He is the Ragman. Basically his thing is he has a costume made of up rags, and each rag is the soul of an evil person. He absorbs the soul and uses the skills, talents and abilities of the souls to right wrongs. By helping him, the souls work off the bad things they did in life, until the slate is clean. Does this mesh with Jewish theology?
Absolutely! Think about how many successful Jews started in the “rag” trade.
I think you’ll get a lot of discussion - and disagreement - on how much Judiasm believes in souls, the afterlife, sins, and every other aspect of your question.
The notion of a dybbuk comes close to what you’re suggesting, though.
Very interesting. It looks like at least some research was done before they dreamed up this particular crimefighter.
And here I figured a Jewish superhero would just be like Samson–God gave me these powers as long as I don’t do X.
Well… The Judaica and “souls of evil men” stuff was tacked on some 20-odd years after the character was introduced. Originally, in 1976, “Rory Regan” got shocked by a live wire while in physical contact with 6 or 7 old geezers (His father and some friends), each of whom had a specific skill or talent that might be useful to a crimefighter. One was a retired prizefighter, one was a locksmith, one was a safecracker, etc). Rory mysteriously gained their talents during this incident, and they all died.
The main appeal of the character was that it was drawn by Joe Kubert, who had not drawn superheroes on over a decade, preferring Sgt. Rock and Tarzan to Batman and the like.
A letter to the editor (I think some fans were given advance copies of Ragman #1 so their comments could run in the premiere issue; I don’t recall there ever being a Ragman #2 or 3 in 1976) suggested that they make Ragman comics’ first Jewish superhero. The editor snippily replied that if Kubert wanted to create a Jewish superhero, he wouldn’t have given him the name “Rory Regan.” But, later writers must have found the idea irresistible because in the 90s, that’s exactly what they did.
Aren’t most super heroes Jewish? The all seem to have names like Superman, Batman etc.
Ben Grimm aka The Thing is Jewish (“Funny, you don’t look Jewish.”).
In Yellow Submarine: “Funny, you don’t look bluish”
So is Ambush Bug.
To say nothing of Goldman, Silverman and Fleischman.
No, wait, that was a law firm.
The bris was a bitch.
They usually are. (Last bris I was at, at least nobody passed out.)
This just sounds unsanitary.
There’s no official right answer in Judaism to “what happens to the soul after death”, the way there is in, say, Catholicism. In general, there’s not a lot of emphasis on the afterlife in Jewish thought or practice, at least not as compared to Christianity. Different Jews believe different things.
I have read, in Jewish Tales of Reincarnation, stories of souls getting trapped in inanimate objects. There are also stories of someone reincarnating as an animal or plant, and being redeemed when the proper blessings are made before someone else eats the animal or plant. The souls generally don’t still have their skills from their previous life, though.
Superman’s and Batman’s creators were Jewish. Lots of people have looked for Jewish themes in Superman’s story (here’s one example). Bob Kane, Jerry Siegel, and Joe Shuster were all male, though, so we can’t really say Superman or Batman had a Jewish mother.
Don’t forget Clothes-Man and Bottles-Man.
I believe it’s pronounced “Rag -mun.”
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Aren’t most super heroes Jewish? The all seem to have names like Superman, Batman etc.
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Now, you’re getting it.