The legal procedural is a common and respected subgenre that has been central to primetime TV for as long as the concept has existed. Law & Order, for example, has been running for 32 years and has put out well over 1000 hours of content across spin-offs and series. The MCU has taken its own spin on the genre and is set up for another.
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She-Hulk: Attorney At Law has planted its flag in a comedic take on the legal drama, mixed with the necessary superhero action. As in the comic book source material, Jennifer Walters is a professional criminal defense lawyer who accidentally winds up capable of superhuman feats of strength. Her life as an attorney is key to her character and is going for a unique spin in the upcoming series. Though only a little is known about how the character will be portrayed in the series, it has been remarked that she is set to be a lawyer for superpowered beings. Specifically, the only client of hers that fans know of now is Emil Blonsky, AKA Abomination. With The Hulk’s longtime nemesis as a client, she’ll be defending a known villain from the law. It’ll be interesting to see how seriously the series portrays the legal proceedings against a massive chemically-enhanced monster man. However, Marvel has dipped into the courtroom before and did so with great success.
Daredevil neatly divides its runtime between Matt Murdock’s vigilante antics as The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen and his day job as one half of Nelson & Murdock. The series took its legal drama aspects extremely seriously, often crafting more intense exchanges in business suits than in suits of armor. Daredevil borrows tons of tropes and tricks from classic legal dramas. Though it’s often fairly well-researched in the way it portrays New York law, it regularly breaks down into public speaking competitions in flagrant disregard for how the court actually works. This sentimentality and overblown dialogue is the key to the genre, which trades overwhelmingly on scenes of juries applauding as councilors deliver soaring speeches set to a sweeping orchestra.
The landmark moment in the MCU’s take on the legal drama is across season two of Daredevil, in the trial of Frank Castle. The man better known as The Punisher stands accused of an almost comical number of capital murders in his traditional take-no-prisoners vigilante style. Matt Murdock, a fellow vigilante with a strict code against lethal force ensures that his law office undertakes the impossible case. Though Murdock is dragged away from the court proceedings numerous times, his weight on the case is as expected. He delivers the final sweeping speech about the need for men like Frank to clean up New York City streets with his own brand of justice. The trial ends in chaos, undercutting the legal narrative with an undercurrent of intrigue with the incarcerated Kingpin pulling the strings. This series of scenes, which was stretched out across multiple episodes and frequently interrupted by less well-loved aspects of the series, is seen by some fans as one of the best plot threads of the overall MCU.
The MCU handles legal drama in much the same way it handles everything else, by integrating the tropes of classics of the genre with superhuman abilities and comic book references. The court scenes in Daredevil are great examples of dramatic storytelling through intense dialogue exchanges, but they serve a larger purpose. Much of the overarching narrative of that series tackles the moral ups and downs of the vigilante lifestyle. Matt’s Catholic guilt which drives him to hurt those he sees as evil and almost kill himself in the process is constantly drawn into question. Frank’s “half-measure” argument and blood-soaked revenge quest against New York’s criminal population stand to question the methodology. Marvel uses legal drama as a venue from which it can publicly debate its favorite subjects, heroism, responsibility, and doing the right thing.
With She-Hulk: Attorney At Law turning Walters’ focus towards acting as a lawyer for superpowered individuals, the stage is set for another series of larger questions. The MCU uses the legal drama format as a forum, introducing subjects important to the comic book superhero universe. Legal and ethical questions about The Avengers and their jurisdiction were the most important aspect of earlier phases of the franchise, but She-Hulk could be set to interrogate these issues once again. Marvel has made an excellent example of how to bend an important genre towards their own larger themes, and legal drama is another great venue for their narrative.
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