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  1. #1
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    Default IS SUPERMAN CIRCUMCISED? wins 2021 Diagram Prize

    IS SUPERMAN CIRCUMCISED? [The Complete Jewish History of the World's Greatest Hero] by Roy Schwartz won the Diagram Prize for the oddest title of 2021. Note this is not an award for the content--although books in the running, like this one, tend to be scholarly works--it's just an award for the title.

    I haven't read the book myself--I'll have to hunt it down--but hearing Roy Schwartz talk about it on the radio with Carol Off, host of AS IT HAPPENS, piqued my interest.

    Here's the link for the CBC article.

  2. #2
    Invincible Member Vordan's Avatar
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    What a title well-deserved win lol. I read the article and I quite enjoyed it, is it just an excerpt from the book? Will need to track the book down if so.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Vordan View Post
    What a title well-deserved win lol. I read the article and I quite enjoyed it, is it just an excerpt from the book? Will need to track the book down if so.
    The quotes in the article are from his interview with Carol on AS IT HAPPENS. I believe he said the book runs about 400 pages, but that a lot of that is images.

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    Astonishing Member Adekis's Avatar
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    Some title! I'd be interested in reading the contents of this book but I think I'd print out an alternative dust jacket with only the subtitle, just for my own embarrassment at the premise of a book about Superman having a title about penises!
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  5. #5
    Extraordinary Member Primal Slayer's Avatar
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    Well we know Bruce is....

    I'd say that New52 Superman probably wasnt. Every other Superman...totally.

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    I would guess he was circumcised on Krypton, unless he was just an embryo when the planet blew up. I guess if it's a version of Supes that doesn't gain his powers right away, he could be circumcised in Smallville. But if he's invulnerable, it couldn't be done. In Smallville, the Kents seem to be Methodist--but lots of Christian kids are circumcised, it's just not in a religious ceremony.

    Kryptonopolis seems like a quasi-Jewish place. The House of El, for example--El being Hebrew for God or like God or of God.

  7. #7
    Extraordinary Member Lukmendes's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Kelly View Post
    I would guess he was circumcised on Krypton, unless he was just an embryo when the planet blew up. I guess if it's a version of Supes that doesn't gain his powers right away, he could be circumcised in Smallville. But if he's invulnerable, it couldn't be done. In Smallville, the Kents seem to be Methodist--but lots of Christian kids are circumcised, it's just not in a religious ceremony.

    Kryptonopolis seems like a quasi-Jewish place. The House of El, for example--El being Hebrew for God or like God or of God.
    If he wasn't circumcised in Krypton, then versions of Supes like pre-crisis wouldn't be circumcised at all, since he was invulnerable even as a baby.

    Post-crisis would be fair game regardless, since it tends to take years for his powers to develop now, even if he is Superboy at some point.

    And man, that is definitely a weird title, I even clicked on this thread to see what the discussion was about .

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    I'm not clicking on the link because the question would have made more sense had it read -- Since Kal-El was born to a Jewish mother and father on Krypton, had he undergone a Brit Milah before they rocketed him to Earth?
    Last edited by Micabe; 12-04-2021 at 09:24 PM. Reason: Typo correction...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Micabe View Post
    I'm not clicking on the link because the question would have made more sense had it read -- Since Kal-El was born to a Jewish mother and father on Krypton, had he undergone a Brit Milah before they rocketed him to Earth?
    You don't need to click the link--I just included it for the sake of giving a reference. The title of the book is just a hook to get people interested--as proven by it winning the Diagram Prize. The subtitle indicates what the book is actually about--"The Complete Jewish History of the World's Greatest Hero." That is to say, it's about the Jewish influences on Superman and not so much about whether Superman is actually Jewish in the stories. At least that's what I've gathered, without having read the book.

  10. #10
    Extraordinary Member Restingvoice's Avatar
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    Well if he is, it has to happen when he was a baby, in the version where he doesn't get all his powers as a baby, but slowly, over time, the earliest I remember was he got the jump at age 4 in Birthright and he's strong enough to dent the ceiling... Donner Superman can lift cars, was he invulnerable too?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lukmendes View Post
    If he wasn't circumcised in Krypton, then versions of Supes like pre-crisis wouldn't be circumcised at all, since he was invulnerable even as a baby.

    Post-crisis would be fair game regardless, since it tends to take years for his powers to develop now, even if he is Superboy at some point.

    And man, that is definitely a weird title, I even clicked on this thread to see what the discussion was about .
    thank you for the info

    New 52 Superman got superhearing at 10 but I don't remember everything else

    Quote Originally Posted by Primal Slayer View Post
    Well we know Bruce is....
    It also fits now that Bruce's mother's Jewish

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    Extraordinary Member superduperman's Avatar
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    So...what are we thinking? Yes, no...? What do we think Krypton culture does?
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    Astonishing Member OBrianTallent's Avatar
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    I wouldn't necessarily think that he would be. He was found as a baby of indeterminant age of just months, not necessarily days old. However, Jon and Martha might have had it done so he would seem to fit in more.
    However as for the book, that title is hilarious and perfect...it gets one's attention. The book itself is a topic I have always found an interest in. I wrote a paper in college on the book The Seduction of the Innocent with a sizable portion of the paper going into the fallacy of Superman being a Nazi ideal as Wertham suggested, but rather a creation based on Jewish theology and mythology. (I had no argument for Wonder Woman lol.)

  13. #13
    Extraordinary Member Lukmendes's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Primal Slayer View Post
    Well we know Bruce is....

    I'd say that New52 Superman probably wasnt. Every other Superman...totally.
    Why Nupes specifically probably wasn't?

    Quote Originally Posted by Restingvoice View Post
    Well if he is, it has to happen when he was a baby, in the version where he doesn't get all his powers as a baby, but slowly, over time, the earliest I remember was he got the jump at age 4 in Birthright and he's strong enough to dent the ceiling... Donner Superman can lift cars, was he invulnerable too?
    Donner Superman was so invulnerable that his hair could be used to hold some big ass weight... And then Lex cuts it with some scissors in the same scene, so, more or less? .

    thank you for the info
    You're welcome.

    New 52 Superman got superhearing at 10 but I don't remember everything else
    Morrison's Action Comics had his power set be like Golden Age at first, so he lacked the usual powers like flight, superspeed, heat vision and whatnot, that means his powers got developed slowy over time, so as a kid he probably lacked invulnerability.

    To support this, and for Kara to have her powers right away, it's mentioned that before she landed on Earth, her ship was flying around the sun for a while so she gets super powers, I don't think it's specified how long the ship did that, but it's probably years.

    And then we got a gigantic plot hole with Zod and Ursa having powers as soon as they leave the Phantom Zone... Which's the exact same plot hole we got when he was introduced in pre-Flashpoint, which also established that Kryptonians take years to get powers under the yellow sun and also made an excuse for Kara to have her powers right away (There were panels that bombarded with yellow sunlight on the way, which makes you wonder why that's not something Kryptonians have by default, but nevermind that ).

    Quote Originally Posted by OBrianTallent View Post
    I wouldn't necessarily think that he would be. He was found as a baby of indeterminant age of just months, not necessarily days old. However, Jon and Martha might have had it done so he would seem to fit in more.
    However as for the book, that title is hilarious and perfect...it gets one's attention. The book itself is a topic I have always found an interest in. I wrote a paper in college on the book The Seduction of the Innocent with a sizable portion of the paper going into the fallacy of Superman being a Nazi ideal as Wertham suggested, but rather a creation based on Jewish theology and mythology. (I had no argument for Wonder Woman lol.)
    From what I hear, Diana had Marston's belief that women are gentler and whatnot, and the stories had this idea that men submitting to women is the better way, with consent and all, so yeah, doubt there's anything nazi there lol.
    Last edited by Lukmendes; 12-06-2021 at 08:23 PM.

  14. #14
    Extraordinary Member superduperman's Avatar
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    Golden Age, Pre-Crisis, and New 52 probably weren't given they all had powers from day one. Ditto any various TV or movie versions who also did. Donner, Smallville, possibly Arrow-verse, etc. Post-Crisis probably was because he got his powers later. Have no idea what the current origin is. So who knows now. Circumcision as we know it seems to be a purely western/Abrahamic religion phenomenon so my guess is Krypton didn't do it.
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    It makes sense that Superman would have grown into his invulnerability rather than had it fully developed as an infant. That would have allowed the Kents to cut young Clark's hair before he was in control of his powers enough to cut it himself using his heat vision. The same thing applies to cutting his nails, which parents have to do with their babies.

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