Superheroes are not necessarily popular in the Arab world. Wonder Woman, one of DC Comics' iconic characters, experienced this when the 2017 film of the same name was banned in Lebanon, Qatar and Tunisia. The cause: Israeli actress Gal Gadot, who played the title character, after having played a former Mossad agent in the Fast and Furious franchise. Arab censors then criticized Ms. Gadot for her support of the 2014 Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, as well as her involvement in the 2006 war in Lebanon.
The 2020 release of the second installment of the series, Wonder Woman 1984, was more peaceful, against the backdrop of the Abraham Accords and Arab-Israeli normalization. However, even the cartoonish depictions of Egypt as an oil emirate did end up arousing a few controversies. But now it is Marvel Universe, owned by the Walt Disney Company, which is at the heart of a heated debate.
A Mossad superheroine
Marvel Studios has just revealed that their next blockbuster, Captain America 4: New World Order, scheduled for release in 2024, will include a new superheroine, Sabra, of Israeli nationality. The character, whose blind rage threatened to destroy Tel Aviv, had appeared in 1980 in one of the Hulk's comic book adventures.
A Mossad agent, Ruth Bat-Seraph, raised on a kibbutz [collective farms], had then transformed into Sabra, wearing a Star of David pendant and blue and white tights in the colors of the Israeli flag. Stalked by Sabra, Hulk met a "young Arab" who confided in him, "It's hard to be an Arab in Israel. My people, as well as the Israelis, both claim this land as theirs. They could have shared it if two very old books didn't suggest they kill each other instead." Sabra eventually felt compassion for this "young Arab" who later died in a Palestinian attack.
A social media campaign to be launched against "Captain Apartheid."
Marvel casting Israeli actress Shira Haas (first spotted in the Netflix series Unorthodox) as Sabra was all it took for a social media campaign to be launched against "Captain Apartheid." An open letter was sent to Marvel and Disney studios, accusing them of "legitimizing the crimes of the Israeli government." They were also accused of having named their superheroine Sabra, amidst the 40th anniversary of commemorations of the massacre that was committed in September 1982, in the Palestinian camps of Sabra and Shatila in Beirut. The trial by public opinion seems particularly questionable since "Sabra" was, even before 1948, the Hebrew term for Jews born on the land of Palestine, and therefore by extension Israelis born there ever since (the word is derived from the Hebrew name for the prickly pear with a sweet inside).
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