With the second chapter of She-Hulk: She-Hulk Lawyer already available on Disney +, we bring you all the easter eggs and references that we saw in the episode (Spoilers beware)
Now available on Disney +, the second episode of She-Hulk: Lawyer She-Hulka live-action series from Marvel Studios that adapts to the small screen the adventures and misadventures of Jennifer Walters / She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany), a Los Angeles lawyer whose life changes forever when she accidentally gains powers similar to those of her cousin , Bruce Banner / Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). This second episode has shed some light on how those superpowers are affecting Jen’s life, and of course, it has left us with a lot of easter eggs and references to the comics and the Wider Marvel Cinematic Universe.
She-Hulk name
The episode begins with coverage on the news of Jen’s courtroom fight with Titania, eventually leading to her being publicly labeled She-Hulk by a random newscaster and witness. While not exact, this reflects how quickly Jen got her superhero name from her in the pages of Savage She-Hulk #1. After a group of mob hit men are sent to kill Jen after their first one fails, they find her in her Hulk form, to which one comments that she’s “sort of like She-Hulk”, and she replies that if he calls her She-hulk, she will be She-hulk.
Dan Slott’s She-Hulk Stage Number 1
While Jen is looking for a job, she browses a web page that leaves us several easter eggs, the first of which is the QR code that Marvel studios has been introducing in their series since Moon Knight, which allows us to read a new comic for free every week of the character that stars in the series. This time the code takes us to She-Hulk No. 1 published in 2004, which marked the beginning of the screenwriter Dan Slott’s stage at the helm of the comic series, and which has also served as inspiration for the Disney + series. Here you can find our character reading guide.
Wolverines
The episode’s biggest easter egg could also have gone unnoticed, as Jen searches the internet for a job after being laid off. On the same website that we referred to earlier by the QR code, there is a headline in the corner that says “Man with metal claws fights in a bar”. Now that the X-Men are getting closer to being introduced to the MCU, many have taken this headline as a reference, however brief, to the iconic mutant.
The Eternals
Another headline on the same website proclaims “Why is there a giant statue of a man sticking out of the ocean”, a clear reference to the Celestial whose birth was stopped to prevent the destruction of the earth by The Eternals.
Morris Walters
During a deliciously awkward family dinner, we meet Jen’s father, Morris Walters (Mark Linn-Baker, whom many of us old folks remember from Distant Cousins). This character plays a key role in the early days of She-Hulk. In the comics, Morris is the Sheriff of the Los Angeles Police Department who begins to see She-Hulk as a public menace, not realizing that she is actually She-Hulk. Jen. This creates something of a cat-and-mouse game in the style of Batgirl and Commissioner Gordon, until she learns the truth about Jen and largely comes to terms with it. Morris has appeared sporadically in She-Hulk comics since then, including a arc in which he dated his best friend, Golden Age superhero Louise Mason, and was instrumental in turning her from She-Hulk to a human during a body-swapping storyline.
Hawkeye’s arrows
At the same family dinner, Jen’s father asks her about what Hawkeye does with the arrows after a battle, if he wanders around to pick them up and reuse them. Something to which we give an answer here.
GLK&H
The crux of the episode centers around Jen getting a new job at GLK&H, a law firm with unique meaning in Marvel lore. For starters, GLK&H’s very name stands for Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg and Holliway, and pays homage to Marvel history. Goodman is a reference to original Marvel editor Martin Goodman; Lieber is a reference to Stan Lee’s last name, Lieber; and Kurtzberg is a reference to Jack Kirby, Kurtzberg. In the comics, Goodman, Lieber, and Kurtzberg are never really shown, and Jen deals directly with Holden Holliway. Initially based in Manhattan in the She-Hulk comics in the early 2000s, the firm is distinguished by focus on superhuman law, representing superheroes and supervillains in their various legal problems. And indeed, She-Hulk isn’t the first time a version of the company has been mentioned in the MCU, as they were briefly mentioned in the second episode of Agent Carter.
Holden Hollyway
The H of GLK&H is Holden Holliway, who is played by Steve Coutler in the series. In the comics, Holliway has his own backstory. He is the grandfather of teenage supervillain-turned-superhero Southpaw, and for a period of time, Artie Zix, a robot who works for the living court, impersonates him. In fact the scene in the bar where he offers her a job at GLK&H is straight out of the comics.
the long boxes
One element introduced by Dan Slott in the second issue at the helm of the She-Hulk collection was to include GLK&H in his “back issue” basement, which contains every Marvel comic ever made. While that may seem outlandish in a legal context, the fact that the numbers are released under the seal of the Comics Code Authority means the company can use them as legal documents, citing them as precedent for the actions of a superhero or supervillain. In the episode we very briefly see an office full of back issues while Jen was taking a tour of the office, so hopefully we’ll see the concept used in later episodes.
pug
As Jen learns about the various elements of GLK&H’s superhuman law division, she and her best friend and paralegal Nikki Ramos (Ginger Gonzaga) cross paths with one of their new co-workers, Augustus “Pug” Pugliese (Josh Segarra). Pug introduces himself as another member of the superhuman law division and gives Jen and Nikki a welcome basket full of things they might need, including a map to the best bathroom in the office for pooping.
Created by Dan Slott and Juan Bobillo in She-Hulk #1, Pug starts out as a law student and nightclub bouncer whose life is saved by Spider-Man after he is attacked by a crime syndicate. That incident motivates Pug to fight on behalf of superhumans in court, which he does as part of GLK&H. As Jen’s co-worker, friend, and eventually roommate, Pug works with her on multiple cases, including a case of slur between Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson. Along the way, Pug realized that he had romantic feelings for Jen, but that she did not return them, in part because she was involved in a Starfox-rigged marriage to John Jameson. Eventually, Pug became so overwhelmed by his feelings for Jen that he took a love potion from a witch (who he didn’t know was Morgan Le Fay) to suppress her emotions.
Abomination
The first case that GLK&H assigns to Jen is to represent Emyl Blonski / Abomination to obtain his parole, a case that he rejects because he believes that there is a conflict of interest since Blonski tried to kill his cousin Bruce, however, he has signed a document assuring that you will not sue the law firm if she accepts the case.
different person
Jen calls her cousin Bruce to ask him what he would think if she represented Blonsky to take his case and get him parole to which Bruce argues that he and his former villain have buried the hatchet ever since. Bruce adds that she is “literally a different person” than she was when she first fought Blonsky, leading Jen to look directly into the camera and offer a fake laugh. In a nod to Edward Norton playing the character in his confrontation with Blonsky.
world war hulk
At the end of Jen’s phone conversation with her cousin, we find out that Bruce is on board the Sakarian spaceship that was first introduced in Episode 1. Many have theorized that the ship could be linked to Bruce’s future, as whether it’s introducing his son, Skaar, or laying the groundwork for a World War Hulk spinoff, which has been rumored to be in the works at Marvel since last October.
And up to here all the winks of the second episode. If we have missed any let us know in the comments.
