She-Hulk Episode 3's Spotlight On Toxic Fans Has Twitter Lighting Up

"She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" introduced MCU fans to the live-action version of its titular hero. Played by Tatiana Maslany, Jennifer Walters is a lawyer by day and, well, also a Hulk by day. As only the fourth solo female-led MCU project, there has been predictable backlash to the show from certain subsets of the franchise's global fan base. As reported by Forbes, "She-Hulk" was intensely review-bombed ahead of its release, a phenomenon that also occurred with "Captain Marvel," "Ms. Marvel," and "Black Widow," all of which feature women in their leading roles. Similar-minded fans (or perhaps anti-fans is more apt) have been relentless in their ire on social media, but the creators of "She-Hulk" prepared their response to that drama well in advance, as demonstrated by one scene in Episode 3.

Episode 3 of "She-Hulk" finds Walters defending Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), better known as Abomination. Her high-profile client draws the attention of the press, and before long, social media lights up with opinions about the lean, green, legal machine. In a montage that shows how predictable toxic fan reactions to "She-Hulk" were from the start, a man vlogging from his car (Rory Asplund) gripes, "They took the Hulk's manhood away, but then they gave it to a woman?" Elsewhere, a post reads, "No more female superheroes plz," while a man can be heard saying, "Why are you turning every superhero into a girl?"

The montage may actually feel tame compared to some real-life reactions — do a quick search for "She-Hulk" on Twitter and you're likely to uncover comments that are far more disturbing. However, it demonstrated that toxic fandom reactions are nothing if not cliché, and Twitter lit up in response.

"She-Hulk's" spot-on portrayal of toxic MCU fans was a major highlight for many viewers, possibly overshadowed only by a twerkalicious cameo from Megan Thee Stallion later in the episode, and viewers took to Twitter with glee. Accompanied by a clip of the montage, @chewiedanvers wrote, "this was literally twitter after the first episode." Elsewhere, @FandomCrunch quipped, "The bearded virgins got a cameo now in a show."

The comedic, irreverent tone of "She-Hulk" has been a selling point for the series thus far, as has its feminist-forward framing of the character, all of which made it perhaps the perfect place to poke fun at reactionary men whose knee-jerk reaction to a female superhero tends to be outrage. It's an aspect of the episode that did not go unnoticed by fans. According to @jzjoe03, "I absolutely love the comedy in this show. My favourite part has to be the montage of all the tiktoks and tweets from all the people who unironically say 'M-She-U'".

The toxic fan montage is sure to set off another round of bellyaching from the same people it poked fun at. Indeed, the cycle of outrage around fandom media can be exhausting, as pointed out by @filmaddict, who tweeted, "it's the same people who they're pointing out that are watching the show rn fuming". 

The nonstop clashes between toxic fans and everyone else have become a rote part of online life. It is, as comedian Bo Burnham once sang, "the backlash to the backlash to the thing that's just begun."