She-Hulk’s fourth-wall-breaking finale is extreme, and exactly like the comic books
Ask most comic book fans who Marvel’s most famous fourth-wall-breaking hero is and the answer would likely not have been She-Hulk. Since Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness’ fan-favorite run on Deadpool, the Merc With a Mouth has undoubtedly taken on the title of Marvel’s most meta hero.
But as Jen Walters’ fans know, she’s been breaking out of the gutters, talking to readers, and blurring the line between fiction and reality since the ’80s. The She-Hulk: Attorney at Law finale on Disney Plus, and its wildest acknowledgement yet of the MCU, is just the latest iteration. But how did She-Hulk’s quippy Fleabag-inspired first season compare to her comic book commentary? Let’s dig in.
She-Hulk on Disney Plus has finally introduced fourth-wall-breaking meta-humor to the MCU. But it’s nothing new for the House of Ideas. From the earliest days of Marvel Comics, the fourth wall was being tested. InFantastic Four #4 from 1962, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee depicted Johnny Storm reading a Sub-Mariner comic book from the 1940s. Soon after, Johnny discovered that a man sitting near him was in fact the very same Namor who appeared in the comic. In the following issue, Stan and Jack brought things up to modern times as Johnny read a copy of Incredible Hulk #1, an issue published by Marvel a mere month before FF #5.
This meta mentality was turned up to 11 by John Byrne in Marvel Comics Presents #18 from late 1988. The Christmas tale featured Jennifer Walters meditating on her own comic book history. It ends with She-Hulk opening up a Christmas gift from Marvel, a box full of Sensational She-Hulk #1 comics. The final panel features She-Hulk directly addressing the readers, obliterating the fourth wall completely as she lets fans know that her
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