She-Hulk: Attorney at Law episode three had a lot on its plate, from furthering Abomination’s redemption storyline to depicting the Jade Giantess twerking with Megan Thee Stallion (not something we ever expected to see in the MCU). And yet it also found time to skewer the wave of outrage from certain superhero “fans” that stinks up the internet whenever a new female superhero gets their own project.
And it turns out, that in a brilliantly meta move from the fourth wall-breaking show, the misogynistic messages featured in She-Hulk were airlifted straight from the comments thread to Marvel’s original announcement of the series. Fan detectives have revisited the Instagram post, from way back in 2019, and realized that many of the ridiculous IRL reactions are so close to those we saw on screen that it can’t be a coincidence.
Clearly, the writing team saw these comments and were inspired to parody them in the show.
Real quote: “Why everything in Marvel gotta be female now.” She-Hulk quote: “Why everything gotta be female now???”
That said, the spelling and punctuation are a whole lot better.
“Sometimes reality is dumber than fiction.”
As hilarious as this is, it’s also kinda dispiriting to discover inane comments like this are actually real.
Within the context of the storyline, this backlash against She-Hulk happened once Jennifer Walters became the subject of a media storm after taking on Emil Blonsky’s parole case. At this point, Jen is still struggling to get on top of it and control the narrative being told about her, but hopefully she’ll manage to in the coming episodes and shut her critics up. As for her real-life critics, kudos to the show’s team for sending them up so perfectly in this way.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law continues Thursdays on Disney Plus.