So first I want to open up this posting by praising the efforts of Greek artist Kapandais Nikolaos who recently did this ass kicking Sabra vs Hulk fan art. Now the timing of this fan art is no coincidence given all the tirades of various antisemites on social media have been on ever since Marvel announced Sabra's inclusion into the Marvel Cinematic Universe almost weeks ago.
Unfortunately, her live action debut won't be for quite sometime given that Captain America New World Order won't be coming out till 2024. But in the mean time there's a lot of questions and speculation about how this is all going to work out. Shira Hass is a fine actress but I think even among Sabra fans she probably wasn't the first actress to some to mind when it comes to a live action big screen Sabra. And then ofcourse there's the question of Marvel's re-imagining of the character. But for me there's a more over reaching question. Will Marvel go forward with their plans for a Sabra live action appearance or will they end up caving to what will almost certainly be in the coming months a relentless BDS pressure campaign by antisemites? Time will tell.
The following clip art you see there is actually from Incredible HULK 255, and as you can also see it's a direct prelude to issue 256 which ofcourse is Sabra's first Marvel Comics appearance. Issue 256 has come under a lot of scrutiny in recent weeks and despite
having had the issue in my collection for many years now it only
recently occurred to me to have a peek at issue 255 and I'm glad I did. You see where it says . . "In the nation known as Israel" at the bottom of that top center panel?
You may notice the name “Palestine” is no where to be found here and the same is the case for the following issue which takes place in Israel. In fact, I’ve read almost everything from Marvel and DC Comics over the years having to do with all things Jewish and Israel and I’ve never seen the name “Palestine” in print anywhere. Comic book writers earn a living by telling stories that are fictional with mostly characters who are also fictional. But despite this, it would seem that comic book writers are more in touch with reality then today’s leftist antisemites. Incredible Hulk 255 and 256 were written by Bill Mantlo and penciled by Sal Buscema, but the Sabra character was actually created by Belinda Glass.
On a couple of interesting side notes, both Marvel and DC Comics have had Israeli characters in their stories for decades now. But did you know that DC actually had an Israeli Arab character? Taleb Beni Khalid was the Black King in Checkmate which was basically the DC version of Marvel's S.H.E.I.L.D. Khaild was a regular character in Checkmate's volume 2 series (2006) and made numerous appearances in other DC titles through out the 2000s prior to the DC reboot.
Also, did you know Incredible HULK 256 in recent weeks has dramatically increased in value? Before all the Sabra MCU drama from the cry baby antisemites on social media you could pick up a copy in fair condition on ebay for around $10. Now the price range goes any where from $50 to $200! Some of the sellers have included a little Israeli flag icon I think that's a nice touch.
