She-Hulk - Breaking The Fourth Wall

Breaking The Fourth Wall

For a time, starting with the Sensational She-Hulk series by John Byrne in 1989, She-Hulk was portrayed with a form of "cross-dimensional" or metafictional awareness, to break through the so-called fourth wall. In some stories, she showed an awareness of being a comic book character, with visuals of her "tearing the page" or "walking through a page of advertisements" to reach an enemy's control centre. She sometimes engaged in arguments with the writer (John Byrne), or appealed to the comic's editor, Renée Witterstaetter. Sensational She-Hulk #50 (Byrne's last issue) involved Renée locking a bound and gagged Byrne in a storage closet while she and Jen tried to find the book's new writer. This trend was briefly carried on during her tenure with the Heroes for Hire, when she "spoke" to the book's narrator and "fired" him for losing the plot. Other Marvel characters that have been written to directly "address" the audience include She-Hulk's friend Louise Mason, Uatu the Watcher (who narrates a majority of the issues of What If by speaking directly to the reader) and Deadpool. On occasion, this practice has also been used for Loki, Rick Jones, Wyatt Wingfoot, and Howard the Duck. The latest series has not acknowledged this primarily-humor-based quirk of She-Hulk's, save for a coda in Volume 2, #3 (#100), in which Stu Cicero, a law firm "researcher", asks Jen if she can "really do stuff like that". She somewhat wistfully replies "No. I can't" - however, the panel is drawn at a somewhat ambiguous angle that suggests She-Hulk may be looking "out" of the comic, at the reader. She-Hulk's most recent profile in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe continues to list this "ability" of hers, and confirms that she is simply downplaying it for the benefit of those around her.

The new series has taken a different approach to the metafiction angle, making use of a concept dating back to Lee and Kirby's early Fantastic Four - that the heroes of the Marvel Universe permit licensed comic-book adaptations of their adventures to be published. Since all comics published before 2001 bear the seal of the Comics Code Authority of America (a federal agency in the Marvel Universe), they are considered legal documents admissible as evidence in the superhuman law cases on which She-Hulk works.

If She-Hulk defeats Deadpool as the final opponent in Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, she will say "You know, if this game were made in 1991, I'd be the one whacking YOU with a health bar". This references Deadpool's Fourth Wall-breaking hyper move, where he attacks the opponent with his own life bar, as well as the character's rise in popularity in recent years. In the game's update Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, if Deadpool is her first opponent before the match starts, she will claim that she can break the fourth wall as well. If she defeats him as her last opponent She-Hulk will threaten to beat him in Marvel vs Capcom 4 if the game is ever made.