So just earlier today I came across something of a wonderful mystery involving Cloak n' Dagger issue 11 (Volume 2) from 1985. What you see here are two unpublished pages (9 and 15) for a story called O Little Town of Bethlehem in which Cloak n' Dagger get caught up in a West Bank weapons smuggling operation. The published story featured a non super powered female semi protagonist named Beth Stein who is on a personal vendetta to avenge the death of her daughter by terrorists.
There's no mention of Israel or of "palestinians" but it's very obvious that Beth is an Israeli and that the terrorists she's pursuing are palestinians. I always thought that was a bit odd when I first read Cloak n' Dagger 11 as a back issue a few years ago especially considering that Marvel had published stories with Middle East politics in the background in the early 80s with out any drama for first appearance issues (Incredible HULK series ofcourse) of Sabra and The Arabian Knight. And now it would appear as if at some point in this issue's production that it was intended to have Sabra (aka Ruth Bat Seraph) as the semi protagonist instead of this Beth Stein character.
I wish I had more answers about what the Hell went on behind the scenes at the time between original writer Bill Mantlo, penciler June Brigman and editor Carl Potts. I dunno maybe it had something to do with it already having been established that the Sabra character's background involved the murder of her son (presumably only offspring) to palestinian terrorists and that this revenge story line about a murdered daughter would then not make much sense for Sabra? I suspect the reasoning was more political in nature but really who knows?
All I can say for now is that I'm grateful for these two pages that were uncovered even though I have no idea if they're are any more out there from the unpublished Sabra version of Cloak n' Dagger 11. Interestingly enough in the 90s and early 2000s we would see Sabra make appearances in The Hulk, New Warriors, X-Men and Union Jack that took fairly deep dives into hot topics such as The Holocaust and Israel's conflict with the palestinians. And here we are in 2024 with the ongoing MCU Sabra drama for Captain America Brave New World in this post October 7th world with this shit hamas war still ongoing.
Cloak & Dagger 11 as it was published read online https://www.zipcomic.com/cloak-and-dagger-1985-issue-11
No ceasefire without the speedy return of all hostages still in gaza. Fuck hamas and all their useful idiot supporters!
