How MCU changed She-Hulk's origin? Comic vs series explored

The first episode of the latest MCU series, She-Hulk, premiered on Disney+ on August 18, 2022 and the internet is roaring at the debut of Green Queen as she goes toe-to-toe with Green Goliath.

The show, which begins in Jennifer Walter’s office shifts gear as the lawyer breaks the fourth wall to address the audience and narrate her origin story.

Jennifer Walters and her cousin Bruce Banner are seen traveling across the country road. Unlike his Smart Hulk appearance in Avengers: Endgame, Bruce is in human form thanks to his wrist device. Walters pitches her theory about how Captain Steve Rogers died a virgin. Her story is cut short when a Sakar jet crosses her path and Walters swerves her car as they crash into a ditch.

Jennifer Walters breaks out of the wreckage and despite a warning from her cousin, she tries to rescue him. When she pulls him out of the wreckage, his blood mixes into her wound and she is exposed to a lethal dose of gamma radiation. This transforms her into the She-Hulk. However, unlike Banner’s initial days Walters is able to maintain her persona even in the Hulk form.

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Unlike the MCU She-Hulk’s comic origin story is dark and complex

Marvel Studios relies on comic book source materials for inspiration, but they are also known to make the necessary changes to match the tone of the story. They did the same with Jennifer Walters as her origin story was drastically changed from the comic books. Created by the legendary Stan Lee and John Buscema, She-Hulk made her first appearance in the first issue of the 1979's Savage She-Hulk.

Jennifer Walters was a frail but smart woman who studied law at UCLA. She is Bruce Banner's cousin, who on his visit to her law firm in LA revealed that he is the Incredible Hulk.

On the way home, they are attacked by the goons of Nicholas Trask, a crime boss and the enemy of Walter’s client. Walters is shot and is about to die, but Banner, seeing no other option to save her, does a blood transfusion which exposes her to gamma radiation.

Unlike the Disney Plus series, Walters dies and is trapped in Below-Place, the bottom-most layer of reality. Trask attempts a second hit on Jennifer which activates the gamma radiation in her blood.

She traverses from Below-Place to her reality using a green metaphysical door. As she gains consciousness, Walters becomes the She-Hulk as she defeats Trask’s agents.

The writer of the series, Jessica Gao, said in a roundtable on The Digital Fix that:

“Marvel top brass didn’t really want to do the assassination attempt by a mob. It just felt like it didn’t really keep in the tone of everything that we were making.”

The comic book origin story requires a lot of exposition and would surely have taken about an hour or two just to explain the origin. The show being a half-hour sitcom with loads of fun does not support the entire assassination and the spooky Below-Place plot points.

While the comic overlooks Walter’s cousin in her origin story, Jennifer Gao and the team included Banner’s perspective in the series. Gao said:

“We’ve seen this particular Hulk in so many movies over the course of over a decade, really, really struggle with this thing that he sees as a curse to him, it was deeply traumatic."

The writer continued:

"It just didn’t make sense to me that there would be any situation where he would willingly give this condition to somebody else, especially somebody that he cared about that was so close to him.”

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The first episode of the Marvel Studio’s She-Hulk is now streaming on Disney Plus. The show boasts a wonderful cast including Tatiana Maslany, Jameela Jamil, Mark Ruffalo, Tim Roth, Benedict Wong, Ginger Gonzaga and many more.