The Four Color Media Monitor

The Hollywood Reporter says audiences are disillusioned with the new Captain America movie because the Sabra character's been changed to suit a PC agenda:

Captain America: Brave New World has a controversy that’s decades in the making, yet is being fueled by current events.

[...] But a supporting character seems destined to be an inadvertent lightning rod, and there are calls to boycott the film, sight unseen. Emmy nominee Shira Haas (Unorthodox) plays Ruth Bat-Seraph, an Israeli former Black Widow who is now a high-ranking government U.S. official.

The character’s backlash stems from her original incarnation in the comics. Ruth was formerly known as Sabra, who served as a Mossad agent. Some who are pro-Israel have an issue with changing the character’s allegiance to a U.S. agency. While those who are anti-Israel are protesting the character due to her roots (or, in some cases, simply because she’s Israeli).

Umm, isn't it disturbing that anti-Israeli sources would attack the character at all? And even if her background's been changed, that won't appease them, period. As the writer says:

The situation is complicated and rife with misinformation. Some are assuming the character’s name and backstory were changed due to recent events, and some calling for a boycott don’t seem to realize her backstory has been changed at all. There are also many who realize the character has been changed, but say it doesn’t matter.

Let us be perfectly clear. That the Bat-Seraph character's Israeli background may have been written out altogether, all because of the work of anti-Israelists, Islamofascists and barbarians on October 7, 2023, only makes an already bad situation even worse. Some Israeli observers already pointed out that the new film was bound to be woke, and if it's even remotely negative to Israel, that only compounds the already poor treatment Sabra got at the hands of her own creator, Bill Mantlo. And don't be deceived by any attempt to instate "moral equivalence" in the screenplay. That's only an offensive way to blur differences between good and evil, yet in the end, it always ends up being negative towards entities like Israel.

The switch actually dates back to 2022 when Marvel announced at D23 Expo that Haas was joining the MCU. At the time, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel slammed the decision, decrying “the original comic’s ugly racism and valorization of Mossad are sickening.”

At the time, the studio made it clear that the character’s backstory would be changed and released a statement on the matter: “While our characters and stories are inspired by the comics, they are always freshly imagined for the screen and today’s audience, and the filmmakers are taking a new approach with the character Sabra who was first introduced in the comics over 40 years ago.”

Marvel sometimes updates its characters to reflect modern times. Benedict Wong’s Doctor Strange character Wong, for instance, was steeped in tropes when created in 1963, but the character has been embraced in the updated movie incarnation.

It sounds like they're using this as justification for removing Sabra's Israeli background altogether. Does that mean that, if Gal Gadot wants to play a character with a similar ethnic background, she no longer can? Well as little as I care for Gadot's resume, that's very disturbing, and pegs the Hollywood Reporter as quite a disgrace.

In Captain America 4, the name Sabra will not be used. The character first appeared in The Incredible Hulk comic book in 1980, and she wore a blue and white outfit featuring a Star of David. She was dubbed the first Israeli superheroine and was an important fixture in the Marvel comic universe, despite never having her own series.

Yet the original comic character was considered by some to be problematic, with Sabra often fighting Arabic terrorist tropes. Also, the name Sabra has several meanings. It can be a person born in Israel, and is also the name of a tree whose fruits have a prickly exterior and sweet interior. But it’s also the name of a Lebanon refugee camp where a militia massacred hundreds of Palestinians while Israeli troops stood by in 1982. This was two years after the character first appeared, which is another bit of misinformation circulating online — some are claiming Marvel deliberately named the character after the massacre.

And this is an anti-Israeli smear. As this Jewish Virtual Library history page tells, what the Phalangist Christian troops did was root out jihadists, and the IDF approved of the operation based on its being to combat terrorists. Much like the Islamic population in Gaza today, there was only so much evil littering that location in Lebanon then. But it means nothing to the apologists at the Hollywood Reporter, tragically. Also note how they refuse to make a distinction between Islam and Arabs. The same people who villify Christian movements, noticeably without even identifying them.

One protest messaging currently making the rounds: “The character’s backstory includes working for the genocidal Israeli government and its occupation forces. By reviving this racist character in any form, Marvel is promoting Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.”

At the same time, it’s difficult to imagine any version of an Israeli hero in a major pop culture event not being protested by some in 2024 — as Eden Golan discovered when enduring antisemitic backlash for competing in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

And is that meant to be apologia for a form of cancel-culture that occurred? I'm sorry, but this reeks of apologia for rescinding creative license. Is it inherently acceptable that a representative of a country hit hard by barbarism should not be allowed to receive equal representation without vulgar protest even in 2024? This is a disgrace, mainly because the writer refuses to say that those protesting are wrong, and are refusing to judge by personal character. Worst, this reeks of somebody believing it's okay to take fictional creations away from their Jewish creators, which is exactly what the HR writer is perpetuating. This is practically something that's been going on since 9-11, when Marvel under Joe Quesada turned Captain America into far-left propaganda. And regardless of how Sabra was originally written, calling the character herself "racist" is alarmingly offensive, and an attack on Mantlo by extension, his leftist positions of the time notwithstanding.

IGN also addressed the subject, and their coverage is just as rock bottom:

Amid the hype surrounding the release of the first Captain America: Brave New World trailer, Marvel Studios quietly confirmed some key details surrounding the inclusion of a controversial character from the comics.

[...] The new info confirms some significant changes from the comics, where Ruth is a mutant named Sabra, an Israeli superhero and an agent of Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency. The character has long been controversial owing to her connection to the Israel-Palestine conflict — a controversy that has taken on even greater significance recently due to the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

So they're parroting the claim Mantlo's character - not the specific direction or storylines applied - is controversial (and also parroting the fabrication of an Arab/Islamic state called "palestine"). By that logic, even Kitty Pryde is, and given the chance, you can be certain the antisemitic protestors will turn against her too, along with all the Kirbys, Lees, Siegels and Shusters of the medium.

All that told, it's an almost forgone conclusion this new movie will be quite woke, and not worth the celluloid it was filmed on. According to this news on India Today, it looks like Sam Wilson is replacing Steve Rogers even in live action as the Star-Spangled Avenger, and all they're doing, in addition to the farcical notion of forcibly replacing a white man for the sake of PC, is compounding the recent discovery that some Disney officials don't want to hire whites for many roles. They also perpetuate the notion we should only care about the costume instead of the character. So what good are these movies anyway, when they only get dumbed down into political vehicles? For all we know, this new Cap movie could end up becoming as bad as Thor's 4th live action film.

Labels: Captain America, history, islam and jihad, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, politics, terrorism, women of marvel