‘Invulnerability’ dramatizes Superman’s Jewish roots
The History of Invulnerability, the final play of the Milwaukee Rep’s Quadracci Powerhouse season, could be seen simply as a memory play about Jerry Siegel, the man who created Superman, and his life before and after he sold the rights to his creation, then fought to win them back.
But it’s also a window into a bigger story — a story of young writers and artists whose Jewish identities informed their invention of superheroes and shaped the contours of their comic-book characters.
The nascent comics industry of the 1930s and ’40s attracted a large number of Jewish writers, artists and publishers, including many of the most successful. Siegel and his right-hand man Joe Schuster were two Jewish boys raised in Cleveland. Batman’s creators, Bob Kane and Bill Finger, were both Jewish as well. Marvel visionary Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the Hulk, was born Stanley Lieber; his frequent collaborator Jack Kirby was born Jacob Kurtzberg.
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Few of the resulting heroes were explicitly Jewish. But Hirsh says Superman in particular betrays hints of his Jewish origins, even if Siegel wasn’t aware of it. On the most basic level, Superman’s origin story is a near-direct parallel of the story of Moses. Instead of a baby in a basket floating down the Nile, he’s a baby in a capsule floating through space. Like American Jews of the period, he is a permanent exile from his destroyed home. He lives among the American people but is not one of them.
Even Superman’s Kryptonian name, Kal-El, has Jewish roots — in Hebrew, the suffix “-el” means “of God,” and one possible translation of Kal-El is “Voice of God.”
more: http://www.wisconsingazette.com/on-stage/invulnerability-dramatizes-supermans-jewish-roots.html
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I wish I could see this play. One can see lots of Jewishness in Superman. Though I enjoy Superman, I am a Wonder Woman fan (big surprise).
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