Marvel has it's Israeli super heroes ( Sabra & Seraph) and so does DC in case you all didn't know. The Hayoth is a division of Mossad (Israeli intelligence agency) that consists of a group of four unique individuals. Ramban is a mystic with powers not unlike that of Dr. Fate or Dr.Strange. Golem possesses elemental like abilities that makes him the clay version of the T-1000 from Terminator II. Judith is a martial arts expert who uses a variety of ninja like weapons. Although she doesn't appear to have any super human powers she has been known to hold her own while fighting Batman and Bronze Tiger (but not at the same time) which says a lot for her skills as a hand to hand combatant. Dybbuk is the last member who is actually and artificial intelligence developed by Israeli science (who also gave us the pill camera, most early cell phone tech. and aol IM software among other non-sceince fiction innovations). He is represented as a little green hologram of a bald man with no clothes. Try to imagine the Silver Surfer as green and about the size of a doll and there you go. We first see the Hayoth in issue #45 when Egypt's government hires the Suicide Squad to go after Kobra who is up to no good in Jerusalem. They later reappear in the "Mystery of The Atom" story line in which the Hayoth get embroiled in a big international conspiracy cluster fuck of a situation that has the Justice League, Suicide Squad and the Jihad all in one big battle royale. We last see them in an interesting sub story line toward the end of the series in which Dybbuk "marries" Mindboggler who has long since existed only as a computer program. Mazel Tov to both of them! Apparently The Hayoth never appeared in Checkmate which I think is unfortunate because they would have been perfect for that title. While doing some research for this posting I discovered some interesting stuff from John Ostrander about the inspiration for the Hayoth:Ostrander and Yale created Ramban five years ago for DC's Suicide Squad series. Ramban, along with a warrior named Judith, an artificial intelligence named Dybbuk and a hero named the Golem formed the Hayoth, an Israeli superteam the squad battled in Israel. Ostrander said Yale asked people about the Kaballah, which is part of Ramban's Conservative Jewish background. The writers "pieced together types of [magic] spells" based on that research. Neither Ostrander nor Yale is Jewish. But Ostrander grew up in Chicago's East Rogers Park section, which has a large Jewish population. So, he said, he "always had" an appreciation for Judaism. Ostrander said Ramban is a "nice counterpart" to Father Craemer, another character in the series. He said the two men are "in many ways very much alike. They're strong representatives of their faith. "He's one of the more pleasant characters," Ostrander said of Ramban. "He's got a great deal of honesty."
However, where as the Hayoth have dealt with threats toward their country against the likes of Kobra and the Jihad, they may not be up to dealing with the worst threat of all to the Promise Land: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN75px-0KIo
Oh. I don't know. I think they could take him. Especially if he had enough booze in him.
ReplyDeleteand if the Hayoth couldn't they could always call the Malibu police department. they handled gibson before. and the best part about it is that one of the cops who pulled gibson over really was a Jew.
ReplyDeleteSee. There you go. Normal people can be Superheroes too. Didn't we see a blog about that recently? I think anyone who pulls over Melly-boy qualifies.
ReplyDeleteAs a former counsellor I run with the line normal people are the greatest superheroes of all Random :D The hero you need is always the one inside you. (wait I'm suddenly sounding like Mariah Carey) lol.
ReplyDeleteI always like it when diversity shows up in comics. In any form. You get pretty tired of heroes always being Caucasian males from Manhattan.
ya see folks, this is why we love Dan from IADW. not an anti-Semitic bone in his body. but i still say Dan that the comic book industry is in need of a character to really put New Zealand on the map. with that being said my next posting is going to be about a male Caucasian from Australia.
ReplyDeleteRamban was at one of the funniest scenes in on of the last issues of the squad. Remember when That woman from diablo verde, wanted to kill Waller, and make Digger hostage. He didn't resist at all, while he thought only Waller was in Danger, but when Ramban started reciting some gibberish, pretending it was a spell, Digger immediately reacted and throw the woman at the floor to protect himself.
ReplyDeleteAnd when he was asked which divinity he had named on his would be spell, Ramban said he had read it in a comic.
i sure do remember Aliera. that happened right after Dybbuk and Mindboggler got "married". it was a great Squad moment with both Boomerang and Ramban it had me laughing from beginning to end the first time i read it.
ReplyDeleteYeah! And they changed names to something more normal and sweet in front that guy that wanted to use them. One of my favorite scenes too.
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