In the comics, Sabra is also a member of Mossad, the Israeli intelligence force; she works for Israel in the most literal sense. Sabra’s powers were first said to be the result of the “Israeli super-agent program,” hence her super-strength, flight and ability to shoot “energy quills.” Then, a later retcon gave her a new origin: she’s a mutant. She’s never officially joined the X-Men, but she fought alongside her fellow mutants against Bastion during the ’90s “Operation: Zero Tolerance” story.
This isn’t simple worldbuilding. It ties back to Sabra’s original ethos, because “X-Men” is strongly tied to Jewish identity. Stan Lee, Jack Kirby (the comic’s creators), and Chris Claremont (the most important “X-Men” writer) were/are all Jewish. The way mutants face persecution (where “normal” people fear they’ll be “replaced” by an infiltrating minority) mirrors antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Claremont wrote Professor X and Magneto’s dispute about mutant rights to mirror ideological splits in Zionism, with Xavier being David Ben-Gurion (the first Prime Minister of Israel) and Magneto being Menachem Begin (founder of the right-wing, and currently in-power, Likud party). In 1981, the same year Sabra debuted, Claremont remade Magneto into a Holocaust survivor and, in effect, Marvel’s most famous Jewish character.
Rumors suggest that Marvel Studios might be looking at Denzel Washington to play Magneto — which in turn suggests they could be rewriting his origin so he faced a different oppression, rather than the Holocaust. If so, that’s a terrible decision, gutting the Jewish heart of Magneto in favor of “realism.” (Yeah, no Holocaust survivor alive today is young enough to be a super-villain, but when has the Marvel Universe ever been known for realism? It’s not like anti-semitism is a vanquished evil either.)
The flip side of that is trying to remake Sabra as not an Israeli avatar. I keep asking myself why Marvel Studios included her at all? She’s a pretty obscure character to begin with, so it’s not like the MCU was incomplete without Sabra. Since Haas’ Sabra is so different, why not just adapt a different character for the film?
There is no way to adapt Sabra and satisfy everyone like Marvel always aims to, as seen by the storm of controversy “Brave New World” still stirred up even with its revised Ruth Bat-Seraph. Pro-Israel people who would probably appreciate comic Sabra might feel snubbed, while for Pro-Palestinians, her very presence in the film is a tacit endorsement of Israel — a country so supposedly noble it can have its own superhero.
“Captain America: Brave New World” is playing in theaters.
