It’s a storyline with enough twists and turns to make Stan Lee proud.
The MCU (The Marvel Cinematic Universe to the layman) recently made history by introducing its first Native American superhero. Maya Lopez, codename Echo, recently starred in a television miniseries created for the streaming service Disney+. It was a proud moment for representation in the superhero community.
Representation has been a key virtue for Marvel in creating their onscreen universe, which at this point is comprised of dozens of movies and TV shows. Marvel has been committed to making sure that a diverse number of cultures and ethnicalities are proudly represented.
There’s Ms. Marvel, featuring Kamala Khan, a Pakistani-American superhero who’s also an orthodox Sunni Muslim. There’s Shang-Chi, also known as the Master of Kung Fu, whose entire character is connected to his Chinese identity. Africa is represented by T'Challa, the Black Panther, king of the fictional nation of Wakanda.
It seems this is a golden age for onscreen representation. At long last such historically overlooked groups as black lesbian Vikings have the opportunity to see themselves on screen (this isn’t a joke, see Valkyrie in the Thor franchise.)
So, it seemed only natural when Marvel announced that the new Captain America movie (featuring a black Captain America) would include the Israeli Superhero, Sabra. Created by writer Bill Mantlo and artist Sal Buscema, Sabra's character first appeared in Incredible Hulk #250 (August 1980). Sabra is the alter ego of the superheroine Ruth Bat-Seraph, a mutant who serves as an agent of the Israeli Mossad. The Israeli flag that makes up her costume makes her nationality impossible to miss. In the upcoming movie, she was set to be played by Israeli actress Shira Haas.
Then it was reported that after significant reshoots Sabra’s character would be entirely reimagined, with her Israeli Jew identity entirely erased. Instead of an Israeli Mossad agent, she was now a Russian subject of the Black Widow program. (It’s telling that in the current political climate and the Ukrainian War, a Russian superhero is perfectly acceptable, but an Israeli superhero is beyond the pale.) Instead of her superhero name Sabra, the character would be referred to simply as “Ruth.”
The change comes as a response to heavy criticism of the choice to include an Israeli character. Calls for boycotts, poor test screenings, and a large antisemitic campaign led the studio to panic and demand major reshoots. The result is that the hero looks to be stripped of the slightest trace of Israeliness.
It was a disgraceful, cowardly act by Marvel Studios. Marvel Comics owes its success to such Jewish creative geniuses as Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. It seemed the powers that be chose to give in to pressure and hatred instead of standing up for what’s right. To be sure, it’s not a very superheroes thing to do.
Then, after a strong outcry from the Jewish community, Marvel again reversed course. According to two unknown “insiders,” Sabra’s indemnity and history have been restored and will be once again featured in the movie. What will eventually end up appearing on screen by the time the movie comes out is anyone’s guess, but the important thing is that Jews made their voices heard and as a result, they earned the right to be seen.
The outcry and subsequent success of maintaining a character’s Jewish identity is important not only in terms of a single movie. It’s the first step to bringing to light a much more malignant problem in the comic book industry, one that’s been with it since the beginning. In mainstream comic books, there are no positive Jewish characters.
To be sure there are Jewish characters aplenty. Marvel has in its stable such members of the tribe as Shadow Cat, Magento, Legion, and Iceman. And that's just in the X-men. There's also the Two-Gun Kid, Moon Knight, Sasquatch, Songbird, Wiccan, Doc Samson and of course the Ever-Lovin blue-eyed Thing. DC comics can fill out a minyan with Dr. Fate, Sandman, Ragman, the Atom, and The Green Lantern, not to mention Batwoman and Harley Quinn.
Clearly, the problem isn’t coming up with Jewish characters. The trouble is in having them actually be Jewish. Not a single character has Judaism as a part, let alone a central part, of their identity. Not a single character expresses their Judaism in any outward meaningful way.
Besides the occasional lighting of the menorah in a special “Holiday” issue or a Star of David necklace, these characters' Jewishness might as well not even exist. They are not written in a way that acknowledges their Jewish identity or shows that they are proud of it. Instead, their Judaism is an interesting affectation, but never a thing that's an active force in their lives.
The result is a slew of characters who are Jewish in name only. In action, one would never know. The characters are written so that they act in very non-Jewish ways and hold very non-Jewish values.
Without exception, all the married heroes are intermarried. Quite a few are in other types of relationships the Torah frowns upon. Engaging in magic and the occult is a reoccurring theme. Quite clearly the writers have never actually met an observant Jew, or they simply don’t care to find out what Judaism is about.
Even when they’re not acting contrary to Jewish belief, these heroes are never seen as being actively Jewish in anything they do. Where is the Jewish superhero who keeps Kosher? When was the last time one left Shabbat services to save the world? When was a Jewish heroine ever shown lighting Shabbat candles, even with her optic blasts?
When was the last time a character was portrayed as Jewish in a way that showed that their Judaism was a meaningful, important part of who they were?
The closest I know of is Ben Grim, the Thing. In The Thing, volume 2, issue 8 the Thing decides to reconnect to his Jewish heritage. He visits his childhood shul, meets a rabbi, and begins an earnest program of learning. The issue cumulates in his celebrating his second Bar Mitzvah, 13 years since he was first transformed. It's a heartfelt meaningful story and exactly the kind of positive Jewish representation that’s needed. Unfortunately, after that issue, it was never referenced again.
The rule seems to be that a character can be Jewish, just as long as this Jewishness doesn’t affect them in any way. As was the case for Jews in America for much of the twentieth century, the belief is that it’s fine to be Jewish, just as long as you keep it to yourself. Writers, it seems can create vast universes of cosmic battles, magical realms, and amazing powers, but they can’t conceive that a Jew might ever behave in a Jewish manner.
What makes all this particularly disappointing is that comic companies have proven that they can create characters whose faith is an integral part of their lives. Marvel has done a wonderful job with Ms. Marvel, a young Muslim girl whose family is observant and who herself keeps the tenets of her faith. Small character moments, her refusing a glass of alcohol from a teammate or her struggles to resist the lure of “Delicious, Delicious infidel meat…” show how a character can express their faith in a way that does not come across as heavy-handed or forced.
She’s not alone. Sooraya Qadir, the mutant heroine "Dust" is a Pashtun Muslim from Kandahar, Afghanistan who proudly wears a full niqab covering her face. Kurt Wagner, the Nightcrawler is a vocal Catholic who in one storyline decided to become a priest. It seems that comic book writers have no trouble writing well-rounded characters who proudly express their beliefs in their daily lives. Unless of course, those beliefs happen to be Jewish.
It's a disappointing development for an industry that got its start when two Jewish boys, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, retold the story of Moses to create Superman, the first superhero.
Representation is important because it means that every group deserves to be seen. Lack of representation carries the opposite message. It says to a community that they are not worthy of being portrayed, of being included. It tells the group in question that they don’t matter.
For many, it’s just a silly film based on comic books. But with antisemitism at an all-time high, the issue is much more than a movie. It’s not about a character, or even about giving Jews a superhero to look up to. It’s about acknowledging and validating their very existence. For Jews around the world, being seen has never been more important.
And now more than ever, standing up as a proud Jew has never been more heroic.
Ilan Goodman is a museum collections professional and exhibition curator. He also serves as a rabbi and educator. He made Aliyah to Israel in 2011 and lives with his wife and children in Beit Shemesh.