The lack of Jewish superheroes is especially notable because, in theory, superheroes are a Jewish genre. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, who created Superman, were Jewish. So were Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (né Jacob Kurtzberg), who created Captain America. So was Stan Lee (né Stanley Lieber), who, with Kirby, created much of the Marvel Universe. Will Eisner, creator of the Spirit, was Jewish; so were executives and editors at the major superhero publishers, like Martin Goodman and Mort Weisinger.
Given the Jewishness of so many creators, critics have argued that Judaism and Jewish traditions substantially influenced superhero content. This is the theme of Michael Chabon's 2000 novel “The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay.” Writers like Harry Brod in the 2016 book “Superman Is Jewish?” have suggested that the first superhero was influenced by golem legends and that Superman's Krypton home represented the Old World, from which Jews were forced to flee to the United States. Kirby's iconic cover showing Captain America punching Hitler in 1940 has been lauded as a distinctly Jewish call for U.S. intervention against an anti-Semitic regime.
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