Friday, July 19th, 2024

I was never a big comic book fan. For me, a comic was a comic strip, like Garfield, Peanuts, Cathy, something colourful and clever on the last page of the newspaper, something that made me laugh. As for the Marvel and DC Comics world of superheroes, I knew very little. At least until this week when Marvel was in the news.

Apparently, in the 1980s, Marvel came out with a female superhero called Sabra. Great name. We all know that “Sabra” is the term used for people born in Israel because, like the Sabra fruit, they are prickly on the outside and soft and sweet on the inside. Sabra, the Marvel Comic superhero, is the alter ego of Ruth Bat-Seraph and she serves as an agent to the Israeli Mossad. Pretty cool to have an Israeli superhero for everyone to read about, right? In September 2022, Marvel announced that, to play the part of Sabra in an upcoming movie, they had cast Israeli actress Shira Haas (Shtisel, Unorthodox). This is sounding better and better.

Fast forward to this week. The now-huge Marvel Cinematic Universe launched the trailer for their newest film, Captain America: Brave New World. The problem, however, is that, other than the actress playing the role, Sabra has now been completely stripped of anything Israeli. She is no longer referred to as Sabra. Instead of working for the Mossad, she is now a high-ranking agent for the US Government.

Why? Evidently, when the pro-Palestinians initially heard about this back in September 2022, they made a huge stink, saying that Marvel is promoting Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. Unfortunately, spineless Marvel buckled and this is what we’re left with. It seems that the squeaky, angry, threatening wheel got the attention.  

Before we get entirely bent out of shape, though, we need to remember that the Marvel superhero is fictitious. If her Israeli identity is erased, well, it wasn’t real to begin with. It is indeed distressing to see how Marvel can be intimidated, but the reality is that Israel is a Nation of Superheroes. There is a song with that title by Hatikvah 6 which I shared a few months ago. The lyrics sing of a bus driver who’s the commander of an artillery battery, a university student who’s a captain in the reserves on the northern border, a model who’s a paramedic, an electrician who’s a heavy machine gunner, Yoni the sax player who’s first and foremost in the elite Matkal commando unit. The chorus states that
“Everyone here looks normal, but we’re a Nation of Superheroes.
Inside each one, there’s always a soldier hiding, ready to save the entire world.”

Watch the video here (English subtitles provided). It will give you healthy, mind-blowing perspective. As upsetting as the Marvel news may be, it’s important to remember what is absolutely real, what is awe-inspiring, and what matters. 

Am Yisrael Chai!