Did She-Hulk: Attorney at Law change how She-Hulk got her powers?

Watching She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and wondering how She-Hulk got her powers in the comics varies from how she gets them in show? Here’s what you need to know!

The first episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is now streaming on Disney Plus which has finally given fans the chance to see just how far the writers chose to stray away from Jennifer Walters’ origin story — i.e. how She-Hulk got her powers.

As hinted in the trailers for the show, it became clear that the writers were going to alter Jen’s origin story in some way. However, fans were eager to learn just how many liberties the writers would take in introducing the character to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

While the story of how Jen becomes She-Hulk is slightly altered, the show did manage to maintain the key factor in Jen’s transformation!

Warning: Spoilers from She-Hulk: Attorney at Law episode 1 ahead. 

How did She-Hulk: Attorney at Law change how She-Hulk got her powers?

In the first episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Jennifer Walters’ life is turned upside down after she and her cousin Bruce Banner are involved in a car accident. After swiving off a cliff following an encounter with a Sakaaran Class-Eight courier craft, Jen pulls herself from the wrecked vehicle before pulling Bruce from the wreckage as well in an effort to pull her cousin to safety.

When doing so, Bruce’s blood got into Jen’s system and, as Bruce later explains, Jen got a lethal dose of gamma radiation. However, as she and Bruce share a rare combination of genetic factors that allow them to synthesize gamma radiation into something else, she now possesses the ability to turn into a Hulk as well.

As the show explains though, unlike Bruce, Jen does not have an alter ego and, with a bit of help from her cousin, she’s able to quickly master the ability to change back and forth between her two forms with ease while retaining full control of her personality.

While the origin is slightly different from how Jen comes to get her powers in the comics, the slight tweak worked perfectly for the show and still revolved around Bruce’s blood making its way into Jen’s system.

How does She-Hulk get her powers in the comics?

In the comics, Jennifer is shot and seriously injured by a crime boss by the name of Nicholas Trask. With her life on the line, her cousin Bruce Banner, aka the Incredible Hulk, steps up to help save the day by offering up his blood — which is a rare match to Jen’s — for a blood transfusion.

As a side effect of using Bruce’s blood for the transfusion to save Jen’s life, a gamma-powered, green-skinned alter-ego is created within Jen as the She-Hulk is officially born.  Also unlike in the show, when this new persona appears in the comics, Jen’s She-Hulk was often portrayed as being savage and dim-witted, much like the Hulk, and it was with time that her personality evolved into a version similar to the one we meet in the show.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law episode 1 is streaming now on Disney Plus with new episodes set to release weekly on Thursday.

Were you surprised by how Marvel changed the origin of how She-Hulk got her powers within the show? Do you think the change helped or hurt the show? Sound off in the comments!