Where Are All the Jewish Superheroes?

Illustration by Casey Beifuss

Watching Marvel movies first became a quintessential part of my personality in middle school. My mother and I made opening nights at the movie theater a tradition. I sat in awe as Captain America, Iron Man and Spider-Man ran, flew and swung across the screen. None of these characters quite looked like me, a young gay woman, and I became accustomed to the lack of representation in my favorite films. Recently, with characters like Captain Marvel, Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel) and Valkyrie, women and queer folks are getting more representation in Marvel films. Yet, I am still looking for any representation of part of my culture in these superhero blockbusters. With each Marvel film I watch, I wonder: Where are all the Jewish superheroes?

What frustrates me most about this lack of representation is that Jewish people and superhero comics have a deep history. In the early 20th century, Jewish immigrants in the United States were largely blocked from other publication industries, such as newspapers. Unable to enter the newspaper job market, Jews forged their own unique industry: creating stories through illustrations and packaging these stories together in books. That’s right — Jews created the comic books we know and love. Not only did these Jewish storytellers come up with the idea for the comic book, but they also wrote the superheroes whose battles were represented within the pages of the comics.

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman, were both Jewish, and so were Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, who created Captain America. Stan Lee, who was a co-creator of Spider-Man and created  the Hulk and Iron Man with Jack Kirby, also comes from Jewish heritage. Jewish writer Chris Claremont worked on the X-Men comic series and played a fundamental part in re-writing Magneto’s backstory to include trauma stemming from the Holocaust. These writers merely scratch the surface of the history of Jewish influence in comic books. Jewishness is deeply seeped into the history of comic books. The superhero — beloved characters introduced to us by Marvel and DC — would not exist without the work of Jews.

In many of the original comics’ stories and characters, the writers’ Jewish influence is evident. Superman’s origin story of coming from a faraway land and having to assimilate to a new culture closely mirrors the experience of Jewish immigrants to America. Superman also retells part of the story of Moses, and once you’re able to point out each of the parallels, Superman becomes a biblical story. Both Moses and Superman are found in arks, adopted by a new family, and hold otherworldly powers wielded to help others.

The Superman comics also fought anti-Semitic tropes. Clark Kent, Superman’s alter ego, represents some of the negative stereotypes surrounding Jewish men, such as being overly sensitive and nerdy, instead of strong and conventionally attractive. Lois Lane falls in love with him, despite encompassing these stereotypes. By showing a man who embodies Jewish characteristics get the girl, the writers subtly fought back against anti-Semitic tropes to paint Jewishness in a more positive light. Captain America’s adventure of fighting the Nazis in World War II was actually published a few months before the United States intervened in Europe in the war. The Jewish comic book writers, frustrated seeing America’s lack of action to stop the atrocities targeting Jewish people in the Holocaust, wrote Captain America as a sort of fantasy where the American troops took a stand against Nazism. These are just a few examples of Jewishness infusing the material of comic books. Separating the Jewishness of the writers from the origin stories of these superheroes leaves out the cultural context of where the superhero stories blossomed from. 

Despite that, decentralizing Jewishness from superheroes is trending with superheroes on the big screen. In the comics, Wanda and Pietro Maximoff are Romani twins raised Jewish in Eastern Europe. When their characters made their Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Avengers: Age of Ultron, they were depicted as white Europeans, stripped of both their Jewish and Roma culture. I had no idea that the characters were even partly Jewish until a friend from a Jewish studies class informed me of their canonical identity. Wanda, also known as the Scarlet Witch, has quickly become a favorite of Marvel fans and a central figure in new phases of MCU films. While I love celebrating the popularity of a powerful, female character, I feel a tinge of bitterness knowing that she was supposed to also be a pinnacle of Jewish representation.

Marvel’s Moon Knight television series recently made headlines for introducing the first Jewish protagonist to the MCU: Marc Spector. However, the show only showed Marc’s Jewish identity in one episode where he mentioned attending his mother’s shiva, a traditional Jewish funeral practice, and wore a yarmulke, a head covering worn by Jewish men for prayer. I’m glad that this small dose of representation brought more awareness to some Jewish practices; trust me, I even searched the stats of Google searches for “shiva,” and it did increase after the Moon Knight episode dropped. However, I have a hard time applauding Marvel for these few minutes of Jewish representation after absolving other characters’ Jewishness. It took until 2022 to introduce a Jewish character to the MCU (in a television show, not even in a major film release). Casual representation, like mentioning a shiva or wearing a yarmulke, is great, but Marvel needs to step up its Jewish representation to capture the full cultural significance that being Jewish can have on a person before dipping their toes into throwing small references of Jewish practices for the sole purpose of confirming a character is Jewish.

Jewishness is not just a religion to many Jews; it is a culture that impacts so many facets of our identity. My Jewishness inserts itself into my daily life in so many ways: through my interactions with others and my family, with how I make choices and consider my values and how I decide to plan my future. I know that Marvel can represent the intersection of religion and culture because they did it beautifully in Ms. Marvel, a show that introduced a young Muslim superhero whose culture influenced how she interpreted the role of a superhero. Now, I want Marvel to continue to expand that representation and put Jewishness back into superheroes. I want a Jewish character whose Jewishness is not a throwaway line that you can blink and miss. I want a character that is proud of their Jewishness and allows their Jewish values to impact how they can be a superhero.

When we talk about representation in movies, Jewishness is commonly left out of the conversation. With characters already existing in the comics ,and plenty of talented Jewish artists and actors out there who would love to contribute to a Jewish superhero project, there is no excuse for the lack of Jewishness in superhero movies. Superheroes are inherently Jewish; so please, Marvel, let me see that on screen.

Sources

Correction: This article previously referred to Bill Finger and Bob Kane, instead of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, as the creators of Superman. Stan Lee was corrected to be a co-creator, not the sole creator, of Spiderman. Additionally, Joe Simon was included as a creator of Captain America, and Chris Claremont as a writer on X-Men. These updates were appended on Nov. 1, 2022. Thank you to comic book historian Sasha Kaplan for flagging these issues in the original article.

culture, film, social justiceSunstroke MagazineCasey Beifuss, artwork, Shelby Edison, essayComment