She-Hulk Hysteria: Why Jennifer Walters Needs To Get Angry

When news broke that Jennifer Walters was taking over her cousin’s role in a solo Hulk series, fans naturally freaked out — right before they started to squabble. The fandom was unsurprisingly united in its eagerness to see She-Hulk headline a comic yet again, but readers were split over whether Walters should be ‘mad’ when Hulk debuts in December.

However, She-Hulk has every right to be pissed.

The heroine’s history is a complicated one and has often done a disservice to the character. She was created in 1980s as a thinly veiled attempt to protect Marvel’s rights to one of their most popular heroes. Creator Stan Lee whipped up Walters to prevent television executives from creating a female version of Hulk following the success of The Incredible Hulk (1978-1982).

Gifted with her own series The Savage She-Hulk, Walters was drawn in a tight bodysuit and told to save the world with her temper tantrums. The character, who works as an mousey attorney, got her gamma powers from Bruce Banner after being shot by a crime boss. Her cousin donated his irradiated blood to Walters, sentencing her to a life of green skin and washboard abs. At first, She-Hulk followed in the Hulk’s steps and became a green rage-machine whenever Walters grew angry, but she eventually differentiated herself from Dr. Banner after ditching her anger issues.

Since then, Walters has been in control of her monstrous alter-ego and embraced She-Hulk’s libelous behavior while retaining her human intellect. This balance is one which comic book readers champion, but it is also now catalyzing their fears about Hulk. They are worried Walters will forego her hard-earned control when the comic debuts, leaving She-Hulk and her newfound anger open to accusations of female hysteria or being downright bitchy.

But, if readers don’t let Walters get mad, they passively propogate damaging stereotypes about ’emotionally frigid’ women. To deny She-Hulk of anger is to strip her of agency, making her little more than a caricature who prefers quippy, shallow storylines to complex self-discovery — and Walters has every reason to be irate in the wake of Civil War II.

This summer, Marvel Comics unveiled their crossover Civil War II and sent serious whump Walters’ way. In the comic, She-Hulk is nearly killed during a confrontation with Thanos and left in a coma. When she finally wakes up, Walters is hit with all kinds of bad news: her cousin has been murdered, his murderer got off scot-free, and the whole ordeal happened in the first place because of her best friend.

Axel Alonso, Marvel’s editor-in-chief, has stressed Civil War II leaes She-Hulk with enough baggage to make anyone angry. “The title She-Hulk evokes light-hearted stories about a Jennifer Walters who is at peace with herself and in full control of her powers,” he started. “This isn’t that book.”

“Jen went through major trauma in Civil War II, and [the comic] will deal with the fallout of that trauma —the anxiety and anger, sometimes self-destructive, that comes along with it. If there is light at the end of the tunnel, Jen is going to have to search hard for it, and she’s going to have to battle with some pretty big monsters — including the one within — to find herself again.”

Those monsters which Walters will face are bigger than her alter-ego or even intergalactic supervillains. She-Hulk will facedown personal demons and come to terms with beast like grief, betrayal, and her skewed sense of self. For years, the heroine’s reputation has been closely intertwined with that of the Hulk. With him gone, Walters must forge her own identity and discover who She-Hulk is without her cousin.

Of course, this series isn’t the only one that’s made Walters question her identity. In 2004, Marvel Comics published She-Hulk, a popular comic centered on the heroine. The series saw Walters wrestle with her alter-ego after her job as an attorney is threatened by her status as an Avenger. Forced to work as a human, Walters quickly realized how much her She-Hulk form empowers her and acts as a sort-of security blanket.

By the series’ end, Walters learns to dominate the courtroom despite her She-Hulk status — but she does so at a cost. Fans have criticized the comic for forcing Walters to sacrifice her physical strength to raise her intellect because readers believed She-Hulk could keep both. The most recent series featuring Walters retcons those concerns by having the attorney slay subpoenas in her hulked-out form, but the unsatisfying memory of what She-Hulk series have done lingers with fans today.

That lingering fear is what drives readers today to scoff at the character’s new series. To them, Walters deserves more than what she’s been given, and they are hesitant to see She-Hulk explore her primal nature for fear she’ll neglect her level-headedness. The heroine’s anger may sabotage her reputation as an exemplary female superhero, forcing Walter to throw away her career and dignity — but it won’t.

Walters deserves a chance to get angry and knock a few heads together after everything she’s been through. After Civil War II, the heroine’s world has been upturned, and she’s surely looking for answers in all the wrong places. The new Hulk series will simply show Walters as she finds those answers and deals with the very real heartache she’s been dealt with.

It won’t be the first time fans have seen She-Hulk angry – They’ve seen her sad, happy, drunk, horny, and everything else inbetween in the last thirty years. There’s no reason to fear Walters’ indignation or keep the heroine from expressing herself because we’re scared others will see She-Hulk as ‘hysterical.’

After all, Walters deserves to get angry, and fans are going to like her when she does.