In 1974, Marvel Comics Group introduced a bold new monster-hero to the readers of Strange Tales. Subtitled “The Thing That Walks Like a Man,” the character was a big, brutish, superpowered man of stone. Sound familiar? But in fact, this “thing” had been around … for about 500 years. The bloodline of Frankenstein, Superman, Captain America and the original Human Torch (both labcreated supermen), and iconic Marvel monster-heroes such as Hulk, Tales of the Zombie’s Simon Garth, and, yes, even the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing, harkens back to the Jewish folk tale about the all-powerful stone automaton the Golem. The Eastern European legend had survived via generations of Ashkenazi Jews, right down to their descendants, who included the Jewish superhero creators that dominated comics’ Golden and Silver Ages. So it was inevitable that by the ’70s, after decades chronicling the adventures of popular characters that may as well be “crypto-Golems,” Marvel finally released its official take on the medieval legend. Strange Tales featuring the Golem made its splashy debut in #174 (June 1974). Four issues later, the character was Golem, Golem, gone! So, what happened? Let’s voyage back in time and find out…
BEFORE FRANKENSTEIN, SUPERMAN, THING, AND HULK…
“Oh, dreidel, dreidel, dreidel! I made it out of clay…” goes the old Chanukah song. But back in the 16th century, one Rabbi Loew topped that by a country mile when he turned a giant slab of clay into the Golem. The year is 1580 A.D. The place is Prague. There are many variations of this old story. One version, from The Prague Golem: Jewish Stories of the Ghetto, recounts how “a priest called Thaddeus—a fanatical anti-Semite— tried again to … bring about discord and … evoke new superstitious accusations of blood rituals. Rabbi Loew soon learned about it and raised a question ‘upwards’ in his dream to find a solution to the problem how he should fight against the evil enemy. He received the following answer: ‘You shall create Golem from clay and may the malicious antiSemitic mob be destroyed.’ “Rabbi Loew interpreted the line of strange words so that he should create a living body from clay with the aide of the letters provided from heaven. He called for Jizchak ben Simson, his son-in-law, and for a disciple of his, Jacob ben Chajim Sasson, the Levite, and entrusted them with the mystery of how a Golem should be created. “…Together we shall create Golem from the fourth element which is the earth.”
To Protect and to Serve A dramatic scene rendered by John Buscema and inked by Jim Mooney, from Strange Tales #174’s Golem origin story (June 1974). © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
72 • BACK ISSUE • Monsters Issue
by
Michael Aushenker