Top 5 Most Important Jewy Marvel Comics Moments


Welcome to With Great Chutzpah Comes Great Responsibility, your every other week dose of Jews and comics.

Marvel Comics is as Jewy as Matza Ball soup, and it is just as awesome.  Especially the heroes created during the Marvel Age.  They are realistic heroes with flaws, relationship issues, neurotic tendencies and massive guilt complexes.  While the early heroes were not practicing yids, many had Jewish neshamas.  You can’t tell me Peter Parker is not as Jewy as Woody Allen; heck, give Woody Allen a radioactive spider bite and a weird costume and you have the story from Amazing Fantasy #15.

Marvel’s origin story is an epic tale of immigration, assimilation and finally embracing one’s heritage.  The company was born in the Jewiest city in America-NY.  The early creators changed their names, hid their Jewish identities and created characters without religions.  As times changed, new creators took over, and today we have heroes and heroines proudly repping the tribe!

In today’s article, I am going to look at…

The Top 5 Most Important Jewy Marvel Comics Moments

Kitty Pryde and Magneto Attend A Remembrance Day Ceremony – Uncanny X-Men #199

uncanny x-men 199

In this issue, two of Marvel’s greatest Jewish characters pay their respects to Holocaust survivors.  In front of an audience of survivors, Kitty speaks on behalf of her deceased grandpa, Samuel Prydeman.  Kitty is searching for people who know her great-aunt, Chava Rosanoff, who went missing during the Shoah.  It turns out, Magneto knew her during his time in Auschwitz, as did others in attendance.  At the same ceremony, Magneto runs into other survivors who he helped during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.  The issue really plays on Magneto as a tragic hero (this was during his stint as a “good guy” leading the New Mutants).  The issue features the iconic Magneto quotes: “Then, Lee, it was the Jews.  My nightmare has ever been that tomorrow it will be mutants,” and “Have I become the image of those I hated?”

Sabra, Israel’s First Superhero- The Incredible Hulk #256

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When I was a lil kiddo, not all that long ago, I didn’t really know there were Jewish heroes.  Kitty made rare references to her heritage, but Magneto hadn’t clearly stated he was Jewish and Thing was still in the closet.  But I had Sabra, the beautiful Israeli Superheroine that could go toe-to-toe with the green one (The Hulk).  A police officer by day, hero by night, Sabra was a source of pride for me and many others.  Sure, she is not a leading character, and at times she has been a pain in the butt (during Civil War she sided with Tony), but she is ours and we love her.

Kitty Lights a Yahrtzeit Candle- X-Men Unlimited #38

x-men unlimited 38

This moment makes the list because it is a Jewish story that doesn’t feature the “big two H’s”- Hanukah or the Holocaust.  It is rare to see a Jewish character doing something actually Jewish, unless it involves the “big two.”   That is why it was so refreshing to see Kitty, like many Jews do, light a Yahrtzeit candle in remembrance of the loss of her loved ones.  In this case, she was lighting it in memory of her ex-boyfriend Colossus.

Marvel’s Jewish Heroes and Heroines Celebrate a Jewish Christmas- Marvel Holiday Special 2011

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Ain’t nothing Jewier than gathering up all your Yiddish friends and family for Chinese food on Christmas.  Heck, they almost had a minyan of Jewish characters!

Thing Says The Sh’ma- Fantastic Four Vol. 3 #56

fantastic four 57

Ben Grimm is one tough yid.  He grew up a street scrapper from the Lower East Side.  Symbolic of the assimilation of many of the early Jewish creators, Grimm distanced himself from his heritage as he gained success.  In this issue, “Remembrance of Things Past,” guilt ridden Grimm visits his old stomping grounds to return a Star of David necklace he stole during his youth (as initiation into the Yancy Street Gang).  He finds the man he stole it from, an elderly shopkeeper, injured after a super-villain attack.  Grimm has no clue what to do because if he performs CPR he will kill the dude.  In desperation, he returns to the religion of his youth; Grimm says the Sh’ma.  BOOM-The biggest moment in Marvel Jewish Comic history.  One of the greatest comic characters ever (based on Jack Kirby himself) comes out as a Jew and says a Jewish prayer.  Oooooh yeah, baby.

What is your favorite Jewy Marvel Moment?