Porcupine In She-Hulk Episode 7 Explained
In Episode 7 of "She-Hulk: Attorney At Law" entitled "The Retreat," Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany) finds herself on Abomination/Emil Blonsky's (Tim Roth) private island attending a support group session with a group of Marvel B-list villains, including Wrecker, Saracen, Porcupine, Man-Bull, and El Aguila. It takes some persuading to get her to join the circle, but Jen ultimately opens up to the group about the guy she's seeing, Josh (Trevor Salter), who she was really excited about because he was interested in her for her human form, not for her She-Hulk persona. Unfortunately, he ghosted Jen, causing the group to unite in their hatred of Josh.
Fans have already started to react positively to the episode, including a burgeoning meme of people posting their hatred of Josh on social media. Twitter user @RyanPayner, for example, tweeted an image of former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders holding two guns with the caption, "Me when I see Josh." Others simply shared their feelings of sympathy for Jen, such as Redditor u/c_Lassy who wrote, "Lmao out of every episode of all the MCU Disney+ shows so far, this one was the hardest to watch for me. Being ghosted sucks." Others focused on character development; these included Twitter user @siisizze, who tweeted, "Hearing Jen open up to the group broke me [sic] heart."
But what about the other members of the circle? For now, let's focus on one particular member of Blonsky's group, the mysterious villain Porcupine.
The guy in the porcupine suit
Porcupine has been the moniker for several different characters in Marvel Comics, but in the prime universe of the comics, there have been three Porcupines. The first Porcupine, Alexander Gentry, was introduced in "Tales to Astonish" #48 in 1963, where he battled Ant-Man and The Wasp. Gentry was originally a weapons developer for the U.S. military who came up with the idea of fashioning himself a suit that imitates a porcupine. That's his whole power, the power of a porcupine.
The second Porcupine, Roger Gocking, was introduced in the 2000s in "Daughters of the Dragon" #3. Gocking bought the original Porcupine suit and name from Hobgoblin after Gentry's death. He then joined the Thunderbolts, a team of villains turned anti-heroes, in "Thunderbolts" #107. A new Porcupine, Billy Bates, had a short-lived run, being introduced in "District X" #13 only to be killed off in "District X" #14. Despite his brief appearance, Bates holds the distinction of being the first Porcupine to actually have powers, having the ability to sprout spikes out of his skin and even fire them as projectiles.
In "She-Hulk" Episode 7, Porcupine is played by Jordan Aaron Ford. Although we never hear the character's real name, his suit bears a striking resemblance to the original suit worn by Gentry and Gocking. It's notable that Ford, according to his IMDb profile, has no other screen acting credits to his name. According to the bio, which was allegedly written by Ford himself, the actor has a BFA in Theater from Columbus State University in Georgia and his previous acting experience is in theater. While his first on-screen role was brief, it was certainly funny. So hopefully this won't be the last we see of this aspiring actor.