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She-Hulk’s Placement in the Timeline Unfortunately Makes No Sense

Updated: Jan 21

There seems to be no solution to this newfound continuity error in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.


Spoilers: She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Avengers: Endgame, Eternals

With the exciting release of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law's episode two this morning, we get further into the plot of Jennifer Walters as She-Hulk. This episode follows up the events from episode one, introduces Emil Blonsky for the first time since year one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and adds in Marvel's first possible nod to the Wolverine canonically. However, there is one major issue that needs to be addressed. Where does this show fall on Marvel's timeline and has Marvel screwed up?


Episode two of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law ends with Jennifer Walters (otherwise known as She-Hulk) watching a news segment showing the Abomination (otherwise known as Emil Blonsky) fighting Wong. This is the exact same fight that we see in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Based on this, it is implied that the events of She-Hulk happen at the same time as the events in Shang-Chi over the course of Marvel's bursting timeline. While this news clip is a definitive answer as to where the show falls, a scene with Bruce Banner injured versus a scene with him healed brings up a timeline conundrum and a significant timeline continuity error.


Here's what we know. In the end-credit scene of Shang-Chi, we see Hulk as Bruce with his arm still injured after the events of Avengers: Endgame as he speaks with Shang-Chi, Katy, Wong, and Captain Marvel. Separately, in the first episode of She-Hulk, we find out that Smart Hulk was able to turn himself back into Bruce after Endgame, and that his arm is healed by Jennifer's blood, due to family genetics. Additionally in this episode, Bruce gets turned back into Smart Hulk and continues to be in that form.


Fast forward to She-Hulk's episode two. After getting fired, Jennifer Walters is seeking a new job on the internet. The website she is searching at appears to show an article questioning a “giant statue of a man sticking out of the ocean.” This is in reference to the Celestial Tiamut from the film Eternals, therefore we know that She-Hulk takes place after these events. At the end of the episode, we also see Smart Hulk leaving Earth on a Sakarian ship. This could explain why Bruce was not there in person for the end credit scene of Shang-Chi, but it does not explain why he was still injured and was no longer Smart Hulk.



Based on the end credit scene of Shang-Chi, where Bruce is still injured, those events take place before She-Hulk. However, the Abomination fight is before the end credit scene, but after Bruce heals his arm and is turned back into Smart Hulk. This means that the events of Shang-Chi and She-Hulk take place simultaneously but that the end credit scene of Shang-Chi takes place before all of that, which is impossible.


Apart from all of this, a recent release from Disney of an official timeline (seen below) places She-Hulk: Attorney at Law between Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel, which happen well after all of these events. This continues to add to the confusion of when it takes place.


Wherever it ends up taking place, Marvel has some explaining to do in order to dig themselves out of this hole.

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