Page - 117 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 03/01

Deconstructing Gilgul, Finding Identity | 117www.jrfm.eu 2017, 3/1, 105–121 ternal context of his subjectivity, an essential context if he is to find his identity. And his quest is not about gaining his identity for selfish reasons; the goals of his quest are necessarily concerned with (political) society and human community. Captain America can only find himself if he works for the ideals of that society and thus for securing a communal life based on these ideals. from the beginning the quest for the tikkun of his soul – his search for re- demption because of Bucky’s presumed death – is interwoven with his quest for the tikkun of the world. Consequently, Captain America can only find his identity and become whole when he is able to name the reason for his existence in the present world. in the issue in which he is reintroduced that reason is given as “being in costume – on the trail of some strange, unknown menace!”,69 but very soon that idea is complemented by the values of individual freedom and the liberty of society for which he had already fought in the second World War. Spreading these values and fighting anything that menaces them becomes Cap- tain America’s raison d´être. the temporal displacement he experiences, how- ever, saves him from becoming a one-dimensional representative of chauvin- istic nationalism. Instead, Captain America increasingly becomes the reflective hero. in an iconic issue, stan Lee and artist and co-writer Gene Colan have him question his actions and ethos over five of the 20 pages.70 the passage generat- ed many months of letter-page discussion, involving readers and Lee about pat- riotism. With this issue, reflectiveness became a permanent trait of the series and its hero. His ethos and critical reflectiveness also made Captain American the leader of the resistance to governmental control of superheroes in Marvel Comics’ Civil War event of 2006/7 – and have him resign that role after he has experienced the disastrous consequences of the ensuing conflict. his striving for freedom and his critical thinking mean that Captain America constantly works for the tikkun of the world, in which he finds his identity. And even though he identifies his quest as fighting for freedom, namely the freedom of individuals, that quest cannot be fulfilled by realization of his own freedom; his task is to work for a society whose freedom and constitution go hand in hand, for a community that offers relationships of freedom and thus constitutes a body politic. Captain America was a communitarian long before communitari- anism appeared in the 1980s as a political theory – and his communitarianism is a product of his ties to Judaism and to the Judaistic concept of community as the necessary context for and counterpart to becoming an individual. in Bru- baker’s revival of Bucky, the character regains his identity in relation to the peo- ple in the world around him and by redeeming the deeds of his past life as the 69 Avengers 4/1964, 12. 70 Captain America 122/1970, 1–5.