The hate that Captain Marvel received has altogether vanished for the equally miserable Joker sequel, proving that some fans are just toxic.

Comic books and films are usually rich and magnificent affairs, focusing on the big-budget action sequence that ends up on the screen. However, there has been a troubling trend in the past few years, such that sections of the fandom have been blaming the failure of films on political messaging that they disagree with rather than the contents of the film.

Brie Larson as Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers in Marvel Studios’ THE MARVELS. Photo by Laura Radford. © 2023 MARVEL.

The Marvels was one such film that ended up being a bomb at the box office, largely blamed on the fact that the film tried to storm theaters with three female leaders, two of which were women of color. Brie Larson has always been a target for certain sections of the fandom, the same ones that had it out for Rey Skywalker and Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel.

For all their bashing of bad films, no one seems to care about Joker: Folie a Deux failing

Joker: Folie a Deux || Credit: WB

A section of the fandom has taken to the internet to point out the fact that the Joker sequel seems to be receiving a tamer response as compared to films like Rise of the Skywalker and the Brie Larson-led The Marvels, which were thrashed by the community for ‘pushing an agenda’ over making a decent film.

This is doing worse than The Marvels but you won’t be see the industry pondering the idea if white male leads should get their own projects or not https://t.co/PYy1AIaEzx

— kaeden 🔮✨ (@wandasitcoms) October 5, 2024

You know who they gonna try to blame is lady Gaga the woman the only one who promoted it who didn’t director or produce it wasn’t coming on with power from being in the first

— Steven T (@steventphoto) October 5, 2024

No one cares about “flops” when it’s not from Disney or has a white male lead. Argyle, Fall Guy, Megalopolis, The Crow (2024) and now Joker 2.
None of those got dozens of GriftTube videos with the actor “crying”.

— visoredavenger (@visoredavenger) October 5, 2024

Just to head off those who will say “Joker made $1bn, that’s why there is a sequel!” so did Captain Marvel.

— Cyber-Man (@3000Cyber) October 5, 2024

Folie a Deux‘s failure at the box office has a lot of fans wondering where the cancel crowd is given that they are on their heels and ever eager to cover the flops that come out of big studios. However, this crowd seems to have disappeared, perhaps because the film in question did not have a female lead, or did not concern the agenda that they wish to peddle to their audiences.

Bad films with male leaders barely ever get the treatment that female-lead films do

Captain Marvel || Credit: Marvel Studios

The Rise of Skywalker, The Marvels, Captain Marvel, The Acolyte, and The Rings of Power are no doubt bad products that the respective studios should have refined, or at least thought twice about before putting them out. However, the flack that these franchise films have received is nowhere close to the quiet and somber criticism of films Argyle, Joker: Folie a Deux, and Fall Guy or The Crow.

While there are legitimate criticisms to be leveled at all these films, the male-led ones can pass under the radar of “critics” without much fuss, while the ones led by women are endlessly used to hate farm on the internet, simply because the misgivings of the plot, marketing, and story are squarely put on the actress who face was put on the marketing material.

Be it Brie Larson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Morfydd Clark in Rings of Power, or Daisy Ridley in The Rise of Skywalker, the blame is almost always on the talent that’s on screen, rather than the production company that forces them to work with bad scripts.