Oh how I love when my favorite properties call out those who make it difficult to love them. With the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s been a rough go of it recently with the influx of characters that are not straight, white men! Now, the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney At Law has called out those who are constantly angry that the MCU is becoming the “M-She-U.” (Yes, that’s a real thing they call it.)
Starting with the introduction of Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers (played by Brie Larson) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and branching out with shows like Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, and more, the label of the “M-She-U” has come about because there’s a certain subset of fans who are furious that instead of having 5 men to 1 woman in the MCU, it’s becoming a bit more balanced. Oh no, how dare they!
From the dawning of the MCU in 2008 and on, our core Avengers have been five white men (Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Clint Barton, and Thor) and one white woman (Natasha Romanoff). After The Avengers, we began to see the team growing a bit, but it wasn’t reinventing the wheel. It was pretty much a lot of white guys, some white women, and Sam Wilson.
The MCU did continue to grow with the inclusion of T’Challa/Black Panther and Carol Danvers, and has led us to female characters like Kamala Khan, Monica Rambeau, Maria Rambeau, America Chavez, Kate Bishop, Yelena Belova, the upcoming Riri Williams, Shuri, Layla El-Faouly, and now Jennifer Walters—not to mention the Eternals, which added Gemma Chan to the MCU as Sersi, and we also got an amazing character in Meng’er Zhang’s Xu Xialing from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
In a franchise that has roughly (over) 700 characters in it, having around 15–20 of those characters be main characters who are women isn’t that outlandish. But that hasn’t stopped the crybabies online from crying! And thus, the title of “M-She-U” was born.
I want to be clear: The amount of men in the MCU hasn’t really gone down despite the departure of both Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. If anything, we’ve continued to add more. All that is happening is that it is more inclusive to groups that are not white straight men. The MCU is growing, and it is a good thing, but I guess because they no longer have their beloved Iron Man and Steve Rogers to cling to, they’re all breaking.
And so it delights me to no end that She-Hulk has called out the “M-She-U” crew.
Stay toxic, buddy!
If you take a quick google search for “M-She-U,” you’ll be thrown into the deep end of YouTube videos where guys are crying online because women dared to be superheroes. And so in this week’s episode of She-Hulk, we watched as Jennifer Walters was being talked about in the news, and with it came an influx of commentary on her as a person, and thus, let the chaos begin!
“They took the Hulk’s manhood away, but then gave it to a woman?” Says a man directly into his camera, and honestly, you’d think that this is outlandish and no one would do that, but then TikTok and YouTube paints a different scene.
It’s a direct reflection of the comments that existed when She-Hulk: Attorney at Law was announced!
Out of the eight Disney+ series that have come out for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, two of them are female-led. WandaVision was a tag team for both Wanda and Vision (and yes, I would argue that it was completely Wanda’s show, but Vision was right there alongside her), and Hawkeye was a show about Clint Barton working with Kate Bishop.
We have other shows coming up, like Echo, Ironheart, and Agatha: Coven of Chaos, but it is still 10 shows with a male character as either a co-lead or the overall lead vs. five female-led solo series. So … not as if the men are struggling!
But frankly, those who call it the “M-She-U” don’t care. They don’t care that the numbers still show that they have more of a stake in the MCU. They care that they’re not the only focal point, and it’s exhausting. I love that She-Hulk: Attorney at Law can call this stuff out and is doing it because yes please, more of this!
(featured image: Marvel Entertainment)
