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.
His parents were very strict and religious, and I think that sort of scared him off from it a little bit. But obviously with his creation of Captain America and fighting Nazis and giving his voice to that showed how important his lineage is and his family who came from Europe and England. And whenever I brought home a guy, he always asked, “Is he Jewish?” He was very concerned about that. I think Captain America is definitely his most Jewish-related character, but a lot of the creators back then in the Golden Age were children of immigrants and Jewish.
Earlier this year, CBR took a stab at showcasing the influence of Jewish culture on the superhero genre in comics. After noting Stan Lee’s faith (though not Jack Kirby, Jerry Siegel and Joel Shuster, nor even Larry Lieber), the article did a countdown of eight characters “who celebrate their heritage.”
Harley Quinn’s as Jewish(-Catholic)
Of course, there are several problems to such coverage. First and foremost, there appears to be no range to Jewish identity necessarily; Moon Knight, the son of a rabbi, has equivalent Judaic identity as, say, Batwoman who long discounted that aspect of her history. Likewise, while Kitty Pryde has been recognized as Jewish from her earliest appearance, Magneto, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch have been retconned from Roma to Jews, and the Thing gave no evidence of his faith until recent years. In all, there’s something curiously flat and artificial to the Judaism they depict.
Even putting aside Harley Quinn and Magneto’s villainy or Scarlet Witch and Moon Knight’s mental instability, there seems little value assigned to the characters’ ethics or morals arising out of their Jewish identities and leading to heroic action. Is Judaism just a hereditary label, an ethnicity, or the lighting of a menorah?
Following our year-end listing of the top new stories in 2019, the question arose as to what were the top overall postings in 2019. That is, what were the most-read articles, regardless of what year they were published.
So, to satisfy curiosity, here are Sacred and Sequential‘s most-read pages over the course of 2019:
S&S noticed this too late in 2018 to include for Hannukah last year, so for Hannukah 2019, we’re asking the following “festival of lights” questions of this Comic Vine list:
Certainly, this can’t be all the Hannukah appearances in the history of comics? What of graphic novels and collected comics strips?
Is there a predominance of DC Comics titles? Does this at all reflect DC editorial’s focus (or Marvel’s lack thereof)?
Chag sameach!
@ the intersection of religion and comics: Graphic Religion
Earlier this month, 
