It Took Marvel Studios 17 Years to do this One Thing

Cast a Jewish actor to play a Jewish Marvel character.

Ebon Moss-Bacharach of "The Bear" fame, was cast to play The Thing in the next "Fantastic Four" movie (the first under Marvel Studios, not 20th Century Fox Studios, now that Disney bought the studio).

There, I wrote it, you don't have to scan three paragraphs to find out, but please bear with me here because I actually do have a point about this.

Marvel Studios, and by extension, the entire comics industry, rests on the genius of Jewish writers and artists like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Steve Ditko, and others. It is arguable that antisemitism was what prevented writers like Stan from getting jobs in the traditional publishing industry in the 40's, making him and other hopeful Jewish science-fiction writers pursue work with the burgeoning comic book industry.

The popularity of comic book heroes, and comic book hero movies, rests on the fact that these Jewish artists and writers found and elevated a whole publishing industry because they were being excluded from the mainstream industry at the time.

So why is it that since the 2008 premier of Marvel Studios' "Iron Man", any form of acknowledgement of the foundational work these Jews did to create Marvel is non-existent?

I'm not asking Steve Rogers to wink at a Rabbi or something, that's insane.

But when characters who were written as Jewish (not coded, or suggested, or Jewish in an alternate universe or something) like Wanda Maximoff are shown with crosses on their wall in "Captain America: Civil War".

When Captain America (made by two Jews and who's first comic showed him punching a certain mustached man from Germany) goes through an entire movie set in World War II without any mention of the Holocaust (I know he punched an actor playing Hitler... Not the same).

When they finally get around to making a show about a character who's written as Jewish (Moon Knight), but cast a non-Jew... I start to perk up my head and ask some questions.

Side note: I love you, Oscar Isaac, you did nothing wrong buddy... I get it, a paycheck is a paycheck. Plus I liked your performance. It's Marvel's fault for not thinking about who they cast, it's not you're fault for saying yes to a contract.

Indeed, for the 17 years of Marvel Studios films dazzling us at the cinema, Marvel has not once cast a Jewish actor to play a Jewish hero, whilst scrubbing out the Jewishness of the characters they've chosen to film with so far.

Moon Knight is a Jewish superhero, but him being Jewish isn't important to his heroics. Marc Spector is a mercenary in the wrong place at the wrong time, bleeding out while the Khonshu, Egyptian god of the Moon, offers him a second lease on life as long as he serves as the Moon god's avatar.

OK, if you look at the Torah's account of the Jews time in Egypt, maybe Khonshu is a little tickled at the idea of having a Jewish-American serving as his avatar. But that's not the point of bringing up Moon Knight.

The point is that we don't learn about Marc's religion or ethnic background until its time to manufacture empathy for Marc. Take a flashback involving Shiva for his brother for example, late in the first and only season. Marc is unable to work up the strength to walk into the home and make a Shiva call. Marc's mother abused him as a kid, he's absolutely justified if he chooses not to attend. It's even implied by action or inaction, Marc might have contributed to the circumstances of his brothers death. Basically that Shiva is going to be heavy if we walks in there.

He turns and walks down the street, away from the house, and is overcome with grief and guilt and falls to his knees sobbing. His yarmulke clearly visible atop his head as he drops, Marc eventually snatches it off his head and pounds it into the pavement before realizing what he's doing and picking the kippa back up and cradling it as though he was in fact striking himself. (In a way I guess he was?)

So, when Marvel finally got around to Jewish representation it was a Jewish guy who was feeling conflicted and guilty about Jewish traditions but nevertheless acknowledging it as a crucial piece of himself... Wow, we've never seen that one before!

What makes The Thing having his third big screen appearance (fourth if you count the unreleased Oley Sassone film) significant this time around is this is the first time a Jew will play the character and the first time Marvel Studios cast a Jew to play a Jewish character.

The Thing's Jewishness wasn't always apparent, like most Marvel characters, The Thing's religion wasn't explicitly mentioned. Ben was just a decent guy, Reed Richard's Best friend, and loyal tank to the Fantastic Four Team.

But Ben's background was implied heavily, Ben is from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, deeply values loyalty and family, and uses a Yiddish phrase once and a while. Simcha Weinstein's book Up, Up, and Oy Vey! speaks on Jack Kirby's use of Ben Grimm's regret from leaving his working class Lower East Side roots to explore his conflict over his Jewish identity. I mean, have you looked at a picture of The Golem lately? The Thing is as Jewish it gets.

In 2002's Fantastic Four vol. 3 #56, Ben attends a funeral in the city and says the Mourner's Kaddish. It's the first time He's confirmed as Jewish in his publication history.

I hate the phrase "happens to be," a relic from the HW Bush-era. But the "happens to be" is a big part of the equation here. Moon Knight's Jewishness came into play when it could punctuate Marc's feelings of guilt and shame. Ben Grimm's Jewishness has to permeate the character without coming off as hokey or forced, or being used to emotionally manipulate the audience into sympathizing with him more.

The Thing is different, he's a good guy, a solid dependable member of Marvel's First Family, a mensch. And speaking as a guy who tries his hardest to be a mensch, the point of being a mensch is to not walk around making a big deal about it... Or typing it three times in a blog post.

The Thing is a great bread-and-butter Marvel character with a cool look, long publication history, and everyman qualities, that happens to be a Jewish character.

Marvel Studios has overlooked the Jewishness of the comics and these characters for a while now, is the nearly 20-year film studio blinking? Or is this the beginning of more? I for one am not optimistic, given that it took this long in the first place.

However the next opportunity for Marvel to surprise me might come if they cast a Kitty Pryde, also known as the X-man Shadowcat. X-Men films are coming next year after all.

Till then... Face front true believers!

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