The other night She-Hulk was trending on Twitter/X, and the reason why is because during the Super Bowl, the new Deadpool & Wolverine trailer dropped and this invited comparisons to the She-Hulk show—which seems to have been a failure in hindsight.
For the sake of comparison, here’s that Deadpool & Wolverine trailer, with the usual warning that Deadpool is involved and even when it is ‘safe for television,’ you are still going to hear a lot of dirty jokes:
And just in general, a language warning applies throughout this piece, because you will see several videos from the hard-R rated Deadpool movies and if you don’t know what that means, we say: ‘Welcome to world! Were you comfortable inside your underground bunker?’
In any case, like with the last two movies in the Deadpool series, fans were happy with the trailer and cautiously hopeful, and She-Hulk’s alleged fans were upset that some people liked the Deadpool movies but not She-Hulk.
We say ‘alleged fans’ because there are more than a few accusations that some of these people boosting the show are literally paid shills. We’re not inclined to believe that just because, well … what would it accomplish to pay such persons? In a situation like that, you have to wonder where any profit motive would be.
And before we get further into it, let’s stipulate to two things. First, humor is subjective—what is funny to one person is not necessarily funny to someone else. The same goes for pretty much all qualitative measures in art or entertainment.
Second, if you are a person who genuinely enjoyed any entertainment or art that this author didn’t, we have one thing to say to you: Good! Seriously, we are genuinely glad you enjoyed whatever it is, be it She-Hulk or anything else that we happened to dislike. We want you to enjoy the things you watch, read, play and so on.
But this author didn’t enjoy She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Before you ask, it isn’t just because the handling of the law was terrible in that show. We have learned to ‘forgive’ a TV show or movie for having a terrible understanding of actual law, if it is still funny, or heartfelt, or had some other virtue—the problem was it wasn’t any of those other things, either.
Which of course makes us sexist or something, because don’t you know, the She-Hulk show was just as good as the Deadpool movies, because they did the same things!
Yes, people really made that argument.
We’re not sure where the argument started, but this is an example of a post that got the conversation going:
This single scene is literally better then whole She-hulk series. pic.twitter.com/rEmOtqRmyW
— Clipsters ✨ (@updates_loki) February 12, 2024
That invited responses:
she-hulk was making the exact same type of jokes and y'all said it was cringe pic.twitter.com/ULOzm0eVC2 https://t.co/kUCWhMcrjb
— kaeden (@wandasitcoms) February 12, 2024
It's these random strays She-Hulk be catching just be minding her business then here comes some hater saying if She-Hulk did this it would have sucked leave my good sis Jen alone she ain't doing nothing to bother yall https://t.co/QazripsEMF pic.twitter.com/SXmgsYyo7B
— Jay🏹 (@Hawkmaestro21) February 12, 2024
Recommended
Sir, you really need to learn how to use punctuation.
Someone hasn’t watched a single episode of the She-Hulk series. https://t.co/NqKP81seNw pic.twitter.com/JJEl0bixNF
— Wednesday Pull (@WednesdayPull) February 12, 2024
We watched all of them, and we agree with ‘Clipsters.’
She did it first. And better. pic.twitter.com/CXTujhLgnd https://t.co/fcuIb5QXH7
— Henning 💚 Orphan Black: Echoes Era (@SestraHulk) February 12, 2024
Did what first? Break the fourth wall? Maybe in the comics—we wouldn’t know—but definitely not in movies and shows.
And for those who don’t know that term, here’s a quick primer. Breaking the fourth wall is a bit of lingo for when a character in a play/TV show/movie indicates that he or she knows they are in a play, TV show or movie. It is a reference to the way that very often in a play you might see a room on stage, with up to three walls, with the wall facing the audience missing (because otherwise you couldn’t see the play). That is the fourth wall, and to acknowledge the audience is to ‘break’ that wall.
In any case, Deadpool has been doing it from his first movie, which came out several years before the She-Hulk show. Here’s a quick run-down of many of the fourth wall breaks in the first movie:
We submit that in movies and TV shows, Deadpool did it better.
She hulk did the same thing and broke the fourth wall soooo https://t.co/7RgJ4MMPVH pic.twitter.com/OcqDWgTfCQ
— Shawnx ☾︎🍭😈 (@Head_yunatic) February 12, 2024
Here we go.
— ReedReads (@ReedReads4) February 12, 2024
So when She-Hulk does it it’s cringe but when Deadpool does it it’s great? Jen had a whole commentary about the MCU but pegging is what sold you. https://t.co/hIEsCZxZbg pic.twitter.com/AR4bgFbJOa
men spewed so much at She-Hulk for twerking with Megan Thee Stallion because it was “overly sexual”
— Jerrica (@JinkiesJerrica) February 12, 2024
but when Deadpool makes a joke about pegging, suddenly being sexual is not ok, but better?
it’s giving male mediocrity and misogyny https://t.co/3CIQERtBL8 pic.twitter.com/y7E6nWhlVg
We are pretty sure that the objection was mainly that it was stupid behavior for an alleged lawyer to engage in, and not done in a way that was enjoyable. Nor did it even seem in character.
she literally said she smashed matt murdock too the camera but she’s a woman so it’s different i guess https://t.co/jc2KcjDfGr pic.twitter.com/thnf4jeOSx
— lou 🍉 ⧗ met jamie!! ⧗ (@roxymacher) February 12, 2024
Actually, that was one of the few semi-funny moments to us in the She-Hulk show.
she hulk literally also made fun of disney and marvel studios yall just hated it cause a woman delivered the joke https://t.co/KbZv01Zf0W
— lily✡︎➃ (@HAWKW0RLD) February 12, 2024
But, of course, then people who think Deadpool is better than She-Hulk started to weigh in:
Besides the fact that Ryan Reynolds is just better at the kind of humor. But the fact that Deadpool never set in front of his cousin and mocked his trauma. Automatically make Deadpool a more likable character than She-Hulk. Hell Deadpool spent a whole movie trying to save a kid. https://t.co/7pBlOQUGZo pic.twitter.com/rNX9suaeqd
— Drunk Superman 🇺🇸 (@DrunkSuperman3) February 14, 2024
Let’s not forget about the writers of She Hulk are greatly lacking the formula of the comics elements where Deadpool’s team are top notch to their balance of action/comedy without being too pretentious. https://t.co/SlRWkyPMwJ pic.twitter.com/3xzrJ9GdXX
— Greg☢️ry Van L☢️an AKA 🥷TMNT🐢 Stan (@gradioactive4) February 15, 2024
Because Deadpool is actually good and She-Hulk isn't.
— キャプテンN (@Captain_N64) February 15, 2024
Imagine comparing Titania Whatsherface to Ryan Reynolds. Hope that helps. https://t.co/ZuZ4qPsV3H pic.twitter.com/g1lU2DqdJc
She-Hulk: Let piss off the fans, tell them they are dumb, and refuse to give them what they want!
— Highly Functional (@HighFuncGaming) February 13, 2024
Deadpool: Let's give the fans what they want.
She-Hulk Fans: See! They're exactly the same! https://t.co/VVLwLGoQvX
And innocent people, lost Romanov aka black widow who he was in love with and oh yeah that’s right at one point before the invasion in New York he tried to kill himself because of all the trauma that his dad his ex’s dad and the hulk have inflicted onto him2/2
— 🏺🍃Exile1994🪡🧵 (@HylianRailgun) February 14, 2024
Comparing Tatiana maslany to someone who’s well known for their charisma and comedic timing is hilarious.
— Always Laughing (@LaughingPaleMan) February 13, 2024
She’s isn’t even close to Ryan reynolds https://t.co/IQfSCUugaS
She hulk fans in shambles because Dead Pool is a thousand times better lmao https://t.co/dpGSSbYpJw
— Johnny Zamarripa (@Jzamarripa96) February 13, 2024
One actually has quality execution. She Hulk was nothing more than an expensive car wreck.
— Layman (@LazyLayman) February 13, 2024
Cope more. https://t.co/UKdZgbBxbL
Because Ryan Reynolds is actually funny and has been doing this all along. To compare Deadpool to She-Hulk is like comparing fillet mignon to dog food.... https://t.co/dTsKEe7Tvc
— GenXgal90 (@GenXgal90) February 13, 2024
Of course, there were other perspectives:
I loved She Hulk and I love Deadpool! Thats the tweet! pic.twitter.com/x9J8meV1ri
— Omn1Media (@Omn1Media) February 14, 2024
Rest in peace, Mr. Weathers.
And at least one person argued that that She-Hulk’s detractors were the obsessed ones or something.
for a show you claim to hate, y’all talk about it ALL THE TIME.
— jessica 👩🏻💻 (@booknerdyrican) February 12, 2024
you losers are obsessed with her https://t.co/H0Z08WBQRd pic.twitter.com/JeCP1UFI70
And then we return to the question of who are these She-Hulk stans?
How much is Disney paying these people to shill so hard for The Marvels and She-Hulk?
— MasteroftheTDS (@MasteroftheTDS) February 13, 2024
If they aren’t paying, this is just sad 😂 https://t.co/WHwhxz0eD0 pic.twitter.com/5ChDP3iRof
We said before we were skeptical that they were being paid. Instead, we suspect that for many people they have tied up their politics into their ability to enjoy entertainment in a way that just isn’t healthy. So, they have to like She-Hulk because feminism or something. And the rest of us just think ‘but it wasn’t any good.’
But, again, if you genuinely enjoyed She-Hulk, good for you. But you have to admit you are in the minority.
I’m so excited for Deadpool but my god some of you are so annoying.
— Daren 🏳️🌈⚡️🎉 (@Daren_Mcclimans) February 12, 2024
Saying it’s here to save marvel when you literally had guardians and Loki was last year.
Pushing down things like The marvels and she-hulk when literally you had both secret invasion and Ant-man last year… pic.twitter.com/YsuuWlkwIt
Well, we weren’t persuaded to actually watch Loki’s second season or The Marvels, and the data says that few other people were persuaded to do so, either. Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 was a highlight, for sure, but that’s the end of a trilogy that predated the recent era of suck at Marvel and is from a director who literally has moved on to make movies for their competition. James Gunn seems unlikely to return to Marvel anytime soon, thus Guardians 3 seems to be kind of a dead end. And Secret Invasion and Quantumania were just weak—they are the kinds of things fans were complaining about.
No one would have hated She-Hulk if Marvel had just kept her true to form of her 90's cartoon show iteration. Blame Disney, not the fans for the poor reception. https://t.co/MbXeYrfugr pic.twitter.com/YOMXvY0lli
— ⚠️Mr Dystopian⚠️ (@DystopianMr) February 13, 2024
A more balanced view:
Agreed. What's also sad is that in the comics, Jen did the 4th wall break 1st. However, Wade became more popular, so ppl think she copied him when it's actually the reverse.
— Jean Gentry (@JeanGen09181213) February 14, 2024
All I wanted was a good She Hulk show. https://t.co/UQgCsscA3i pic.twitter.com/Gb0yhZrjJr
We had hoped that She-Hulk would be good, too. Part of our mix of emotions about the show was disappointment.
the people mad at she hulk twerking (which is 10,000% in character for her) were strangely silent about this. i wonder why pic.twitter.com/6aluhBti46
— lily✡︎➃ (@HAWKW0RLD) February 12, 2024
Seriously, why do they think these scenes are remotely comparable.
I saw She-Hulk trending and though Disney was bringin' that bullshih back. Damn, y'all scared the hell outta me, man pic.twitter.com/Cd6JRZzXUd
— Apex Jones (@ApexJones22) February 13, 2024
We are all relieved.
The difference between Deadpool and She-Hulk is that one is funny while the other tries to be funny but fails horrifically even going as far as telling a man who admitted of trying to kill himself that she has better control of her anger than he does… https://t.co/xBIAuKC7Ud pic.twitter.com/ixfUrUpGeQ
— The Mad Ainz of Shimano (@6ShubNiggurath6) February 13, 2024
this is cringier than any line of dialogue in she hulk https://t.co/mEmU5jOMYn pic.twitter.com/0LdNHdjhG6
— lily✡︎➃ (@HAWKW0RLD) February 12, 2024
We admit that after T.J. Miller allegedly SWATed a person, this author has a unique degree of hatred for the actor. But that is still a funny line, in part because it is intentionally, knowingly cringey.
Deadpool fans trying to explain how it makes sense that she-hulk isn't funny but Deadpool is even though they do the same thing pic.twitter.com/qavtuRvuVJ
— Aladoof (@Aladoofs) February 13, 2024
she-hulk fans when someone says something that makes actual sense https://t.co/a2goDazXfr pic.twitter.com/JKg497fQQN
— StonedTroll (@Stoned_Troll_) February 13, 2024
People tryna defend She-Hulk after 2 years for that mid 4th wall breaking and writing because Deadpool 3 trailer did it way better and was actuslly funny, the show was mid, writing was stupid and Jen was unlikable, get over it lmao #DeadpoolAndWolverine pic.twitter.com/HJdEx46Qj9
— Miguel Weaver (@Hunterese101) February 13, 2024
MCU She-Hulk fans when they actually read the John Bryne comic run: https://t.co/9JzS2z404n pic.twitter.com/mGQoM8pa6f
— King Bash 🇭🇹 (@TheBashNation) February 13, 2024
We even got a useful comparison of green Marvel women:
Gamora has more character in any one of her films than She-Hulk got in her entire show.
— Daveed Montha🐧"ch1LL" (@TheTrueDaveed) February 13, 2024
If the MCU wrote great stories/characters as they did in Phases 1-3, we wouldn't need "Twitter warriors" to defend why their films/shows failed. https://t.co/MERSIHwd7t pic.twitter.com/5MhCznvCT2
We were particularly taken aback for this claim:
I've seen many bad takes during this Deadpool vs. She-Hulk discourse, but by far THE dumbest one is that Tatiana Maslany doesn't compare to Ryan Reynolds, despite 10 years of improv theater and winning an Emmy for playing 14 characters in ONE show. These clowns are insufferable. pic.twitter.com/qwoD2oa1OU
— Henning 💚 Orphan Black: Echoes Era (@SestraHulk) February 14, 2024
We honestly didn’t have any problems with Tatiana Whatshername’s performance, but you don’t prove one actor is as good as another by citing awards and experience. The proof is in the performance. Now, maybe Tatiana Whatshername has a real gift that we just haven’t seen yet. After all, the same could probably said about Ryan Reynolds the first time he played Deadpool, in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, where they actually thought it was a good idea to seal his mouth shut:
We think it is safe to say that Fox’s first attempt at Deadpool on screen literally had the right actor right there, but couldn’t figure out how to execute it well. So, for all we know, Tatiana Whatshername was similarly shackled by morons and could really have shined if she had a better script or was allowed to do things her way. But we haven’t any seen evidence of that, just yet.
Face it people #SheHulk just was not made well.
— Crimson Jester (@OGCrimsonJester) February 13, 2024
It wasn't Tatiana's fault she's damn good actress, the script was just a horrible meandering thing.
I wanted to like it. I'm a fan of the comics. This just didn't do it justice and I'm glad it's canceled. pic.twitter.com/nNo1oudYlI
She Hulk really isn’t as bad as y’all insist.
— Nitro-Spidey 🍕⚔️ (@NitroSpidey) February 12, 2024
Please, I beg of you, watch more media if you genuinely think this is one of the worst things ever made. pic.twitter.com/n1f7MTqBO9
Oh, there are definitely worse movies or TV shows made. But it was still pretty mediocre.
The character was butchered cause she acts nothing like the original but rather annoying and egotistical, even in the comics she's been completely changed by that incompetent of Dan Slott, and I don't even want to hear "it doesn't has to be a 1:1 of the source material" https://t.co/bnTe58cIIk pic.twitter.com/dvzesMOWGd
— Ben Bertolucci 𝘋𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 (@Gret2315) February 12, 2024
We don’t mind changes to the source material. For instance, Stephen King probably doesn’t want to hear it, but Stanley Kubrick’s version of The Shining is a massive improvement on the original book. But the key is that the changes should be improvements.
But that’s just crazy talk, right?
This looking like a clip from GTA is not helping y’all case. https://t.co/syMizF1g61 pic.twitter.com/BQGqZ1R088
— M(egan’s Defense)J (@societysjoker) February 12, 2024
We grew up on some shaky special effects and still ended up liking many of the movies that had them (not to mention movies that never even tried to look real, like The Lion King). Probably the most egregious example of a good movie with very weak special effects is the original Terminator. And in the case of comedy, we actually tend to think that cheap special effects actually enhance the comedy. For instance, we don’t think we would want to see a version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail where every special effects looked real. The fakeness of that movie is part of its charm.
These bad faith arguments gotta wrap up by the end of the week.
— Mightykeef (@MightyKeef) February 13, 2024
It’s been a year. Get over it. She-Hulk just didn’t hit for a lot of people. Thats ok.
And people will be bias for Deadpool’s comedy because he’s more popular.
None of this is changing. https://t.co/gWDo3Qhbcv
Except why is he more popular? Because his movies were funnier and overall better. The original Deadpool was a hit even after the Wolverine movie did such a poor job with the character originally—either people forgot about that movie, or they were willing to forgive. And significantly, it was because Ryan Reynolds worked hard to get the word out, shooting ads that showed you how funny he could be as the character. His not-so-secret weapon is his ability to make ads that are genuinely funny, that you actually look forward to watching just to see what goofy thing he will do next.
If the new Deadpool is as badly written as SHE-Hulk was, then it'll be ripped to shreds as that was. https://t.co/CkwqkjGw7H
— Trailer Swift (Original Recording) (@Trailer_Swift69) February 13, 2024
Well, as a point of order, a lot of what makes the Deadpool movies good is also Ryan Reynolds’ contribution. If one watches any behind-the-scenes footage, you know a lot of the jokes are improvised to the point that we genuinely wonder how funny either movie would have been without him.
It makes zero sense to try to compare and contrast how Deadpool and She-Hulk humor would be received. It's all about how it's done and the context. This a a stupid post by someone just looking to "reeee" about criticism of their beloved M-SHE-U product. You like it? You eat it. https://t.co/wNExGL83uq
— Kevin (@knewenigma) February 12, 2024
I don't think y'all understand that a huge part of jokes is the delivery https://t.co/vUEEccQmLD
— Jag & 63 others (@ConstipatedPurr) February 13, 2024
All these she hulk defenders but when it's time to defend the black panther movies from racists you niggas nowhere to be found... pic.twitter.com/PYlTiRDejo
— 💥MrCjprice💥 (@mrcjprice193) February 12, 2024
We thought the first was pretty good, for the record—we didn’t even mind the dodgy CGI toward the end. The second … we thought was a very mixed bag because of weird logic in the characters’ behavior. We were very hopeful for it, and thought their idea of making Namor essentially a Mayan was a pretty cool one, so we were very disappointed with much of the movie. But we thought that Shuri finally coming to terms with T’Challa’s death was very moving and easily the best thing in the movie.
It's hilarious seeing straight men ostensibly into women trash anything about or featuring women. You're not going to turn gay (I'm gay) by admitting that She-Hulk and The Marvels were a lot of fun. pic.twitter.com/qugWaV9Suh
— Michael Crawford 🏳️🌈 (@dmcrawford) February 12, 2024
Honestly, who are these men? We keep hearing of the supposed Sci-Fi or fantasy fans that will fly into a rage if they see a woman on screen, or if she is strong, but we have never seen such a person in real life. Never mind that these fans have happily embraced Ellen Ripley, Princess Leia, Sarah Connor, Natasha Romanov, Gamora, Nebula, Arwen, Éowyn, Wonder Woman, Kathryne Janeway, 7 of 9, and many other strong and capable women. It seems these people attacking the male fans have built up an image of them in their minds that bears little resemblance to reality.
Finally, we also saw this comment:
The new “She-Hulk” movie looks bad pic.twitter.com/6HOn4XPk0i
— Fusilli Spock (@awstar11) February 12, 2024
*Stifles laughter.* No notes.
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