“Who would have thought a Rabbi could be discussing comics with his student?” Rabbi Michael Bitton, Director of Teaching and Learning at TABC, said this to me in a recent interview.
I was extremely surprised when I found out that Rabbi Bitton was a Superhero fan.
Not only did it make him more relatable, but it showed that superhero fans are not just teenagers; everyone loves superheroes, even your Rabbi.
As you probably know already, superhero entertainment has been growing dramatically in recent decades. I’d like to give you some insight into the world of “Super-fans” - people whose love for this entertainment goes above and beyond that of an ordinary fan.
High School senior Sarah Miller is one such “Super-fan” - she’s a dedicated watcher of superhero shows. She sometimes gets very emotional during dramatic scenes of The Flash, one of her favorite TV shows.
Miller said the death of Cisco (a supporting character) in season one hit her particularly hard. “My heart was saying no,” she told me. “You can not do this to my heart.”
Solomon Schechter junior Ben Benson is another devoted viewer of superhero movies. When watching the movie Avengers: Infinity War, he was surprised by the movie’s emotional climax: “I have been so invested in theses characters and now they died.”
Benson told me that he doesn't usually get emotional during movies, but since he “spent 10 years getting to know the characters and then they die[d],” he felt “really sad” at their deaths.
MTA junior Tzvi Simchon not only watches Superhero movies, he also reads comic books. Simchon told me his favorite superhero is Batman because he’s so relatable. As Simchon put it, “most heroes have no real reason behind [what they do],” but Batman does: his parents were murdered by a mugger.
Simchon stated that he adopted a quality of Batman into his Jewish life. “As a Jew, it is sometimes hard [for me] to commit spiritually,” Simchon noted.
But Batman “is the most committed superhero” and Simchon finds his example inspiring: “A human being committing to something so amaculas (stopping all evil).” Simchon says he is so inspired by that commitment that he tries to bring it into his Jewish life.
To this day, Rabbi Bitton enjoys the story arc of the comic book, X-Men: Age of Apocalypse. As he explained, “It was massive.”
This particular story narrates how superhero Legion went back in time to kill Magneto, the X-men’s chief nemesis, but his actions inadvertently killed many other heroes.
Those heroes who died had their comic book series canceled for five months, leaving six comic series. At the end of the five months, the 6 different comics series came together to defeat Apocalypse (the big bad guy). After his death, the heroes who died returned to live and had their comic series reinstated.
Rabbi Bitton enjoyed this story because the “characters were so appealing.” He also expressed surprise that the characters who died had their stories cancelled until the story arc was completed.
Rabbi Bitton told me his enjoyment for superheroes is so great that he has a Whatsapp chat with his cousin and brother where they discuss superheroes (along with other stuff). This allows him to stay connected to his loved ones by sharing their passions together.
Other superhero fans find a sense of community in similar groups.
Simchon still hangs out with his friends from elementary school because of their common interest in Superheros. Similarly, sophomore Itai Hudes has a group of friends outside of TABC with whom he regularly discusses Superheroes.
However, life inside the world of superhero fandom is not always harmonious. There are great divisions between the fans of DC Comics and those who prefer Marvel Comics.
DC has superheroes like Batman, Superman and Wonderwoman, while Marvel has superheroes like Captain America, Iron Man and Spiderman. The rivalry began in the 1960s and has become particularly heated in recent times.
Hudes prefers DC to Marvel because “DC didn’t get rid of all their characters [and] Marvel doesn't write good stories anymore.”
But Marvel fan Simchon countered this opinion by observing, “DC is too cliche,” Simchon definitely thinks that Marvel writes better stories.
Marvel fan and high school senior Nitza Goldman slammed DC for its “very dark movies.” Goldman further observed that “all [DC’s] female heroes and villains are dressed not how heros would dress.”
However, not all are pleased with how Marvel treats its female heroes. High school senior Yair Oppenheim stated that he “eye-rolled every five minutes of Captain Marvel” because he just didn’t like the movie.
But Marvel certainly has its hard-core enthusiasts “[Marvel] movies are funnier,” observed Benson. He further related that on a recent airplane trip, he tried watching the DC movie Batman Versus Superman but “stopped watching because it was so bad.”
However, DC fan Miller strongly defended his franchise from critics. In his view, “DC characters are more realistic” than those in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Despite these disagreements, everyone I talked to said that Superhero entertainment helps bring people together.
“[It] brings people together from different friend groups,” Miller told me. Simchon said he and his father “bond over it a lot,” and strengthen their father-son relationship as a result. These are just two small examples of the many ways that superhero movies have enriched the lives of their fans.