She-Hulk Settles an Old Avengers Conflict

This article contains spoilers for episode 8 of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Captain America: Civil War

Not only does She Hulk: Attorney at Law use its “lawyer show” premise to bring Matt Murdock and his alter-ego Daredevil further into the fold of the MCU, but it also uses the courtroom to officially reveal the status of what is arguably the Avengers’ second biggest conflict after Thanos. In Murdock’s defense of superhero costume designer Luke Jacobson (Griffin Matthews) during the penultimate episode of the season, he briefly mentions that the Sokovia Accords have been repealed.

Before Baron Zemo’s (Daniel Brühl) master plan is revealed in Captain America: Civil War, the Avengers are already divided on whether or not they should sign the Sokovia Accords. Inspired by the destruction of the (fictional) country Sokovia in Avengers: Age of Ultron and the bombing in Lagos, Nigeria that Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) were unable to prevent in Civil War, the Sokovia Accords were drafted by the United Nations to provide oversight on superhero operations. Whether they were in a private group like the Avengers or members of government organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D, any individual who possesses enhanced abilities, skill, or technology would be forced to register with the U.N. under the Accords.

The Sokovia Accords required the disclosure of both superhero and personal identities for monitoring purposes. Any individual who didn’t sign the accords could no longer operate as a superhero, even if they were already an Avenger. In Civil War, Rogers and several other Avengers didn’t want the bureaucracy of the Accords to stop them from helping people nor were they comfortable with the level of surveillance required for the Accords to work, while Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson), and others felt that the government oversight would help keep the Avengers accountable for their actions and the destruction they’ve left behind. 

Given that the division of the Avengers left the Earth more vulnerable to Thanos, it’s not a surprise that the Sokovia Accords were repealed in the post-Blip world. It seems kind of pointless to keep a catalog of superheroes when large purple dudes from space can just show up and vanish half of all living things from existence. As The Falcon and the Winter Soldier has shown us, the governments of the world have more pressing matters to attend to anyway. The world grew used to living without half of the population for five years, and now the powers that be have to learn how to accommodate the growing number of displaced people throughout the world.

Even though the line mentioning the repeal of the Sokovia Accords kind of gets lost in Murdock and Jennifer Walters’ (Tatiana Maslany) courtroom banter, this moment in She-Hulk is important for the MCU moving forward. Not only does the repeal of the Accords help Murdock win the case – Jacobson is no longer required by law to disclose his superhero client list – but it also bodes well for the next generation of the Avengers moving forward. Without the bureaucracy and oversight of the Accords, and the division caused by them, hopefully the new team will be better prepared for the threats they will face in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.