Two new series on Disney+ can boast of effective world-building, and doing so on the wings of well-established IP. One comes from Marvel and improvises on the Hulk legacy, while the second is an extension of Star Wars.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (Disney+) - I’ve purposely placed this ahead of Andor (Star Wars), because while it’s set in the Marvel Cinema Universe (MCU), it’s an underdog series that most will ignore, or place in the lower rungs of their Priority Watching list. And that would be a great shame, as this is the Marvel series that comes closest to WandaVision in showcasing originality, and a subtle sense of humor, while still providing pithy social commentary, and making smart use of its Marvel provenance. As the title would suggest, it’s about a woman who’s the cousin of Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), AKA the Incredible Hulk. It makes witty use of breaking the fourth wall, and as Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) keeps reminding us, it’s her show. 

From episode one’s first twenty minutes, if you aren’t charmed by the series, count yourself brain-dead. It’s a sitcom set in the world of lawyering and courtrooms, and you’ll love how it just happens to be that Jennifer, has a vastly improved version of her cousin’s transformative powers. In fact, as this first episode recounts how she acquired this dose of gamma radiation, she discloses she’d be much happier if she could forego with all this Green Superpower and saving the world, and just concentrate on saving her clients in court, and making a case for District Attorney. Unfortunately, it’s just not going to happen, and being a She-Hulk becomes a hindrance. Pretty soon, she’s looking for a new job and working for a law firm, and it’s Superhero Division. Watch this one!

Andor (Disney+) - When we last saw Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), he was piloting the ill-fated Rogue One mission. It failed but helped spark the Revolution, and became an important footnote to the Star Wars saga. So the big idea here was to come up with a prequel, and offer us Cassian’s journey to that Rogue One destiny - already booked for two seasons. More a slow burn film about espionage and sniping at the dark forces than it is about space adventure or thrilling action, this is almost the anti-Star Wars Star Wars series. It hones in on the ‘little people’ that helped fuel the resistance. It’s like doing a series about our EDSA Revolution and ignoring Cory, the Marcoses, Ponce-Enrile or Ramos, and focussing on the back story of the nun who gave a flower to the soldiers. That’s how original and different a perspective Andor provides.

So the question would be, does it work? It’s the most mature approach we’ve had in the Star Wars universe. Instead of larger than life heroes, we’re given the elastic moral compass of Cassian - if you gifted him with gruff humor, he could be a Han Solo prototype, but the Cassian we get is all angst and seriousness. There’s Luthen (Stellan Skarsgärd), and Bix (Adria Arjona), as confederates of Cassian; but they’re not heroic. And in Syril (Kyle Soller) we have the personification of the Imperial forces that Cassian are up against; but again, he’s no budding Darth Vader. I’ve watched the first three episodes, and to get through the first two required heavy investing in the series. The third episode justifies it all, but so now I’m curious to see if the succeeding nine episodes will keep me committed.