Greetings comic lovers and welcome back to casually comics the channel where we chat
all things comics from reviews of comics new and old to history to anecdotes to really
wherever our whims take us.
I’m Sasha and today it is history time once more.
Today’s subject the She Hulk.
The She Hulk came up in our reviews of Gwenpool strikes back when she was placed in a lineup
with characters created for the purpose of eye candy.
And I made the point with if you want to talk about if she is over sexualized or not that’s
a different discussion from the purpose of her creation which was very specific and documented
and actually has far more in line with Spider-Woman Jessica Drew then somebody sitting down at
a board room meeting and going you know what the world wants a sexy Hulk.
Yes she is drawn as attractive and a lot of her is shown often times in conjunction with
her narrative or a meta one involving the comics code or the at the time then relevant
climate such as that cover people like to bring up which is actually a recreation of
a famous photoshoot at the time.
Which many found to be daring and empowering though I’m sure others felt differently
different reads for different people always.
So let’s cut to the chase why do we have a She Hulk.
But before we do that please subscribe we’re going to make a push here let’s play with
the heavy hitters.
She Hulk owes her creation to two tv shows actually.
One was the The Incredible Hulk which aired from 1977 to 1982 this is the series that
calls Bruce David the entire time which always leads to some confusion for first time viewers.
It’s also odd cause the hulk does have a first name Bruce is his middle name but his
first name is Robert.
So The Hulk license with Universal Television or rather their parent company nowadays you
would recognise this holding as NBC Universal.
When Marvel was having a hard time it would sell off it’s licenses left right and centre
this was part of why they are still so scattered and assembling the mcu was a task.
So since they had the licence they could go how they wanted with it hence the many changes
that they made to the series and the hulk’s character David.
So the Hulk here was not the same as the one in the comics.
But he was recognizable enough that comic fans could watch and enjoy and he was a big
hit with the mainstream crowd.
This meant that this was something for Marvel comics to keep an eye on they didn’t want
anything potentially profitable being developed outside of their purview such as for example
a new character.
Concerns mounted when a contemporary show the six million dollar man you know the one
we can rebuild we have the technology launched a successful female led spin off The bionic
Women this show came to be airing on NBC.
Now Marvel was concerned fearing that if the incredible hulk showrunners caught wind of
how successful this female led spin off was and really how could they not already know
what was to stop them from doing their own a she hulk as it were and what better way
to introduce her than through the incredible hulk series.
And rumours abound that was to be the case and that she was set to be a love interest
for the Hulk but well that never got to even be a thing cause Stan Lee put a stop to it
Spider Woman style with a character created entirely to seize control of the trademark
and copyright.
Take that gwenpool strikes back issue 3.
Also side note that comic added on and get better character development later I postulate
that the she hulk started awesome and remained awesome that is all.
The defense rests.
Stan Lee quickly created Jennifer Walters the she hulk and the rushed out the first
issue and then pretty much handed her off to David Anthony Kraft who wrote the rest
of the savage she hulk run.
The she hulk debuted in the Savage she hulk #1 in 1980 and it funnily enough ran til 1982
the same year that the incredible hulk tv show ended just sayin’.
But the she hulk endured her origin was concise and didn’t sideline the hulk so there was
no need to feel like you were abandoning the original character.
She was smart, competent brave, beautiful though interestingly more beautiful as the
hulk and she was fundamentally different from Bruce in that she loved being the hulk she
embraced it.
It made her feel confident and powerful it gave the characters and comics a distinctly
different feel from one another that allowed the she hulk to stand on her own even as a
spin off character while she was created because of the hulk she could now stand apart from
him.
If the hulk dies the she hulk doesn’t have to she has her own life now her own fans her
own mythos that can cross over with her cousins Bruce Banner is her cousin but doesn’t have
to.
So yeah another crunch copyright character who turned into a character that many people
love.
Who happens to be attractive the fact that she felt attractive as the she hulk was part
of her character arc as was the fact that it didn’t always lead to good things her
nudes being leaked was a plot from way back in the 80s during her time on the Fantastic
four so people have been addressed the multifaceted nature of her character for quite awhile.
It hasn’t been ignored and if she has the right to be ugly as modern comics claim which
is true she conversely also has the right to be sexy.
Which the majority of all comic book characters are.
Hot people hot people everywhere.
Are you a 7 out of 10 stop putting on that spandex you don’t even go here.
Also fun fact the colourist who coloured the original hulk run didn’t think she was attractive
at all.
So that was the she hulk thanks a lot dr david banner.
Have you heard the rumour that they didn’t want to go with bruce cause it’s an I quote
gay name do you know how long I’ve been trying to hunt down that rumour.
Please if you know the answer tell me I’ve lived in the dark for so long.
I’m Sasha and thanks so much for watching casually comics please do all of the YouTube
things like share comment subscribe and hit that bell notification so that you never miss
a vid.
There are of course more videos coming soon so I’ll see you there buh bye.