Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema and Belinda Glass

I was recently reading a copy of Incredible Hulk#256 (written by Bill Mantlo & penciled by Sal Buscema) for the first time in years and noticed something for the first time in a special dialogue box on page 1. Understandably I'm curious who this Belinda Glass is because this is the first time I'm seeing this name associated with Sabra both in published media as well as among all the Sabra fandom out there. After a little research it turns out she was a singer and the late Mark Gruenwald's first wife. I always liked this Hulk issue and appreciated the writing for putting the Israel/Arab conflict into a more objective context as opposed to the more biased interpretation that has been all to common for years now.

The Marvel Team Up that sadly never was

More recently we've seen her in the X-Men sporting a more conventional military uniform look. Sabra's first appearance was actually in Incredible Hulk #250 (1980) which means most likely the character was conceived around the same time or not too long after ROM spaceknight first hit news stands back in the day. But unlike Rom Sabra was not hampered by any sort of copy right issues an thus has been a regular fixture in the Marvel Universe for over 3 decades now. In that time we've seen her in various different costumes (each one cooler then the last) and going from the "Jew fro" to more of a Pat Benatar kinda hair style.

Belinda Glass

Well as many of you know she's a character that along with Rom I really enjoy and have blogged about more then once on not just this blog but my Suicide Squad blog as well. So Belinda where who ever you are I just wanted to say thanks and make sure that at least a few more people out there know who gave Bill and Sal the inspiration for Marvel's first Jewish super hero. I can't help but wonder if Glass was herself Jewish or just happened to be someone who was very knowledgeable about Israeli culture. Information for Glass on the internet is scant at best but I'm still looking into it so hopefully I may have an update for this posting in the near future.

Left click to enlarge

Sabra is tough and sharp on the outside but sweet on the inside just like her name sake. Here she is letting my friend take a picture of me next her during my visit to The Western Wall (called The Kotel in Hebrew) at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.