No one can nitpick realism out of something that doesn’t exist in the first place (although, the internet finds a way every other minute). But even sci-fi and fantasy can’t wholly escape the necessary pinch of realism that makes for good storytelling, and this was true of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, the latest Marvel Studios project that just wrapped up its season finale earlier today.
Despite still adhering to the MCU’s borderline necessary brand of superhero shenanigans, She-Hulk was largely billed as a legal comedy, given that protagonist Jennifer Walters is herself an attorney. The show may not have had your typical courtroom scenes, but they were courtroom scenes nonetheless, and such scenes necessitate certain creative attention.
Luckily, the creative team had access to one Charles Soule, the legal advisor for She-Hulk, whose combination of a legal background and comic book enthusiasm made him the perfect fit for the job.
Soule, who has written comic runs for both She-Hulk and Daredevil in the past, fondly remarked in an interview with Marvel.com how his legal background helped bolster the efforts of the writers’ room.
Getting to add like my little tiny part to it by offering some little bits of legal advice and seeing how they went from script to screen is just a blast. So I’m enjoying it as a fan as much as I did as being part of it.
He further divulged the necessity of writing what one already knows, and how this sort of collaboration can help bring projects like She-Hulk to the height of their potential.
Every writer uses their life as research for the stories they write. So for me, having a legal background has allowed me to explore some of the Marvel characters on a lens that people who aren’t lawyers maybe wouldn’t write it the same way.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is now streaming in full on Disney Plus.
