In a review for Marvel Comics’ Marauders #11, Bleeding Cool reporter Jude Terror writes:
The X-Men gives Kate Pryde’s body a Viking funeral, as Jewish tradition dictates.
This, of course, is grossly in error; Jewish tradition dictates no such thing. And even if the (pseudonymic?) Mr. Terror had his tongue deeply in his cheek, it’s a joke in poor taste.
Why’s that? Because, as writers like Rachael Knight at Women Write about Comics point out, it’s a pretty large insult to her religious heritage, particularly as one of the most prominent and long-time Jewish superhero characters.
In Marauders #11, having accepted the less than temporary nature of her death, the inhabitants of Krakoa decide to cremate Kitty.
I will say that again, more bluntly: a murdered Jewish woman had her body disposed of by cremation.
While cremation is not historically a Jewish funerary practice, which dictate that the deceased should be buried without adornment in a plain wooden coffin — something else Marauders #11 fails to depict — there is a much bigger issue that needs to be addressed when it comes to the burning of Kitty’s body. During the Holocaust, millions of Jews were murdered by gas chamber and other means, their bodies disposed of by cremation. Jewish children were shown the rising smoke by Nazi guards, who pointed and told them that’s where their parents went. An extremely common antisemitic verbal attack involves telling Jewish people to get in the oven. For many there is simply no way to separate the act of cremating a Jewish character from the violent and hateful murder of their families.
What an insult, then, to take one of pop culture’s most iconic Jewish characters, a character who has been outspoken about the Holocaust and concentration camps, who has fought against the persecution of others, and have her non-Jewish friends and family send her off by cremating her body.
Zach Rabiroff at The Xavier Files suggests that it is troubling but thematic.
I Am Jewish. I Am A Mutant: Kate Pryde, Peoplehood, And Surviving The Flames
Writing about a Jewish character in the absence of a Jewish team of creators or editors, as with the writing of any marginalized character, requires effort and consideration from those telling the story. It’s a complicated picture, and there are no easy answers.
But more significant to me is that image of Kate’s cremation, her body set to sea, engulfed in fire. Engulfed, yes, but destined to rise again. Kate will return to us in a way that her family, and my family, and six million others could not. She is the Jewish woman who will not perish in the flames, the bush that burns but is not consumed. She will not be obliterated from the history of her people.
In all, even if it was well researched and carefully considered, the scene is unsettling to the point of irredeemable. The X-Men mutants now have a way to resurrect characters, arguably cheapening death itself. Therefore, perhaps greater care should be given to the depiction of mourning and grieving them, particularly one as high profile as Kitty/Kate Pryde.
A Viking joke certainly isn’t suitable here.