Marvel removes Jewish superhero Sabra's Israeli identity for new Captain America movie

The Israeli background of Marvel Comics superhero Sabra has been removed for her depiction in the upcoming Marvel Studios Captain America: Brave New World movie, according to a Friday official summary of the film.

While in the original Marvel comics continuity, Ruth Bat-Seraph serves as the Mossad agent mutant superhero Sabra, in a recent summary for the February 2025 film Bat-Seraph is described as a former member of the Soviet Russian Black Widow super spy program – the same program that trained Scarlett Johansson’s Avengers of the same name.

Played by Israeli actress Shira Hass, Bat-Seraph is “a former Black Widow, Ruth is now a high-ranking US government official who has the trust of President [Thaddeus] Ross.”

The summary made no mention of Bat-Seraph’s codename, Sabra, which comes from the slang term for native-born Israeli, though other characters are referred to by their alter-egos.

Anti-Israel activists have taken issue with the inclusion of Sabra in the film since the Unorthodox star’s casting was announced by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige at the 2022 D23 Expo event in Anaheim, California.

American Muslims for Palestine launched a letter campaign against Disney and Marvel Studios soon after the “distasteful” announcement, complaining that the character served “a state that is recognized by the entire human rights community as an apartheid regime, guilty of ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Palestinian people.”

Calling to 'Immediately reverse the harm'

AMP contended that the promotion of the Israeli Mossad super agent character normalized the “murderous intelligence agency,” and that her name evoked the memory of the Sabra neighborhood in which Palestinians and Lebanese Shias were massacred in 1982 by Israeli-aligned Lebanese Christian Phalangist militias during the Lebanese Civil War.

“We call on Disney & Marvel Studios to immediately reverse the harm it has caused and to immediately cancel the thoughtless plan to feature ‘Sabra’ in its upcoming Marvel film,” AMP had said.

In response to the controversy surrounding the inclusion of Bat-Seraph, Marvel Studios told entertainment industry paper Variety in 2022 that while its characters were inspired by the original comics, “they are always freshly imagined for the screen and today’s audience, and the filmmakers are taking a new approach with the character Sabra who was first introduced in the comics over 40 years ago.”

Israeli activist Hen Mazzig responded to the news on Monday by noting on social media that it was acceptable to make the Bat-Seraph character Russian while Russia was engaged in an invasion of Ukraine, but not Israeli, while the Jewish State was responding to Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack. He also noted that Marvel had pushed the inclusion of Black, Asian, and Muslim superheroes in response to discrimination, but in response to the October Massacre and a subsequent wave of antisemitism had chosen to erase “the only Israeli superhero.”

Video game and culture commentator Brianna Wu said that Marvel stripped Sabra of her identity for “political expediency” in response to criticism.

“Marvel had no issue with ignoring the morons for Black Panther. And even though Marvels was awful, they stuck to their guns,” said Wu. “Guess Jews don’t count.”

Sabra originally appeared in the 1980s in the Incredible Hulk comic series, created by writer Bill Mantlo and artist Sal Buscema. The character has superhuman strength, speed, and life-force transferal. She typically is armed with a cape that allows her to fly and shoot quills.

In the fourth Captain America film, the title of the eponymous superhero is assumed by Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson. Wilson is tasked with the investigation of an incident involving Carl Lumby’s retired super soldier Isaiah Bradley. Harrison Ford debuts as the newly elected Ross, who was originally played by the late William Hurt. In the comics, the Hulk antagonist was later revealed to have become the mysterious Red Hulk, who also features in the film.

Gadi Zaig contributed to this report. 

Gadi Zaig contributed to this report.