She-Hulk 1.8 - Issue #8

She-Hulk : Issue #8
Genre : Superhero / Comedy / Legal
Showrunner: Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Writer : Chad Taylor

Based on the Marvel Comics characters

Cast: Jenny Slate, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Steve Howey and Michiel Huisman

Plot:After another late night at the office, Jen (Jenny Slate) invites Mary (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) over for some late-night Chinese takeout. Jen tells her all about the Starfox hookup, her new training regime, and the StarCrossed dating app. She then tells her about how she has reached how to a mutual contact of John Jameson’s and hopes to set up a date (as She-Hulk). Mary says she is thrilled for her but Jen says she can tell she is acting. Mary says she just hopes She-Hulk doesn’t change who Jen is. This pisses Jen off, who says she is starting to sound like Jen’s dad. Mary starts to argue back, saying Jen just left her behind and wasn’t even going to tell her. Jen says she thought they made up over that.

Not long after, years-long tensions start being dug up and tears start to roll. Eventually, their argument escalates to the point that Jen’s anger transforms her into She-Hulk. This time, she is really angry and this terrifies Mary, who is afraid Jen will hurt her as She-Hulk. She hurries out, worried for her life. In her apartment, She-Hulk realizes the err in her ways but is still angry at how Mary lashed out on her like that.

On her way to apartment, Mary cries on the subway. A stranger offers her a tissue but she says she’s ok. She asks herself “am I jealous?” and the stranger is super confused and walks away. At her home, she can’t sleep at night so she tosses and turns in her bed. Amidst her unrest, she decides to look up StarCrossed and downloads it. She decides to sign up - as She-Hulk - since she knows Jen inside and out. When it asks for “alignment”, she chooses the devil emoji instead of the angel emoji. She begins swiping left and right before passing out.

The next morning, she wakes up and finds a bunch of notifications on her phone. She opens the StarCrossed app and scrolls through the people she matched with. Most of them are ‘meh’ but she stops on Carl Creel (Steve Howey) - professional wrestler and superhuman baddie. She looks to the camera:

“Just how I like ‘em...a little girthy. Wait, that sounded weird, erase that one.”

She swipes right and starts to message him. He wants to meet up but only at a psychiatric facility, which she finds odd.

“Oh, what the hell. Why not?”

When she goes to the facility, she must request to meet with him from the guards. They meet in supervised room and, despite the setting, hit it off immediately. He explains his backstory: former wrestler, fell in with the wrong crowd, met a guy who knew a guy on the black market who was supplying his associate with superhuman abilities, and here we are. Mary says that sounds very interesting and says she wants to get down to brass tax, how is he in bed?

A few days later, she visits Carl again and gets know him even better. His powers are that he can absorb any material he touches - hences why he is wearing special protective gear here. He’s had a few run-ins with the law but luckily...luckily?...his mental health issues got him here instead of prison. He asks her about being She-Hulk and being surprised that she identifies as bad. She is very coy when talking about this, eager to change the subject.

Mary follows up on something he said earlier and asks if he knows how she can get in contact with the man who supplies superpowers. He says that he will show her but he needs her help in breaking him out of here. This she is very unsure about but he ensures her that it is the right thing to do, and is the only they can truly be together.

Cut to Carl being a free man outside of the facility, with an exhausted Mary by his side. He says he’s fully ready to be Absorbing Man again. Mary asks if that is really his name and Carl, a very literal guy, says it seemed like the obvious choice. She asks about taking him to the man who gave him his powers.

They enter an underground lair where dozens of people are seen hustling, doing various tasks. Carl talks to the “secretary” and asks to see the boss. As they pass through various humans and superhumans doing their various tasks, Carl tells Mary that if she cannot laugh at the boss’s name. Making fun of Absorbing Man was bad enough. She promises to behave, giving the camera devious look.

They enter a dark secluded room and Carl is asked a bunch of questions, presumably about Mary and if she is allowed to be in here. He is reminded that, if she is not, she will not be making it out alive. Carl vouches for her and says she helped out of the institution.

Suddenly, a man (Michiel Huisman) emerges from the shadows with a red hood covering most of his face. He asks if she has come here to be enlightened by The Hood?

She quickly looks to the camera, as if she almost can’t help herself but to make a comment. “Is he not circumsized? Afraid of the big bad wolf?”

She looks back to The Hood and confirms her intentions. She then starts to undergo the initiation process.

As she and Carl leave the Hood’s lair, Carl says he has some unfinished business to attend to. She is upset, thinking they would go back to his apartment to hook up. He promises after he finishes what he started months ago. He doesn’t want to be a failure in his boss’s eyes so he needs to finish the hit. He needs to kill Jennifer Walters.

Mary turns ghost white and looks to the camera nervously.