The 'Smile' Trolls Are Only Making Captain Marvel Stronger

There was a lot to love about Captain Marvel: We got a new key character for the Marvel franchise, it was set in the '90s -- the most hilarious decade -- and a whole lot of little girls were able to look at a big budget comic book movie and see a hero who was really for them. Also, there was a cat. The internet should have been thrilled.

And yet, the internet took a big collective dump on the film before it even came out. A common refrain was that Brie Larson's Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel needed to smile more. Spoiler alert: women hate that. Actually, everyone hates that, men included -- did y'all see Hamilton? One of the Founding Fathers hated being told to smile more.

Take a good, hard look at some of Brie Larson's other films. Did anyone smile through Short Term 12? No, we all cried for an hour and a half. Did anyone smile through Room? Or The Glass Castle? Not a bit, frankly. This bit about smiling even showed up in the Captain Marvel film, wherein some chump tells Danvers to smile, and she consequently swipes his motorcycle.

Now the gag is bleeding over into the comics, too: In the recently released Avengers #29, Captain Marvel is fighting Firelord, who seems to gain the upper hand. Firelord then suggests she smile, and it, well... it lights a fire inside her. Huh. Must be where the name comes from. Anyway, she rallies and punches the snot out of him for it.

That's it, then. If you tell Captain Marvel to smile, she's gonna totally Hulk out on you. The only way to avoid activating her superpowered rage is to treat women with respect. Good luck, comic books.