She-Hulk’s Wrecking Crew has a loopy connection to Thor and the Avengers
She-Hulk isn’t exactly a working-class hero. As a high-powered attorney (albeit one now working in the somewhat dubious field of superhuman law), Jen Walters is the closest thing to a strictly white-collar superhero we’ve seen since Tony Stark drove his last Audi into the sunset.
The same can’t be said, however, for all her foes, and those who make it to the end of episode 3 will have spotted a group of muscular baddies wielding Asgardian construction equipment for weapons. This, dear readers, is the Wrecking Crew, Marvel’s premier team of semi-magically powered, wage-laborer-themed crooks and criminals. And their history in the comics, lifted by the She-Hulk series writers, is a journey through the working-class side of a superhero universe.
As their brief TV appearance suggests, the Crew’s time in the Marvel universe actually begins in Asgard, from which Loki had recently been banished and stripped of his powers due to some recent mischief. So he took up temporary residence in a Manhattan hotel room, and made a deal with the sorceress Karnilla to refuel with Asgardian energy.
Enter Dirk Garthwaite, a manual laborer turned two-bit robber, who picked that fortuitous moment to do what all of us dream of but few of us dare: steal Loki’s fabulous, fancy hat. Karnilla (incredibly) was fooled, and (even more incredibly) bestowed the power intended for Loki on Garthwaite’s trusty crowbar instead, granting the bearer incredible strength and justifying Garthwaite’s new codename: the Wrecker. Ever since, Garthwaite has been fond of declaring to anyone who will listen that he has “the power of Thor” — a statement that’s not strictly accurate, but one does not argue with a big dude holding a magic crowbar.
The Wrecker’s initial
Read more on polygon.com
