Good Morning Britain 's Ben Shephard was forced to apologise today as a debate about female superheroes turned heated.
The conversation was sparked after the news that Warner Bros had cancelled new DC blockbuster Batgirl after it got a bad reception in the early test screenings, despite costing £82million to make.
Hosts Ben Shephard and Charlotte Hawkins were joined by film critic Hanna Flint and commentator Dominique Samuels.
Dominique argued that - particularly with DC - there is a "crisis with creativity" since Discovery+ collaborated with Warner Bros.
"They seem to come out with an array of films and series that, quite frankly, haven't done very well," she said. "Supergirl is also soon set to be cancelled, Batgirl is cancelled. I think the reason for that is we seem to be focused on pushing certain political messages in the form of female characters rather than focusing on the content of the film.
"Nobody cares about your first trans superhero, nobody cares about your first Latina superhero. What people care about is the content of the film and how it links to the wider comic book narrative. I think that's the reason that it's fell flat with fans, quite frankly. Not because it's a woman."
Dominique then pointed towards Wonder Woman, who she said she was a massive fan of.
"For me personally, she embodied everything that was great about being a woman," she said. "Being feminine, being strong, being sexy. That's OK."
Giving her own opinion, Hanna argued that there had only been around 10 female-led superhero films in comparison to a "myriad of male superhero films".
She said: "Wonder Woman has always been a feminist character - that was the foundation of when she was invented years ago, even in that Wonder Woman the film where she's about to go into No Man's Land and she says 'I am no man'. It's very in the foundation of who she is.
"I think it's interesting that whenever we talk about films being too political, we talk about gender politics, like 'Oh, it's too political!' Political agenda is literally the foundation of every superhero film ever. Superman was created by Jewish writers who ended up fighting Hitler on the page before the US ever entered the fray."
The pair began to clash as Dominique suggested that representation wasn't needed in superhero films.
"If you want a monolithic view of what a superheroes are in that you want them to be hyper-sexual, get their t*ts out, wear spandex, that's fine," Hanna said.
Dominique fumed: "That's not what it is! That's not what Wonder Woman did."
"She's wearing a skirt, she's hyper-sexualised," Hanna argued.
"Wonder Woman is not hyper-sexualised," Dominique said. "She is a woman, that's what women are like."
Charlotte and Ben intervened, with the pair apologising to viewers over Hanna's language.
Ben said: "Apologies - Hanna used some quite excitable language in the moment to describe the outfits of some of the superheroes. If you were offended, we're sorry. We can't use that type of language this time in the morning but it was thoroughly entertaining."
*Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV
