14 | OCTOBER 28 • 2021

names were Segalovich and
Shusterowich, respectively.
Prolific comic artist Gil Kane
was Eli Katz. Batman co-creator
Bob Kane was Robert Kahn.
“It goes on and on and on,
”
Schwartz says.

JEWISH CHARACTERS
In the earlier days, comic book
characters did not state their
religious or ethnic identities.
That started to change in the
1970s, Lockhart says.
“The very first ever explicitly
Jewish comic was in 1948 with
Funnyman, who was invented
by Siegel and Shuster. He was
kind of a flop, kind of a Danny
Kaye-type clown,
” Lockhart
said. “But in the ’70s, you start-
ed to see a number of openly
Jewish heroes and villains
emerging into the comic book
world.
”
It was at that time that
Ragman, Seraph, Magneto and
other characters started coming
into the fold with Jewish identi-
ties and characteristics.
Seraph, originally from Israel,
was gifted by divine powers
with the strength of Samson,
the Ring of Solomon, the Staff
of Moses and the Mantle of
Elijah.

HOLOCAUST IMAGES
Ragman’s powers are related
to the Holocaust, believed to
be channeling power from
the souls of Jews killed in the
Holocaust and throughout his-
tory by antisemites.
Magneto, who had been a
villain until recent years, is a
Holocaust survivor, and much
of how he got his powers
are because of what he went
through. The Holocaust shaped
Magneto’s outlook and influ-
enced his extreme methods to
protect his own mutant-kind

from suffering a similar fate at
the hands of a world that fears
and persecutes them.
“Basically, these Jewish char-
acters were explicitly linked
either to the trauma of the
Holocaust or to the specifical-
ly religious artifacts that gave
them power,
” Lockhart says.
“That was how it went until
recently when we get Jewish
characters who are just Jewish.
Some of them are retrofitted as
Jewish, like Green Lantern. New
writers came on and identified
them as Jewish, or they were
declared to have been Jewish all
along, but we just didn’t know,
like The Thing.
”
The Thing, one of the
members of Marvel Comics’
superhero team The Fantastic
Four, was an autobiographical
creation of Jack Kirby.
The Thing wasn’t revealed
to be Jewish for 40 years until
2002, when he recited “Shema
Yisrael” to save a dying friend,
possessed a Star of David and
celebrated his bar mitzvah.
Harley Quinn was clearly

Jewish from the get-go. Quinn’s
Jewish heritage was officially
canonized in 2010 when it
was revealed she comes from
a mixed Jewish and Catholic
family. Quinn is also based on a
real Jewish comedian.
In the early 1990s, Batman:
The Animated Series co-creator
Paul Dini was developing the
supporting crew for the Batman
villain the Joker. For the Joker’s
No. 1 gal, Dini was inspired by
Jewish actress, comedian and
screenwriter Arleen Sorkin.
Sorkin’s snappy, wisecracking
personality, as well as her man-
nerisms, were incorporated into
what would become Harley
Quinn. Sorkin herself would
go on to act as the character’s
signature voice actress for 20
years.
In recording Harley Quinn’s
voice, Sorkin spoke in her nor-
mal Brooklyn accent while put-
ting in a “little Yiddish sound,
”
another influence from Sorkin.
Quinn often uttered Yiddish
words such as “oy” and “plotz”
in the comics.

NEW CHARACTER
FOR A NEW
GENERATION
Unlike other char-
acters, Whistle, the
main heroine in E.
Lockhart’s latest book Whistle: A
New Gotham City Hero, is Jewish
as a character and explicitly
Jewish in the book’s canon.
Lockhart is the author of the
No. 1 New York Times bestseller
We Were Liars and many other
novels. She also writes books
for young readers under the
name Emily Jenkins. Whistle is
her first graphic novel.
“DC invited me to create
a superhero for them after
reading a novel of mine called
Genuine Fraud, which has a lot
of superhero content buried
inside of it,
” Lockhart says.
DC gave Lockhart leeway to
create anything she wanted, so
she created Whistle.
Lockhart, who is Jewish,
gained inspiration for Whistle’s
background from her own, par-
ticularly relating to New York
City. Lockhart’s great-grand-
parents were immigrants from
Russia and Poland, which was
the beginning of her family’s
strong roots to the city.
Lockhart’s dad lived near the
Lower East Side (LES), a his-

OUR COMMUNITY

continued from page 13

Prolific comic artist Gil Kane
was Eli Katz. Batman co-creator

“It goes on and on and on,
”

In the earlier days, comic book

That started to change in the

“The very first ever explicitly

Jewish comic was in 1948 with
Funnyman, who was invented
by Siegel and Shuster. He was
kind of a flop, kind of a Danny

COMMUNITY

Scenes from the graphic novel
Whistle: A New Gotham City Hero

COURTESY OF DC COMICS

continued om page 16