moriarty@uw-june (Jeff Meyer) (04/15/84)
Well, I had planned a nice movie for this evening, but this had better be
answered. It may get a little long, and my apologies to net.religion.jewish
readers for numerous comics references; also my apologies to my frequent
quoting of Mr. Martillo's letter, but I feel that these, too, should be
included. Finally, instead of simply sending a letter to Mr. Martillo,
there are points about this letter which I think should be raised... I'll
get to these at the end.
Point #1: Examples of Jewish Culture in Marvel Comics
I strongly suggest you pick up the last two issues of Moon Knight,
(the very last two... the sucker's been canceled); the story involves the
death of the hero's father, a reknowned rabbi, and his reflections on how
his turning away from his heritage, and his father's beliefs, affected his
life. I can't comment on the accuracy of detail -- I am not very
knowledgeable of the Jewish religion (or the Christion religion, for that
matter -- I come from a long line of Agnostics), but I think this one had
quite a bit of detail. However, any inaccuracies should be viewed with
patience; these are comics, after all, and not Jewish Studies textbooks. If
I were to get upset at every computer inaccuracy in comics (or on the boob
tube, for that matter), I'd die of high blood pressure by 30. Other comics
which HAVE looked at the Jewish heritage are Captain America (issues dealing
with Cap breaking Jews out of the death camps, and one line I remember ("How
could this have gone on?"); the Invaders (which was cancelled some years
ago), a title taking place during WWII and had several issues occurring in
the Polish ghetto in Warsaw. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that Marvel has
more with Jewish issues than with American Indian issues; but the major goal
of any comic book (usually) is to entertain, and political issues are placed
in a minor light.
Point #2: Specific comic stories
*
*Story lines which I find weird:
*
*The treatment of Arab-Jewish relations which appeared in the Hulk was
*totally superficial.
*
Everything in the Hulk is totally superficial.
*
*The teamup of Sabra (Israel's superheroine) and the Arabian knight
*(Egypt's superhero) in the contest of superheroes, which resulted in the
*Collector's restoral to life, was bizarre.
*
Ditto.
*
*Magneto (real name Magnus) who may be a Hungarian Jew developed his
*bizarre political philosophy as a child in the death camps. Magneto seems
*to have made aliyah (emigrated to Israel) at some point in his life.
*
Magneto has developed most of his bizarre philosophy outside of the
death camps... his powers did not appear until after that. He has developed
his hate for all mankind due to his persecution as a mutant, not as a Jew.
*
*Professor Xavier while in Israel after WWII (of the X-Men) took advantage
*of the confused mental state of a Jewish woman survivor of the death camps
*and got her pregnant.
*
Utter nonsense. Unless you have more information about Xavier than
the rest of we comics readers, we don't know if Xavier had a son by her
or not. And we were given to understand that they fell in love... "getting
her pregnant" makes it sound like he did in the throughs of passion (sorry,
got carried away there).
Point #3: The tones of bigotry in Martillo's letter
This is really the reason I wrote. Mr. Martillo, the queries about Judaic
characters in Marvel comics is a perfectly valid question; however, some of
the ideas you suggest are nothing less than bigotry. Case in point:
*
*Marvel has been almost completely unsympathetic to Jewish issues.
*Next to the Germans, Hispanics, Persians, and Greeks, Russians
*count as perhaps the worst anti-Semites and most severe persecutors
*of the Jews. Yet, Kitty Pryde casually develops a crush on Pyotr
*Rasputin, and the issue of Russian anti-Semitism never even comes
*up.
*
What is the idea portrayed here, that all Russians are automatically
anti-Semitic? That characters should be stereotypes, that no character
is able to to rise above prejudices in his or her environment? Kitty and
Peter love one another for the qualities that they possess; Kitty is (as far
as I can tell) not extremely religious, and Peter was apparently raised with
a lack of prejudice (he grew up in a farming community). I'll bet if Peter
had been cold to Kitty due to her ancestory, you would have raised a stink
then!
*
*After the Holocaust, it is simply disgusting for any Jew and
*particularly an Ashkenazi (German or European) Jew to assimilate
*into any Western culture. Yet, Bernie Rosenthal casually
*contemplates marriage with Captain America.
*
OK, here we get to the meat of the matter. What is this about
it being disgusting for any Jew to assimilate into Western culture? Mister,
I have two very close friends, one of whom is of Jewish ancestory, and they
are planning to get married in the spring. The friend with the Jewish
background's family adapted western culture years ago, and his relatives
(and he) are in general not very religious. The other friend is Gentile (she
is also agnostic). She works with retarded children; his family has an
autistic child. I am very proud to be regarded by the couple, and their
families, as a friend. Anyone who would call their mutual affection (I
should be so lucky as to find such a relationship) or his family disgusting
is a) a cretin, b) stark raving stupid, and c) one of the only people who
has made me angry enough to want to pound said cretin into sawdust (which I
am probably not capable of doing, but where there's a will....). The only
surprising thing is that I would expect this type of reply from a member of
the KKK or some other group known for it's total lack of intelligence, and
not a person with religious affiliations. Apparently religious pride can
drive people to all sorts of strange theological positions. Once again, you
seem to be advocating, Mr. Martillo, the idea that these characters should
be religious stereotypes, and that all Jews should be portrayed as following
the Judaic lifestyle, although very many don't (and as many Christians are
not very religious outside of Sunday mornings). This, of course, is your
opinion, and you are welcome to it. The matter of having more minority
characters (in this case, Hassidic Jews) in comics is a valid (and, in my
opinion, an important) issue, seeing the number of young people who read
comics. What incensed me about your letter was the constant slurs towards
assimilated Jews -- I believe you will find that you are the "ignorant"
(your words) one, not they. I suggest in your next letter that you keep
your prejudices to yourself.
P.S. Your closing line, "At the narrow passage, there is neither brother nor
friend", has a distinct paranoid flavor to it.
Jeff Meyer
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"Beware the zealot, he lacks a sense of humor..."
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