She-Hulk: Who Are the Light Elves?

Last week’s episode of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law gave Marvel Cinematic Universe fans their first encounter with Light Elves. The species, who exist as part of the broader Thor mythology in the comics, are an odd part of the Marvel comics, whose mythology didn’t get too much explanation in the episode. The episode reintroduced Dennis Bukowski (Drew Matthews), who needed help with a stranger-than-usual superhuman law case. Bukowski had been castfished and conned by a shape-shifting New Asgardian light elf named Runa, who had scammed him out of thousands of dollars while impersonating Megan Thee Stallion. 

Light Elves are a race beings native to Alfheim — one of the Nine Realms of Asgard’s cosmic map. Alfheim exists on the highest level of the World Tree, along with Asgard and Vanaheim, and it seems that some of the Light Elves came to Earth to settle in New Asgard.

In the comics, the Light Elves are peaceful and friendly beings who rarely find themselves at war with anybody and have few weapons. That doesn’t mean they’re treated like a primitive civilization, though; there are Air and Sea Elves who have massive, impressive technology appropriate to their settings (and of course the ones who work with Santa Claus at the North Pole). As the name implies, they’re kind of the polar opposite of the Dark Elves seen serving Malekith in Thor: The Dark World.

Here’s a full breakdown of the different types of Light Elves, via Marvel’s fandom Wiki:

• The Spice Elves
• The Air Elves living in wondrous flying machines
• The Sea Elves in coral castles along Hummingbird Bay
• The “triple jointed” Pleasure Elves
• The Elves of the North Pole working for Midgard’s Santa Claus and living at the North Pole
• The Elves of the Vale living with their herds of “Wild ‘Corns”
• The Moon Elves “all aglow with Firefly Wine”,[5] living in the Valley of the Moon Elves
• The Cat Elves who ride winged cats as their steed, living at the borders with Nornheim
• The Ice Elves, who reside in the frozen portion of Alfheim

At one point, Loki convinced Northstar that he was a Light Elf, which convinced the Alpha Flight member to abandon the team and relocate to Alfheim to learn about his supposed heritage. Obviously that didn’t last, and Northstar left after learning that Loki had deceived him, but it established a friendship between the Canadian mutant group and the Light Elves.

Typicallly, Light Elves possess superhuman strength, speed, stamina, durability, agility, and reflexes — and as you might expect from elves, many of them are skilled archers. They do, though, have a Kryptonite-like weakness that is not particularly friendly to combat on Earth: iron.

During Jason Aaron’s run on Thor, which inspired much of what happened in Thor: Love and Thunder, The Dark Council moved to massacre the Light Elves, casting their bodies out through space and catching the attention of Earth’s heroes when one crashed into a satellite. 

You can see the official synopsis for She-Hulk below.

See Tatiana Maslany as She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters, a lawyer who specializes in superhuman-oriented legal cases. “She-Hulk” will welcome a host of Marvel characters to the series, including the Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo, and the Abomination, played by Tim Roth. 

Jameela Jamil (The Good Place) will play Marvel Comics villain Titania, while Josh Segarra (Arrow, Orange Is the New Black), Anais Almonte (Slumber Party), and Renee Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton, The Good Wife) also appear on the series. 

She-Hulk airs new episodes on Thursdays on Disney+.