(Jewish Group) Whistle, Gotham City's latest superhero, is Jewish.

[Behind the Aegis]

Whistle, Gotham City’s latest superhero, is Jewish. It’s a full-circle moment for the comics industry.

It turns out that Batman’s hometown of Gotham City has a historically Jewish neighborhood, complete with a synagogue. And for this year’s High Holidays, at least one masked superhero will be worshipping there.

Her name is Whistle, a.k.a. Willow Zimmerman, and she’s a Jewish superhero — DC Comics’ first to be explicitly created as Jewish in 44 years. She’s an activist-turned-masked-crusader who draws inspiration from Jewish teachings; she develops the ability to talk to dogs; and she’s making her debut this month in “Whistle: A New Gotham City Superhero,” a graphic novel geared to young adults.

“There’s a long and fascinating history of Jewish creators in comics,” the book’s author and character creator, E. Lockhart, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Superman, Batman and Spider-Man were all invented by Jewish men, and scholars have interpreted them through a variety of lenses that take that into account. But while there have certainly been Jewish superheroes before, Whistle is the first Jewish hero to originate as Jewish from DC Comics since 1977.”

Lockhart was referring to Seraph, a superhero from Israel who helped Superman in “Super Friends #7″ before immediately falling out of the public eye.

Yet the roots of superheroes are distinctly Jewish.



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I am a comic nerd and this is actually very important and awesome news. Given the VAST Jewish influence on the genre, it is about time there is an "openly" Jewish hero/heroine.