The Four Color Media Monitor

Before we get to the op-eds in focus here, The Wrap just announced that Sabra will be of Israeli background in the upcoming Capt. America film:

Marvel superhero Sabra will be Israeli in Marvel’s upcoming “Captain America: Brave New World,” according to two insiders with knowledge of the project. The studio had been accused of erasing the character’s Israeli background after it became known that in the film’s depiction, she’s no longer an agent of Mossad as she is in the comics.

Israeli actress Shira Haas plays the character, whose name in the film is Ruth Bat-Seraph and who speaks with an Israeli accent, insiders told TheWrap. As depicted in “Captain America: Brave New World” — which finds Anthony Mackie taking the Captain America mantle from Chris Evans — Bat-Seraph is an Israeli former Black Widow who now serves as a high-ranking U.S. government official in President Ross’ (Harrison Ford) administration.

The Black Widow program is the one that trained Scarlett Johansson’s assassin Natasha Romanoff in previous Marvel movies, and which was revealed to have wide international reach in the 2021 film “Black Widow.”

The American Jewish Committee responded to TheWrap’s reporting in a statement: “If true, we are glad that Marvel recognized how essential Sabra’s Israeli identity is to her character. Superheroes have enough things to worry about. Identity politics shouldn’t be one of them.”

I just hope they realize that, despite seemingly going back on what they previously implied would be the case, this movie could still end up being hostile to Israel, and lenient on Islam. In fact, if this movie reduces Sabra to a non-superhuman with merely training in combat and firearms, lacking the flight and quill-shooting power she's had in the comics, isn't that very weak regardless?

Now recently, after the previous news, A writer at the Jerusalem Post addressed the controversy Marvel/Disney caused with their cowardice when it was assumed they were removing Sabra's Israeli background from the 4th Captain America movie to appease Islamic antisemites. Though it was written before the current news, it still bears what to consider:

The Mossad mutant super agent character Ruth Bat-Seraph is now just another Russian spy, apparently also no longer identified by the alter-ego Sabra, which is based on a term used to compare Israelis to the prickly pear of the same name.

Given Marvel's tendency to apply retroactive continuity to its comics series so that the source material reflects its film and television universe, it is not impossible that Sabra's Israeli identity could be retconned accordingly.

Marvel and Disney have long championed diversity, inclusion, and representation in their content and characters. They have accordingly ensured that people from a wide variety of backgrounds and identities have been depicted in their films and television shows.

While Jewish creators like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created many of Marvel's most popular characters, Jewish heroes aren't acceptable among the inheritors of the company. Israeli actors like Shira Haas or Gal Gadot can be cast as a former Russian super spy turned political advisor or a Greek demi-goddess turned superhero, but Disney and Marvel finds their true identities to be politically and culturally distasteful enough to violate their priority principles. The Hollywood standard of representation does not seem to apply to Israelis, who are apparently too controversial to be heroes, super or otherwise.

The idea behind the diversity and inclusion media principles is that people can only identify and sympathize with a character if they share the same skin color or religion. Superheroes can only inspire and instill higher values if they look just like us.

While appearance and identity are important enough for Marvel and Disney to revoke unfavorable backgrounds like that of Israelis, if anything is to be understood from the quality and success of recent entries into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the studio has forgotten what truly makes a hero admirable: their actions. The October 7 war may have made Israelis too controversial for Hollywood, but it is the actions of Israelis during this period that have shown how heroes act. [...]

What inspires Israelis is not dictated by the whims of Disney's political correctness or Marvel's ironic cowardice, but by the actions of heroes like Arnon Zamora, the Counterterrorism Unit commando Chief Inspector who gave his life to rescue the Hamas hostages Shlomi Ziv, Andrey Kozlov, Almog Meir, and Noa Argamani on June 8. Israelis don't need others to depict them as heroes when its is Lior Levi, a MDA paramedic who treated the October 7 wounded while under gunfire that best represents the nation. It is people like Bedouin gas station attendant Masad Armilat, who rushed out to rescue wounded victims and outwit Hamas terrorists, that show that anyone can be a hero.

A vital point is also made that identifying according to specific background really is laughable, and the whole notion that's the only way you can appeal to an audience has actually made things worse over time. And doesn't removing Sabra's powers and even costume dampen the impact in any event? By the way, don't be shocked if Armenian backgrounds for characters in a Hollywood movie are also considered too controversial and political for them at this point.

There's also more commentary on this at the Jewish Chronicle (via Breitbart):

Marvel’s Sabra, real name Ruth Ben Seraph was born near Jerusalem and was brought up on a special kibbutz run by the Israeli government, and worked for the Tel Aviv police. Ruth - nicknamed Sabra - was the first superhuman agent created to serve the Mossad. She wore a blue and white costume. Everything about her was Jewish and Israeli.

Despite this, Sabra's early appearances were very poorly written by her own creator, Bill Mantlo, relying largely on cheap, stereotypical setups, right down to how the Hulk arrived at a port in Tel Aviv rather than Haifa, since the former's isn't built for cargo vessels like the latter's is. Curiously enough, when the Arabian Knight appeared next issue, Mantlo's writing depicted him more favorably, and no comment was offered on how the guy's 3 polygamous wives were wearing chadors (but the Knight himself was barechested?). Oddly enough, in Contest of Champions, the Knight made an objectionable comment about not wanting to work with a Jewess, but even that was still very sloppy, and he got hold of an item they were after anyway. Based on how Sabra was depicted, one could wonder if her being a product of the Mossad and/or government was form of negativity too. Some later renditions may have depicted Sabra more respectably, but it still marks a very poor example of writing in the Marvel universe in the past century.

Inevitably the decision to introduce Sabra into a Marvel film - Captain America: A Brave New World – caused controversy. People started shouting about a boycott as soon as the film was announced. But now the trailer is out, and a different group of people are shouting. Sabra (though played by Israeli actress Shira Haas) doesn’t work for Mossad and doesn’t seem to be Israeli at all. Instead she is a former Russian operative, now working for the American government.

In fact, Marvel’s decision to drop Sabra’s Israeli identity predates the current war. Back in 2022 they waffled on about times changing and characters like Sabra needing a ‘new approach’. I guess that’s what happens when you make your money through constantly looking back, rather than creating new stuff. You end up rewriting and renewing and erasing the very thing that made a character special in the first place.

Now, the most interesting thing about this is the shallow grasp that Marvel seems to have over current affairs. Israel is out – but Russia is in? But then Sabra is a turncoat Russian, now working for the Americans. Will Haas retain her Israeli accent, or put on a Russian one? The trailer doesn’t let her speak, so we will have to wait for the movie itself to find out.

This certainly can be a valid point made about double-standards if Hollywood's supposedly opposed to Russia based on their attack against Ukraine beginning in 2021, and it makes little difference whether Black Widow and Sabra herself are depicted as defects. And even if Haas does speak with an Israeli accent in the film, again, what if it turns out they stealth negativity to Israel into the screenplay? All that'll do is add insult to injury.

So while Sabra may retain her Israeli background in the upcoming film, that alone doesn't guarantee the 4th Capt. America movie won't be woke, and again, removing her sci-fi power actually diminishes whatever accomplishment this movie could have even further. One more reason why nobody should be fooled into spending money on a film that may not even make use of Steve Rogers anymore.

Labels: Captain America, censorship issues, history, islam and jihad, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, politics, terrorism, violence, women of marvel