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The following contains spoilers for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 3, “The People vs. Emil Blonsky,” now streaming on Disney+
Megan Thee Stallion’s viral guest appearance as herself is one of the most memorable moments in Disney+’s She-Hulk. Like seemingly everything else about the show, it’s received a divisive reaction. While some criticism falls into the camp that finds anything the show does to be too “woke,” there are valid criticisms She-Hulk’s first brush with celebrity. She-Hulk’s fan girl moment with the “Hot Girl Summer” rapper may not sit well with fans.
Like any aspect of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are many examples of superheroes crossing paths with real-life celebrities in comics. With decades of stories to choose from, you can find examples that handled celebrity crossovers worse than She-Hulk did. The most obvious came in 2002 when Spider-Man took part in a crossover with the host of The Tonight Show, Jay Leno.
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“Jay Leno & Spider-Man: One Night Only! (Don’t Forget to Tip Your Waitress)” was a three-part backup story published across Marvel’s line in the summer of 2002. The story, by Ron Zimmerman, Greg Capullo, Danny Miki, Avalon Studios’ Dan Kemp, and RS & Comicraft’s Wes Abbott, doesn’t give top billing to the talk show host over Marvel’s flagship character by accident. Spider-Man is subordinate to Leno in their team-up against a murderous reality show producer. A particularly embarrassing moment in the third part of the story had the web-slinger holding on to the comedian for dear life while he rides a motorcycle. Spider-Man is also the butt of the joke in the story’s ending when he gets stage fright during a Tonight Show appearance.
A Spider-Man story that’s more about a celebrity seems more like sponsored content than an in-continuity Marvel story. Marvel’s place in the world in 2002 makes its focus on a mainstream figure like Leno more understandable. Marvel was in the process of taking over cinema’s with the first of Sam Raimi’s Martin Scorsese-approved Spider-Man trilogy, but they weren’t far removed from their part in the comics’ industry crash of the ’90s and bankruptcy. While they didn’t convert many Tonight Show viewers into comic book readers, it makes sense that they would court a mainstream audience, even if it was at Spider-Man’s expense.
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Beyond attempts at appealing to a mainstream audience, the story’s writer also explains why it favored a celebrity over a superhero. Ron Zimmerman’s background was in the entertainment industry, where he worked on everything from The Howard Stern Show to the Hollywood satire Action. While Spawn/Batman artist Greg Capullo’s name stands out the most in the credits to modern fans, Zimmerman got the lion’s share of the attention when “Jay Leno & Spider-Man” was published. None of it was good.
Zimmerman’s second credit at Marvel, “Jay Leno & Spider-Man” meant he didn’t get off on the right foot with fans. The first story he wrote; an issue of Marvel Knights’ Punisher ongoing, wasn’t well received either. The fact that “Jay Leno & Spider-Man” was bundled with every Marvel Comic for three months just, unfortunately, meant it was more widely read. That didn’t do much to bolster Zimmerman’s reputation or counter the belief among die-hard fans that he was a pet project of Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada.
Leno appeared in another Zimmerman-written Spider-Man story in 2002, which was drawn by The Boys co-creator Darick Robertson. In Spider-Man: Sweet Charity, Leno hosts a charity auction where Spider-Man and J. Jonah Jameson are forced to go on a camping trip together by one of Zimmerman’s co-creations, Kraven the Hunter’s son Al. Zimmerman’s brand of humor never clicked with comics audiences, but he had a long and varied career that included writing for The Simpsons between the time he left comics and his death in July.
“Jay Leno & Spider-Man” was met with scorn by Marvel fans. That backlash paled in comparison to the mainstream attention Zimmerman received for rebooting classic western hero Rawhide Kid as Marvel’s first gay title character. This revival would go on to be Zimmerman’s last legacy in comics. “Jay Leno & Spider-Man” became a footnote 20 years later, remembered faintly by readers who stumbled across it in their favorite Marvel titles and internet comedy writers.
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