The following contains spoilers for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Season 1, Episode 9, "Whose Show Is This?" now streaming on Disney+.
The finale of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law featured all the show's recurring characters converging in a big, messy battle. Then, Jen Walters stopped the show, broke the fourth wall in the biggest way yet, and rewrote her ending. However, the big twist in the She-Hulk finale is one that both acknowledges and mocks the main criticisms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The finale's biggest Easter egg wasn't Titania's emergence as a potential Big Bad or Abomination's mostly sincere reformation. It actually began early in the season with a mockery of sexist social media commentary about women superheroes after She-Hulk revealed herself. From continuing that thread with the Intelligencia mixer to her discussion with K.E.V.I.N., She-Hulk: Attorney at Law poked fun at many MCU critiques, fair or otherwise. Jen addressed the common complaints of MCU series' finales and the whole premise pokes fun at the "soulless, algorithm-produced, blockbuster factory" from those who think "True Cinema" doesn't involve masks, tights, superpowers and shared continuity. However, it's not all fun and games. In the finale, Jen levies perhaps the most biting critique of the MCU yet.
Jen Walters' Closing Argument Highlights the Vast Array of MCU Opinions
One key part of this series has been the ongoing conversation about how the world reacts to women, specifically women superheroes. The mixer for the Intelligencia members features much of the bad-faith critique people level at MCU projects, especially those including prominent women characters. The conversation about how women have to "earn" their powers and presence in these stories dates back at least as far as the debut of Ahsoka Tano on The Clone Wars in 2008. However, as the episode progresses, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law gives some critics a break but pointing out that the MCU isn't perfect. The storytellers made an incredibly risky gamble by teasing some storylines, like the Hulk blood plot, that were deliberately designed to frustrate the audience and not go anywhere.
Jen's conversation with K.E.V.I.N. details how many Marvel Studios joints end with a big climactic battle where all dangling plot threads are tied up in a big CGI-fight spectacle. While this makes for fun action, it doesn't always service the story. She goes on to say that the MCU doesn't have to just throw all that together because of some allegiance to a historical form of comic book storytelling. Just because the stakes of a story are personal doesn't mean they're "small." Jen was attacked not for some global scheme, but just because her mere existence made a bunch of insecure men feel less powerful than they did before. She-Hulk may have the strength to go punch-for-punch with a cosmic titan of some kind, but she doesn't have to.
She-Hulk's Biggest Marvel Studios Criticism Is, Sometimes, They Do Too Much
Fan or detractor, there is no denying the achievement of Marvel Studios, their creatives and especially Kevin Feige. After being unable to even find a writer for the first Iron Man screenplay for Marvel Studios, it is now one of the most influential and successful studios in filmmaking. No one took Marvel seriously, but with patience, good collaborators and some luck, Feige and company defied expectations. In November, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will be the 30th movie in 15 years. So, the storytellers can be forgiven for being too ambitious or failing to balance a complex continuity in the right way. Perhaps a big, colorful CGI "magic fight" wasn't the best choice of climax for a story as personal and emotional as WandaVision. Jen suggests, or possibly Jessica Gao and the rest of the writers suggest, that maybe there is another way to end a story in a way less "epic" but with no less emotional impact.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law anticipated almost all the criticism bad-faith MCU fans had for the series, so much they made it a part of the finale. Yet, they tricked some viewers, too. Some stories were red herrings, deliberately designed to feel out of place and unsatisfying. The biggest joke on the show, it seems, was on fans and critics. The MCU is remarkable as a whole, but what the She-Hulk finale was able to successfully do puts it in contention for the "best" Marvel Studios joint to date.
Stream Season 1 of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law on Disney+