She-Hulk Just Introduced a Controversial Marvel Group
She-Hulk
We’re presently two-thirds of the way through the first season of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe history of Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany) most certainly isn’t slowing down. The Disney+ series has taken Marvel Comics canon and given it a particularly present day, self-aware bowed, from the supporting characters in Jen’s day to day existence to the villains she goes facing. Along the way, fans have contemplated whether She-Hulk could have a villain waiting in the wings — and based on the recently released sixth episode of the series, we have our answer. Spoilers for Episode 6 of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, “Just Jen”, beneath! Possibly look if you want to be aware!
During the episode’s subplot, Nikki Ramos (Ginger Gonzaga) and Mallory Book (Renee Elise Goldsberry) deal with the ex-spouses of Mr. Immortal, who has been using his regenerative powers to escape his failed marriages. One of the exes reveals she figured out he was still alive thanks to a video posted on Intelligencia, which Mallory refers to as a website for gross men. Later on in the episode, Nikki and Mallory visit the website and discover that it has a secret anti-She-Hulk gathering — and after some light catfishing, they’re welcome to go along with it. They then see death threats and other various malicious messages made about Jen — which is then made worse when we discover that a lab of scientists is communicating with an Intelligencia part under the username of “HulkKing”, who is asking them to prepare another syringe to take Jen’s blood.
This serves as the first official set-up for Intelligencia on She-Hulk — a group that some fans have theorized could appear on the show, and a group that has some bizarre setting of its own in Marvel Comics.
Who are the Intelligencia in Marvel Comics?
Created by Jeff Parker and Paul Pelletier in 2009’s Fall of the Hulks: Alpha #1, the Intelligencia are an assembling of some of the smartest supervillains in Marvel legend, who cooperate to cause fiendish that can help all of them. After they initially shaped and disbanded, they reunited after the events of Universal War Hulk, and were driven by MODOK and The Leader. Their goal in the battle against Hulk was to create their own strong being through gamma and cosmic radiation, and their work prompted the creation of Red She-Hulk, A-Bomb, and Amadeus Cho.
This straightforwardly associated with She-Hulk in the 2010 miniseries She-Hulks, which saw Jen and Lyra/She-Hulk, the future daughter of Bruce and Thundra from another war-torn Earth in the multiverse, chase down the members of the Intelligencia and deal with them.
Based on Episode 6, it certainly seems like She-Hulk is recontextualizing the Intelligencia as a sort of a “men’s rights activists” group, which gives the show another outlet to deal with the sexism and misogyny that Jen faces. Presently, there’s the question of whether or not some of the previously-unsettling scenes on the show, similar to the Destroying Group’s attempt to steal Jen’s blood and Todd’s (John Bass) dreadful fascination with She-Hulk, could be attached to Intelligencia as well. After all, both the Destroying Group and Todd scenes featured the awkward and uncomfortable moments of Jen existing as a female superhero, between the comments Todd made and the Destroying Team accusing her of “flaunting her powers” simply by existing in the public eye. With Samuel Sterns/The Leader (Tim Blake Nelson) advantageously just affirmed to be the huge bad of the forthcoming Captain America: New World Request film, we’ll have to wait and see on the off chance that he could factor into things as well.
What do you consider She-Hulk name-dropping the Intelligencia? Share your thoughts with us in the comments beneath!
New episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law will make a big appearance Thursdays exclusively on Disney+. In the event that you haven’t looked at Disney+ yet and you want to try it out, you can do that here.