Marvel's She-Hulk Scrapped a Daredevil Villain

By Cameron Bonomolo

Warning: this story contains She-Hulk spoilers. In Marvel Studios series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, superhero lawyer Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) thwarted Titania (Jameela Jamil), tamed the Abomination (Tim Roth), and trounced the Intelligencia troll "HulkKing" (Jon Bass). In true Marvel fashion, there were cameos from major MCU players — Smart Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong), and Daredevil (Charlie Cox) — and lesser-known Marvel Comics characters like Mister Immortal (David Pasquesi) and Leap-Frog (Brandon Stanley). But newly surfaced concept art reveals the Marvel villain who didn't make the cut: Carl Burbank, a.k.a. Bushwacker. (Not to be confused with Moon Knight villain Bushman or Luke Cage villain Bushmaster.)

Concept artist and illustrator Wesley Burt revealed the concept art in a video posted on Instagram, imagining the cybernetically-enhanced assassin as he might appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

she-hulk-concept-art-bushwacker-mcu.png
(Photo: Marvel Studios / Wesley Burt)

In the comics, Bushwacker is a recurring villain of Daredevil. Created by Ann Nocenti and artist Rick Leonardi in the pages of 1987's Daredevil #248, the character has most frequently appeared in issues of Daredevil but has crossed paths with Wolverine of the X-Men and the Punisher as a hired gun employed by the Kingpin. He most recently appeared as an enemy of She-Hulk's cousin, Bruce Banner, working with the Hulk-hunting group Hulk Operations in Immortal Hulk.

More She-Hulk concept art showed unused costumes for Jen/She-Hulk and alternate designs for K.E.V.I.N. — short for Knowledge Enhanced Visual Interconnectivity Nexus — an AI brain inspired by Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige. In exclusive interviews with ComicBook, Marvel's She-Hulk writers revealed other characters cut from the series: Stilt-Man and big-brained Hulk enemy The Leader.

"In my original pitch, I did have The Leader in there," She-Hulk head writer and executive producer Jessica Gao told ComicBook. "Just as an option, as a suggestion, you know? But really, I can't remember why [it was scrapped]. I don't remember if it was organically taken out, because we just came up with other stuff, or if we were told no. I honestly don't remember."

2008's The Incredible Hulk teased Samuel Sterns' (Tim Blake Nelson) transformation into The Leader after being exposed to Banner's gamma-radiated blood.

"There was thought about either bringing him back or doing some version of a new version of Leader, or some relation to him," Gao said. "But, I mean truly, this was three years ago, and the show has evolved so much that I don't remember what actually happened."

All episodes of Marvel's She-Hulk: Attorney at Law are now streaming on Disney+.

Trending Now: