History[]
"Looks like your little blood transfusion did a bit more than fix what ailed me, cousin. Now I'm the one who's Big, Beautiful and Green!"
Jennifer Lynn Walters was born in Gallup, New Mexico in 1975, the younger cousin of Bruce Banner, also known as The Incredible Hulk. She is noted as having a rare O-negative blood type, the same as her cousin. In their youth, Jennifer and Bruce shared a deep bond of friendship, more akin to siblings than cousins. This is due, in part, to the fact that Bruce lived with Jennifer and her family for a time, following the imprisonment of his father for the murder of his mother. In their teenage years, the prodigious mind of Bruce saw him travel to college at a young age, but the two remained in close contact, though as far as much of the rest of the world was concerned, Bruce had no living family.
Jennifer herself always had a keen legal mind, and was accepted to Cornell University where she earned her bachelor's and later master's degree in law. She became a District Attorney in New York City, specifically working out of the DA's office in Manhattan, prosecuting white collar crime. She was dedicated to her job, but preferred her privacy, buying a house outside the city in Long Island. She was distraught when she found out what happened to Bruce via his fiance, Betty Ross, but figured that Bruce would contact her if he needed anything. Four years later he showed up on her doorstep, needing a place to crash while he found his original research in an attempt to cure himself of the Hulk.
It wasn't long before General Thunderbolt Ross and his Hulk Task Force tracked down Banner at Walters' home, especially after Banner had reconnected with his former fiance Betty. Her home was severely damaged by the ensuing battle between the Task Force led by Emil Blonsky and the Hulk, with the latter managing to escape. She then told the General that she would be holding the US military liable for damage to her property. She could later only watch in horror at the battle unfolding in Harlem between her cousin and the Abomination, relieved when the Hulk managed to escape yet again. She wired money to Bruce to pay for a plane ticket to anywhere. She then had no contact with Bruce until after the Battle of New York, when he received a full pardon for his heroic actions and was allowed to take up residence inside Avengers Tower. There, Walters confronted Ross for his attempt to use the Thunderbolts team to capture Banner, half-hearted though it might have been.
She was again forced to watch her cousin struggle with his alter-ego when the Hulk was set loose on Johannesburg courtesy of the Scarlet Witch, and then later watch the Avengers in Sokovia. She was concerned with the fact that her cousin seemed to have disappeared off the radar until SHIELD agent Glenn Talbot showed up at her doorstep, searching her home for information concerning him. Much to her chagrin Bruce chose that exact moment to call her, but revealing to her that he was somewhere in Nevada. Jennifer found Betty Ross and Betty's new fiance Dr. Leonard Samson, taking them with her to the Nevada desert where they found Bruce lying low with Rick Jones. After a heartfelt reunion, Samson attempted to help Bruce come to grips with his personal issues from his childhood, however their session was cut short by Talbot's men. Samson and Jones attempted a diversion to draw the men away, allowing Walters, Ross and Banner to escape. However the diversion was interrupted by Calvin Zabo attempting to kidnap Betty. This triggered Bruce's transformation into the Hulk, resulting in a battle with SHIELD agents. In the ensuing battle, Jennifer was badly wounded as Bruce fled the scene. Jennifer was taken to a local medical facility where the doctors were able to mostly stop the internal bleeding, but the prognosis was bad given her rare blood type.
The next night Bruce snuck back into town and into the hospital, jerry rigging a blood transfusion for his cousin. The transfusion worked better than he had hoped, but the gamma radiation in Bruce's blood mutated Jennifer's own DNA, transforming her into a Hulk-like creature calling herself the She-Hulk. Inheriting the Hulk's super strength and healing factor, Jennifer's wounds were completely healed, and she quickly broke out of the hospital and went looking for Bruce, finding him in an underground bunker outside Las Vegas. When she stormed in she broke Hulk free of the gamma suppressor that Samuel Sterns was using to try and siphon off the Hulk's strength, then promptly knocked out Sterns for good measure. However the Hulk, beyond reason due to a personal conflict with Banner, began fighting Calvin Zabo (who had himself transformed into the super strong Mr. Hyde), doing massive damage to the Las Vegas strip. Jennifer did what she could to try and contain the damage, and was then forced to fight her cousin herself after Zabo was pacified and Sterns killed Betty Ross in his escape in a Quinjet. Jennifer was instructed unknowingly to lead Hulk to Area 51, where he was forced into a rocket ship that blasted him off into space. When Jennifer realized what she had done, she nearly snapped Thunderbolt Ross' neck herself, but eventually relented. She threatened to expose the whole affair until Tony Stark interceded, telling her the lie that Banner had come up with the idea himself.
Seemingly unable to transform back into her pre-She Hulk state, Jennifer took up arms as a freelance hero and as a defense attorney for super powered individuals. She officially remained neutral during the Avengers Civil War, but agreed in principle to the Avengers Protocol, limiting her hero work only to officially sanctioned actions (and defending heroes who might run afoul of it, such as Luke Cage on one occasion). Walters seemed content with her new existence, until the arrival of the Warbound Clan and her cousin, the Hulk. Discovering that she had been lied to by Stark, she immediately went to Avengers Tower and nearly beat Tony to a bloody pulp herself. Eventually calmed by the other individuals present, Jennifer insisted on accompanying the group to the Sakaaran ship, in an effort to free her cousin. She was sidetracked by a battle with Korg, eventually defeating the Kronan warrior. When she entered Hulk's throne room, her appearance was enough to calm Hulk briefly, just long enough for Banner to reassert control and transform for the first time in years. However, when Hulk learned of another of his lieutenants, Miek's, betrayal, it brought the Hulk back angrier than ever. The outflow of gamma energy threatened people within a wide city block, and Jennifer delayed Hulk long enough for Tony to blast him with an orbital gamma suppressor, transforming him back into Banner and knocking her out. Walters has temporarily ended her cooperation with SHIELD in light of these recent events and ended her hero activity, devoting her full time to Bruce's legal defense and seeking him to be released from custody.
Powers & Abilities[]
- Super Strength and Endurace: Due to a blood transfusion from her cousin, Jennifer Walters gained super strength and endurance similar (but to a lesser degree) to the Hulk. She has been shown to be able to stand her ground when fighting her cousin, though not for a protracted period of time.
- Permanent Transformation: Unlike the Hulk, Walters' transformation into the She-Hulk doesn't appear to be reversible and/or triggered by her emotional state. However, she retains her full human intelligence in this form as well, something the Hulk can only maintain with great effort.
- Legal Expertise: Prior to her transformation, Walters was a District Attorney for New York City, and thus possessed a strong knowledge of state and federal law.
Weaknesses[]
Her inexperience as a fighter and/or hero could be considered her primary weakness, though her overall strength makes her a dangerous opponent despite her dislike of physical violence. It is unknown fully the extent of her powers, either, but it is assumed based on their various encounters that she is not as strong as her cousin, nor does she gain in strength based on her emotional state.
Like all gamma powered beings, she is likely vulnerable to the gamma suppressor devices invented by Samuel Sterns. She was subjected to one inadvertantly at the end of World War Hulk, but the after-effects are as of yet unknown.
Film Details[]
Walters appears in the following films within the Earth-11584 continuity. In all cases, she is played by actress Gina Carano.
- The Incredible Hulk (2008)
- Thunderbolts (2013)
- The Incredible Hulk 2 (2015)
- World War Hulk (2017)