beginning.
It's 2011. Jen is early in her law career, working on her first big case, after getting out of law school: Taking down some members of the mob.
Jen gets home and Bruce Banner is there. He's a bit depressed, doesn't know where to go, she's the only family he has close by, this is after he put the bullet in his mouth and the other guy spit it out. She's surprised to see him, hasn't seen him in years, heard he'd taken a job on another continent, but is also happy to see him, as they do like eachother as family.
Suddenly Jen's house begins being shot up. The mob members are trying to get rid of her. Jen takes cover. Bruce isn't quite as caring of his own life anymore, and as the bullets are fired at him he's not taking immediate action to get out of the way.
Jen tackles Bruce out of the way, being shot in the process, Bruce's shoulder getting a stray bullet. Yes, I know that's not the comic canon origin, but this an attempt to play with a version of the comic origin on the terms I think the show wants to pursue.
Jen is bleeding from a shot to the gut. Bruce is getting angry, his cousin is maybe dying, he's been shot and is bleeding, he's trying to hold it together and keep her from bleeding out. The blood from Bruce's shoulder runs down his arm into Jen's open gunshot wound. The gunfire is continuing to erupt around them, Bruce uses Jen's cell to call 911, them on their way, when he finally loses it and smashes the phone and becomes the Hulk.
Jen fades into unconsciousness as she only sees the blurry image of a green monster take out the mobsters.
Jen wakes up in the hospital. Bruce is able to sneak in to see if she's okay, in a doctor's coat and a surgical mask. Jen's fine, she's not poisoned by his blood and she didn't turn into a hulk. He's relieved on both accounts. He gets out of there when some military come to ask her about the situation. She lies for him.
Jen's hulk attributes didn't immediately surface. Why? No direct irradiation. Bruce's blood has those cells, but it has Ross' primer bonded to it that abates that energy. And Jen and Bruce have similar enough DNA and the same blood type, so there's no nasty effects from it. In the first Incredible Hulk movie it suggests that Blonsky needed not only Banner's blood, but also some gamma radiation to ignite the Abomination. Jen has no such problem or desire to have that happen. And it won't...
Until the gamma radiation of the infinity stones is used to snap half the population out of existence and back. Jen was among that half. She doesn't realize until a few days after she returns from being dusted that her Hulk powers have been activated, when she's attacked while on her way home.
The first episode uses the flashback of her accident that got her these powers and the reveal that she has them as a framing device. Inbetween those flashbacks, the story of the episode is about Jen, at her job, putting together a case against Mary MacPherran, or as she's known as a social media influencer, Titania. Titania's being prosecuted for wrecking her car into her house after her and her boyfriend got into an argument and he claims she did it on purpose to try and kill him as he was inside.
Titania's defense is that she was in emotional distress because her boyfriend had cheated on her, and she claims someone had driven in front of her as she was trying to leave and she swerved to avoid them, the car getting out of control, feigning responsibility that she should have been paying attention. Some of Titania's witnesses seem a little too conveniently to line up on the same story. Jen is able to dismantle the testimonies after using security cameras to find no other vehicles in the area.
When Titania sees she's lost and is going to face being sentenced in an attempted murder conviction, Titania reveals she has super strength, and that she didn't drive the car into the house, she threw it. Jen finally has to reveal herself, for the first time, as She-Hulk, and she fights Titania to protect the jury and people. Titania finds herself seemingly going to be bested due to Jen's superior strength, so she escapes.
Jen finds herself being swarmed by the press and paparazzi, being asked many questions.
In the show, Jen still loses her job as a DA, for similar reasons and is offered another job by a firm whose opened the superhero law division.
Jen spends 2 episodes on the Blonsky case, like the show. Though his character isn't as totally shifted, but there's still the defense of how he's a decorated soldier, and was experimented on with an unstable formula to give him powers and used as a weapon even though it was known it was starting to effect his mind. Emil takes responsibility for his rashness and brutality in spite of the effects the serum he was given may have had on him.
Jen gains more fame, more attention, which she does like, and inevitably, more criticism, as is the way of people and the media. All that.
Side plot in episode 3 can be her trying to get better clothes and going to the special tailor Luke Jacobson to do it.
It's the same as the Wong episode. Jen begins to bask in the feeling of liking being She Hulk. Liking the attention. Feeling confident. Going on dates. Similar thing with her dates, she likes a guy, he's into She-Hulk but not Jen afterwards. Jen is disappointed.
She has the wedding episode and is still confronted with Titania, though Titania's now on the run and blames Jen for this, antagonizing Jen to get her to turn, fighting her, their fight wrecking the wedding, Titania gaining a win this time using Jen's desire to protect others, before escaping. Jen's friend is angry at the situation, Jen is left to be frustrated with the cost her powers have on those in her life.
This episode sees Jen made to to defend a big business suing a superhero for use of a name they copywrote. It's a fruitless, empty case, that is only a business trying to push down someone lower class, one that further frustrates Jen about her newfound situation and she feels guilty about it. Subplot has her speaking to Blonsky in his self help group about this situation. Jen is nominated for female lawyer of the year, though she feels unfulfilled by this.
This is basically the Daredevil episode. Can be basically the same if you want. Jen is feeling unsatisfied in her job, the fame being not so thrilling and feeling it to be shallow, feeling like she's given up why she became a lawyer, letting the criticism from trolls get to her, in connection to these feelings.
She's faced with a case with defending Leapfrog, a supposed superhero who was making a big and becoming famous using his invention to stop crimes, having gotten a suit from Luke Jacobson, and wanting to sue him for it's malfunction. Jen is disconnected from this case, seeing Leapfrog as arrogant, especially after him admitting that he didn't read the instructions about the suit, but Jen is still obligated to be his lawyer due to her contract, even though she knows he's wrong.
Almost all of the same things happen. Matt Murdock is defending Luke Jacobson. Matt wins the case. Leapfrog kidnaps Luke in retaliation to get him to make a new suit for him. Matt and Jen connect, with Matt speaking to Jen about how her position offers a unique opportunity to help those who need it.
Jen and Matt work together to rescue Luke from Leapfrog. Afterward, Jen is feeling relieved for the first time in a while. In this feeling and her liking of Matt, the 2 sleep together. Basically the same.
In this episode she's faced with a case regarding the Sokovia Accords itself. That case is in regards to a superhero named Speedball.
Getting involved in this case, Jen uncovers incidents against other superheroes in the name of the sokovia accords.
Winning the case, with her renewed interest in pursuing using her newfound fame and position to help others, Jen convinces her boss that taking a stance in regards to defending these seeming victims could generate good PR for the firm. Jen, using her newfound fame, begins pushing more and more for fair treatment for superheroes who have been unfairly prosecuted under the sokovia accords.
But a huge wrench is thrown in that, when, at the award for female lawyer of the year, every bit of her information is released on the screen behind, including her property damage during the fight with Daredevil and her fight with Titania earlier in the season, and a video of her having sex with the guy from earlier in the season, all to scandalize her.
Jen is hurt, embarrased and enraged, and, for the first time in the season, Jen loses her temper and smashes the screen in blind anger, breaking it and the wall behind it.
Damage Control show up, by an anonymous tip that a hulk was rampaging. In her anger, she attacks those who are coming to attack her, raising up one of the agents before snapping out of it, and realizing what happened.
This episode starts fairly similarly. Jen is locked in a similar prison that Blonsky was in. She's confused about what happened, thinking she had being a hulk under control. She remembers talking to Bruce about her first turn, him speaking about how his Hulk identity was connected to his childhood trauma, and the identity through the anger that intensified with the powers manifested with that.
Jen thought she was okay, because she didn't have that repressed trauma or anger. Jen knows it must have been Titania who did this. Jen makes the same deal, she made for Blonsky, to have her powers muted with a dampening device, and if she breaks the agreement she goes right to jail. She's been fired again, is losing her apartment, and, after having embraced She Hulk and the heroic things she can do, is faced with not being able to again.
Jen uses her legal connections, and her friends to seek out Titania and confronts her. Titania hates Jen for her life and reputation being ruined, claiming she stole her fame and spotlight, so Titania did the same to her. Jen tells Titania that she doesn't want anything to do with what Titania has, calling her shallow and narcissistic and telling her how empty her life is just using her fame to fuel her ego, calling the cops on her to stop her.
Titania attacks Jen, who is powerless currently, against Titania. Titania drags Jen into the public street, wanting to humiliate her in public. Titania picks up a car with people in it and is going to crush Jen, but Jen, seeing the people cry in fear, she rips the device out of her arm and lets herself get angry. As She Hulk, Jen saves the people and fights Titania, becoming more savage, but using her commitment to help people, keeps her focus, and simply restrains Titania, rather than beat her to a pulp.
Damage Control arrives to arrest Titania and Jen for breaching her deal. But the people she rescued defend her. Jen agrees to go with them, as a lawyer respecting the terms of her breach in the deal.
The last part of the episode is her court, representing herself in the case, admitting to her mistakes in her taking her power and what it means for her and others for granted, but, through her friends, gaining many character witnesses attesting to Jen's heroic pursuits, some of those she's helped in the season and the people she rescued from Titania, maybe even Matt Murdock as well.
Jen having admitted her perceived guilt, is still found guilty, but is given the lenient sentence of time served, the judge having been swayed by the character witnesses.
Jen's heart is warmed by the support she's gained and is prompted more than ever to turn down the offer of her job back, and start her own firm for superhero legal cases, choosing to use her fame and support to help some of those who may need it, as both Jen Walters and She Hulk.
Post credits scene is revealing that Titania got her powers from The Leader.
Please review and tell me what you think!