As a Jewish fan of superhero comic books, it brings me great joy that the superhero genre has such a long history with the Jewish community. Not only was the medium largely founded by Jewish immigrants in America in the early twentieth century, such as Joe Schuster (co-creator of Superman) and children of immigrants such as Jack Kirby (co-creator of Captain America and many other Marvel characters), Will Eisner (creator of “The Spirit”) and Jerry Siegel (Superman’s other creator), but comics have a strong history of Jewish characters as well — such as The Thing, Moon Knight, Harley Quinn, Green Lantern, Magneto and my personal favorite Kitty Pryde, who I named myself after.
However, many of those Jewish comic book characters are not household names, and, even if you’re a superhero fan yourself, I’d wager I listed one or two you didn’t know were Jewish. But there’s one I didn’t know was Jewish myself until recently: Batman. I’m not talking about an alternate universe variant or anything of the sort, nor am I saying that Batman is only arguably Jewish. Bruce Wayne, the main comic version, is one hundred percent canonically Jewish.
This happened when Batman’s cousin was introduced. Bruce’s first cousin, Kate Kane, is the superhero Batwoman. Her Jewish identity is important to her backstory and a core part of her character. Her father’s family was Jewish as well, and her aunt was Martha Wayne, Bruce’s mom. This means that Batman is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Batman is Jewish, and it’s rarely ever been acknowledged that he is.
As far as I could tell, Bruce Wayne himself having any Jewish identity has only been stated twice, albeit implicitly. In the recent issue The Penguin #7, Bruce mentions his mother having received a Hanukkah gift from his father and in a 2021 issue, after Alfred dies, Bruce places a stone on Alfred’s grave, a Jewish custom I myself have participated in.
Detective Comics, Inc. has never explicitly said Bruce Wayne identifies as Jewish, and that really irks me. Jews could have one of the most iconic characters in the superhero genre (and arguably fiction as a whole) to call our own. I wish a household name like Batman being Jewish was a widely celebrated fact when, instead, it’s essentially just a fan theory.
I don’t want to speculate as to why DC hasn’t made Batman’s Judaism explicit; I don’t want to cry antisemitism when it could just be that no higher-ups at DC have noticed. But I have noticed, as have other Jewish comic fans. Representation is important, and so is Batman. So let’s say it together: Batman is Jewish.
Your move, DC.
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Kate is a student at the University of Arizona. She loves improv comedy and comic books.
