Hebrew Heroes
(warning comic fanboy rant)
As I lit my candles tonight I was reminded of a comic rant I had. Every year DC and Marvel come out with their X-mas specials. They are pappy little things to remind you to be kind to your fellow man and that most of the heroes are good CHRISTAN people.
This year in the marvel special, Franklin Richards asks his family what the holidays mean to THEM... His mom replies family and community, human torch mentions PRESENTS and then he get to Thing. Now it should be mentioned that about a year or three ago Ben Grimm was outed as a Jew. It's not important to his character so nobody really went into it... but Franklin asks him about the holidays from a JEWISH POV. Now I thought that was cool. However I didn't think it was cool for Ben to point out that he and Kitty( Shadowcat) were the ONLY Jewish heroes.... For one, as said he didn't mention it for 30 odd years of his characterization- but two what was really bothered me- His pride that he and Kitty were the ONLY two jewish heroes in Marvel.
I felt angry at the writer for Ben's pride and stupidity. I mean if he was going to go arround calling himself an athority of Jewish heroes... You would think he would at the very least mention Isreal's hero Sabre... and the long haired dude named Sampson.
So Gonna list some of the Big Comic Jews tonight...
Marvel:
Thing
Shadowcat
Sabra
Legion( ya know- Chuck's kid.)
Doc Sampson
Vance Astro/Justice of the Guardians of the Galaxy/ Avengers
Moon Knight
Songbird/ Screaming Mimi
Sasquatch (Dr. Walter Langkowski)[ Actually I wander if the African American Squash in Exiles is jewish)
Izzy Cohen (of Sgt. Fury's Howling Commandos)
Dominic Fortune
Greenberg the vampire
Bermuda Schwarz of X-Force/Branch M
Volcana
Achilles of the Pantheon( from Hulk)
DC:
Dybbuk of Hayoth
Golem of Hayoth [deceased]
Judith of Hayoth
Pterodon of the Hybrid
Ramban of Hayoth
Seraph of the Global Guardians
Atom Smasher/Nuklon
Cyclotron
Mindboggler
Ragman
Silhouette of the Minutemen (from Watchmen)
Colossal Boy/Leviathan
Indies worth Mentioning:
Ruben 'American' Flagg
Fathom of the Elementals( goodness I loved that comic)
Prime from Ultraverse
Arthur from Tick
Judah Maccabee from Nexus
The Escapist( from Kaviler and Clay, as he now has his own comic)
The Spirit
Notes: Harley Quinn is Jewish( and I put several of her next to my menorah) and Captain Marvel gets his Wisdom from Solomon.
Oh and Kal El translates into "Totality of God"
I might've missed a few... but I certianly got more then the two THING mentions.
As I lit my candles tonight I was reminded of a comic rant I had. Every year DC and Marvel come out with their X-mas specials. They are pappy little things to remind you to be kind to your fellow man and that most of the heroes are good CHRISTAN people.
This year in the marvel special, Franklin Richards asks his family what the holidays mean to THEM... His mom replies family and community, human torch mentions PRESENTS and then he get to Thing. Now it should be mentioned that about a year or three ago Ben Grimm was outed as a Jew. It's not important to his character so nobody really went into it... but Franklin asks him about the holidays from a JEWISH POV. Now I thought that was cool. However I didn't think it was cool for Ben to point out that he and Kitty( Shadowcat) were the ONLY Jewish heroes.... For one, as said he didn't mention it for 30 odd years of his characterization- but two what was really bothered me- His pride that he and Kitty were the ONLY two jewish heroes in Marvel.
I felt angry at the writer for Ben's pride and stupidity. I mean if he was going to go arround calling himself an athority of Jewish heroes... You would think he would at the very least mention Isreal's hero Sabre... and the long haired dude named Sampson.
So Gonna list some of the Big Comic Jews tonight...
Marvel:
Thing
Shadowcat
Sabra
Legion( ya know- Chuck's kid.)
Doc Sampson
Vance Astro/Justice of the Guardians of the Galaxy/ Avengers
Moon Knight
Songbird/ Screaming Mimi
Sasquatch (Dr. Walter Langkowski)[ Actually I wander if the African American Squash in Exiles is jewish)
Izzy Cohen (of Sgt. Fury's Howling Commandos)
Dominic Fortune
Greenberg the vampire
Bermuda Schwarz of X-Force/Branch M
Volcana
Achilles of the Pantheon( from Hulk)
DC:
Dybbuk of Hayoth
Golem of Hayoth [deceased]
Judith of Hayoth
Pterodon of the Hybrid
Ramban of Hayoth
Seraph of the Global Guardians
Atom Smasher/Nuklon
Cyclotron
Mindboggler
Ragman
Silhouette of the Minutemen (from Watchmen)
Colossal Boy/Leviathan
Indies worth Mentioning:
Ruben 'American' Flagg
Fathom of the Elementals( goodness I loved that comic)
Prime from Ultraverse
Arthur from Tick
Judah Maccabee from Nexus
The Escapist( from Kaviler and Clay, as he now has his own comic)
The Spirit
Notes: Harley Quinn is Jewish( and I put several of her next to my menorah) and Captain Marvel gets his Wisdom from Solomon.
Oh and Kal El translates into "Totality of God"
I might've missed a few... but I certianly got more then the two THING mentions.
4 Comments:
At 12/12/2004 04:57:00 AM,
Unknown said…
Just wanted to add that Chuck Dixon's mentioned on his webboard years ago that Tim Drake (aka Robin III), while never explicitly outed as any religion, was always Jewish in his mind, and since he had the heaviest hand in molding the character, I'd put him in that column.
At 12/12/2004 07:15:00 PM,
Drew said…
I will try to remember that... Of course since he never came out and said he was jewish, another writer could change that.
Just like I expect Waid to take Colossal Boy/Leviathan out of the Jew column when he reboots Legion as he'll be an incredible shrinking giant.
However that's another rant ;-) For right now, the next time I list jewish heroes I'll put Tim there as a rider, saying that Dixon MEANT for him to be a circumcised private dick(sorry Hebrew Hammer joke)
And last rant- hate it that when I comment to a comment I can't see the comment that I'm commenting on unless I use the back arrow on my web browser.
At 12/17/2004 08:08:00 PM,
Unknown said…
I hate that too.
Since Exiles Sasquatch is actually Heather Hudson, I'd guess she isn't Jewish.
Just realized, with slight amusement, that while you mention Sabra in the textual section of the post, she didn't make the cut on your Marvel list...
At 12/19/2004 11:26:00 AM,
Drew said…
Yes... Yes I did... *lol* ;-)
I just looked and there she was.* chuckle*
Fixed it.
And forgot that Squash was Heather- should've remembered that from the "I LuV wolvie" issue, that it was Heather and not Walter... just thought it would've been cool to have a black jewish woman as a hero.
Esp. as I'm not sure if she's a he in the Squash form. ;-)
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