Sabra Isn’t Controversial in Captain America: Brave New World. She’s Boring.

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She looks like the Israeli flag on disco night. Blue cape, white bodysuit. A headband, because it’s 1980. The Incredible Hulk #256 introduces Sabra, “super heroine of the State of Israel,” when the green Goliath rampages through Tel Aviv. Airborne in a costume spangled with six-pointed stars, she fires poisonous “energy quills.” (An editor’s note explains that “Sabra,” a local prickly pear, is slang for “native-born Israeli.”) She accuses Hulk of an alliance with masked Muslim terrorists who blow up a café. The superhumans argue over the body of Sahad, a friendly young pickpocket killed in the explosion.

The boy perished due to a dispute over the land, with both your group and his claiming ownership,” Hulk exclaims. “In essence, the boy’s life was lost because there was no willingness to compromise on this matter!

Sabra, humbled, bows by the tiny body. “Even the Incredible Hulk was required to reveal this slain young Arab as a fellow human,” the final voiceover states. “A beastly figure stirred the compassion within her that she herself is human.

Forty-five years after her first appearance, Sabra stars in “Captain America: Brave New World.” She doesn’t possess any superpowers or wear a costume, except for a touch of blue accent on her jacket. Instead, she serves her country. No one refers to her as Sabra. In this updated portrayal, Shira Haas from “Unorthodox” plays the character Ruth as a “security advisor” to President Thaddeus Ross. It’s mentioned that she was born in Israel and later trained as a Black Widow. Following some action sequences, she finds herself isolated during crucial scenes, communicating via radio links.

She tells Sam Wilson, the latest Captain in New World, “We don’t have to be confined by our past,” she says, implying a broader message that isn’t strictly about her superior. The film aims to distance Ruth from being stereotyped by her background, her comic book history as a Mossad agent, or the controversy surrounding her character that sparked protests at this week’s premiere. Instead, the movie chooses to avoid defining her entirely, opting for a defensive stance in the face of potential worst-case scenarios.

If you’re going to create a character who is bound to stir up debates, why strip her of all distinctive qualities? I find it hard to believe that Marvel didn’t foresee any controversy when Sabra’s casting was announced in 2022. Since then, one catastrophe after another has occurred. The Hamas attacks in October triggered Israel’s incursion into the Gaza Strip, while U.S. campuses were rocked by pro-Palestinian protests. Even the makers of Brave New World couldn’t have predicted that a week before their release, the American president would announce intentions to seize control over Gaza.

The film undergoes changes such as rewrites, reshoots, and even a tactical withdrawal due to unfavorable responses to the portrayal of the commander-in-chief as an enraged dictator. According to Chris Lee from Vulture, this led to the exclusion of some scenes. Harrison Ford remains prominent in the film, while Haas’ character appears to be somewhat sidelined in a swift transformation from ambiguous antagonist to ambiguous ally. Her role is far from being propaganda, and it’s unlikely that viewers will remember her.

It’s safe to say that Sabra wasn’t particularly beloved among comic book fans. She only made occasional appearances, typically portrayed as an anti-hero or Israel’s representative in various superhuman collaborations. For those looking for a patriotic character, they would find her complex moral nature challenging. Her debut in the Hulk series, penned by Bill Mantlo and illustrated by Sal Buscema, presented her as an overzealous hardliner. Subsequent appearances often contrasted her with a more moderate Marvel hero and an Islamic character designed to disprove negative stereotypes about Muslims.

Approximately one month following his initial encounter with Sabra, the Hulk comes across the Arabian Knight, a desert leader adorned with a holy scimitar. While Sabra represents Israel with her national colors and a local nickname, the Arabian Knight carries a flying carpet and wears a turban, reminiscent of an action hero from a Middle Eastern-themed strip club. In his debut storyline, he thwarts two old Egyptian spirits aiming to assault Israel, but his diplomacy was lacking when meeting Sabra in 1982’s “Contest of Champions,” refusing to join forces with a Jewish woman. Their political differences create a tense partnership, a theme that resurfaces in a 2006 miniseries where Sabra and another Arabian Knight collaborate to protect London.

During this time, a two-part episode of The Incredible Hulk from 1991 features the Hulk returning to Israel, where he attempts to prevent the assassination of a European boy who is predicted to become “the next Hitler.” Sabra, once more, mistakes the creature for an adversary. She says, “You’re much larger than I am, but so too is Israel compared to its enemies, and we always stand up against them!

“Terrific,” Hulk says, “I’m not fighting a woman. I’m fighting the Zionist recruiting board.”

In a startling twist, the boy who was foretold to bring about change ends up in a coma, brain-dead. It is then revealed that the true successor of Hitler might not be him, but his friend – a young Israeli girl whose father holds a position in the Knesset. This revelation comes from Peter David, a well-known author who has written extensively across various genres and whose own father escaped the Holocaust. Interestingly, he would later draw parallels between the first Trump administration and Hitler on his website. David infuses Sabra’s character with a mix of righteousness and edginess. “Violence against women is becoming common,” she states, “Anger from frustrated soldiers who had to hold back against Iraq is causing them to beat their wives. Our anger consumes us, even ourselves.

The character in the story is referred to as “Izzy Rabin’s daughter,” likely a nod to Yitzhak Rabin. In the comic New Warriors #58 from 1995, he accompanies Sabra, acting as her bodyguard, at a peace summit in New York City. By this point, she carries a tragic backstory of her brother’s murder, which occurred on a school bus at the hands of Arabs. With a thirst for vengeance already present, she is manipulated into attempting an assassination on the prime minister. This plotline bears resemblance to a subplot in Brave New World involving hypnotized gunmen within the White House, although Sabra does not undergo brainwashing as Ruth does in the film adaptation. Firestar suggests that Sabra might be a radical Israeli who is against the peace talks. This story becomes even more chilling when one remembers that Rabin was assassinated several months later by an extremist opposed to the peace negotiations.

In simpler terms, I’m not looking for hidden brilliance in these outrageous narratives, and I won’t ignore the increasingly explicit nature of the images, especially in the ’90s, where Sabra was one of many superwomen drawn with long legs and large busts in the Image style. I can understand why people might think her stories are fundamentally flawed, often leaning towards passive compromise and discomfort with extremes. When Sabra quickly learns a lesson — like spending five minutes with the Hulk awakening her humanity — it feels like the perspective of moderate American liberalism, somewhat reflecting its ‘why can’t we all get along?’ attitude. However, even though the writers may have had genuine humanist intentions, Sabra always receives more focus in the narrative than the Muslim characters. Eventually, she was revealed as a mutant, one of Marvel’s many symbolic outcasts, which seemed like a cheap way to address her complex and sensitive geopolitical situation. The character’s history is silly, insensitive, and filled with stereotypes.

In the book Brave New World, Sabra seems to lose her depth and becomes dull. Initially driven by patriotism in the novel, she lacks motivation on screen, transforming into a secondary character of little significance. Critic Bilge Ebiri didn’t even mention her in his harsh critique. Turning her into a useful former Widow is a cheap trick, swapping intricate real-world relationships for the generic globetrotting spy narrative.

The situation with Sabra illustrates quite clearly the stark difference between the vague boundaries of Marvel Comics and the streamlined management of Marvel Studios. Are you more drawn to contentious complexity or monotonous uniformity, unsettling ideologies or another version of Black Widow? In these turbulent times for the United States, the Middle East, and our planet, it’s worth noting that Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” seems even less relatable than some of Sabra’s outlandish stories from years past. And in the comics, she doesn’t appear to intervene often.

A colossal green figure exclaims, “Does everyone on Earth seem mad?” amidst the debris of Tel Aviv. “Can’t the Hulk find any tranquil place?!” Indeed, they do; unfortunately, none can be found for him.

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2025-02-14 19:58