DC Jew-niverse?

[sdelmonte]

So last week it was revealed that two characters in the DC Universe...

Type your cut contents here.In Firestorm we learned at last that Professor Martin Stein is Jewish.  In the DCU Infinite Holiday Special, it was revealed the that new Batwoman, Kate Kane, is as well.  (Full disclosure: I haven't read either these yet, only summaries online.)

About the latter, I have to say that this is clearly the work of Greg Rucka, who co-created her, wrote the story, and gave us Atticus Kodiak, the star of most of his novels and also a Jew.  I think that DC also decided that if her name is Kane, she could be as Jewish as Batman co-creator Bob Kane.  I wonder if this will come into play at all in 52 or the rumored Batwoman spinoff.

About the former, I have to wonder what took them so long.  When I was a kid, and my favorite comic was Fury of Firestorm, I used to speculate that with a name like Stein, and a career in physics, he had to be a Jew.  Beyond which, he lived in my neighborhood back then, Jackson Heights.  I wondered if he even attended the local Conservative synagogue (he was clearly not Orthodox).  Now of course, Stein is not entirely a Jewish name, and nothing we saw about Prof. Stein back then told us anything about his background.  But I couldn't help hoping that we would get a Jewish hero (or at least a half-Jewish one, as Firestorm is a composite of two people).  And his creator, Gerry Conway, was also the man who revealed that Ray Palmer, the Silver Age Atom, was Jewish.   So it was possible.  And now it's confirmed.  It's good to see that I wasn't the only one who wondered about that.

DC has made an effort to make its lineup more diverse.  I'm glad that includes people of my faith.  How long now till we see a religious hero?

Comments

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

It's....Talmudicon! By day, a mild-mannered rabbinical student. By night, a superhero of Biblical proportions! I can even see the dialog.

I must not catch that falling tree! It would violate the commandment against doing work on Shabbat! But if I don't...the yeshiva will be destroyed!

[batyatoon]

Oh come on, a rabbinical student would know better. :P

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Isn't the Israeli superhero the Seraph religious? We did see him pray to Hashem, once after all. (And Hashem answered him, in a comic voice balloon.)

[sdelmonte]

I forgot him. But then. so has DC. I do recall that he did what you mention in a backup story in Bridwell's SuperFriends comic. But his few subsequent appearances never came back to this.

You have reminded me about another Israeli hero who is probably religious, Ramban, from Suicide Squad and The Spectre. He's also forgotten these days, but Ostrander worked in the day to give at least some sense of his faith as well as his power.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

And there's always Sabraman the first comic book hero I ever stayed up reading, at the age of seven.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Kathy Kane is Jewish?

Then Martha Kane, Bruce Wayne's mother, is probably Jewish as well, since she's likely a relative.

Therefore, Batman is Jewish.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

I have to go back and read that story. It seemed to me that Kane herself wasn't necessarily Jewish, but just involved in a Chanukah tale.

[poltr1]

It's about time.

Switching over to the Marvel universe.....wasn't Kitty Pryde (X-Men) Jewish?

[sdelmonte]

She is, but it's such a small facet of her career that even the fen who contributed to the Wikipedia entry for her don't mention it.

Marvel does have a slightly more interesting track record, as the Thing was revealed to be Jewish a few years back, Doc Samson was given a background to mathc his name by Peter David, and Magneto (not a hero, but certainly not merely a villain, either) is a Holocaust survivor. There's also Marvel's Israeli hero, Sabra (who shows up fromt hime to time) and Legion, the (very powerful) illegitimate mutant son of Prof. X and an Israeli named Gabrielle Heller.

[bigscary.livejournal.com]

Didn't your workplace just run a show on the basis that Comics are, along with Comedy, a definitively Jewish artform in America?

I always assume that any superhero without a disqualifying background is Jewish, and that even those with such a background (SUPERMAN) are coding for some aspect of the Jewish experience.

[sdelmonte]

The main show we have is actually quite not-Jewish in its themes, totally ignoring that Eisner and Kirby and Kurtzman are Jews. (We didn't put this show together. If we had, it would have said something, I am sure.) There is a much smaller show about the Golden Age artists that is bvery Jewish, though. Nothing in the show suggests that any of the heroes are Jewish, but I think we all know the truth.

[skygiants]

Everyone's a little bit Jewish!

:D?

[sdelmonte]

I'm from New York. Everyone here IS a little bit Jewish.

However (as I see your icon)...Marc Blucas? Nope. Not at all. :)

[skygiants]

But Shati says that me and Cowboy Guy Blucas have melded into one in her head!

Thus making even Marc Blucas a little bit Jewish. *beams*

[sdelmonte]

Shati is mad and must be repaired. Or traded. Or given chocolate. Or something.