She-Hulk: Badass Bitch (With Bonus Accessories: A Career and Self-Esteem!)

When I first learned we would be reading She-Hulk for class, I was not excited. I don’t like the Hulk; why would I? I can find an angry guy with a hormone imbalance in almost every major city in the world. With zero background information about the character, She-Hulk was presented to be a huge green woman with boobs that would (more than likely) be popping out of her shredded clothing at every opportunity.

While I was right about the shredded clothing, She-Hulk: Law and Disorder begins by introducing us to the lawyer/superheroine Jennifer Walters (also known as She-Hulk). To the credit of the writer and artist, the first page is not a spread of She-Hulk undressing from a long day of work, but rather a series of drawings of She-Hulk tearing a plane in half, punching some guys teeth out, out-drinking Thor (while Tony Stark gazes on in admiration), and bending down to eye level to talk to a little girl. The first page got me excited. Here was a woman being depicted as strong, capable, and caring. Turn to the next page and we get a spread of She-Hulk in office clothes, her feet propped up on her desk as if she doesn’t have a care in the world. “This is also the She-Hulk”, the text box reads. Immediately, we are given a sense of her confidence in her workplace that many women do not feel.

I won’t go into detail about the entire trade, but Charles Soule‘s She-Hulk centers more around her background as a lawyer than it does the more superhero-y aspects of her life. Sure, she dusts some Doom-Bots and demon dogs, but she also talks Tony Stark out of a lawsuit from Stark Industries, receives counsel from fellow super/lawyer Matt Murdock (fans will know him also as Daredevil), and appeals for Doctor Doom’s son to be granted asylum in America in order to escape his father’s reach. While I wish this book had more action, I’m also glad they didn’t paint She-Hulk to be an aggressive lady-bitch. She is known to be more rational than her cousin Bruce Banner and can control her “hulk form” so that she doesn’t lose control. She holds a career as a lawyer and even starts her own law firm.

While all these things have the makings of a great superheroine and role model, I must admit I was expecting something…different. It seemed to me that She-Hulk is presented to be a strong female character because she has a career and a side-job as a superhero. I don’t think that just because a character has superpowers and a job that that makes them a strong character. Daredevil is a blind attorney with superpowers and a career and you don’t see anyone making a huge deal about that. I see a character with a job as an obvious choice. Unless you’re Superman famous, being a superhero doesn’t pay (as Walters explicitly states). After I read through the story a second time, I noticed the small details of Jennifer Walters. How she talks to her employees and friends with empathy and kindness. That she is on an equal playing field with the big-name heroes such as Iron Man, Thor, Daredevil, and the Fantastic Four. She is intelligent, physically strong, and relies on herself without being too stubborn to ask her friends for help.

I know I have not (by any means) read enough She-Hulk to know anything more about her than what I have researched and read in their single trade, but for a female role-model to be presented as physically strong and intelligent is a big deal. As unfortunate as it is that she has to tear her clothes off to fight crime, I recognize it as necessary to her power and character that those things happen.

Women in comics have a long way to go in our fight for equal representation, especially in superhero comics, but with heroes such as She-Hulk, we’re getting closer (though an argument could certainly be made with an opposing view considering the recent cancellation of the She-Hulk series after only 12 issues). There are many female superheroes and many female writers and artists, and by supporting them, we can look forward to the day when female supers headline comics and movies without being objectified.

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For more articles about women and sexism in comics, read this article by Alyssa Rosenberg and this article about the issue with overly sexualized female superheroes by Laura Hudson.