Marvel Releases Statement Defending The Inclusion Of Controversial Israeli Super Hero From The Comic

The D23 Expo came with quite a few newsworthy announcements from Marvel but one announcement that particularly led to a lot of headlines and a lot of reactions from fans online was that the upcoming MCU film Captain America: New World Order will include a rare Marvel Comics character Sabra, who will be played by Shira Haas.

Sabra is a very rare character from Marvel Comics that few people would know about. She is a superhero with an Israeli background, who works for the Israeli Secret Service, Mossad. She first appeared in 1980 as a cameo and then properly debuted in 1981 in a Hulk comic where she battled the Hulk.

There are many reasons that fans are concerned over the appearance of an Israeli themed superhero. First of all, with the on-going conflict between Israel and Palestine, the appearance of the hero is likely to polarize fans. Secondly, the presence of a Jewish superhero in a film titled New World Order will create tones that are not likely to sit well with certain populations. There are just a myriad of problems that could arise some which cannot even be envisioned yet but it is like laying a minefield of potential triggers.

However, Marvel has released a statement defending their choice to proceed with this casting and saying that while they look to comics for inspirations, their characters will always be adapted differently to better fit modern cinema and hence fans should not worry. Their official statement is worded as follows:

“While our characters and stories are inspired by the comics they are always freshly imagined for the screen and today’s audience, and the filmmakers are taking a new approach with the character Sabra who was first introduced in the comics over 40 years ago.”

It is true that many characters from the comics have been reimagined to remove the racist and stereotypical undertones before putting them on the big screen, with characters from Black Panther and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings being the biggest example of this process.

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