The trailer is out for Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, and you have to go watch it immediately. It may not have Gal Gadot, but the film about Wonder Woman’s creator and his family looks amazing.

Honestly, the story is hard to resist. Comics writer William Moulton Marston had a background in psychology, but tried his hand at everything, from film-writing to inventing the lie detector (well, it’s a bit more complicated than that, but that’s how he liked to put it). But his personal life was especially ripe for the retelling; he was polyamorous, and lived with his wife, Elizabeth Holloway, and another female partner, Olive Byrne, as well as all their children, under one roof.

…

Jewcy is on a summer residency! To read this piece, and our others for July and August 2017, go to our big sister site, Tablet Magazine!

The post Hey, Hollywood: Why No Biopics of Jewish Comic Book Creators? appeared first on Jewcy.

We are in the middle of the holiday of Chanukah, festival of freedom and rededication, of the courage to speak truth to power and to embody the Jewish value of preserving light against the darkness of oppression.  We are also approaching the presidency of Donald Trump, an apparent titanic failure of America’s identity as a haven to the reviled, persecuted, or disadvantaged of the world.  If you are interested in reading to a young person this holiday season, you may enjoy along with her a relatively recent picture book by Richard and Tanya Simon, illustrated by Mark Siegel, Oskar and the Eight Blessings.  If you don’t have a young person to read to, but you are intrigued by a work which introduces Eleanor Roosevelt, Superman, and Count Basie to the holiday commemorating the rededication of the Temple, here is the book for you.

The story, with minimal text and muted colors, is set in 1938, on Christmas Eve, the seventh day of Chanukah.  Oskar is a Jewish refugee child, sent by his parents to New York City to find the haven of his Aunt Esther’s apartment. His journey requires that he navigate a strange maze of metropolitan night, during which he meets, not the frightening ghosts of Christmas past, but the real life figures who will become ghosts of a comforting future.  Count Basie whistles a jazz duet with him outside of Carnegie Hall, Eleanor Roosevelt kindly winks at him, and a benevolent news vendor, himself a visual representation of the Depression era “forgotten man,” gives Oskar a free copy of Action Comics Number 1, along with the empowering (and of course Jewish) spirit of Superman.

The illustrations feature New York scenes that promote nostalgia for a past that may not have existed for every immigrant; few Jews fleeing the Holocaust were allowed entry, due to the punitive immigration quotas, the suspension of which Eleanor’s husband Franklin refused to make a priority.  Yet the scenes are real, from Carnegie Hall to Herald Square, to Aunt Esther’s apartment on West 103rd Street, where, in a momentary confusion of memory, she calls Oskar by his father’s name. Oskar’s father is back in Europe, having experienced the terror of Kristallnacht and selflessly sent his son on to safety without him.  The book includes a map, and an afterward explaining the story’s origin in both history and fantasy.

The threat of darkness and inhumanity are unfortunately now very real in our country, even as the historical circumstances are different and possible responses may be different, as well.  Superman will not be sufficient, nor will remembering Eleanor Roosevelt’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights or Count Basie’s universal expression of musical brilliance.  Oskar and the Eight Blessings sets the call for freedom and justice in the particular setting of a New York City nighttime and reminds us of fleeting priorities which we can still reclaim as Americans, and pass on to our children. To quote the Christmas tree seller who lifts Oskar off the sidewalk as he falls, “Back on your feet, son.”

Image via Macmillan

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Since the release of the film Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, the Internet has been abuzz with discussions of what traits define Superman as a character. Unfortunately, his Jewishness has been left largely out of the conversation.

About one thing everyone agrees: the director of Batman V Superman, Zack Snyder, has crafted a character who’s a far cry from the square jawed Boy Scout who many people picture when they hear “Superman.” Snyder’s take on the character is more that of an emotionally stunted god, and of course, Snyder layered the Jesus imagery on as thickly as he could. Since Snyder’s Superman is a fundamental misunderstanding of how heroism and kindness work, it’s hard to tell who Snyder hates more: Jesus or Superman.

This cynical depiction of Superman, however, is not new. When you look back over the history of Superman as a character, you see a pattern, one that actually mirrors the status of Jews in America. As Jews have assimilated, so has Superman. The edges got sanded off over the years, leaving a character who can be done justice by some writers, but is commonly the victim of misunderstanding. After all, a big guy who dresses up in an American flag-like getup and beats you up if you don’t follow the American way seems more like a Trump rally attendee than somebody to admire.

This wasn’t always the case. The very first page of the first appearance of Superman, Action Comics #1, released in June of 1938, begins with Superman’s origin. It’s a version of Superman’s founding myth that’s largely familiar, but the parts it’s missing might surprise you. Most people know the basics of Supe’s origin, and it’s never been formulated more poetically than by comic book author Grant Morrison. In a fantastic comic called All Star Superman, Morrison writes, “Doomed planet. Desperate scientists. Last hope. Kindly Couple.” Nothing has encapsulated the beginnings of the alien who stands for “Truth, Justice, and the American Way” better than those eight words.

So what’s surprising about that first appearance is that there is no kindly couple. The implication is that Superman has grown up in an orphanage. Plus, Superman doesn’t stand for that iconic trinity of values. “The American Way” is absent; it was added later, around the same time that “Under God” was appended to the Pledge of Allegiance. Furthermore, Superman can’t fly or shoot lasers or use his super ventriloquism to mess with people (believe it or not, the latter was a plot device surprisingly often in the 1960s).

Even more shocking for those who haven’t read Superman’s early exploits is how much of a, well, bully he is. He’s not yet a clean-cut American icon outsmarting mad scientists and humongous apes who shoot kryptonite out of their eyes.

Superman’s first adventure involves breaking into the house of the Mayor to save an innocent woman from death row. Supe then terrifies to the point of fainting a man abusing his wife, crushes the car of a group of creeps, and threatens to electrocute an arms dealer bribing a US politician. For his enemies, it’s like a horror story. You can run to the other side of the planet and Superman is standing behind you, threatening to straight up murder you if you don’t stop profiting off of the military industrial complex. And the wildest part is, it feels like he might just do it.

Superman is, in this incarnation, a progressive power fantasy, an icon of Jewish revenge against oppressors. He’s the pent up frustration of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster; two poor Jewish kids from Cleveland, the children of immigrants. They were losers and outcasts who were far from enthusiastic about the rich and privileged.

Without a Superman devoted to the “American Way,” the notion of the hero can seem a lot less safe and comfortable to those in power. He’s a nearly invulnerable alien who upholds a specific notion of truth and justice that abhors corruption and will force you and an enemy general to fight to death with your bare hands if you don’t acknowledge the futility of war and make a truce (see his second appearance).

Flash forward nearly 50 years to The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson. In this influential comic, you have an aging Batman fighting against both crime and the government in a 1980s dystopia. And who did Miller pick to represent the opposite of Batman’s armed revolt against the government? A very Reagany Superman, that’s who. A Superman who thinks that the best way to help people is by working for the government, even it means invading foreign countries, fighting the Soviets, and possibly starting a nuclear war.

So what happened in between these two drastically different versions of the Man of Steel? Well, assimilation happened. The status of Jews in America shifted dramatically. The price of getting into the country clubs turned out to be greater than expected, and Superman paid it too. Superman originally represented the Jewish immigrant experience, but that story drifted further and further into the past. His Kryptonian name, Kal-El, even sounds Jewish, especially in contrast with Clark Kent. But as Jews increasingly didn’t need to change their names to be successful, Superman’s dual identity became less of a potent metaphor and more of a fun gimmick. How is Superman going to prevent Lois Lane from figuring out who he really is this time? (Spoiler: The solution was usually robots. Superman had loads of robot duplicates of himself, which kind of lessened the tension.)

The decline of Jewish radicalism meant that Superman’s awesome power lacked that poignant purpose, and that’s where new themes came in to fill the gap. That usually meant totally absurd stories in the 50s and 60s, like the time that Superman turned into a lion man or discovered that JFK was a shape-changing alien.

Next, when Superman leapt from comics to films in a single bound, that’s when the big JC came in. Suddenly, the idea of somebody with awesome power choosing restraint and sacrifice became perfect for a generous helping of Jesus imagery. And so, this also means extra metaphor points for killing Superman off. When Superman died in 1992, for example, it was a huge deal. The comic sold like hotcakes, even though it came down to the inane conflict of Superman and a rock monster punching each other until they both die.

Still, some writers have not been content to abandon Superman’s more political, progressive roots. The aforementioned writer Grant Morrison worked on a series that had a great start in 2011 with an issue also called Action Comics #1, named for Supe’s introductory 1938 story. In a throwback, the issue begins with Superman threatening a corrupt businessman and declaring that there may be somebody who believes that the law applies the same to the rich and the poor in America, but that man is not Superman!

And next, Gene Luen Yang, a wonderful cartoonist who has been writing Superman comics, will be using the death of Clark Kent to introduce a new Chinese Superman, who by losing the “American Way” can perhaps recapture some of what’s been lost over the years. After all, Supe’s in the hands of an artist who is, like Superman’s original creators, the child of immigrants.

And perhaps the underwhelming performance of Batman V Superman at the box office has revealed a dissatisfaction with Superman as a brooding loner uncomfortable with heroism. Many have argued that the Superman we need has been the upstanding Boy Scout all along.

I believe the time is ripe for a Superman revolution. A rich guy who dresses up like a bat and punches poor people because he misses his parents? No thank you. An outsider who pretends to fit in while secretly working to undermine the systems that keep people down? Sign me up.

Israel Geselowitz lives in DC, where he reads lots of comics, writes lots of Python code, and wonders: Whatever happened to the man of tomorrow?

Image Credit: Wikipedia and Bago Games via Flickr

The post How Superman Stopped Being Jewish, And Why He’s Coming Back appeared first on Jewcy.

About midway through Man of Steel, Superman is faced with a dilemma. Either he saves humanity by giving himself up to General Zod, or he lets us all get blown apart in appropriate bombastic summer blockbuster form. Unsure of what to do, he decides to take his problems to a priest. Then, while seated under a traditional stained glass image of Jesus praying in a garden, he lays out his options to this man of the cloth. As he leaves, the Man from Krypton says that he’s not sure if humanity is worth saving, leaving a very surprised priest at the pulpit. I’d be surprised, too, since the last I checked Superman was a nice Jewish boy.

In the early 1930’s, two Jewish teens in New York, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, created a hero they needed. Their outlook was bleak, as it was for just about everyone else—the Great Depression had brought America to its knees, and monsters were preying on our fears at home and abroad. From the ruins of World War I, Adolf Hitler seized the Chancellorship of Germany, thus legitimizing a new era of anti-Semitism from which it took decades to recover. To top it off, Siegel and Shuster couldn’t get laid.

So they created Superman, the answer to their pubescent prayers. He could do it all, literally, and his triumphs made sense of a world that was difficult and frightening to comprehend. And in just a few years, Action Comics would debut what would eventually become a perfected image of not just Judaism, not just American idealism, but of humanity itself. He stands for truth and justice, and while the American way has arguably faltered over the years, Superman hasn’t.

***

Critics have convincingly argued the parallels between the childhoods of Moses and Clark Kent, and it doesn’t take much to become convinced that Superman’s origins are decidedly Jewish. Kal-El— which can be translated from Hebrew as “Voice of God”—is DC Comic’s Baby in a Basket. Drawn from the reeds, or rather, the wheat stalks of Kansas, he is a stranger in a strange land who must learn to channel his extraordinary gifts. Raised among foreigners, he soon learns who he really is, where he really comes from, and must struggle to find his identity. Once Clark Kent becomes Superman, it is the beginning of a new era for humanity, a golden age.

Superman doesn’t ask you to accept him as your personal hero, and he doesn’t condemn those who don’t agree with his positions. He simply aids them when they are in need, because that is what should be done by those who are capable of doing so. He is a Jewish mensch—a doer of good deeds.

So why is Clark Kent striking so many crucifixion poses in Man of Steel?

The latest incarnation of Superman bombards you with various actions, images, and descriptions of Kal-El Christ for nearly two and a half hours. When you can actually hear your own thoughts over the brain-rattling bass thunder of computer-generated destruction, you’ll wonder at what point did this universal icon of human goodness, based in part on Jewish tradition, become so overtly, and exclusively, Christian.

In Man of Steel, Superman doubts the worth of humanity. Do we even merit saving? This film’s incarnation of Kal-El hesitates to protect us. The original incarnation, the Jewish incarnation, would never have entertained the notion. We are worth saving because deep down we are good, despite the choices we might make out of fear, desperation, or ignorance.

The fact that Superman is almost undoubtedly rooted in Judaic messianic lore does not draw away from the universality of what he supposedly stands for. The Jewish messiah arrives for humanity, not only those who accept him or her. And regardless of humanity’s actions, the messiah still serves as an example of the best people can be, and should be. Superman is no different.

With the DVD release of Man of Steel this week, this straight-line comparison is even more evident. You can pause Superman as he slowly backs out of a spaceship orbiting Earth, his arms outstretched, his feet almost crossing each other. Why is this now generally accepted Superman behavior?

There has been a recent trend of attempting to root modern superhero tales in darker, “realistic” settings. What Alan Moore popularized in his seminal work, Watchmen, soon spread to Batman, X-Men, Superman, and others. Their film adaptations eventually reflected this, to varying degrees of success. Despite some of its missteps, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy convincingly sets Batman/Bruce Wayne against a backdrop of self-doubt and pessimism. It works because Batman is a deeply troubled, some would argue pathologically disturbed, character. It dominated the box office, and so other DC Comics characters unsurprisingly followed this trend, eventually leading us to Man of Steel.

But somehow, along this trajectory of making superheroes more “believable,” realistic became equated with doubt and darkness. Modernity now meant shedding the spandex and attending church. A contemporary, American Superman must possess misgivings, must be (at least initially) hesitant before he saves us. He must be, in essence, Christ-like, because that is what modernity must look like. It’s tough for a Jewish kid in America to accept.

***

Superman isn’t a Christ figure, he’s a Messianic figure, and there is a difference. But just because he isn’t necessarily Christ-like does not render him irrelevant. Hope does not have to disappear with modernity. Even in contemporary times, there are constants. Monsters can be defeated. The universality of empathy is always available to us, should we strive for it.

Superman will always save us.

The post It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Not Superman appeared first on Jewcy.

• Fun facts from the New Yorker’s eight pages on Scooter Braun: before he discovered Justin Bieber, the Greenwich-bred Braun’s childhood comic book hero was Superman, who he calls “the Jewish superhero.”

• Toni Braxton discovered her grandmother was Jewish after she made a comment about having to be home by sundown, presumably on a Friday.

• The Winklevoss twins celebrated their birthday at hip downtown kosher joint Jezebel. Guess we should add them to our list of the Five People You’ll See at Jezebel.

• The New York Post reports that Rachel Zoe’s clothing line and Bravo reality show, “The Rachel Zoe Project,” are not doing so well these days.

• Is new reality show Honey Boo Boo a “reflection of the classic immigrant experience?” Rachel Shukert says yes.

• Catch an early glimpse of the impending Downton Abbey diva-off as Shirley Maclaine, who plays Cora’s Long Island-bred mother, comes to Downton for a visit.

Watch Downton Abbey, Season 3: A Scene from Episode 1 on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.

The post Daily Jewce: Toni Braxton’s Jewish Roots, Winklevoss Twins Dine at Jezebel appeared first on Jewcy.

The following is by far the most exciting and important celebrity interview we have ever scored: Grover.  Granted, he is my favorite Sesame Street character, and I am the proud new father of a two-and-a-half month old baby boy, but still – I challenge you to think of a more timeless living subject.  Naturally, I compiled a list of the 300 or so most important questions I have always wanted to ask Grover.  How has he sustained his fame?  How often does he wash his fur?  What did he do for Passover this year?  How come the 1983 LP “The Best of Grover” has seven songs on the first side and eight on the other?  Did he realize how mind boggling that was to someone who was just learning to count when he recorded it?  The list goes on…

When I was informed that I unfortunately would not be able to hang out with Grover for the full week I had requested, I decided to focus on Grover 2011.  Enjoy!

Jacob: Who is your favorite celebrity?

Grover: It is so hard to choose a favorite when I have met so many nice and wonderful people at Sesame Street and Rechov Sumsum.  You know who was really funny? Jake Gyllenhaal.  He hid the Afikomen and then forgot where he hid it. Sounds like something your cute and furry pal Grover would do, no? At least we are both loveable.

Who was the tallest celebrity you met?

I would have to say my new friend Amar’e Stoudemire is the tallest celebrity, maybe even the tallest person I have ever met!  Amar’e and I played some hoops in The Arbor at Sesame Street! I am pretty sure I surprised him with my sweet moves. Look out New York. Here comes Grover, baby!

Were you surprised he/she was so tall?

I was very surprised!  And Amar’e was impressed by my beautiful and luxurious blue fur.  Wouldn’t it be funny if I was his height and he had my color fur?

Speaking of which, how tall are you?

It is not the size of the monster that counts. All that matters is that I am very cute, very furry, and very blue. I am a monster of perfect proportions!

If you could have dinner with any celebrity couple, who it be and why?

I would have dinner with Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs and I would take them to my favorite place, Charlie’s Restaurant. And seeing as how I also happen to be a very talented waiter, I would take the pleasure of serving us myself!  I know they are allergic to chicken and shrimp from when they last visited Sesame Street so I will be sure to keep them away.

Has Super Grover ever met Superman?

Hmmmmm, that is a good question. Super Grover has never met Superman, but I am sure that if we do meet, we will have a lot of super important, super-secret things to talk about.

Do you follow any celebrities on Twitter?

You can check me and my furry and feathered friends out in all our 140 character glory, coming to you live from Hooper’s Store. Being a waiter, a superhero, a global traveler and a loveable monster takes up a lot of my time so I have not had time to peruse other pages yet.

Shalom Sesame is now available on DVD.  Check out awesome new clips on YouTube.

All images used by permission, TM and © 2011 Sesame Workshop. All Rights Reserved.

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