Thing Theory: Religion, Secret Identities, and Benjamin Jacob Grimm

• In Event: Secret Identity Politics: Jewish Texts, Jewish Lives, and Super Jews

Abstract

For the first forty years of comic book history, religion was notably absent from almost all superhero biographies. “Mocking” religion was explicitly forbidden under the Comics Code, so an abundance of caution led nervous creators to just avoid the subject entirely. And yet, it would appear that The Thing, created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in 1961, was always meant to be Jewish. His name – Benjamin Jacob Grimm – certainly sounds Jewish enough, and as a giant, rock-like protector he is a dead ringer for a golem. And yet even the most well-known canonically Jewish comic book characters were sort of crypto-Jews for decades. But as other characters like Magneto and Kitty Pryde “came out,” so to speak, as Jewish, The Thing’s background was left opaque. This paper argues that this opacity became, in a sense, the true mask that The Thing wore. By obscuring Grimm’s Jewishness for over four decades his creators kept that as the ultimate secret identity—hinted at but never fully revealed. Using Tom Morris’ work on secret identities, as well as elements of Easton and Harrison’s THE SECRET IDENTITY READER, I demonstrate that Ben Grimm’s Jewishness was his real secret identity; The Thing was a golem who served his purpose, powerfully protecting this Jew. Tom Morris noted that, “every mask leaves an impression on the person who wears it. And any mask may eventually become more of a reality than we ever imagined.” Ben Grimm was finally revealed to be Jewish in 2002, a full forty one years after he first appeared. In a sense, then, Ben’s background, his upbringing, his Jewishness was the real secret identity, and The Thing was the public face that hid the man underneath. Accordingly, this paper will shed light on the ways that obscurations and revelations of Grimm’s Jewishness reflect broader trends in the formation of American Jewish identities: the obscuring of Grimm’s Jewishness reflects the mid-century fear of surplus visibility, while the 21st century revelation of his Jewishness indicates a shift from seeing Jewish identity as central to seeing it as one of many identity markers.

Author

• Jennifer Caplan, Towson University