Warning: This article contains spoilers for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law episode 1.
Mark Ruffalo made a fan-pleasing surprise cameo in the post-credits scene of last summer’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, even if it did leave Marvel lovers scratching their heads. As a reminder, Bruce Banner was depicted as human again in the sequence, despite Avengers: Endgame seemingly indicating that Bruce was stuck in Smart Hulk form permanently. A full year later, we’ve finally got an answer to this mystery thanks to the pilot episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
Spoilers incoming!
Episode 1, “A Normal Amount of Rage”, wastes no time in revealing how Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) became the She-Hulk. After a brief introduction to Jen at her job, the fourth-wall breaking heroine realizes we want to know her origins story so she flashes back to a fateful car journey she shared with her cousin Bruce a few months prior.
In this scene, Bruce is Bruce again, which he explains is possible thanks to a handy-dandy gadget that he’s using to heal his injured arm — damaged during his use of the Infinity Gauntlet — which has the secondary function of “keep[ing] him in human form.” When a Sakaaran courier ship causes their car to crash, however, Bruce’s blood gets into Jen’s system and she morphs into her own jade giant alter ego.
When Jen later comes to, we discover that Bruce has abandoned his device and is now Smart Hulk again. The reason why is because he’s been able to use Jen’s blood, which synthesizes gamma radiation at a higher rate than his own, to heal his arm completely, meaning he has no further use for his gizmo and can be his “fully integrated self again.”
By the sounds of it, then, Smart Hulk is here to stay and we may never see puny Banner again. Although, given the many twists in Bruce’s life across the MCU so far, it’s hard to say for certain.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law continues Thursdays on Disney Plus.
