Anti-circumcision comic hero called anti-Semitic

SAN DIEGO — His fists clenched and muscles rippling beneath a tight blue suit, the yellow-caped character appears poised to take on evil-doers.

But as his name suggests, "Foreskin Man" is not a typical comic-book superhero, and neither is his choice of adversaries: doctors who practice circumcision and Orthodox Jews who support the religious ritual.

San Diego activist Matthew Hess says he conceived the Internet comic series last year as a way to boost his budding national effort to outlaw circumcision — an effort that has led to a measure on San Francisco's ballot in November that would make it illegal to perform a circumcision on a boy under 18.

Recently, though, the comic series has drawn criticism from those who deride Hess' imagery as anti-Semitic and liken it to 1930's Nazi propaganda.