The foreseeable Connection: Superheroes and Jews
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, a novel that takes place during the "Golden Age" of comics, a magical era right before television when the country was at war and needed a medium that could help them coupe with these difficult times. Who was behind the creation of many of these superheroes? Who desperately needed an alter-ego? The American Jewish male; growing up in America Jewish males faced many stereotypes, most of which were concerned with the physical stature and the masculine identity. As we have discussed in class, the majority of the thoughts revolve around the idea that the Jewish male is a frail, somewhat feminine, intellect who in no way fits the description of the rugged all American male that many men strive for.
When Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, was asked what kind of superhero he most relates to he said; "There's Daredevil, who was blind; Hour Man, who had his powers for an hour; Bouncing Boy bounced into people; Matter Eater, who could eat anything, and as a nebbishy Jewish guy from Cleveland, I always identified with characters with greater frailty." This notion of relating to someone or something else is what made the comic book industry such a booming business, and this is also why it was so easy for Jews to identify with these characters. The first of these characters was and still is Superman, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two Jews who grew up together in Cleveland and moved to New York to work for DC comics. Superman was an inspiration for many of Jewish Americans who, like Superman had been ripped from their home lands and placed in a foreign land because of war and the destruction of their people. While Jews did not have any super-human powers like Superman, they must have associated with the idea that mild-mannered Clark Kent was able to transform in to a crusader for justice, something I'm sure that each and every Jew had imagined at one point or another when thinking about the atrocities being committed in Europe during World War II. I am going to leave the topic of Jewish superheroes for a little bit but I will return to it later.
"Houdini was a hero to little men, city
To your average white American kid, a comic book is cheap entertainment— a leisure, a novelty. Your run of the mill issue of "Superman," perhaps the most generic superhero of all, is something to be read once, maybe even merely skimmed, while in the bathroom or the doctors' office. When finished with it gets thrown away mindlessly or tossed aside to join a mounting stack of similarly abandoned stories of fantastical heroism. However in the eyes of the young Indian boy, Sherman Alexie, as depicted in his essay, "Superman and Me," a tattered comic found in a donation bin was much more than that— it was a life line.
Micheal Chabon's 2001, Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is truly an all american book. The novel is about a jewish immigrant by the name of Josef Kavalier, who comes to America from Prague to escape the Nazis in 1939. He teams up with his cousin Sammy Clay to start making comic books. The book goes into great detail of the lives and adventures of the two boys from 1935 to 1954. One of many themes about this book is the idea of escape. Escaping from things is something that is seen very often throughout the story. This theme is portrayed through the jewish symbol of the golem, the comic books that the boys write, and the actions that Joe makes.
Batman and Superman are superheroes whose qualities are exaggerated in a way that is reminiscent of the gods and heroes in The Odyssey. In Fact, the superheroes from comic books emerge from the epic tradition. Epics, as you know, celebrate the great deeds of one or more legendary heroes. This epic hero is generally involved with a quest to overcome hardship, and he (and it usually is a "he") succeeds. The hero performs superhuman exploits in battle, often saving or founding a nation or the human race itself. Sound familiar? And even in terms of the superhero's body, with his bulging muscles and larger‐than‐life qualities, such figures evoke the images of Baroque masculinity. What Becomes important in these retellings, then, is how the hero makes the journey, how he faces his obstacles, and what he learns in the process.
Miller’s version brings with it many mixed responses from fans and critics, which makes it interesting to explore whether Batman in Miller’s version is an American monomythic hero as presented by Lawrence and Jewett. Even though there is some evidence of how The Dark Knight Returns follows the monomyth, overall Batman cannot be defined as a monomythic hero.
Batman and Superman have basic hero similarities. Costumes, secret identities, and love for cheesecake . . ., ok so not the cheesecake, are obtained by both. Looking a little deeper than surface information, both heroes' parents passed away when they were very young. Batman's parents died by the hand of a petty thief in a robbery turned sour, while Superman's ferternal parents blew up on their home planet Krypton. Another event shared by the soldiers of justice is the fact that both were influenced by their father to become crime fighters. Clark Kent's father asked him to use his powers and gifts for good. Bruce Wayne's father was murdered and Bruce felt guilty for not preventing it, therefore creating Batman to help prevent it from happening to anyone else. In addition to the other similarities both characters are part of the same comic brand name, DC Comics.
Perceptions of the superhero and supervillain are mainly based on subjective definitions of each concept. These observations often lead to a definitive dichotomy that precisely splits characters into two impermeable divisions. However, this stringent separation is unable to account for the characters that are not at the extreme ends of their respective side. Neither is this rift capable of classifying characters that flirt with both sides of the superhero-supervillain dichotomy. Therefore it is imperative to analyze the established criteria for both superhero and supervillain to derive a more adequate explanation. Most superheroes are not easily characterized, but rather fall somewhere between Superman, the bastion of moral purity, and Doctor Doom, the display of indubitable corruption. This solicits genesis of an entirely new notion about the differences between superheroes and supervillains. A more precise idea is that superheroes and supervillains are lined on a spectrum that spans from pure good to pure evil. Disparities between superheroes and supervillains are not black and white, but rather these characters are on a spectrum that radically changes based on individual cases.
The difference between a superhero, as we know from movies and comics, and a traditional hero is rather unclear for many people.. In modern times, a superhero is often a being with supernatural abilities. For example, the movies depict them as individuals with super strength, night vision, the ability to climb walls, and so on. The majority of audiences have been spoiled with these unrealistic depictions and are unable to recall the real or “traditional” hero. In the texts, The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Book of Job, and Bhagavad Gita, heroes are not “as seen on television”, but something more. The heroes in these stories carry great strengths such as wisdom, patience, and pride. To illustrate these characteristics, the protagonists themselves
Alexie, Sherman. "Superman and Me." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 1998. Web. 14 May 2014. http://articles.latimes.com/1998/apr/19/books/bk-42979
There are many superheroes in the world with many different abilities. Many people would argue that many heroes are connected by some point or another. Though it is true that there are several correlations between the hero Beowulf and Superman, also known as Clark Kent, there are also quite a few differences. Beowulf is the hero of the of an old English epic passed down form word of mouth. On the other hand, Superman is a comic character in the DC universe. Even though Beowulf and Superman’s stories vary drastically they are similar in their travels and abilities.
Not all superheroes wear capes. As an example, in the novel, ‘The Hobbit’, Bilbo Baggins goes from Hobbit to Hero as the book progresses. Throughout the novel, Bilbo fends off a variety of monsters, from goblins to a killer dragon! At first, he wouldn’t even leave his little hobbit hole, but he seeked out a mass murderer’s weak point! That is amazing! How did he manage to do that? Well, he developed the characteristics of a good ol’ hero along the way, those being strong and brave, clever and intelligent, and the ability to be selfless in all of the right situations.
If one were asked about the characteristics, qualities, and values that define his or her favorite hero, it would be a very rare occurrence to get a response such as “a cocaine addict, workaholic, and peculiar genius with an indifference to sexuality,” or perhaps “an army general with an increasing bloodlust and an intense thirst for power.” However, these characters generally appeal more to readers of literature — especially the contemporary audience — than traditional heroes do. So what exactly makes these characters more appealing and do their unconventional qualities actually have an effect on the works of literature that they are in? In order to begin understanding the answers to these questions, it is first important to recognize the meaning of these characters and why they are used as opposed to traditional heroes. The term that is
In western culture, heroes are the one who gave us positive power to fight for the bad things until the end. And those heroes are always presented by Male. Batman and Iron Man are strong in muscle but the power that they can save the world is based on they have money or not. Because they are the rich people and they have their own company, they hav...
Being a hero means that one can show courage when it comes to facing a problem. It is a person who helps others in many ways, such as a person in danger. In the modern era, the creation of superheroes have become popular when it comes to producing films. Viewers can choose their favorite heroes due to the idea that there a many of them. However, most fans argue which superheroes are better. Two of the most popular superheroes are DC’s Batman and Marvel’s Iron Man. Although Batman and Iron Man are loved by many viewers because of how they help people in danger, they still demonstrate imperfections which can cause viewers to dislike them. However, both superheroes share similarities and differences between themselves. Batman and Iron Man have
The Lone Ranger, Zorro, Batman, Superman are some of the characters that we stereotypically constitute as heroes. They are known to fight with courage without fear of death. They destroy the enemy within a blink of an eye. They fight using their own body strength, superpower, or some kind of weapon. They come to the rescue miraculously and leave without a trace. They are mysterious. We are unable to identify who they are underneath the masks and disguises. Yet, we praise them and ignore the real heroes that surround us regularly, ordinarily. “All of us …like to believe that in a moral emergency we will behave like the heroes of our youth, bravely and forthrightly, without thought of personal loss or discredit” (O’Brien 39). In other words, we are quite oblivious to the ordinary people of the world that are, in fact, the true heroes.