She-Hulk TV series accused of ‘pandering to the left’ and ‘squeezing out male heroes’

Angry Instagram users have since been schooled on the vast history of She-Hulk in comic book lore

A forthcoming She-Hulk TV series has been accused of “pandering to the left” because it centres on a female superhero – despite She-Hulk existing in comic-book lore since 1980.

She-Hulk, who will make her live-action debut in a new series for Disney+, was created by Stan Lee and John Buscema in 1980, debuting in the first issue of Savage She-Hulk as Bruce Banner’s cousin Jennifer Waters. But despite her long comic book history, a number of individuals have taken to Disney’s official Instagram to complain about the series, which was announced yesterday, and what they have interpreted as merely a gender-switched version of The Hulk.

“Why everything gotta be about women?” one person wrote. “Who tf [sic] cares about women’s rights? HULK DOESN’T NEED TO BE A GIRL”. Another added: “So we have a #MeToo movement and now all the male heroes are gone? Somehow I think Marvel just made a wrong turn.”

Other messages have included: “Is this Disney’s female Ghostbusters?”, “There are sooo many females in the MCU now, is there gonna be any room for any males soon?” and “Is the new Hulk black, [a] redhead [and] Asian to satisfy all the audience? Ridiculous.”

Marvel fans more familiar with She-Hulk’s history, meanwhile, have rolled their eyes at the outrage and celebrated the TV arrival of a much-loved comics character. “The amount of ignorance in these comments, man,” wrote one Instagram user. Another added: “You can tell by the comments which people have never picked up a comic book in their lives.” On Twitter, one person wrote in response to the criticism: “Ah yes, because women were only created in 2019.”

The forthcoming She-Hulk series will mark the character’s first appearance in live-action. She has previously appeared on numerous animated Marvel series and in video games, however, voiced by actors including Eliza Dushku and Katee Sackhoff.

A She-Hulk film that would have starred Brigitte Nielsen was announced in 1990 but never materialised.