Seite - 109 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Band 03/01

Deconstructing Gilgul, Finding Identity | 109www.jrfm.eu 2017, 3/1, 105–121 more traditionally American) idea of individual identity as something constitut- ed only by the subject and only free of social bounds, but it is in line with the broad Judaistic tradition of emphasizing the importance of community and the Judaistic topos of healing the world. the MANy LiVes Of CAPtAiN AMeriCA AND BUCKy When Joe simon and Jack Kirby launched Captain America Comics in the early 1940s, America had not yet entered the second World War. yet the two au- thors had their hero sock Hitler in the face on the cover of the first issue, even though that scene was not taken up in any of the stories featured inside.19 Like the majority of the Jewish American population, both authors strongly favored American participation in the war,20 as a product of their concern for european Jews. their Captain America comics thus functioned on one level as a popular form of littérature engagée. even though simon and Kirby stayed with their cre- ation only for the first ten issues – they left Timely Comics, and other authors, including stan Lee, continued the production – their political engagement in the series laid the groundwork for Captain America’s strong links to reflective discourse about ideas, values and questions of societal existence. the Captain America comics of the 1940s were an undoubted success, with some million copies per issue sold. it is therefore hardly surprising that Lee and Kirby wished to reuse the character (after a short and unsuccessful stint in the 1950s) when Marvel Comics debuted in the 1960s. seeking to build on the suc- cess of the 1940s, they planned to revive the original character, the “living leg- end of World War ii” as the splash page of Tales of Suspense had it from issue 69/1965 on. to do so they invented a narrative gimmick that bridged the gap between Captain America’s first appearance and his revival. In Avengers 4/1964, Captain America is found by Prince Namor, another creation of the 1940s, inside a large ice block in the Arctic Ocean, and subsequently thawed out and rescued by the Avengers. his frozen state explains why he has not aged in appearance, but the cryo-hibernation determines not only his unaltered physical state but also his psychological condition, his unchanged personality and mindset, which have not been touched by the passing decades, societal changes and cultural developments. Lee and Kirby could thus ensure that readers identified in their Captain America precisely the character who had been such a success in the 1940s – and would not confused him with the unsuccessful endeavor of the 1950s. But by planting the unaltered Captain America of the 1940s in the 1960s without giving him the chance to experience, and psychologically evolve with, 19 Captain America Comics 1/1941. 20 Brod 2012, 66, 69; Fingeroth 2007, 57.