The following contains spoilers for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Season 1, Episode 8, “Ribbit and Rip It,” now streaming on Disney+.
While Daredevil held his own much better than expected during his fight with She-Hulk, the match between the two lawyers in the courtroom was much more one-sided. However, is Matt Murdock a better attorney at law than Jennifer Walters, or does he just cheat?
Truth be told, Matt Murdock already legally molly whopped She-Hulk before he used his enhanced senses. In fact, he was only able to sniff out the jet fuel because Jen’s client took the boots out of a case. Still, while She-Hulk is no slouch as a jurist, Matt Murdock’s enhanced sense are uniquely positioned to help him be a great lawyer. It’s not just sniffing out jet fuel. He can use his enhanced hearing to tell if someone is lying by their heartbeat, more accurately than even a polygraph. He can also, likely, hear opposing counsel’s discreet whispers and even the jury’s mutterings. If he actually suits up as Daredevil and goes hunting for evidence, Matt is a walking crime lab. He can find and collect evidence in such a way that he ensures it’s legally admissible. Jen was unprepared to face a lawyer like Matt Murdock; even at her best, he had a hulk-sized advantage over her.
She-Hulk Doesn’t Have to be a Good Lawyer in a Comedy
As much as these characters feel like real people, they are fictional. In this adaptation, Jen Walters is a pretty good lawyer. She wins most of her cases, even ones where she hates the client. The courtroom is not a place where she has to do her best work, because the scenarios are designed to be goofy. Given the show’s charm for meta humor, it’s surprising there wasn’t a joke stating this explicitly. Given Jen’s conflict of interest, it was already clear Leap-Frog wasn’t getting her best work. She just had the unfortunate luck to meet a guest character from a more serious show. Matt Murdock is the first time Jen has been up against a competent opponent in the courtroom, at least as far as audiences have seen. With Daredevil’s powers in the equation, She-Hulk doesn’t stand a chance.
one way She-Hulk: Attorney at Law showcases this is later in the episode, when She-Hulk starts brainstorming ways to get her client out of trouble for kidnapping Luke. She pitches “mania,” and, while whooping down some hired, faceless goons, he concurs but offers an angle. It’s another semi-meta joke, too, because what he describes was Nelson and Murdock’s legal strategy for Frank Castle on Daredevil. Still, this highlights how the experience he got in the courtroom versus the experience Jen gets as the lead of a comedy is markedly less complex. She has good instincts, but with his powers and experience he had to be the better lawyer in that scene for many reasons.
Jennifer Walters Can Best Matt Murdock on Daredevil: Born Again
Matt needed to be a better lawyer and superhero than Jen because she needed to see that it was possible for the two halves of her life to coexist. In fact, without a secret identity, she can find that balance more easily. So much so that if Charlie Cox gets his wish for Tatiana Maslany to guest on Daredevil: Born Again his storytellers can return the favor to She-Hulk: Attorney at Law‘s scribes. Matt needed to be balanced when he showed up on She-Hulk’s show, but as his new series unfolds fans can bet they will utterly devastate him repeatedly for fans’ enjoyment. And just as he showed up for her when she needed him, she can show up for him in the same way.
Still, she will likely get to out-lawyer him. If she shows up as his opposition on a case, she could admit her conflict of interest, but it would out his identity. So, both have no choice but to let her embarrass him in the courtroom. Then, after that scene, she can help him fight bad guys, find some comfort or whatever else the story might demand. Stan Lee had a standard answer when fans would ask who would win in a fight between characters. The answer was always whoever the writer needs to win. Matt Murdock isn’t a better lawyer than She-Hulk; he just cheated because the writers needed him to be exceptional.
The Season1 Finale of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law will debut Wednesday on Disney+.