It's not unusual for Hollywood to produce big-budget action films based upon the exploits of best-selling comic book superheroes. Batman and Robin, the blockbuster superhero film of the summer has a Jewish director (Joel Schumaker), a Jewish actress (Alicia Silverstone) and features characters created by a Jewish comics creator (Bob Kane), but has no Jewish superheroes, supervillains or even minor characters.
Part of the reason for the absence of Jewish superheroes on the silver screen is probably due to the relative absence of Jewish characters (super or otherwise) in comic books for much of its 60-year history. This is despite the fact that a great number of writers, comics artists and publishers in the comics business were Jewish including Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Jack "King" Kirby, Stan Lee, Will Eisner and Bill Gaines. As with other sectors of the entertainment industry, comics needed to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. To do so, the characters were made up of white, heterosexual men of no specified ethnicity or religion (if religion played a role, it was always Christianity).
The first comics stories involving Jews that got the public's attention were the realistic stories published in "underground comix". Such stories included Harvey Pekar's autobiographical series American Splendour, Will Eisner's A Contract with G-d and art spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus. Before long, the mainstream publishers' comics introduced Jewish characters into their comics series, even creating Jewish heroes and villains. Unfortunately, the quality and originality of the stories and characters are usually not as well done as the non-Jewish ones are.
One of the character-types that I've become sick of seeing is the golem character. The legend of Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague and the clay creature that is brought to life has endured for generations. There have been at least 9 separate golems making appearances in comic books: Ragman, Ragman's clay predecessor (who joined Primal Force), the Golem of Gotham, Boaz and Joachim, Rabbi Joseph Della Reina's golem, the Hayoth member, and the title characters of Mendy and the Golem and Power of the Golem. Usually these characters are large, ugly, mute, awkward creatures of clay brought to life by writing the Hebrew word "emet" on its forehead and killed when the "e" or alef is erased, so that only the word "met" (death) remains. Ragman's origin differs from the creation of the other golems in that the mystical suit he wears was made by rabbis who wanted a human with a soul to wield the power. The others, though, tend to be used when the story calls for a tough monster.
Another character type that has been popping up in comics is the rabbi. Of the comics rabbis I've seen, only four (the "ordinary" ones) have had congregations and only one was a woman. With the exception of that rabbi, all were Orthodox (one of them a Bobov) and most compensate for not having superpowers by using Kabbalistic spells or creating golems. The rabbi-as-villain tends to be well-meaning but misguided - trying to repair the world but unable to control the power they unleash. Some of them quote the Torah so much, you'd think they were incapable of original dialogue. A particularly weak character emerges in one Batman story, where a rabbi named Saul Zwemer was shown to be so afraid of the Nazis' torturing that he betrayed his best friend, Joseph, to them. His fear of Batman makes him kill his golem who had been possessed by Joseph's spirit (dybbuk?). In one of Jack Chick's infamous evangelistic tract-comics, Where's Rabbi Waxman (now online), the title character is sent to Hell after confessing that he'd seen "the truth" about Jesus, but still remained Jewish. The four "ordinary" rabbis display courage, determination and faith, despite having the inability to cast spells to defend themselves with. It is this latter type that there should be more of in comics.
There haven't been many superhero defenders of Israel in the comics and their appearances have not been memorable. They include Shaloman, Sabraman, the Hayoth (Ramban, Golem, Dybbuk and Judith), Sabra and the Mossad agent, Rose (who seems to always run into the Punisher whenever he travels to the Middle East). The latter three characters are women. One of the factors that may account for the way readers have failed to pay much attention them may be the failure to show the complexity of these characters or to even show them in their civilian lives. When Shaloman is not beating up bad guys, he transforms back into a rock - not a great opportunity for character development. Dybbuk and Ramban are the exceptions who are shown using their reasoning as well as their powers to defeat their opponents. Part of the problem is due to poor marketing. Shaloman and Sabraman comics seem have been distributed exclusively through Judaica shops, while the other heroes have been guest characters not deemed worthy of their own series. Lack of originality is another flaw. Sabraman and Shaloman are basically strongmen, Seraph and the Hayoth are ripoffs from Jewish history and legend and Sabra is a Superwoman who shoots energized spikes (just as real sabras have thorns). The overuse of the "Israeli hero(es) battle(s) American hero(es) due to misunderstanding" plot can also be tiresome.
Aside from the characters, the handling of stories with Jews tends also to be poor relative to stories with non-Jews. In soap opera fashion, characters who are thought to be Gentile are revealed to be Jewish (or half-Jewish) after all. Such characters have included Moon Knight, Sandman and Nuklon (of Justice League America). Are Jewish readers supposed to respect characters who cover up their Jewish heritage? It's to be expected that writers would use the Shoah (Holocaust) as a setting for at least part of their stories. However, such writers run the risk of being too brief or toning it down (so as not to offend readers' sensibilities). Manimal author Robin Snyder may have done so, but at least s/he apologizes for it. Too many stories portray the Jews as victims unwilling or unable to defend themselves and, therefore in need of saving. A great exception, is an anonymous Jew in an All-Star Squadron issue who hurls a bottle of acid at a Nazi's face before being shot dead.
The comics stories with Jews in them may not be as great as they can be, but their very existence has helped make comics more interesting and more diverse. The letterers, whose work is usually taken for granted, have displayed their creativity by using a Yiddish typeface for English words in the Jewish/Israeli stories. In Batman and Houdini: The Devil's Workshop, such words are used to indicate that a character is speaking Yiddish. Some aspects of Jewish culture have been presented such as Reb Chaim's explaining why he could only shake Rachel's hand with a handkerchief between them, Ragman's placing a stone on his father's grave, the Hebrew calendar years in a Doom Patrol story, and the Hasidic Jew telling Yankel not to ride during the Sabbath in Dropsie Avenue. Some of the issues that these comics have looked at include intermarriage, assimilation and inter-group prejudice in the Jewish community. Artifacts that have been drawn in these stories include menorahs, the eternal flame, yarmulkes and the ten Sefirot. Writers like Jackie Urbanovic and Tim Barela are showing that Jews can belong to other communities as well. (their stories have gay Jews in them). If enough readers demand that comics companies treat Jewish characters with the same respect accorded to their superstars (such as Spider-Man, Batman, Wonder Woman), perhaps we will truly see some spectacular and worthwhile stories that we can feel proud of. Maybe we'll even get to see Super-Jew become a smash hit movie. After all, it was once thought that there would never be any black superhero films and this year, there are two: Spawn and Steel.
This article originally appeared in German in the 7 August 1997 issue of Allegemeine Jüdische Wochenzeitung.
In order to see an annotated list of comic books with Jews in them (in English), click here.
