by 
Updated on December 10, 2021
David S. Goyer, the writer for “Man of Steel” as well as the upcoming “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” got raked over the online coals yesterday for some decidedly choice remarks during a comics-related podcast program in front of an audience. When asked during the interview his thoughts about She-Hulk, the Hulk’s cousin, Goyer (and the podcast’s host Craig Mazin) offered this (quoted from The Mary Sue):
Craig Mazin: The real name for She-Hulk was Slut-Hulk. That was the whole point. Let’s just make this green chick with enormous boobs. And she’s Hulk strong but not Hulk massive, right? … She’s real lean, stringy…
David S. Goyer: She’s still pretty chunky. She was like Chyna from the WWE.
Mazin: The whole point of She-Hulk was just to appeal sexistly to ten-year-old boys. Worked on me.
Goyer: I have a theory about She-Hulk. Which was created by a man, right? And at the time in particular I think 95% of comic book readers were men and certainly almost all of the comic book writers were men. So the Hulk was this classic male power fantasy. It’s like, most of the people reading comic books were these people like me who were just these little kids getting the sh*t kicked out of them every day… And so then they created She-Hulk, right? Who was still smart… I think She-Hulk is the chick that you could f*ck if you were Hulk, you know what I’m saying? … She-Hulk was the extension of the male power fantasy. So it’s like if I’m going to be this geek who becomes the Hulk then let’s create a giant green porn star that only the Hulk could f*ck.
Um, yeah…
Never mind She-Hulk is the Hulk’s cousin, thus making in-continuity romantic liaisons highly unlikely. Or that I don’t think “sexistly” is a word. But this is the guy DC wants to put in charge of writing its Justice League franchise?
Yes, She-Hulk was created for trademark/copyright reasons, but judging from her popularity/stories, she’s risen above such initial corporate motivations as a character. Marvel’s even made an attempt at marketing her more to female readers in recent times.
Later in the podcast, Goyer’s asked for his two cents about the Martian Manhunter, which results in Goyer dredging up the tired “comic geeks that know an obscure character clearly haven’t had sex” joke; the full remarks can be seen on Comic Book Resources. I’d note J’onn has appeared in other media before—the “Justice League” cartoons of the 2000s, as well as the recently cancelled “Young Justice” series. Thus, he’s had a bit of exposure to the general public.
Not surprisingly, the story about Goyer’s remarks has spread all over social media and comic book blogs/sites by now. Surprisingly, however, it’s also appeared in mainstream (read: non-comic) news sites, including the Washington Post. While sexism is pretty entrenched in Hollywood/the entertainment industry, I’d like to think these sort of remarks making it into mainstream media might be a sign to Time-Warner, etc. that they can’t keep ignoring such crass, outdated attitudes in their industry. And that should go double for their comic book subsidiaries, even if they only exist in Disney/Time-Warner’s eyes as intellectual property farms/trademark maintenance.
