Holy Heroes!!

News, Marvels and Miracles

2010-03-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

This blog seems mostly defunct. I certainly haven't posted in a very long time.

But it seemed an appropriate place to share this news. The long disputed Marvelman/Miracleman returns to shelves in June (and it looks like he will be going by "Marvelman" again). I'm excited. How about you?

Jesus loves Superman

2009-09-08T22:32:00.000-07:00

Warning! The following link may not be safe for work, particularly if you work at the Vatican! If images of grown men passionately kissing one another offend you, especially if one of them is Jesus and/or Superman, this link is probably not for you!

...and apparently Superman loves Jesus right back.

Racy stuff. Or is it? Maybe the artist is actually quite traditional and is suggesting that Superman will betray Jesus.

(Via the inimitable and nigh invulnerable Thomas of Say It Backwards.)

PS: Oddly enough, the preceding blog post on Newsarama features Warren Ellis belatedly trying his hand at the whole crucified super-hero thing. The comic is called Supergod and sounds like it has a few things in common with Miracleman and Black Summer.

Subtle faith in Strikeforce: Morituri

2009-09-08T18:52:00.000-07:00

Over at SF Gospel, some thoughts on the overlooked '80s series Strikeforce: Morituri:

The Morituri process gives [Adept] the ability to comprehend anything, from mechanical technologies to complex life-forms to abstract scientific concepts, if given enough exposure to them. She's also a Christian, and though the volume of her faith is perhaps a little bit louder than one usually sees in the real world (witness the cross motif on her costume), Gillis handles it with much more subtlety than most other writers would. It's an important aspect of her character, but it's not the only aspect of it, and it never becomes a punchline.

Superhero spirituality at Cornerstone

2009-04-15T13:37:00.000-07:00

An announcement: I've been invited to speak at this year's Cornerstone Festival (in Bushnell, Illinois, from July 1-3)!

"But I thought that was a Christian music festival, and as far as I know you're not a musician!", you say? Well, you're correct. But part of the festival is the Imaginarium, which houses seminars on a variety of topics. This year's title is "Make. Believe. Heroes"—in other words, the religious aspects of superheroes. I'll be giving three one-hour sessions on the morality and ontology of superhero universes under the title "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility." The full summary:

Despite the deconstructed superness of Watchmen et al., the original point of superheroes wasn't to make us wish we had superpowers -- though that certainly would be fun! -- but rather to make us wish for the clear moral discernment that allows superheroes to do the right thing. The creators of the most influential superheroes -- immigrants or children of immigrants like Siegel and Schuster or Jack Kirby -- used their creations to imagine a better world where the powerless had a stronger voice. This seminar explores superheroes as champions of the downtrodden, and notions of superhero morality.

Other sessions in the Imaginarium will cover Watchmen, moral grey zones in postmodern superheroics, and saints as superheroes. Check out the full schedule here, and perhaps I'll see you there!

In tangentially-related news, at Comics Should Be Good, Brian Cronin shares his favorite Mid-90s Badass Jesus Comic (to wit: Glory/Avengelyne II: The Godyssey #1).

Spiritual Solicitations Backlog Explosion!

2009-04-06T17:53:00.001-07:00

I've been tearing pages out of Previews of things I've wanted to post here for four months or so now, but Assorted Factors have kept me from posting them until now. Some of these have been out for weeks or even months now; some won't be out until May. So now, in the order they are piled up on my desk (which is no order at all), here 's another batch of Spiritual Solicitations!

Solicitation links courtesy of Comixology, from whom Diamond could learn a thing or two about presentation!

Jesus Christ: In the Name of the Gun

Bad Karma Productions
Written by Eric Peterson and Ethan Nicolle, art by Ethan Nicolle

Jesus Hates Zombies. Loaded Bible: Jesus vs. Vampires. Jesus Christ: Vampire Hunter. And now, Jesus Christ: In the Name of the Gun. One wonders if the creators of edgy, irreverent comics about a butt-kicking Jesus know about the Christian men's movement, which is basically this minus the "edgy" and "irreverent"? In any event, I blame Garth Ennis. (Garth Ennis has been responsible for a lot of unfortunate things lately...)

Pandora Box Vol. 1: Pride

Cinebook
Written by Alcante, art by Didier Pagot

This is the first volume in a seven-part series about Greek mythology and the seven deadly sins; the "Pride" volume involves mysterious conspiracies, cloning, and the dangers of hubristic technology. I'm intrigued-- but not twelve bucks worth of intrigued, alas.

The Wolverton Bible

Fantagraphics Books
Art by Basil Wolverton; Introduction by Grant Geissman

Now this is exciting. Basil Wolverton, the delightfully deranged mind behind some of the strangest SF comics of the Golden Age and the most grotesque material from the early Mad Magazine, "was also a deeply religious man who over two decades created over 550 drawings illustrating the Old Testament." Awesome. But the real prize here may be 20 images illustrating the Book of Revelation, which must look pretty darned interesting through Wolverton's eyes. (But minus 10 points from Fantagraphics for calling it "Revelations" in their catalog copy!) I never would have guessed Wolverton was a closet Doré, but as someone who's a fan of the weird, the religious, and the weird religious, it's more than welcome news.

Fantagraphics has made the book's introduction available online; you can read it here.

American Jesus Vol. 1: Chosen

Dark Horse Comics
Written by Mark Millar, art by Peter Gross

This is a collection of Millar's 2004 miniseries Chosen, which presents the story of a young messiah as a sort of origin story for a teen superhero. The book was an enormous missed opportunity-- but I can't say why without spoiling the ending. (I will say that "spoil" is an appropriate term when describing this story: the ending completely spoils what should have been a great story. It's still worth reading, but I can only really endorse the first two-thirds.) I've been hoping to write something about it here to expand on what I wrote in The Gospel According to Science Fiction, and now it looks like I may have good reason to-- that "Volume One" in the title makes it virtually certain that Millar will be returning to the young savior soon. I'll hold of saying more for now, but I will have more to say on this soon.

Missing the Boat

Image Comics/Shadowline
Written by Wayne Chinsant and Justin Shady, art by Dwellephant

The subtitle of this cute-looking tale is "The Offered Salvation and Inevitable Demise of the Churamane." The Churamane are a lazy species of animal that are invited aboard Noah's Ark, but arrive too late and are doomed to extinction in the Flood. Sounds fun, right?

Rapture #1

Dark Horse Comics
Written by Michael Avon Oeming and Taki Soma; art by Michael Avon Oeming

The Rapture is about as overused an idea as butt-kicking Jesus (see above). But I really, really like this take: this series, helmed by Powers artist and all-around cool guy Oeming, takes place in a superhero world from which all the superheroes and villains have vanished. After a century of good and evil battling it out in public, just-plain-folks are left to sort out their confusing world. What happens when the gods no longer walk the earth? Yeah, I'll be reading this one.

Absolute Promethea vol. 1

Wildstorm
Written by Alan Moore, art by J.H. Williams III and Mick Gray

Promethea is a darned good series. Not only is it Alan Moore's ultimate statement on magic, religion, art, and the nature of reality, it also features some of the best art ever to sport word balloons. (Have I mentioned lately that I own the original art for the Moebius strip page from #15? Sorry-- I periodically need to brag about that.) So I'm pretty excited about the prospect of this series getting the oversized, super-deluxe Absolute treatment. What I'm not pleased about is doing it in three volumes instead of two-- compare this volume (twelve issues and 328 pages) to the first volume of Absolute Sandman (20 issues and 612 pages)-- both with the same $99 price tag. I'd hope for a slightly higher page count-- but it's hard to complain too much, given how great Promethea is going to look in this format. [See also: Absolute Death. Which sounds like a metal compilation, doesn't it?]

I Did It His Way: Classic B.C. Religious Strips

Thomas Nelson Books
by Johnny Hart

How can I put this diplomatically? I've always... been a non-fan... of Johnny Hart's religious strips. (And his non-religious ones, for that matter.) I'm tempted to read this book, if only to try to decide once and for all if their worst crime is being simplistic, offensive, or just plain unfunny.

Neil Gaiman Presents: Votan

Dark Horse Comics
by John James

Not-actually-comics alert! The "Neil Gaiman Presents" series is "devoted to returning to print long-unavailable works... chosen by Gaiman to represent the origins of his views on classic heroic literature." This one sounds like a pretty good satire; it's the story of a traveling Greek nobleman who is mistaken for a Norse god, and decides to play along.

Sword of My Mouth #1

IDW
Written by Jim Munroe, art by Shannon Gerard

Like Oeming's The Rapture above, this might be another exception to the general overdonneness of the (did I mention it's not scriptural, but was invented in the 19th century?) Rapture as a plot device. It's a sequel to Munroe's acclaimed-and-I-haven't-read-it-yet-but-I-want-to story from last year, Therefore, Repent! I've made an interlibrary loan request for the beginning of the story; if it's good I will definitely be checking out this sequel.

Still no Confessor review part two

2009-03-27T07:52:00.000-07:00

Hey, remember when I posted the first half of a review of Kurt Busiek's Astro City: Confession? And I said I would "continue with an examination of the character of the Confessor in my next post, later this week"? And remember how that was over a month ago? Yeah, sorry about that. It's still coming.

In the mean time, check out my webcomic: Thpam! I'm clearly still finding my feet, but I have plans, oh good gracious do I have plans.

WATCHING THE DETECTIVES

2009-03-24T07:02:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all. I have a review of Watchmen-the-movie, here, which touches on some of the existential/theological stuff from the comic; more, focusing on one very graphic scene, here. Thought it might be of interest....

Crucifixion Fixation Redux

2009-03-21T06:22:00.000-07:00

Remember my post about Grant Morrison's frequent use of crucifixion imagery? I found another example:

This is from August 2000, Marvel Boy #1, pages 10 and 11. The art is by J.G. Jones. It was a mini-series from Marvel Comics with only six issues.

Noh-Varr, depicted above, is a Kree alien (possibly from a different dimension). Early in the story he's captured for examination and exploitation by a supervillain named Midas, which is why he's hanging there in a force-field bubble. He (of course) gets away and decides to 'fix' our backwards, evil planet, by any means necessary. So for part of the story he sets himself up as a violent, vengeful messiah.

The image is a clear reference to Salvador Dali's Christ of Saint John of the Cross. Wikipedia tells me that it resides in Scotland, oddly enough, and in 2006 was voted Scotland's favourite painting. Morrison's a Scot; maybe he's a fan.

Woot!

2009-03-10T19:17:00.000-07:00

If you liked what you saw in the excerpt, you'll be excited to learn that you can now watch all of Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues for free here!

Elliot's Favourites in 2008

2009-03-05T11:45:00.000-08:00

Out of the forty-odd graphic novels I read in 2008, these ten were my favourite. Note that they weren't necessarily published in 2008; I just happened to get around to them in that year. I tried not to pick two volumes from the same series (if the other volumes are good I mention it.) Okay, counting down:

10. DC: The New Frontier, volume 1, by Darwyn Cooke. 2004. 208 p.

Cooke re-imagines the origins of the Silver Age DC universe in the Cold War Space Race. Fighter pilots-turned-astronauts jostle with G-men in the shadow of the Korean War and McCarthyism, and everyone's got that hard-drinking Rat Pack style. The art is striking - retro yet not outdated. Some of the storylines are brilliant: Steel, survivor of a lynching, stalks the Jim Crow South slaying members of the Klan; Hal Jordan (later to be Green Lantern) is a hot-shot pilot who refuses to kill ; the Martian Manhunter is endearingly humorous and idealistic. Unfortunately Cooke tries to include just about everyone from the Silver Age. All the old WW2 soldiers, fighter pilots, science-action characters, and murderously ruthless (but basically good at heart!) FBI and CIA agents blur together into one big puddle of square-jawed, buzz-cut testosterone-soaked chest-thumping All-American blah-blah-blah-who-gives-a-crap? This problem becomes unavoidable in the second volume; and the Big Threat revealed therein is kind of lame. So maybe just read the first one.

9. X-Men: Divided We Stand, by Mike Carey, et al. 2008. 136 p.

Ten short stories about individual X-Men, by a variety of authors and artists. The quality varies, but overall it's pretty entertaining. There are some real gems, including a theological-philosophical tale in which Scalphunter is visited by Nightcrawler in both his priestly and demonic guises. I posted a little about the book here and here.

8. The Frank Book, by Jim Woodring. 2003. 351 p.

Plenty of writers and artists try to be surreal. Jim Woodring accomplishes it, maybe because he's not trying so hard. The younger Woodring experienced highly convincing hallucinations, and that's what Frank reads like: a kind of fevered dream that you can't shake off. Frank and his friends and enemies wordlessly wander through a mystical, wondrous and sometimes deeply disturbing (this book is not for kids) dimension that's part Krazy Kat, part early Disney and part oblique parable.

7. Astonishing X-Men: Gifted, by Joss Whedon. 2004. 152 p.

He's not Grant Morrison, but he is Joss Whedon, so he'll do. He picks up the New X-Men where Morrison left them, adds a character, and flings them into one exciting adventure after another. It's typical Whedon, so we get heaps of deadpan, witty repartee, some tough-as-nails women, plenty of relationship issues, lots of violence, and wouldn't you know it - dramatic twists and cliff-hangers! I quite liked the art. All four volumes are good. The drawback is that it's typical Whedon, and if you've seen enough of his TV work this will all start to seem kind of familiar. But enjoyable.

6. Supreme: The Story of the Year, by Alan Moore. 2002. 332 p.

With Alan Moore, the expectations are high. Supreme doesn't disappoint. Having started his career by deconstructing superheroes, Moore has more lately moved on to reconstructing them, to seeing how they work and celebrating what's great about them. With Supreme, Moore revamps a lousy Rob Liefield character (or is that adjective redundant when talking about Liefield's work?) and uses him to do a lengthy and insightful meditation on all things Superman. He plays with the changing nature of superhero stories (all those retcons!) and casts an affectionate eye on the DC Golden and Silver Ages. The style and quality of art varies quite a bit throughout the volume (in part intentionally, to evoke different eras) but the writing is consistently good. (The second volume, Supreme: The Return, is also pretty good and features a wonderful homage to Jack Kirby.)

5. Superman: Birthright, by Mark Waid. 2005. 314 p.

A clever yet sincere up-dating or reboot of the origins of the Man of Steel. It never became canonical but it's still a great new window on the character of Superman, on his compassion and moral power. And it's got a cool vision of the Kryptonians. Click here for the brief review from Say It Backwards that prompted me to read it.

4. The Invisibles, volume 2: Apocalipstick, by Grant Morrison. 2001. 208 p.

The Invisibles is not for those with weak stomachs, and it's bound to offend just about everyone at some point or another. And Morrison admits freely that he was experimenting with drugs while working on the series. He also says that it was designed to be grasped on the second or third read, rather than the first. My first-read impression is that it's a massive sprawling haphazard thing with one big-clever-Morrison-idea piled atop another. They don't always fit together all that well. And I think he's used some of those ideas more effectively elsewhere. But there's plenty of brilliance: from Barbelith to Totep to Triple-U! It's challenging, mystical, cryptical, bad-ass, anarchistic and strange. I think this volume was the most consistently excellent, with a few powerful one-shot tales and with a story arc focusing on transvestite shaman Lord Fanny.

3. Jack Kirby's Fourth World Omnibus, volume 1, by Jack Kirby. 2007. 396 p.

It's King Kirby. Of course it's awesome. It's larger-than-life, exploding-off-the-page, primary-colour awesome. You can actually use this book as a sacred relic to destroy vampires, zombies, bankers and other evil creatures. Just hold it up and shout "TAARU!!!" A blinding light, the Astro Force, will come forth, striking the evildoer and blasting it to oblivion with a mighty Kirby Crackle!! BAZOOM!!

Ahem. The other volumes (which I've been reading this year) are even better (if I were reviewing all four, they'd be at number one on this list.) Grant Morrison provides an almost-embarrassingly gushing introduction to this volume, in which he compares the Fourth World saga to the Bible, like, three or four times. I'm not sure I would have at first understood the awesome nature of the original New Gods if I hadn't been primed for it by Morrison's mythic interpretations of them. I might've been a noob and said: "Why is Jimmy Olsen trading quips with Don Rickles? Who are these newsboys? What the- death on skis??" But, really, you'd have to be blind to miss the raw primal creativity, the sheer cosmic wonder of it all: the flaming disembodied hand writing the commandments of the Source, the divine Mother Box, furious tormented Orion, forbidding majestic Darkseid, "TAARU!" and the Mountain of Judgment and... and... GEE WHIZ! Any children I have will grow up in a nursery that has big, brightly-coloured Jack Kirby characters stenciled on the walls. They'll grow up to be hero-artists, awesome, mighty, and strange.

2. Astro City: Confession, by Kurt Busiek. 1997. 208 p.

This book was electrifying. It knocked my socks off. The Confessor! The Cross-breed! The cover! I... wait, just read Paul's review here.

You should also read the first book, Astro City: Life in the Big City, which is very good. And the rest of the series. But Confession was my favourite. And it's got oodles of religious references. One of the most intriguing takes on religion that I've ever seen in a superhero comic.

1. Top Ten, book 1 by Alan Moore. 2001. 208 p.

Ok, I know I'll get flak for rating this above The Fourth World, The Invisibles, and Astro City. Those are classic works. But for humour and deft, quick character development, Top Ten was the most fun I had with a comic book in 2008. It's part of Moore's reconstruction effort which I mentioned above. In a city where everyone has superpowers, who watches the watchmen? The job falls to a motley group of officers at the 10th Precinct Police Station. Moore has a lot of fun with the backdrop, but it's the interactions amongst the police, and between them and "ordinary" citizens that make the book work. It feels like we're catching a glimpse of the diverse lives of some real people. Moore includes some fascinating religious characters, whom he treats with respect.

You should read Moore's second volume, as well as his prequel, Top Ten: The Forty-Niners (from 2006.) Don't bother reading Paul Di Filippo's contribution to the series, Beyond the Farthest Precinct. It's not the worse comic ever, but after seeing what Moore can do with these characters, it's disappointing to have them reduced to idiotic two-dimensional caricatures - the religious ones most of all. And the plot is largely lifted from PKD's The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. You may also want to skip Smax, Moore's fantasy spin-off of Top Ten. It's got some good moments, but don't spend any money on it.

Superman and the real best of Alan Moore

2009-03-04T07:09:00.001-08:00

Two new things from me today: first, a guest post at Superman blog Say It Backwards on Clark Kent, alter egos, and incarnational theology:

Superman disguises himself as Clark Kent. Right? It says it right there in the opening of the George Reeves TV series. "Disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great Metropolitan newspaper." Kent is the mask, and Superman is the identity.

Or is he?

Read the rest here.

Second, at SF Gospel, a list of 4 Alan Moore stories that are better than Watchmen. Gods-on-earth abound.

Absolute Kingdom Come

2009-02-15T17:25:00.000-08:00

I wanted to point out the cover of the "Absolute" edition of Kingdom Come, which puts the story's religious symbolism right up front. It depicts the Spectre stepping out of a stained-glass window into the church pastored by Norman McCay. (McCay is modelled on Clark Norman Ross, the artist's father and a real-life minister.) Kingdom Come is mostly centered on Superman, but the Spectre is an interesting character in his own right. Created by Jerry Siegel (one of the creators of Superman) in 1940, he has over the years become one of the metaphysical/theological mainstays of the DC Universe. If there's a big mystical story to be told, the Spectre will usually get involved somehow. I mean, c'mon: a guy who can dramatically step out of a stained-glass window without breaking it is pretty cool.

Confession: A review and analysis (with spoilers)--Part One

2009-02-08T20:17:00.000-08:00

Kurt Busiek's Astro City is unfailingly excellent. The series tells stories about a city densely populated with superheroes, many of whom are analogues of iconic superheroes in other comics. In Astro City, Busiek creates characters who occupy a familiar iconic space, without necessarily reproducing the powers or character traits of existing heroes. Samaritan, for example, is the analogue for Superman. He is the apex hero, supremely powerful, and unfailingly benevolent and noble. Jack-in-the-Box is a colourful, wisecracking hero, a stand-in for Spiderman. Winged Victory is a Greco-inspired feminist heroine and stand-in for Wonder Woman.

Astro City: Confession is a story about the Astro City analogue of Batman, told by the equivalent of Robin. Brian Kinney moves to Astro City with the hope of making something of himself and ends up as the apprentice and sidekick of the dark, intimidating, "Confessor".

There is a lot to like about Confession. It's clever, and thoughtful, and it's full of insight about the nature of heroism--treading some of the ground later covered in Marvel's Civil War. And because of the way Astro City's characters are mirrors of DC and Marvel characters, a lot of the insights offered about the Confessor hold true for Batman as well. But some of the most interesting things going on here are about religion. Religion in Confession isn't just a motif, it's a major theme, and Busiek's treatment of that theme is worth paying attention to.

There is an aspect, of course, that all stories about heroes have religious undertones, in that they are about good and evil, they are about salvation, they are often about belief. In Confession, all of these undercurrents are present, as are some more obvious and explicit religious concerns. The first heroes Brian meets in Astro City are a hero team called the Crossbreed. They believe that God has given them their power, and that they must respond by doing his service. Secondly and most obviously, religious themes come up the the character of the Confessor--not just because of his name and costume (emblazoned with a glowing cross), or because he makes his headquarters in the abandoned section of an old abbey, but even more because he is a vampire--and vampires always (say it with me now: ALWAYS) carry Christian resonance.

First, though, the Crossbreed. The six member team consists of David, who is a giant, Daniel who is a lion-man, Joshua who has a sonic scream power, Peter who has the power to manipulate rocks, Moses, who can control rain (and possibly weather in general), and Mary who has wings and can fly like an angel. The biblical Daniel, of course, was not a lion, but survived a night with lions. So while a lion named Daniel is an obvious reference to the story of Daniel and the lion's den, it is the antagonist's power and appearance that are manifested in the comic book character. Likewise, the biblical David defeated a giant, but the comic book David is a giant. Biblical Moses built an ark as protection from the rain, but the comic book Moses controls the rain. This suggests something about he character of the God who gave them these powers. Quite apart from the subversion of expectations that allows the most frightening, beastial character (Daniel, the lion) be the group's healer--a trope borrowed from X-Men and Beast--the Crossbreed's explicitly religious context suggests that these characters are about God's redemptive and transformative power. The antagonistic elements from their source stories are re-imagined as heroic. Even more, they are remade in God's service.

Brian's first encounter with the Crossbreed is on the bus into Astro City, as the bus driver expresses both his cynical attitude toward superheroes in general (and this will be an important theme in the comic) and his disdain for the Crossbreed in particular:

"It's the Jesus Freaks. Again. Why can't they pick some other corner, just once? Just once? A different time of day? I am so sick of those jerks..."

We see the Crossbreed evangelising on the street corner, handing out pamphlets and talking about judgment day. Brian is in the process of defending them, in his internal monologue, when Daniel confronts him:

"Have you been saved?
Huh?
Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?"

Brian stammers uneasily, until he is rescued by a passer-by, who tells him:

"Don't worry. The J.F.'s are annoyin', but they're harmless -- 'less you're allergic to Psalms and Preachin'!"

It would seem, on page 18, that we have seen the character of religion in this comic: it is annoying but harmless. Religious people are the people who accost regular people as they're minding their own business. And too often, that would be the final word. But in Busiek's hands the story is not that simple, and it turns out that the friendly passer-by was in fact picking his pocket. The Crossbreed save Brian and return his wallet, sending him off with:

"Welcome to Astro City, young man. God be with you."

So the street evangelists aren't nuisances after all. They are shown here seeking the bodily, as well as spiritual salvation of the people of Astro City. And the man who is so quick to dismiss them as annoying-but-harmless is in fact the predator.

The Crossbreed turn up twice more in this comic. They are seen being harassed by an angry crowd as anti-hero sentiment in Astro City rises. The crowd turning against their saviours would have been heavily resonant with the story of Christ regardless, but this resonance is highlighted by the explicitly Christian status of the Crossbreed. They are called the Jesus Freaks, and they, like Jesus, are rejected by the crowd.

Finally, the Crossbreed turn up at the climax of the story, swooping in to save Altar Boy from the newly revealed alien menace. They are a sort of Deus Ex Machina, coming out of nowhere with no warning or foreshadowing to save Altar Boy after his mentor the Confessor has died. Now, Deus Ex Machina are a trope of superhero comics, and you could argue that that is how superheroes themselves nearly always function. Still, in this case the Deus is a little more explicit than usual. There are any number of superheroes that could have showed up at the last minute to rescue Altar Boy, but the appearance of the Crossbreed signifies the intervention of God in this world. The Crossbreed, remember, believe that their power is a gift from God. So they are, at the least, a manifestation in this world of a certain kind of religiosity, and possibly even God's agents in the world. As Altar Boy is carried away by Mary, he muses: "I was saved by an angel".

Busiek presents here in minuscule an idea more fully articulated in his Superman story "Superman: Angels", where the suggestion is that God sends his gifts to protect us, and to inspire us: that since Superman does both, he is an angel--the agent of God on earth.

Whew. This is getting a little long. I think that for the sake of readability I'll leave it here and continue with an examination of the character of the Confessor in my next post, later this week.

Sita Sings The Blues

2009-02-08T17:17:00.000-08:00

So this isn't exactly a comic. But animation counts too, right? Right. Check out this funky-fresh eleven-minute excerpt from Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues, which is based on the Ramayana. It looks great. I would snap up a DVD of this, but unfortunately the use of old jazz songs has created copyright problems and so the film's distribution has been delayed somewhat. Though it sounds like they're making progress.

PS: Apparently Paley has faced opposition not only from copyright lawyers but also fundamentalist Hindu nationalists, who've threatened to hang her!

At the Edge of the Mind of God

2009-02-07T19:06:00.000-08:00

Whew. DC's epic Final Crisis event has come to a conclusion. I think it has certain flaws, but the main Grant Morrison storyline (laid out in Final Crisis & Superman Beyond) contains so many genius moments that I'll be re-reading it for years to come. One theme was divinity, and all the positive and negative variations of that concept. Morrison laid out some of his ideas in an interview over at IGN. Here are some of the more theological/metaphysical ones:

GN Comics: So if you'd go so far as to say the DC Multiverse is as real and as organic as anything, would you say that the story of Superman is its heart?

Morrison: Yeah, totally. Because it all derived from Superman. I mean, I love all the characters, but Superman is just this perfect human pop-culture distillation of a really basic idea. He's a good guy. He loves us. He will not stop in defending us. How beautiful is that? He's like a sci-fi Jesus. He'll never let you down. And only in fiction can that guy actually exist, because real guys will always let you down one way or another. We actually made up an idea that beautiful. That's just cool to me. We made a little paper universe where all of the above is true.

A bit further on:

IGN Comics: I want to get to the Monitors and their overall role in Crisis and Beyond, especially the role played by Nix Uotan - am I saying that right?

Morrison: It's pronounced "Wotan." Every one of them is named after writer gods from different cultures. So Uotan is named after Odin or Wotan from the Norse/Germanic tradition. Ogama is Ogma from the Celtic gods. Hermuz is after Hermes the Greek god. Tahoteh is after Thoth the Egyptian god. Novu is after Nabu from the Babylonian pantheon…there's a ton of them. The women's names, Weeja Dell, Zillo Valla, were inspired by the greatest lost love of them all, Shalla-Bal from Stan Lee's Silver Surfer.

IGN Comics: So that kind of answers my question, which is that the Monitors all seem like analogs for storytellers. There seems to be this never-ending cycle of the stories affecting the storytellers and the storytellers affecting the stories and on and on.

Morrison: Yeah, it's a bit of that. It's also the idea that they're like angels as well. For me, the cool, essential idea of all stories being real creates this great cosmology to play with. It's the notion that the white page itself is a void, and in the context of the DC Universe, well that's God or The Source. In the white page, or the void, anything can happen, everything is possible. As I dug down closer to the very root of the activity I find myself engaged in as a career, I was thinking "what is the basis of the comic book story? What actually is it?"

In the case of comic book stories, it's the war between white page and ink. And who's to say that the page might want that particular story drawn on it? [laughs] What happens if the page is a bit pissed off at the story that's drawn on it? So I thought of the page as God. The idea being that the Overvoid – as we called it in Final Crisis - of the white page as a space is sort of God. And it's condensing stories out of itself because it finds inside its own gigantic white space, self-absorbed pristine consciousness, it finds this little stain or mark, this DC Multiverse somebody has 'drawn'. And it starts investigating, and it's just shocked with what it sees, with all the crazy activity and signifying going on in there. It then tries to protect itself from the seething contact with 'story' and imagines a race of beings, 'angels' or 'monitors' (another word for angel, of course) to function as an interface between its own giant eternal magnificence and this tiny, weird crawling anthill of life and significance that is the DC Multiverse.

Morrison goes on to talk about dualities (or symmetries) and unity:

IGN Comics: You get into that in Superman Beyond #2 with the Superman and Ultraman dynamic.

Morrison: Yeah. Again, on the very edge of the art and the edge of the mind of God there are these two big concepts fighting – Superman and Mandrakk, Predation and Protection, Greed and Preservation, Ugly and Beautiful, Youth and Age, Good and Evil, Black and White, Is and Isn't and all the others. Beyond that crumbling ledge in Monitor-World, those concepts don't exist and it's all non-dual Monitor mind, or God, or Kirby's Source, in which all contradictions are resolved into unity. It's funny, the more I talk about it, the more I'm getting into it!

It's well worth reading - after you read the comics, of course!
[via Ian]

Marvel's former president re-translating Genesis

2009-02-05T17:55:00.000-08:00

Yes indeed. From the New Jersey Star-Ledger:

To millions of Americans fascinated by comic-book superheroes, Bill Jemas of Princeton is an industry legend who helped breathe life into Marvel Enterprises by pushing the wildly successful "Ultimate Spider-Man" series that rejuvenated the company.

These days, however, Jemas, a high-energy 51-year-old whose controversial four years as Marvel's president remain fodder for comic-book blogs, finds himself engrossed in a task far removed from dialogue balloons.

Each morning before sunrise, for the last three years, the Rutgers and Harvard Law School graduate has labored over the Bible, specifically the Book of Genesis in Hebrew, the language in which it was first written.

His goal is to write an English translation of Genesis that is truer to the Hebrew text than are widely used English translations like the famed King James Version. He already has completed the first chapter, available online and in his book "Genesis Rejuvenated."

Later in the article we hear from a more conventional Bible scholar:

"There are already Hebrew dictionaries, and there are plenty of translations of Genesis," said Bruce Chilton, a religion professor at Bard College in New York. "There are commentaries on Genesis. There are books on Genesis. But what Bill has done here that's innovative is, he's put the materials together in such a way that a beginning reader can see the Book of Genesis as being filled with possibilities of meaning, and not just limited to a single meaning.

"What he is doing here is opening up the world of Genesis so that the reader is encouraged to read word for word, understanding that we're dealing with a major shift of language from Hebrew into English."

Jemas, who was raised Roman Catholic, married a Jewish woman and now attends a Reconstructionist synagogue in Princeton. He said he makes no claim that his translation is more accurate than others. But he wants readers to consider the possibility that decisions of past English translators are not sacrosanct.

Read the whole thing! (via Ian)

And Dick Grayson's preferred Bible translation is...

2009-01-31T19:15:00.001-08:00

In Nightwing #13, Bruce Wayne comes to visit Dick Grayson (formerly Robin, now Nightwing) at his new apartment:

Huh? Nightwing has a copy of the New International Version - with a bookmark in it, even? Why? For research? It's true that some supervillains are not above leaving obscure scriptural references as clues. Personally, I think the Oxford Annotated NRSV would be much better for research purposes, but I guess he's got to be prepared for those conservative Protestant supervillains who insist on using the NIV. Of course, he may be actually reading it himself...

(Found in Nightwing: Rough Justice, 1999. Written by Chuck Dixon, penciled by Scott McDaniel, inked by Karl Story.)

Crucifixion in the work of Grant Morrison

2008-12-28T18:17:00.000-08:00

Grant Morrison is a masterful storyteller. One of his signature techniques is the use of evocative religious symbols to lend his tales more power and gravitas. Given its centrality in Western art and culture it's no surprise that The Crucifixion is a motif he's employed. But it is striking how frequently he returns to it. Here's a quick tour through his body of work, beginning in 1989:

This is the cover of Animal Man number 5, from January 1989. The issue is entitled Coyote Gospel, and it remains one of Morrison's better-known stories. Animal Man himself is not crucified in this story; that fate symbolically befalls a thinly disguised Wile E. Coyote:

The coyote gave himself up to suffer at the hands of his cruel creator in exchange for the safety for his cartoon animal brethren. We eventually find out that this situation somewhat resembles Animal Man's own in relation to his creator, Grant Morrison. It's all very self-referential, but well worth reading.

Next comes the popular Batman: Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, also from 1989:

Batman spears the villain Killer Croc and is speared in return. "What wounds are these? I am Attis on the pine. Christ on the cedar. Odin on the world-ash." On the next page Killer Croc jumps out of a window, the spear still in his side:

Morrison's original storyboard notes: "Croc is framed in the shattering window as it explodes beneath his weight. His arms are thrown wide, in an attitude of crucifixion. The broken spear juts from his side and the shattering glass creates a jagged halo around his vast, deformed head. He becomes the image of the Serpent/Christ (and also evokes Moby Dick, with the harpoon in his side) a medieval allegory which Jung interpreted as being symbolic of "an overcoming of the unconscious and, at the same time, of the attitude of the son who unconsciously hangs on his mother.""

He added this commentary for the 15th anniversary edition: "In Qabalistic numerology, Christ = Satan = Messiah, which is why Croc appears here in crucifixion pose, taking the place of Christ on this blasphemous cross. In this scene, Batman reunites Christ and Serpent, then confronts and overcomes his own attachment to his Mother in a perverse nightmare of lizards, lace and bridal embroidery. Much of this subtextual material was lost on the casual reader but that didn't seem to stop us from shifting mega-amounts of copies. I do believe that people respond emotionally to deep mythical patterns whether or not they actually recognise or "understand" them as such, but the fact that our book launched at the time of the outrageously successful Batman film by Tim Burton probably helped more than anything else."

I tend to think Arkham Asylum lays on the pop psychology a bit too thick, but Morrison's use of "deep mythical patterns" continues throughout his career. Here's 1990's Doom Patrol:

(Doom Patrol no. 30, March 1990.) Cliff the robot-man takes a journey through his friend Jane's subconscious. Crazy Jane, aka Kay Challis, was sexually abused by her father, but managed to function by creating an alternate personality named Miranda and surpressing Kay's memories. After being raped and killing her attacker (in a church on Easter Sunday), Miranda was destroyed and 64 alternate personalities took her place, Jane being one of the most prominent. As the panel above explains, personalities like Stigmata exist to bear and absorb Kay/Jane's suffering. Cliff manages to help her somewhat, and later in the series, Jane seeks to heal and reunite her shattered psyche:

(From Doom Patrol no. 55 May 92.) The crucifix symbolizes both the rape which sparked the fragmentation, as well as the immense pain which a reunited Jane would have to take back from personalities like Stigmata.

Next up we have a series created from scratch by Morrison himself, The Invisibles (language warning for these next two):

This is The Invisibles, vol. 1, no. 21, from 1996. Young Dane encounters Barbelith, which is... complicated. Basically, Barbelith is trying to help humanity liberate itself from the crushing burden of suffering and evil it is trapped under. (Personally I find this page to be a stunning and unforgettable existential statement about what Terry Eagleton calls the "recalcitrance" of the human condition. As Eagleton writes: "The crucifixion proclaims that the truth of human history is a tortured political criminal.") Later in the same issue Dane experiences the pain of humanity himself:
Barbelith tells Dane that he must transform himself and the rest will follow - as above, so below. And, in fact, Dane will go on to be the saviour of humanity and the new Buddha. Morrison here mixes Christian, Gnostic, and Buddhist imagery (as he will later with Mister Miracle - see below.)

I don't have the image for it, but another crucifixion appears later on in The Invisibles (vol. 2, no. 20). A bug-eyed alien is nailed to a wall by the bad guys and forced to witness depravity, pain and death. The comic makes it clear that Morrison is expressing a Gnostic myth about the divine being trapped in its own creation. This is a major theme of The Invisibles.

Heady stuff! Back in the regular DC superhero universe...

Superman is crucified by Darkseid! From JLA Presents: Aztek, The Ultimate Man no. 10, May 1997, co-written with Mark Millar. Fortunately, this was just a simulation, meant to test Aztek's superhero skills and fitness for membership in the Justice League of America.

All of the above comics were for DC, but Morrison also wrote Marvel's flagship comic, The X-Men. Here the symbolism is a little more oblique, but have a look at these two images:

(From New X-Men no. 121, February 2002.) In a mostly-silent issue, Jean Grey enters Charles Xavier's psyche. Morrison's storyboard notes: "The second tier is filled with Xavier faces, screaming, laughing, howling, crying guardians - extreme emotional defence systems to ward off telepathic invaders. Pointing, accusing, hiding their eyes, pontificating. A smaller figure of Jean spins away from us, down into the center. Splashing into the one face which is calm, Christ-like in its quiet suffering expression." Further in, Jean sees this:

Morrison wrote: "Charles Xavier in grotesque pose, holding his vast swollen dripping brain, like an Atlas. Xavier struggling with the gross weight of his own imprisoned thoughts, sunk to the thighs in bubbling slime and tar like some monstrous Blakean figure. As a nod to Dali, there's an exploded wheelchair hovering in bits around Xavier. The components hang in strange splendor - Xavier's own version of the hypercubist cross." So, a bit more abstract, but not entirely unrelated.

Back in the DC Universe, a few years later, we're back to basics:

This is from the cover of Seven Soldiers of Victory: Mister Miracle no. 1, 2005. Miracle is originally one of the New Gods from Jack Kirby's Fourth World pantheon. In Morrison's introduction to volume one of the Fourth World Omnibus, he refers to the original Mister Miracle comic as "the New Testament strand" of Kirby's mythology. Here Miracle is the evocatively named Shilo Norman, who descends into a black hole attached to the cross-shaped restraint pictured above. (In the original image the cross is upside down.) He eventually escapes but not before finding his way out of Darkseid's false reality of degradation and suffering, a storyline which incorporates Christian, Gnostic, Buddhist and Norse elements. Part of it involves being betrayed by everyone, beaten, burnt, castrated, and left humiliated, hopeless and crippled. (See also the Suffering Servant, etc.) Note the crucifix pose from this scene in a later issue:(Seven Soldiers of Victory: Mister Miracle no. 3, 2006.) After escaping Darkseid's hell, Mr. Miracle returns to reality and, like Christ giving himself up in ransom for Adam, exchanges himself for Darkseid's prisoner Aurakles, the first super-hero. Darkseid tells him his victory was meaningless, takes him into a basement and shoots him in the head. The very last page of the entire Seven Soldiers of Victory series, however, shows a deified Miracle reaching out of the ground. In Morrison's Final Crisis, Miracle will go on to tell a friend: "Then three days later, I crawled out of my own grave. The whole world thought it was Mister Miracle's biggest ever stunt. But it was real. What I did was impossible."

Speaking of Final Crisis, Morrison's ongoing DC project:

This is from the cover of Final Crisis no. 2, August 2008. Ian described it to me as "Batman crucified on a piece of New Gods Kirbytech" and that's pretty much what it is. Early on in the heavily theological series Batman is captured by the evil minions of Darkseid. This page provides more details:

Is that syringe-studded helmet standing in for a crown of thorns? Anyways, Batman is not the only one to be crucified in that issue. Green Lantern John Stewart is nailed to a wooden crate by a mysterious assailant:

In Final Crisis the Justice League is faced with the doom foreshadowed in Aztek: defeat and torment at the hands of Darkseid. I'd heartily recommend following it, though it might be a bit confusing if you don't know the DC universe.

Whew. I'm sure there some examples I've missed, so this tour may not be exhaustive, but it has been kind of exhausting! Anyways, hopefully this helps shed some light on the recurring themes, and brain, of Grant Morrison.

[PS: for an image from 2000's Marvel Boy, which I discovered a few months after completing this post, click here.]

The Beast's God

2008-12-15T20:39:00.000-08:00

A beautiful, elegaic moment from Mike Carey and Scot Eaton in X-Men: Divided We Stand #2. Hank McCoy, aka Beast, is standing in the ruins of Xavier's school, casting the ashes of his top secret files to the winds. Xavier's not dead, exactly, but after nearly dying has been remade into someone new who doesn't remember much about the past. Divided We Stand features ten short tales about the scattered X-Men, by a variety of writers and artists, and they're surprisingly good.

Newton and Einstein tended to mean very different things when they used the word "God," but it still works. We know Beast is a scientist, and he's expressing a scientist's spirituality.

Why Grant Morrison is wrong about religion (and right about ontology)

2008-11-20T07:29:00.000-08:00

How did I miss this one? At Newsarama, Grant Morrison talks about religion, spirituality, and God. It's a bit annoying, frankly, mostly because he starts out with this:

I think religion per se, is a ghastly blight on the progress of the human species towards the stars. At the same time, it, or something like it, has been an undeniable source of comfort, meaning and hope for the majority of poor bastards who have ever lived on Earth, so I’m not trying to write it off completely.

But it soon becomes clear that when Morrison says "religion" he means "church." Unsurprisingly, he doesn't like hierarchy, but he most certainly does believe in transcendence.

As I’ve said before, the solid world is just the part of heaven we’re privileged to touch and play with. You don’t need a priest or a holy man to talk to “god” on your behalf just close your eyes and say hello: "god” is no more, no less, than the sum total of all matter, all energy, all consciousness, as experienced or conceptualized from a timeless perspective where everything ever seems to present all at once. “God” is in everything, all the time and can be found there by looking carefully. The entire universe, including the scary, evil bits, is a thought “God” is thinking, right now.

Which is, in my mind,is pretty spot-on. It's an old idea called panentheism (not to be confused with pantheism), and it's been appearing in writing—religious writing—for centuries. What are process theology, Kabbalah, and Sufism if not religious? Morrison, it seems would call them "spirituality"—and he argues that "Religion is to spirituality what porn is to sex."

I've always found the distinction between "religion" and "spirituality" unsatisfying. It's like people who argue that they hate science fiction, but that they love Orwell (for instance), or Margaret Atwood. 1984 and The Handmaid's Tale aren't SF, and why? because people who aren't SF fans like them. Their picture of SF is a caricature, just as the picture of "religion" as a cruel hierarchy is a caricature (and a mostly outmoded one at that. The most politically conservative churches have no hierarchy.)

To Grant Morrison, to all those who draw a line between religion and spirituality, I say: it's okay. "Religion" is bigger than you think. There's room in here for lots of ideas. Just as the universe, in a panentheistic system, is part of God, spirituality is part of religion.

He talks about All-Star Superman some, too, and whether or not Superman is a Christ figure. Read that segment of Newsarama's 10-part interview here.

This post previously appeared in an ever-so-slightly different form at SF Gospel.

Please forgive me, Kurt Busiek

2008-10-16T13:08:00.000-07:00

I went to Manitoba Comic Con this weekend, and I had a good time.

The highlight, for me, was meeting the person who is fast becoming my favourite comic book writer--Kurt Busiek. I tried to think of intelligent things to ask him, but I fear most of my questions were more along the lines of: "Did you know that you're Kurt Busiek?" or "What's it like to be so awesome?"

I see Busiek in many ways as an anti-Stan Lee; where Lee is responsible for humanizing and psychologizing super heroes, Busiek seems to be always working with Ironic heroes, and writing about them mythologically and even theologically. When asked, he said that what he wanted to do with Superman was to "do Superman right". He didn't want to do a twist on Superman--Superman the journalist or Superman the alien. He felt that those twists only work if you have a strong center to draw your tangents from. If the center isn't strong enough--if people aren't familiar with the iconic Superman, then none of the twists work either.

And I couldn't agree more. I love Kurt Busiek's writing, and my secret hope going to Manitoba Comic Con was to persuade him to become my best friend.

And then I told him that he wrote my favourite Superman comic--Superman Redemption. Except for three little details. Kurt Busiek didn't write "Redemption", I haven't read it, and I believe Gabriel McKee's review here when he says that it wasn't good.

What I have read, and Kurt Busiek did write, and I did actually like is Superman "Angel", which Gabriel McKee reviewed here, and which review I completely agree with.

Now I'm sure that Busiek isn't sitting around all tortured that some random fan in Winnipeg thinks he wrote an issue that he didn't. It's even possible that he liked Fabian Nicieza's "Redemption" comic, and that he's flattered that someone thought he wrote it. But even so. I feel the need to apologize.

So, Kurt Busiek, if you happen to be googling yourself and you happen upon this blog, I'm sorry. I actually liked the comic you wrote, not the one you didn't. Sorry. Please forgive me.

And be my best friend?

Camassia on The Dark Knight

2008-10-13T08:34:00.000-07:00

Check out these two posts:

The Dark Knight

The dream of completion

In which Camassia muses insightfully about idealism, superheroic transfiguration, and the sex appeal (or not) of the Joker.

Superman, Christ and Morrison

2008-09-24T19:04:00.000-07:00

Superman’s job is to fight for and inspire those who cannot fight for themselves. His job is to make this world a better place and to help all men realize their potential as supermen. Further to this, it’s important to keep in mind the Superman/Christ parallels WITHOUT being obvious and heavy-handed about them. Superman has to think differently from us, and when we see into his head, we should be shocked by the clarity and simplicity of his brilliance and compassion. This is a god sent to Earth not to suffer and die but to live and inspire and change the face of the galaxy by his deeds and reputation.

More on what Timothy Callahan, writer of "Grant Morrison: The Early Years", calls "the essence of Morrison's Superman" and how the recently completed All-Star Superman fits in with Morrison's attempts to reboot Superman in 2000 at Comic Book Resources.

Review: Mecha Manga Bible Heroes #1: David vs. Goliath

2008-09-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

I don't get it.

Mecha Manga Bible Heroes #1: "David vs. Goliath," written by Tom Hall and Joey Endres. Illustrated by Thom Pratt and Daniel Bradford. Backup stories by Dean Rankine. JMG Comics (Flanders, New Jersey): Summer 2008. $2.25.

Some time ago, I posted the press release for this. Because I refuse to be a mere advertiser for anything simultaneously Christian and sf-related, I followed that up in private with some (negative) predictions about the series that somehow ended up getting posted at The Sci Fi Catholic. Now the first issue is out and its creators, in thanks for the earlier postings, have generously sent me a copy for review.

First of all, it's only fair to point out that the target audience for this is clearly very young, as indicated by the general tone. The series retells stories from the Old Testament with almost no alteration besides a dumbing-down of the dialogue and the addition of a few sf flourishes, especially walking robots and powered armor suits, apparently for the purpose of convincing young males to read the Bible.

Ten bucks say Goliath gets p0wned.

After reading this first issue, I'm still asking the same question I was asking when I first heard of this project: "Why?" This issue, "David vs. Goliath," follows 1 Samuel 17.1-58 faithfully except for the additions of the aforementioned sf flourishes, which as a result look like intrusions. Truth be told, I don't get it; it would make better sense to me to create a comic that not only tells the Bible stories faithfully but also attempts to faithfully depict the world in which those stories took place, or else to create sf stories that use the Bible as starting points but take greater liberties with the text.

Because the sf elements are decoration and and not an inherent part of the story, I find them jarring and confusing. For example, when young David relates how he has saved sheep from bears and lions, the illustrations depict him tending robot sheep and fighting robot bears and lions. While reading this, I find myself asking, "What is the purpose of a robotic sheep? Where do robotic lions come from?" In a fully developed sf world, I would expect these questions to be answered sooner or later, but in Mecha Manga Bible Heroes, I'm almost certain they never will be, which again leads me to ask what the point is of putting them in at all.

The only answer I can come up with is gimmick. It's a gimmick designed to coax youngsters to read their Bibles. While I'm certainly in favor of encouraging children and youths to read the Bible, I suspect most of them could detect the gimmick of this comic and would take it as an insult. I also suspect it would give them the wrong idea, suggesting as it unintentionally does that the Bible is too dull or unpalatable to read without a few artistic touch-ups.

The artwork, though not great, is good. The writing is competent enough, but the flow of the comic seems to be off; a few inserted jokes are poorly timed, and I found myself having to stare at some pages for quite a while in order to figure out what's going on. On the whole, the quality is good, but this first issue contains nothing memorable. The two backup features by Dean Rankine, "Bee-Attitudes" and "Green with Envy," are nuisances.

Although this first issue of Mecha Manga Bible Heroes is worth a few minutes' entertainment, it contains nothing compelling and nothing to make me want to continue reading the series. I'd rather go read my Bible instead.

Three funerals

2008-09-06T19:24:00.000-07:00

My friends, on this mournful occasion, let us begin with a spoiler warning. This post contains spoilers regarding DC's Final Crisis (August 2008), Top Ten, JLA: American Dreams, and the film Stranger Than Fiction.

Still here? All right, Final Crisis: the Martian Manhunter is dead, and issue two gives us this glimpse of his funeral on Mars:

A solemn scene from Grant Morrison and J.G. Jones. Superman says: "J'onn J'onzz was my friend. Always there, always strong, always reliable... He was someone I could confide in. Someone who understood what it was like to lose a world and find another. We'll all miss him. And pray for a resurrection."

"Pray for a resurrection" is strikingly traditional (though Superman was raised by Methodists, after all), but there's a touch of humor about it. It acknowledges that we the readers know that superheroes, like soap opera characters, frequently die, but rarely stay dead for long - Superman being the most prominent example. The implication here is that the superheroes know it, too, adding an odd twist of realism and gravity to the proceedings.

In Top Ten, Alan Moore put a more openly humourous spin on the idea (art by Gene Ha):

The late superhero in this case is Girl One, an android. The Top Ten multiverse is one where pretty much everyone is a superhero and Moore gets a lot of mileage from subtle and not-too-subtle twists on the concept. (Like the exterminator who unwittingly provokes a cosmic continuity-altering Infinite Crisis crossover war between mice and cats... But I digress.) In this context the characters are even more aware of the superhero tropes they live by.

Grant Morrison's run on the Justice League of America predated both of these stories. Here's Superman (during his ill-advised electrical phase) at the funeral of Metamorpho the Element Man:

This is the most frank expression of the theme and includes an interesting twist at the end. Does Superman (and Morrison?) wish that fallen superheroes really could rest in peace? Do they always have to be recycled to drive up nostalgia-induced sales? Witness the current hype surrounding the return of Barry Allen, who's been mostly dead since 1985.

A less cynical interpretation of superhero resurections might go something like this. The eulogy for Girl One also included mention of her "giving of her life so that others might live." Superman says of Metamorpho, "In the end, he gave his life to save his friends." The film Stranger Than Fiction involves a doomed fictional character who gets a second chance at life. His creator muses: "But if the man does know he's going to die and dies anyway, dies willingly, knowing he could stop it, then, I mean, isn't that the type of man you want to keep alive?" Over at SF Gospel, Gabriel's commentary on the movie read, in part:

It's unsurprising for a movie about the ways in which authors manipulate their character's lives to compare the writer to God. What's more interesting here is the messianic tone that this approach then lends to the character in question. Here God, the third person omniscient narrator, can't see the point in needlessly killing his favorite character, so he gives him a second chance. It's an aesthetic theology of the resurrection—Jesus as the character who was too darned nice to have a sad ending. It's also a critique of Vonnegutian authorial cruelty in which the author toys with fictional lives simply because he can. The characters, fictional or otherwise, are in some way alive and worthy of respect—and of a happy ending.

The same might be said of most noble, self-sacrificing superheroes. Of course, maybe the world can do without Metamorpho the Element Man. But once an artist has put enough work into a character, and fans have grown sufficiently attached to him, death becomes just a temporary trauma.

And I do hope the Martian Manhunter returns to us someday.

Review: Girl Genius

2008-08-30T16:11:00.000-07:00

Gush warning.

Girl Genius, written by Phil and Kaja Foglio. Illustrated by Phil Foglio. Vol. 1 inked by Brian Snoddy. Vols. 2-3 colored by Mark McNabb. Vol. 4 colored by Laurie E. Smith. Vols. 5-7 colored by Cheyenne Wright. 7 vols. Studio Foglio: 2002-2008. Full color. Approx. 120 pages each.

Available online as a web comic.

Everybody knows negative reviews are the most entertaining to read. Positive reviews are much less so. Gushing reviews can be downright disgusting, so I must warn you, I'm about to gush. When it comes to reviewing comics, I've built my reputation, if I have one, on criticizing comic book creators for the way they dress their women: I have always shown disdain for scantily clad cartoon characters, but maybe that's just because I hadn't met the right scantily clad cartoon character. Today, I'm going to ruin my cred.

Click to enlarge.
The Girl Genius in all her glory.

We've all seen stories that imagine not just superheroes, but worlds positively overrun with superheroes. Shows like The Tick, or some episodes of Darkwing Duck, poke fun at DC and Marvel's overstuffed comic book universes. In Kingdom Come, Mark Waid and Alex Ross treat the idea of heroic overcrowding more seriously. Girl Genius works on a similar idea, but instead of imagining a world overrun with supermen, it imagines one overrun with mad scientists.

Girl Genius is set in a steampunkish nineteenth (?) century in which high-tech devices can only be created by a chosen few, those who have an innate quality known as the "Spark," which enables them, even compels them, to understand and construct death rays, airships, killer robots (called "clanks"), and Frankensteinian monsters (called "constructs"). In addition to making them geniuses, the Spark apparently grants charisma and fighting prowess, but it also drives them bonkers: they can only create in a fit of amoral madness, and sooner or later most go over the edge completely.

Twenty years or so before the story begins, the Industrial Revolution embroiled Europe (inconsistently called Europa in the comic) in a massive war between various mad scientists competing for power. Peace finally came, temporarily, when the two Heterodyne brothers--mad scientists themselves--trotted around Europa defeating evil overlords. It didn't last, however, as a new, mysterious, and especially powerful mad scientist, known simply as the Other, began transforming entire towns full of people into zombie-like Revenants. The Heterodynes set forth to stop the Other and disappeared in the process. But peace came again when yet another mad scientist, Baron Wulfenbach, built a massive fleet of airships, gained the allegiance of an army of humanoid creatures called Jägermonsters, and took over the continent. With his mobile fleet, superior firepower, and a policy of hostage-taking, he lives as a troubled overlord but keeps the mad scientists and royal families in check.

The first volume, appropriately labeled the "Prologue," opens in black-and-white, introducing eighteen-year-old Agatha Clay, a bumbling student at Transylvania Polygnostic University. Wearing gigantic glasses and built like an especially robust barmaid, Agatha spends most of her time tripping over things, getting yelled at, and building devices that don't work. But all of that changes (of course) when a couple of rowdy soldiers steal her locket, setting in motion a series of events that will prove Agatha to be not only a great mad scientist, but in some way connected to the Heterodyne legacy. After Agatha is abducted by Baron Wulfenbach, then, like Dorothy stepping into Oz, the comic moves into full-color and the plot really gets going. Agatha will have to maneuver through a lengthy series of harrowing adventures, make friends and enemies, and hone both her inventing and fighting skills in order to claim her birthright, uncover the identity of the Other, become a major player in European politics, and maybe save the world. She does it all, and she has a curious habit of doing a fair amount of it in her underwear (it is still a comic book). In sum, Girl Genius is probably the world's most elaborate and best-written indulgence of a meganekko fetish.

Click to enlarge.
Big girl with big gun.

Conventional though the story arc may sound at first, this is easily one of the best comics I have ever read, and depending on how it goes from here, it may very well be the best. It has a gigantic cast of intriguing characters, a complex plot, a fascinating backstory meted out at exactly the right pace, innumerable twists and turns, and exciting action sequences. It's also gut-bustingly funny. Some of the subplots are quite complex; in particular, volumes 5 and 6 together are easily the strongest part of the series so far, giving numerous revelations while Agatha tries to deal with separate sides in a mad science-enhanced political power play.

Drawing its inspiration from comic book villains, Victorian fiction, and B movies, Girl Genius subverts all the familiar tropes, usually by giving its characters unexpected qualities. For example, Baron Wulfenbach, expected to be a cackling evil overlord, is actually a thoughtful man with a number of redeeming traits, though he also has a bad habit of performing hideous experiments on people's brains. Wulfenbach's son Gilgamesh, a humorously genre-savvy character, knows that people expect him to be a sniveling weakling of a villain, but being compassionate, intelligent, and physically tough, he's consistently peeved at the fact. A minor character, Othar Tryggvassen, talks like an especially bombastic comic book hero and tries to stop Wulfenbach's nefarious schemes--but it soon turns out his own motives are less than pure. Then there's Lars, a typical rough-edged, lovable scallywag--who gets panic attacks. As for Agatha herself, she perhaps follows more conventional lines, transitioning smoothly from downtrodden loser to tough and independent heroine with a moral center, but as a mad scientist, she's also capable of totally flipping out, sometimes violently. All of this has served so far to give the comic a complex yet palatable moral universe.

Click to enlarge.
Agatha and Lars re-enact a steamy scene from a Heterodyne legend.

The artwork in this series is fantastic and keeps getting better. The black-and white first volume looks great, with the complex machines walking down the crowded streets as the big highlights. Things only improve when the series moves to color, and the work of the latest colorist, Cheyenne Wright, is especially good. Complementing the complex, outsized machinery that fills the backgrounds are the highly expressive characters. One of the greatest joys of reading Girl Genius is simply watching the various contortions that the protagonist's face can go through.

If the comic can be said to have a flaw, it would probably be a case of character glut. The cast is so huge, even major players can disappear for hundreds of pages. Although the story never really veers off target, the staccato disappearance and reappearance of a few characters can be confusing, and has done damage to the romantic subplot promised in the tagline. The romance itself is perhaps too conventional when compared to the innovations the story shows elsewhere, and too predictable.

Because the series is both complex and unfinished, it has innumerable loose plot threads. It's unclear when, if ever, it's all going to wrap up. Presumably, Agatha is eventually going to save the day and get the guy, but since she's clearly not going to save the day any time soon, the authors have probably played their hand too early in revealing which guy she's going to get, though it's possible that yet another plot twist or the reappearance of a rival may change that.

To our readers here, the most interesting aspect of the comic may be the messianic theme that's always lurking in the background. After the disappearance of the Heterodyne brothers, their exploits were quickly exaggerated and expanded into a cycle of adventure stories, many of which made it into penny dreadfuls, and many of which made it into cheap theatrical shows. Many in Europa, and especially in the Heterodynes' hometown of Mechanicsburg, are awaiting either their return or the appearance of their heir. This messianic furor builds through the comic until it takes on definite religious tones. To spice things up, it is eventually revealed that the Heterodyne brothers, heroes though they were, descended from a long line of brigands and murderers, a legacy the family has never completely escaped. At the present point in the story (the web comic is now in the midst of volume 8), it remains to be seen whether this messianism will ultimately prove a destructive force, a beneficial one, or as is likely considering what has happened in the story already, something in between.

In addition to the occasional underwear, the comic contains a sizable helping of risqué humor (including some joke about a tea cozy that I really don't get) and, to date, two implied premarital sexual relationships and one "naughty flashback scene." It also has some of the expected action violence and occasional torture, some of which is serious but a large amount of which is played for laughs, sort of like the violence in Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. As in Twain's novel, the humor works consistently well, but the effect is more uneven when things turn serious. There is some blood, but the imagery is never particularly graphic. The creators deserve credit for giving a content advisory on their FAQ page, which recommends Girl Genius for "teens and up" (a group equivalent to adults in my vocabulary).

So that's it. I recommend it. Now can someone explain the tea cozy?

All-Star Superman #10: Kal-El so loved the world...

2008-04-09T15:40:00.000-07:00

Superman has always been like a Greek god, and a big part of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All-Star Superman has been an exploration of his role as a deified hero. In the sixth issue (reviewed by me here), visitors from the future described Superman's "Legendary Twelve Labors"—an obvious analog of Hercules' 12 labors. That superhero comics are modern myths is a fast-aging cliché, but Morrison has done an excellent job of reminding us of its truth.

With All-Star Superman #10, he throws us for an interesting loop. We all know that Superman is a Greek god—but now it's beginning to look like he's the Judeo-Christian God, too. As one of his labors, Superman has created a microverse in which he does not exist—a "World Without Superman"—and it looks suspiciously like ours. In fact, it contains the likes of Friedrich Nietzsche, an unnamed Greek philosopher (possibly Plato?), and Joe Shuster—all exemplars of the human drive for divinity. In a world without Superman, we aspire to become him—in other words, if Superman didn't exist, we would have to invent him (and we did).

Some reviewers have complained that Morrison is treading ground he's already covered (particularly in Animal Man), but I don't think that's the case. In that story, the real-world creator meets his invented creation; here, the fictional creation actually inhabits a higher level of reality than our supposed real universe. The game is played with the same pieces, but the configuration is different enough to be truly new. Until now I've been thinking of All-Star Superman as an amusing but ultimately scattered series of one-off stories; now it's beginning to look like a major work in Morrison's oeuvre. His run is set to last only two more issues—here's hoping it ends with a cosmic bang rather than a New X-Men-style fizzle.

Also posted at SF Gospel.

Four-color Theophanies: 10 comic characters who have met God

2008-02-11T20:43:00.001-08:00

Over at SF Gospel, a list of 10 comic characters who have met God. Click here to read about the theophanies of Dr. Strange, Cerebus, Jesse Custer, and more.

Mecha Manga Bible Heroes

2008-02-07T21:51:00.000-08:00

Co-posted at The Sci Fi Catholic.

We just got a press kit from JMG Studio, which is producing a new comic that might interest our readers. Here's the press release with some illustrations:

THE COOLEST COMIC BOOK YOUR SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER EVER CONFISCATED!

New Comic Series Brings ‘New Twist’ to ‘Old Testament’

FLANDERS, NJ (February 5, 2008) – JMG Comics, a division of JMG Studios is pleased to announce the upcoming release of its first comic book series, MECHA MANGA BIBLE HEROES.

MECHA MANGA BIBLE HEROES brings classic bible heroes to life in a whole new way! Drawn in the popular manga style and featuring “mecha” (robots), a mainstay of manga, this new series is sure to satisfy fans of imaginative action and adventure. The characters, themes and stories remain the same, only the setting has changed – to a futuristic world of aliens, robots and advanced technology!

“Just like modernized versions of Shakespeare's plays, by taking a solid, meaningful story and translating its elements as faithfully as possible into a new setting, we hope to bring out some of the more amazing details that might get missed by today's readers,” said co-writer Tom Hall.

The first issue, shipping in May, re-imagines the legendary tale of David, the shepherd boy who took down the giant, Goliath. The 32-page, full-color comic book retails for $2.25 US.

“David is a young kid who has to go toe-to-toe with a giant super robot covered in every conceivable type of weapon,” said Hall. “Other than that, everything is what the Bible describes, down to the small details that most versions of the tale gloss over.”

“The series is designed to appeal to anyone, whether religious or not” said Managing Editor Paul Castiglia, a veteran comic book writer and editor who has worked for Archie Comics among other notable comic publishers. “Our aim was to create an all-ages series with broad appeal, so that even those who consider the bible ‘mythology’ on par with Greek and Roman legends may embrace it.”

“The stories of the Old Testament are universal – they can be found among several religions and cultures. Our creative team consists of Christians who approach the material with a Christian worldview and we’ve strived to make this the coolest comic book your Sunday School teacher ever confiscated!”

He added that the series is meant to appeal to anyone who enjoys manga (especially “mecha”), video game heroes like Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man, Transformers and other robot toys, and the animated versions of DC and Marvel superheroes.

The creative team for MECHA MANGA BIBLE HEROES #1: DAVID VS. GOLIATH includes writers Tom Hall (King, Robot 13) & Joey Endres (Megazeen), with pencils and inks by Thom “Kneon Transitt” Pratt (Disney) and colors and letters by Daniel Bradford (King, Robot 13). Also included are bonus comic strips by popular Australian writer/artist Dean Rankine. Each issue features fully painted covers by fan-favorite Jeff Slemons, who has done covers for several comic book publishers and whose work has been featured in successful ad campaigns. The series is edited by Paul Castiglia (Archie, DC, Dark Horse, Antarctic Press). JMG Studios owner John-Marc Grob (Marvel, owner-producer of FriendFish and various animation projects) is editor-in-chief.

Future issues will present the the further adventures of David as well as classic tales of such bible heroes as Daniel, Joseph, Jonah and others. Other series are in development, including “Beyond,” a horror/sci-fi/fantasy anthology aimed at older teens and beyond.

ANCHOR DISTRIBUTION is the exclusive distributor for the initial launch of MECHA MANGA BIBLE HEROES. Anchor will handle distribution for comic shops, Christian bookstores, libraries, churches, schools and other retailers. JMG Studios will provide flyers and wall posters for free upon request, and a customized ashcan at a portion of cost to help promote the comic book. For ordering and promotional information email paulc@jmgstudio.net

While Anchor will also handle reorders, JMG Comics is currently exploring partnering with additional reorder distributors.

MECHA MANGA BIBLE HEROES can be found on the Internet at http://www.mmbibleheroes.com/ and www.myspace.com/mechamangabibleheroes

For press, licensing/merchandising, movie/TV rights and all other inquiries, please email paulc@jmgstudio.net

MECHA-MANGA BIBLE HEROES 1: DAVID VS. GOLIATH, ships May, 2008. 32-page, full-color comic, $2.25 US.

MECHA MANGA BIBLE HEROES Copyright © 2007, 2008 by Paul Castiglia, Tom Hall, Joey Endres, Jeff Slemons, Thom Pratt, Daniel Bradford. All rights reserved.

Okay, I can see this. Bible comics are nothing new, and Christian Amerimanga is nothing new, either (see Serenity if you don't believe me).

If I were to make a complaint, something I probably shouldn't do about a press release, it is that they are telling the stories as authentically as possible but giving them a sci-fi veneer. The introduction of mechs into the biblical world, however, would produce a number of complications; I would prefer a comic that elaborates the sparse biblical tales in order to explore the alien setting more fully. That being said, I am eagerly wondering how they will depict Deborah. I'm also thinking I should mention this to Old Testament Space Opera.

Chronicles of the Universe

2008-01-29T20:01:00.000-08:00

Is it just me, or has it gotten quiet around here? Anyway, I have recently posted a review of Rod Espinosa's Amerimanga comic, Chronicles Of The Universe, over at The Sci Fi Catholic.

These three comics collections, Chronicles Of The Universe, Battle Girlz, and Prince Of Heroes, are an ambitious project; Espinosa is apparently chronicling a single powerful family over multiple generations as it grows increasing decadent, something like a superhero space opera Amerimanga version of Buddenbrooks. It will be interesting to see how this project turns out, or if Espinosa takes it beyond three volumes. [more...]

Maison Ikkoku Reviewed at The Sci Fi Catholic

2008-01-14T21:25:00.000-08:00

Because of a recent fight with my coblogger Snuffles the Dragon, which I lost, I was forced to read and review an entire fifteen-volume series of manga, Maison Ikkoku, by Rumiko Takahashi.

So if you're interested in comics from across the Pacific, I have a review for you.

I cannot recall any other books over which I have laughed out loud or cried out loud so frequently. Once, I had to drop the book because I was laughing so hard I couldn't read. Another time, I had to drop the book because I was sobbing so hard I couldn't read. Takahashi's artistic skill is marginal; she tends to overuse certain formulas; her work features frequent low humor and fanservice; yet for all that, or because of it, Rumiko Takahashi has an almost freakish ability to convey powerful emotion. By the middle of volume 8, my nerves were frazzled and remained so until the end. I haven't recovered from reading this series and don't expect to for a few days. [more...]

Kirby on Gods New and Old

2007-12-20T20:39:00.000-08:00

Via Beaucoupkevin, a snippet of the documentary Masters of Comic Book Art in which the King discusses the religious inspiration for Galactus, the Silver Surfer, and the New Gods:

"I went to the Bible, and I came up with Galactus...And there I was in front of this tremendous figure, who I knew very well because I have always felt him, and I certainly couldn't treat him in the same way that I would any ordinary mortal. And I remember in my first story I had to back away from it to resolve that story And of course the Silver Surfer is the fallen angel... They were figures that had never before been used in comics. They were above mythic figures. And of course they were the first gods. And I began thinking along those lines. And the New Gods evolved from those lines. And I began to ask myself, everybody else had their gods. What are ours? What is the shape of our society in the form of myth and legend? Who are our gods? Who are our evil gods and who are our good ones?"

Thor-ology

2007-11-17T06:23:00.000-08:00

A top-five list on the Cracked Magazine website isn't exactly the first place you'd expect to find theological insight. But Thor grabbed the #2 spot on their recent list of "5 Upcoming Comic Book Movies That Must Be Stopped," and their rationale includes this discussion of his origin:

The origin of the comic god goes like this: The arrogant Thor needs a lesson in humility, so his father Odin, the ruler of all gods, sends him to Earth in the form of a crippled mortal to teach him to be humble. When Thor finally learns his shits do stink, his mortal form dies off and he is allowed to become himself again.

This spiritual lesson serves to confirm two things: Being handicapped is God's way of punishing you for religious transgressions, and to the son of God, Earth is essentially a giant time-out where instead of facing a corner for five minutes you live a short, challenging life rife with confusion and pain until you are eventually allowed to die.

Granted, Cracked got the origin story wrong—there's nothing about Donald Blake dying; he becomes Thor again when he finds his hammer—but the insight still stands. Something always bugged me about Thor's Don Blake persona, and it wasn't just that he was the most character-less alter ego in the Marvel stable. Blake is essentially the incarnation of a deity, and the nature of that incarnation says some dark things about the way the universe is run.

Co-posted on SF Gospel

Ex Machina #31 reviewed elsewhere

2007-10-22T19:13:00.000-07:00

I have not yet received my copy of Ex Machina #31, in which Mayor Mitchell Hundred meets the Pope. But Don McPherson has, and he reviews it at Eye on Comics:

Really, this story arc is about the fundamental differences between the secular and spiritual worlds and how they hide common ground. Serving as a symbol of that approach to the storytelling is the story arc’s title — “Ex Cathedra” — which is a religious play on the title of this series; it’s different but similar.

Muslim superheroes: The 99

2007-10-21T17:22:00.000-07:00

NPR's Studio 360 covers The 99, a comic about 99 heroes who each embody one of the 99 attributes of God (AKA Asma’ Allah al-Ḥusná, or the 99 most beautiful names of God). Conceived by Naif Al-Mutawa, founder of Teshkeel Comics, The 99 is written by Fabian Nicieza and illustrated by John McCrea and James Hodgkins. A preview issue (and a long one, 68 pages) is available as a free PDF here.
Hear Studio 360's coverage here.

Battle Girlz Reviewed

2007-10-20T20:31:00.001-07:00

Speaking of women and how they're portrayed in comics, I have posted a review of Battle Girlz by Rod Espinosa over at The Sci Fi Catholic.

The Battle Girls are a walking collection of comic book clichés, and Espinosa apparently doesn't care if you know it. They are Mech Girl, a mecha pilot with a troubled past; Mighty Girl, a super-strong girl expelled from school for thrashing bullies; Temptress, a femme fatale with the power to make men do anything she wants; Priestess, a half-elf who casts magic and wields a mace; and Gadgeteer, a genius inventor who holds 65,987 patents and spends the battles sitting in a control room from which she babysits Mech Girl. Leading them all is the enigmatic and creepy Saintly Perfect Goddess, of whom Temptress says, "She's so gorgeous...even I'm in love with her!" (p. 49). And when the Battle Girls aren't defeating evildoers or saving the universe, they're usually eating ice cream or shopping at the mall. [more...]

Warrior Nun Areala

2007-10-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

The Sci Fi Catholic peeks into the seamy world of Catholixploitation comics.

Warrior Nun Areala Color Manga #1, written and illustrated by Ben Dunn. Antarctic Press (San Antonio): 2005. ISBN: 1-932453-82-2. $9.99

Ben Dunn is known in some circles as the "godfather" of American manga, mainly for founding Antarctic Press and for creating Ninja High School. His artwork is impressive and sometimes innovative, and his writing is at least slightly above average. Warrior Nun Areala is possibly his second-best-known title.

The comic opens in Norway in 1066 where a nun is running from a group of especially ugly Vikings. Just as the Vikings are about to finish her off, a Valkyrie named Areala appears and announces that she has left "Valhalla to serve the only true God!" She then infuses her power into the nun and gives her a magic sword. After kicking some serious Viking butt, this "Sister Areala" goes on to found the order of Warrior Nuns. The story moves from there to the present, when the Warrior Nuns' mission has changed somewhat. No longer permitted to kill regular human enemies, they instead battle demons who have found their way to the material plane.

The central character is Sister Shannon, a novice Warrior Nun recently assigned to New York where she takes up residence at St. Thomas' Church and meets Father Terrance Gomez, a kindly, overweight priest who occasionally packs a flamethrower when the situation calls for it. Other characters make regular appearances, including Shotgun Mary, a motorcycling vigilante who left the Warrior Nuns because of her "unorthodox" demon-slaying methods, and Father David Crowe, with whom Sister Shannon had a romantic relationship before they both dedicated their lives to the Church (if we believed comics, we'd think every nun has an unrequited love interest somewhere). Father Crowe is a "Magic Priest," member of an order that provides spiritual and magical aid in the various battles while the Warrior Nuns provide the muscle. Hovering in the background is the demoness Lillith, an ambiguously evil but unambiguously goofy character whose motives are vague (and whose name is misspelled).

The Warrior Nuns work in standard, goofy comic book ways. To prepare for battle, Sister Shannon recites a Hail Mary (incorrectly), and then a magic sword appears in her hands while her regular habit is replaced by--*ahem*--a less restricting outfit. If you're annoyed that the nuns in your area wear pantsuits, you can at least be glad they don't dress like this.

Early in the story, Sister Shannon loses her left hand and has it replaced with a cyborg arm. She also becomes the new bearer of Areala's spirit, though that doesn't seem to mean much. She also gains access to the "God Armor," a magic armor suit with possibly the dumbest name of any magic armor suit ever, which she can make appear instantly at any time.

The world of Battle Nun Areala is a simple one where magic is commonplace, slavering demons show up out of nowhere to make trouble, the best way to fight villainy is in tights or leather, and simple-minded villains bent on taking over the world always speak in exposition, as in, "NO! Without that we can't infiltrate the Vatican's 'Gabriel'! As long as that computer is in operation we will not have total control of the Earth!"

The story could have been significantly cooler if Dunn did a little research. Apparently, Warrior Nuns govern certain "sectors" in which they are responsible for keeping demonic activity in check. If Dunn referred to dioceses, deaneries, and parishes instead of sectors, I might have believed he knew what he was talking about. A few references to actual Catholic practices or maybe a little use of Vatican politics might have enriched the story immensely. For example, instead of creating an oddly named order of Magic Priests, Dunn could have assigned magic powers to our exorcists, who already have less spectacular demon-fighting rituals.

It's hard to say from this first volume exactly what the comic's attitude is toward religion in general or Catholicism in particular. It seems to be taken for granted that Heaven and Hell exist, that the universe is monotheistic, and that Catholicism is the true religion, though creatures from a number of other religions and folkloric traditions comfortably coexist, but the comic doesn't seem particularly interested in religion as such; rather, it uses it as an excuse for its plots. Similarly, putting the word "Warrior" in front of "Nun" is probably a gimmick meant to grab the eye, much as putting "Battle" in front of "Pope" grabs the eye. We can also guess from the lurid, bloody, and sometimes sexualized artwork that Dunn isn't on a particularly holy mission.

And really, if you're planning to exploit a religion for a comic, Catholicism is an obvious choice. For one thing, we've already got the monster-fighting equipment: as I write this, I have a full bottle of holy water at my elbow in case the vampires or zombies show up, I have several icons nearby, and I can lay my hands on a rosary or crucifix pretty quickly if the situation calls for it. It's also easier to imagine the Catholic Church with a supercomputer and demon-tracking satellite network than it is to imagine, say, the Conservative Baptist Association with the same (though some author should get on that). However, I can't help but think the Catholic Church has by now been a little over-exploited. As I read Warrior Nun Areala, I kept thinking to myself, "Didn't we cover this same ground in Hellboy?"

I'm also displeased with the costuming. I'm displeased with women's costumes in comics generally, but I'm extra displeased with this one. In addition to wearing a goofy Warrior Nun outfit, Sister Shannon appears naked in a quick panel whenever she changes into the God Armor. Oh, pardon me--I thought I was reading about a nun, but it seems I've accidentally stumbled into an episode of Cutey Honey. Come on, Dunn: even if you won't show her some respect as a woman, at least show her some respect as a religious or even as a warrior. I invite all comic illustrators to pay attention to what actual soldiers in combat wear. You will notice they don't run around with bare legs or exposed cleavage. There is a practical reason for this.

The last time I was in the Shady Bookstore Down the Street, I walked into the comics section and looked around. From every shelf, I saw lascivious women giving me come-hither gazes while their volcanic bosoms exploded from their metal or leopard-print bras, and I said to myself, "I'm bored." I'm bored! I came here to get a good story, not an anatomy lesson. I already know women have breasts; the fact does not fascinate me. Comics are so rife with this garbage, whenever I find an author--especially a male author--who can actually create strong, well-realized female characters instead of taking the easy way out and sticking them in bronze bikinis, I instantly latch onto and adulate him. Ben Dunn could learn a lot from the likes of Jeff Smith, Paul Sizer, and James Robinson. If you're wondering why the comics industry has drooping sales or why it isn't attracting women and children, try not writing crap for a change and see what happens.

Okay, I realize it's my own fault. After all, I of my own free will picked up a comic with the words "Warrior" and "Nun" both in the title, so I get I what I deserve. But it's a mistake I won't likely make twice.

Spiritual Solicitations, August-October 2007

2007-10-12T11:25:00.000-07:00

Have 3 issues of PREVIEWS piled up already? Dang, I'd better get posting. Some of these are probably even out already. It's a long list, for which I apologize in advance. In no particular order:

SUPERMAN: REDEMPTION TP
Written by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza
Art by Walter Simonson, Carlos Pacheco and others
Cover by Al Barrionuevo
Collecting Superman #659 and #666 and Action Comics #848-849! The Man of Steel travels to hell and back in this collection of stories that touches on the supernatural side of Superman.
Advance-solicited; on sale January 2 • 112 pg, FC, $12.99 US

Oh, the conflict: This collection contains Superman #659, which is one of my favorite Supes stories ever. (Read my review here.) But it also contains Action 848 and 849, which were dreadfully bad. (Read my reviews here and here.) Were they bad enough to want to stick on a bookshelf as a sterling example of how not to do religion in comics?

INDIA AUTHENTIC VOLUME 1: THE BOOK OF SHIVA TP
Virgin Comics
Created by: Deepak Chopra
Written by: Saurav Mohapatra
Art by: Virgin Illustrations
Cover by: Abhishek Singh
Acclaimed author Deepak Chopra and Virgin Comics invite you to a world of exotic legends and alluring myths, a land called India. Featuring the origin tales of some of the iconic deities in the Indian pantheon like Ganesha - The God of endeavors; Kali - The primal facet of the Indian Mother Goddess; Indra - The King of Gods; Uma - The All-Mother; and last but not the least, the enigmatic and powerful Shiva – The Great Destroyer.
Collects issues #1 thru #5 of the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed series from Virgin Comics. Featuring an introduction to each tale by Deepak Chopra, every foreword enumerates the significance of the myth to the modern world and explores the archetypes and themes with respect to current times. Volume 1 – THE BOOK OF SHIVA is written by Saurav Mohapatra (DEVI, SADHU : THE SILENT ONES) and features art by Abhishek Singh (RAMAYAN 3392 AD) and Satish Tayade (KAMASUTRA, RAMAYAN 3392 AD).
SC, 7x10, 144pgs, FC $14.99

Has anybody read any of these Hinduism-Reloaded things from Virgin Comics? And are they any good at all? And does Deepak Chopra's name really bear any weight with your average comics fan? (Or anyone else?) A couple more collections (Ramayan 3392, Devi) are due out later.

MYSTERIUM FIDEI HC
Last Gasp
by Daniel Martin Diaz & Michael M. Brescia
Mysterium Fidei, Latin for "Mystery of Faith," is the new collection of art from Daniel Martin Diaz. In this collection of oil paintings, drawings, and prints, Diaz contemplates human suffering and one's undying faith in the afterlife. His mystical imagery reflects the influences of Byzantine iconography, Retabalos, Ex Votos, the Illuminati, ephemera, alchemy, and 16th-century anatomical engravings. Collected in a beautiful clothbound hardcover. (C: 0-1-2)
MATURE THEMES
HC, 10x10, 184pgs, FC SRP: $39.95

Intriguing. I hadn't heard of this artist before reading this solicitation, but he's pretty interesting, especially if you're into medieval art (I am).

CHRONICLES OF WORMWOOD: THE LAST ENEMY GN
Avatar Press
by Garth Ennis & Rob Steen
Wormwood, Jimmy, Jay all return and the world hasn’t gotten any better since their last adventure. Wormwood still produces questionable TV shows and pines for Maggie, his lost love. The boys all share drinks at their favorite pub and try to get on with their lives, but Pope Jacko has his own plans for Wormwood. In order to dispatch the Anti-Christ once-and-for-all, he dispatches his finest Holy assassin, Brother One, the Killer Eunuch! If you loved the original series, then you don’t want to miss the next chapter of Garth Ennis’ new sacrilegious masterpiece!
MATURE THEMES
SC, 48pgs, FC SRP: $7.99

I've been cutting back my comics budget, and Garth Ennis is one of the first writers under the knife—I'm increasingly convinced that he doesn't have another Preacher in him. Still, if this series must have a sequel, I'm glad to see it's a standalone graphic novel rather than another miniseries.

DEATH OF THE NEW GODS #1-2
DC Comics
Written by Jim Starlin
Art and covers by Starlin & Matt Banning
Variant cover issue #1 by Ryan Sook
The title says it all! For months now readers have witnessed the unimaginable and unthinkable as New Gods across the DCU have seemingly died, with Lightray’s death in COUNTDOWN the biggest of them all. Now, the carnage continues but the mystery and adventure is just beginning! Jim Starlin — master of the cosmic odyssey — writes and illustrates this epic tale of death and destruction on a scale never seen before. With a cast of hundreds and cameos by the entire DCU, this intergalactic 8-part series cannot be missed!
Retailers please note: Issue #1 will ship with two covers that may be ordered separately. For every 10 copies of the Standard Edition (featuring a cover by Jim Starlin & Matt Banning) ordered, retailers may order 1 Variant Edition (featuring a cover by Ryan Sook). Please see the Order Form for more details.
Issue #1 on sale October 17; issue #2 on sale October 31 • 1 and 2 of 8 • 40 pg,
FC, $3.50 US

I never got into the New Gods, but this and the recent Eternals revival have convinced me that Jack Kirby's wacky '70s cosmic theology is probably worth looking in to.

OUR GODS WEAR SPANDEX SC
by Christopher Knowles; illustrated by Joseph Michael Linsner
Was Superman's arch nemesis Lex Luthor based on Aleister Crowley? Can Captain Marvel be linked to the Sun gods of antiquity? In Our Gods Wear Spandex, Christopher Knowles answers these questions and brings to light many other intriguing links between superheroes and the enchanted world of esoterica. (6962/1-578634-06-7) (C: 0-1-2)
SC, 7x9, 224pgs, B&W SRP: $21.95

A book about religion in superhero comics? Why would that interest the readers of this blog? We may need to look into doing a full review of this one, methinks. It looks like they didn't take the approach I would have—which is fine, since I eventually want to write a book of my own on the topic, and don't want to retread too much ground.

GRAPHIC UNIVERSE: ARTHUR AND LANCELOT HC
by Limke & Yeates
GRAPHIC UNIVERSE: BEOWULF HC
by Storrie & Randall
GRAPHIC UNIVERSE: ODYSSEUS HC
by Jolley & Yeates
GRAPHIC UNIVERSE: SINBAD HC
by Croall & Hilinski
GRAPHIC UNIVERSE: THESEUS HC
by Limke & McCrea
GRAPHIC UNIVERSE: HERCULES, THE TWELVE LABORS SC
by Storrie & Kurth
GRAPHIC UNIVERSE: ISIS & OSIRIS, TO THE ENDS OF EARTH SC
by Limke & Witt
GRAPHIC UNIVERSE: KING ARTHUR, EXCALIBUR UNSHEATHED SC
by Limke & Yeates
GRAPHIC UNIVERSE: THOR & LOKI IN THE LAND OF GIANTS SC
by Limke & Randall
GRAPHIC UNIVERSE: THE TROJAN HORSE SC
by Fontes, Fontes & Purcell
Lerner Publishing Group
Hardcovers: $26.60; Softcovers: $8.95

A Classics Illustrated-style take on assorted myths. If you've heard of the artist, it's probably only available in hardcover, so these are almost certainly too pricy to consider. PS: This is one of 3 versions of Beowulf coming out this month. Only one of them has anything to do with the Neil Gaiman-penned movie. Just conventient timing, I suppose.

LEGION GN
IDW Publishing
Salvador Sanz (w & a)
Bloody rain is falling over the city of Buenos Aires. The sky opens, dropping demons on the city. It’s the legion: the dead and their destruction. The architects from Hell build a huge tower of human remains on the city's horizon. Why have they come? What do they want? Nobody knows, but only Felix—a guitar player from a local band—has the key to find out. Presenting a special standalone tale of demons and destruction, courtesy of film director/writer/artist Salvador Sanz (Gorgonas).
FC • 48 pages • $7.49

Sounds kinda like The Six-String Samurai, which is a great movie that nobody's seen.

THE ATHEIST #4
Desperado
by Hester & Volley
Sharpe and Nguyen face the horrifying reality that our world is being invaded by the restless spirits of the dead. The only thing capable of stopping this ghostly army is a doomsday device so terrible that even the Department of Defense has tried to destroy it. Sharpe does not share their compunctions, but will he be able to use it if it means the death of those closest to him? By the new creative team for the upcoming 2008 series sequel Antoine Sharp.
RES. from Previews Vol. XV #8 (AUG051667)
32pgs, B&W SRP: $3.99

I was intrigued by the title when the first issue of this came out a while back, but I haven't actually read it, so I don't know if it has any real bearing on the content. Anybody out there read it?

CRIME BIBLE: THE FIVE LESSONS OF BLOOD #2
DC Comics
Written by Greg Rucka
Art by Jose Saiz
Cover by John Van Fleet
The Dark Faith spreads throughout the DCU as the Daughters of Lilith take the forefront in a recruitment drive to convert people to the Religion of Crime through the Lesson of Lust. And only The Question, who must work under cover, can stop a United States colonel from sacrificing his life — and his country.
On sale November 7 • 2 of 5 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

The Crime Bible was one of the more intriguing ideas to come out of 52, but it didn't have much room to develop within the cramped pages of that series. Perhaps this will give it some room, though my faith in Rucka is not as high as it could be.

JUDAS VOLUME 5
Tokyopop
Creator: Suu Minazuki
Judas, cursed for his sins, is the spirit of Death--he is without form, and has enslaved young Eve to carry out the most heinous of acts. Together in spirit and body, they must slay 666 people so that Judas can regain his humanity. Using Eve as his vessel of destruction, the dark, blood-soaked journey will leave a trail of sin, death, and--hopefully for Judas--redemption.Salvation may be at hand, but now is the time for prayer...
ISBN 978-1-4278-0204-0 $9.99

The description above is from the first volume of this manga series; this is the final one. Intriguing concept with a LOT of room to turn into something dreadfully bad. Has anybody read it? Is there any point to the religious symbolism, or is it just "bload-soaked"?

RAMA TP
Arcana Studio
by Dr. Barbara Jackson & Ashok Bhadana
Ramayana is not just a literary monument, it is held in such reverence that the mere reading or hearing of it can set individuals free from sin and grant every desire to the reader or listener. In this retelling of Ramayana, author Dr. Barbara Jackson enlightens and enables the reader to understand the righteous path - dharma - for the life on earth."

Another comic based on Hindu mythology. Lest you be confused, this is the one that doesn't have Deepak Chopra's name on it.

Superman and divine love

2007-10-04T20:01:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of BeaucopKevin, Garth Ennis (should I say "of all people"?) writes Superman as an omnibenevolent demigod. From the pages of JLA/Hitman, here it is:

Maggin for Congress

2007-09-28T14:59:00.000-07:00

This is not an imaginary story: Elliot S! Maggin is running for Congress in the 2008 election in the 24th district of California. Of particular interest to us here at Holy Heroes will be his working out of his religious convictions with the comics experience. This quote says it all I think:

“Truth, justice and the American way” is my personal torah and I'll say so everywhere I go.

Whatever your political beliefs you've got to admit that's just too weird/cool. I wish I lived in California.

Find out more about Elliot S! Maggin's bid for the U.S. Congress

Iron Man Lives Again

2007-09-28T10:37:00.001-07:00

It is foolish to judge a movie too extensively by the trailer. I absolutely loved the first trailer for Superman Returns:

And the movie was, frankly, disappointing. Or consider the shock undoubtedly felt by anyone who went into the recent Bridge to Terabithia film (a film I highly recommend, incidentally) with only the trailer to prepare them:

Despite all of this, I want to talk about Iron Man. The teaser trailer to the upcoming Iron Man film is currently available on youtube. It is fairly likely to be taken down soon, but in the mean time, check it out:

In original publication, Iron Man (Tony Stark) was a billionaire industrialist and weapons manufacturer during the Vietnam War who was kidnapped by the North Vietnamese. He was forced to build weapons for them, but secretly and simultaneously built an armoured suit for himself. Calling himself "Iron Man", Stark fought for capitalism against communism in Vietnam. As Marvel began to realize that public support for Vietnam was waning, Iron Man fought less and less for American interests in Vietnam and more and more for his corporate interests against industrial espionage. Most recently, Iron Man has gained prominance in the Marvel Universe event Civil War as Captain America's enemy, leader of the pro-registration superheroes. In the course of Civil War, Captain America was killed. More on that part in a minute.

In this updated version, it looks very much like Iraq has been substituted for Vietnam. I can't help but wonder if this is, on Marvel's part, a subversive move--comparing Iraq to Vietnam and implicitly condemning both, or is it a remarkably shortsighted repeat of the exact error made with Iron Man's first origin story. Is Marvel once again behind the trend of popular opinion, making a hero support a war the American public is rapidly becoming disillusioned with?

On the topic of "Civil War", originally Marvel apparently attempted to impartially portray both sides, to encourage readers to choose a side without either side being "good". As time went on, however, it became increasingly difficult to side against Captain America and the superheroes fighting for civil liberties. Civil War became a commentary on the state of American politics, and the creators of the Marvel Universe seemed to support freedom over safety when forced to choose.

Iron Man was on the wrong side of that fight. As Civil War went on, he and his side of the conflict became increasingly Fascist and increasingly difficult to support. When they killed Captain America (and symbolically the spirit of the nation), it became almost impossible to stay on Iron Man's side.

It is into this context that a new movie is being released: a movie in which Stark proudly manufactures weapons, in which he calls for those weapons to be used "ONCE!", implying that their destructive power is such that they invoke fear in all enemies (remind anyone of any historical weapon?). In the trailer the sadistic glee with which he sprays fire at his enemies (Iraqis? at least arabs) while Black Sabbath (Iron Man, of course) plays in the background makes me wonder, once again, whether this is a subversive and ironic critique of fascism, or a wholehearted approval. We'll see when the movie comes out.

The Courageous Princess Reviewed

2007-09-27T21:59:00.000-07:00

Princesses and talking animals and dragons, oh my!

Over at The Sci Fi Catholic, I have posted a review of The Courageous Princess, an Amerimanga by Rod Espinosa, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite author/illustrators.

After the picture-book introduction, the narration ceases and the story moves to a more conventional comic book format in which we meet Mabelrose as an adolescent. She's excited because she's been invited to her first ball in another, more powerful kingdom. But when Mabelrose arrives at the ball, none of the princes will dance with her and all the other princesses make fun of her shabby clothes and her freckles. [more...]

Batman and a Protestant Work Ethic

2007-09-26T09:42:00.000-07:00

Batman's origin story is a different kind of origin from Superman's, just as Batman is fundamentally a different sort of hero from Superman.

Superman is the sole survivor of Krypton. When his planet was destroyed, he was sent to earth and raised by Martha and Jonathan Kent. He possesses amazing powers, and uses them to defend Truth, Justice and the American Way. But aspects of his story could be (and have been) changed, and he would still be a hero.

In Mark Miller's Superman Red Son, Kal-El lands in Russia instead of in America, and is as idealistic about communism as the traditional Superman is idealistic about democracy. He makes terrible mistakes along the way, but he remains a hero, doing everything he can to work for the good of all human beings.

Elliot S! Maggin, in The Greatest Green Lantern of All, suggests that had the planet not been destroyed, Kal-El would have been the Green Lantern for Krypton.

In other words, Superman is a hero, in some essential way. He is not the merely product of his circumstances. There is something heroic about his very nature--something ethereal that makes him heroic.

Batman, by contrast, has always been very straightforwardly the product of his circumstances. His parents are murdered in front of him, and he responds by vowing to battle criminals. This is the cornerstone of Batman. As Frank Miller (who for all his faults is probably the writer who best understands Batman) says "no murder, no Bat-Man".

This difference of dependance on circumstance explains why, though both characters have tragic pasts and both have been portrayed as tortured heroes, the tragic history of Batman has always been more palatable and memorable than the tragic history of Superman. Superman, the lone survivor of his race, utterly alone in the universe, somehow doesn't seem to be as tragic or as tortured as Batman, the multi-millionaire philanthopist. It even explains how it is Batman, not Superman, who has a reputation as a loner, even though Batman's Batcave is full of allies (Alfred, Nightwing, Robin, Huntress, Batgirl, Oracle, occasionally Catwoman and more) and Superman's Fortress of Solitude is, well, not.

Batman is not, however, solely a product of his circumstances. Above all, the heroic example of Batman is the ability to better oneself, by hard work and perseverance. Batman is an exemplar of a "protestant work ethic". Batman is not only enabled by grace to turn the evil situation of his parents' murder into good, he is ethically compelled to do so. He works because it is right so to do. Batman's training and work do not constitute a quest for redemption but rather an ethical imperative.

Together these two seminal heroes of the DC Universe encapsulate the paradoxical command of St. Paul: "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, to will and to do."

So as Superman is a transcendent figure of divine intervention--salvation we have not earned from we know not where, Batman is a figure of the moral imperative to work out that salvation ourselves.

Repent

2007-09-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

Åka points out a Canadian graphic novel which is described as one man's "take on the dark fantasy world established in the Holy Bible's Book of Revelations." The title is Therefore Repent.
Let us now observe a moment of silence so that Gabriel and D.G.D. can groan in frustration at yet another incorrect reference to "Revelations." (The 's' is superfluous.)

The Sacred & the Profane

2007-09-22T09:05:00.000-07:00

Over at The Sci Fi Catholic, I have posted a discussion of the comic book classic, The sacred & the profane, written by Dean Motter and illustrated by Ken Steacy. This comic features an interesting take on the time-honored subject of Catholics in space.

The Sacred and the Profane depicts a future in which the discovery of life on another world has swelled religious interest around the globe so that the Catholic Church and numerous other religions are flourishing. Readers will probably recognize this as a sharp contrast with numerous other science fiction works in which the discovery of extraterrestrial life is a challenge to religious faith or even the source of its extinction. [more...]

Jehovah's Witness joke in Countdown #37

2007-09-22T05:08:00.001-07:00

I mention this primarily for Elliot's amusement and/or frustration: Countdown #37 contains a jab at door-to-door evangelism when stage-magician-themed heroine Zatanna shows Mary Marvel around her mansion:

Up, up and Oy vey!

2007-09-10T10:30:00.001-07:00

The subtitle of this book is How Jewish History, Culture, and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero. The author is Rabbi Simcha Weinstein.

The Amazon blurb reads, in part:

From the birth of Krypton in Cleveland to the Caped Crusader, Captain America, the Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man, the X-Men, and more, Up, Up, and Oy Vey chronicles the uncanny story behind the story about the origins of the planet's most famous superheroes. While the Jewish contribution to film, theater, music, and comedy has been well-documented, the Jewish role in the creation of the All-American superhero has not been--until now!

Indeed! There were a lot of Jewish writers and artists involved in early superhero comics, some in pivotal roles: Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, Joe Shuster, Jerry Spiegel,* Joe Kubert, and Will Eisner, to name just a few. These creators weren't necessarily devout Jews, but their background and values were still reflected in the stories they told. More recently we find people like Elliot S! Maggin, Rabbi Cary Friedman, Art Spiegelman, and Douglas Rushkoff reimagining Jewish history, culture and religion through comics. Rabbi Weinstein's book looks very interesting.

While you're waiting to get your copy, you might want to check out Paul's post on the Jewish roots of Superman.

*Just the other day someone explained the possible Hebrew roots of the name "Kal El" to me.

Leave It to Chance: The Lost Chapter

2007-08-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

What's the secret to failure?

I, like many people, love Leave It to Chance, the critically acclaimed, award-winning comic from James Robinson and Paul Smith. The three collected volumes from Image (pictured here) left me hungry for more. It never occurred to me when I finished them that there might not be any more.

It probably never occurred to Robinson and Smith, either. After all, they had a solid high-concept idea, the talent to pull it off, and an ambition to get more women and children, a market the industry has struggled to attract, to read comics. They also had the acclaim of critics. What they apparently lacked was good sales.

Leave It to Chance is easy to grasp: it's a cross between Nancy Drew and Kolchak: The Night Stalker. In brief, the setting is the city of Devil's Echo where the paranormal is the norm. Defending the townsfolk against endless threats from demons, monsters, and other bogeymen is the Falconer family. Every generation has had one Falconer to be the town's paranormal investigator and protector, and the tradition has passed from father to son in an unbroken line.

But Lucas Falconer is the last male heir. His battle with occultist Miles Belloc left his wife dead and his face deformed, and he has had to raise his only daughter, Chance, alone. Now Chance is fourteen, the traditional coming-of-age when male Falconers become apprentices of their fathers. Chance wants to follow in Lucas Falconer's footsteps, but he has forbidden it. As you would expect, Chance decides to do some paranormal investigation on her own. Havoc ensues and Chance saves the city multiple times. Lucas is angry with her but secretly proud.

How awesome is that?

I thought I would never again have the joy of reading Leave It to Chance since its last two issues have not been collected in paperback and probably never will be. But then I visited that shady bookstore up the street--you know, the one with New Age books on the shelves and posters of naked anime characters on the walls--where I found a copy of the very last issue, Issue 13 (perhaps an unlucky number for a comic about the paranormal). It opens strong, swiftly informing us that Lucas is dead, murdered by a car bomb. Grieving, Chance has given up on paranormal investigating. But she won't have long to mope because a bumbling psychic trying to resurrect a famous jazz singer has accidentally created a city-wide zombie uprising while in the background a collection of villains with a grudge against Chance are forming a conspiracy.

And that, unfortunately, is where it ends. This last issue came out only after the comic had already been through trouble, and now the series is once again on a permanent hiatus. What went wrong? Why couldn't such an easily likable, fun, all-ages comic succeed?

Earlier this week on The Sci Fi Catholic, I argued that some stories we associate with women are actually intended for men. Although Leave It to Chance was created with a young, feminine audience in mind, I strongly suspect it holds a greater interest for male adults.

I will never forget Paul Smith's introduction to the first volume, Shaman's Rain. It's clear he has a bone to pick with the comics industry, calling modern comics "dark, misogynist, convoluted...mean." Leave It to Chance is clearly meant to be the opposite: bright, simple, and girl-powered. But readers aware of Chance's intent might be a little bemused to discover that everyone working on the comic from the writer to the inker to the letterer is a man. Certain "feminine" scenes in the series seem forced, such as in Issue 8 when Chance and her girlfriends have a slumber party during which they sit around and talk about their favorite comic book heroes. "Hellboy is way cool,"* Chance announces, almost more to the reader than to her friends, as if she's trying to nudge the audience to go pick up a Mike Mignola comic. To my eye, this moment--when the curtain is drawn back on a feminine scene and the reader discovers the girls are really fanboys--is likely to appeal more to a male readership than a female one.

And then there is Chance herself. She has a boyish haircut, thick eyebrows, and a decidedly androgynous body she usually covers with overalls and a bulky trench coat. Again, this appears to be a reaction against the stereotypes of comics in which crime-fighting women are typically voluptuous and underdressed. The reader may get the sense that Robinson and Smith have carefully and consciously de-sexualized their heroine. Even her extremely low-key, G-rated romantic tension with sixteen-year-old, scruffy-chinned criminal mastermind Archie Lightfoot is non-sexual in every sense of the term.

Through most of Leave It to Chance, Chance is generically spunky and able to handle anything, though a few issues end with suggestions that her brash actions may have serious repercussions later on. On one occasion, Chance accidentally kills a man, but never shows shock or remorse. In another instance, she intentionally tosses a "trogg" off the top of a building and again seems unfazed (though the trogg may have survived). When it's over, she's always ready for the next big adventure. Her psyche receives no exploration.

This contrasts intriguingly with another male-authored teenage girl-centered comic, Paul Sizer's Little White Mouse. Its protagonist, Loo Th'eng, frequently dresses in a manner similar to Chance: her typical attire consists of overalls, a vest, and a backwards baseball cap. Loo, in contrast to Chance, is a fully developed character. Her personality is believable even if her abilities are exceptional. Loo, like Chance, engages in reckless behavior enjoyable to watch, but she sometimes feels guilty and frequently suffers consequences. Also in contrast to Chance, her femininity is never lost in spite of her behavior and dress, which might be considered "masculine" in many respects, although Sizer accomplishes this partly by depicting her in romantic or quasi-romantic relationships with much older men and by putting her in a number of skimpy outfits, all of which I considered unfortunate when I read the series.

The only character in Leave It to Chance who really exudes feminine sexuality in a typically comic book way is Ms. Longfellow, one of the villains, who packs a large handgun and wears black tights and cat-rimmed glasses. The issue in which she appears ends with her rendered powerless after a male villain abandons her. Similarly, in Issue 13, the bumbling psychic has a beautiful, air-headed woman on each arm. When the dead start rising from their graves, we see a shot of one of these women running away and shouting, "Don't ask me. Otway just hired me to look pretty!" The matronly-looking maid at the Falconer estate, Quince, is generally Chance's antagonist who tries to get her to be more lady-like and prevent her from pursuing her dream, whereas the butler Hobbs is Chance's enabler. Besides Chance herself, the strongest female character in the comic is Officer Margo, a policewoman who works in the Arcane Crimes Unit. Although presumably intended to champion womanhood, Leave It to Chance generally depicts femininity as powerless. Women succeed in the comic largely by imitating men and learning to move in a man's world. Women who are openly feminine are vulnerable and eventually become helpless.

Issue 13, however, adds some much-needed complexity. Chance struggles with her father's death and feels unable to live up to the Falconer family name. At the story's climax, Chance saves the day partly through a creative use of lip balm, a feminine item, and at the issue's end, even though Chance has succeeded as always, we find her in the arms of Quince the maid, who is consoling her over her trying experiences. Meanwhile, a couple of male characters are clueless and even insensitive.

When he complains about convolution, darkness, and misogyny in the modern comics industry, Smith yearns for a past when comics were fun. Leave It to Chance appears to have the goal (if not the success) of Star Wars: it is supposed to be innovative, yes, but more importantly it is supposed to bring fun back to an artform that has largely forgotten about it. I suspect the most avid readers of Leave It to Chance are probably not young girls but older fanboys nostalgic for the comics of yesteryear.

The cover of Issue 13 is an image of Chance surrounded by zombies and staring at her own grave, containing this epitaph:

Here Lies

CHANCE FALCONER

An Ungrateful Whelp

Who Died this Night

A Coward and a Quitter

Any hope that Chance will be back? It's impossible to say. For now, we'll have to leave it to chance.

*On the off chance James Robinson or Mike Mignola ever read this blog, I would pay good, good money to see a Leave It to Chance/Hellboy crossover.

The Art of Bone Reviewed

2007-08-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

My review of The Art of Bone has now appeared at The Sci Fi Catholic.

A Scanner Darkly

2007-08-23T11:54:00.000-07:00

Readers of Holy Heroes!! may be interested in the graphic novelization of PKD's A Scanner Darkly. The recent movie adaptation consisted of animation overlaying live action, and this graphic novel version works with images taken directly from the film.

And the religious connection? I've never read anything by PKD that didn't have religious symbolism! Scanner is sprinkled with quotations from St. Paul; the characters muse on good, evil, life and death. And one unfortunate soul attempts suicide, only to be confronted with a list of all his life's sins, read to him by an interdimensional alien.

(Hmm... some brave soul should produce a mash-up of Cordwainer Smith and PKD entitled "A Scanner Darkly Lives in Vain.")

Spiritual Solicitations: Sensational Spider-Man #40

2007-08-19T19:28:00.001-07:00

As a new feature for Holy Heroes!!, I will scour Previews for forthcoming books dealing with religion and give everybody a heads-up on books that may be of interest to readers of this blog. First up:
SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN #40
WRITER: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
PENCILS, INKS, COLORING, & COVER: Clayton Crain
LETTERED BY: Chris Eliopoulos

THE STORY:
Above all else, Peter Parker is a decent man. With a good heart. Who has given his life over to the service of others. And in exchange…what has he gotten? Tragedy after tragedy after tragedy…His Uncle Ben, Gwen Stacy, the list goes on and on…And why? In his darkest hour, Peter demands answers. And the only person who can give them to him is…God?

32 PGS./Rated A …$2.99

IN STORES: August 22, 2007

Peter Parker has definitely gone through some Job-like suffering (does he have any family members left that haven't died at least once?), so a spiritual showdown makes sense. I don't really like the dark direction the character has taken lately (and this from a guy who loves Kraven's Last Hunt!), but if this issue is good it may make up for it.
See preview pages here.

Spiritual Solicitations: Ex Machina #31

2007-08-19T19:28:00.000-07:00

EX MACHINA #31
Written by Brian K. Vaughan
Art by Tony Harris and Jim Clark
Cover by Harris
DC/Wildstorm

"Ex Cathedra," Part 2 of 4. Summoned to Vatican City by the Pope himself, superhero-turned-mayor Mitchell Hundred must cross the line between church and state in a thriller that will pit him against a terrifying new group of villains.

Wildstorm Universe | 32pg. | Color | $2.99 US | Mature Readers

On Sale October 17, 2007

DC was coy about a "major world leader" in the solicitation for #30 (part 1 of this story), but they showed their hand here. This is one of my favorite books right now, and I'm definitely curious to see how Vaughan writes the Pope.

Hellblazer #233

2007-08-19T19:05:00.001-07:00

Hellblazer #233
by Andy Diggle (writer) and Leonardo Manco (artist)
DC/Vertigo

Five issues in, Andy Diggle's run on Hellblazer is well on its way to becoming the stuff of legend. The opening two-parter proved that Diggle understands John Constantine's character, and the second story displays both knowledge and affection for his history. But the real strength of Hellblazer #233 for me is its development of a truly interesting metaphysics.

Diggle's goal with #232-233, set in the Ravenscar asylum where Constantine spent some time following his first experiments with magic, is to clean up the character's history. In his early appearances in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, Constantine constantly referred to Newcastle, where soem mysterious, horrible event had happened years before. In Hellblazer #11, Jamie Delano revealed what had happened at Newcastle. It was a story that needed to be told, perhaps, but it symoblized the main difference between Constantine's Swamp Thing appearances and the required paradigm of a solo book: he lost much of his mystery.

In this story, Diggle metaphorically undoes some of the messy continuity that has built up in the 222 issues since the secrets of Newcastle were revealed. In the character's 20-plus year history, he has damned, indirectly killed, or otherwise screwed over everyone in his life. That's led to a lot of guilt—the accumlated sin of two decades as a bitter antihero. Diggle physicalizes that sin, making it manifest so that Constantine—and the book—can purge themeselves of the baggage. The catharsis is fascinating, and it shows more attention to metaphysics than Hellblazer has shown in a long, long time. Add the always-incredible art of Leonardo Manco, and this is easily the best Hellblazer has been since Warren Ellis' unjustly-truncated run.

Chronicles of Wormwood #4, 5, and 6

2007-08-19T17:48:00.000-07:00

Chronicles of Wormwood #4, 5, and 6
By Garth Ennis (writer) and Jacen Burrows (artist)
Avatar Press

The second half of Garth Ennis' miniseries about the Antichrist starts strong. The "afterlife road trip" announced on the last page of #3 ends up being the best bit of the whole series. It culminates with a heartbreaking scene in which Jesus (who would be the true Second Coming if he weren't brain-damaged) expresses his sorrow at the world's pain. Of all the things I expected from this series, a moment of honest to goodness Christology wasn't on the list, and it's a pleasant surprise.

Elsewhere in the issue, there's a clever take on church history as Satan reveals that he was the inspiration behind the conversion of Constantine:

"By that point, you see, the Christians were obviously here to stay. Crucify them, boil them, throw them to the lions—for every one you did away with, a hundred signed up to take his place. People love the idea of martyrs. The idea of something grand, something spiritual inspiring sacrifice—which is the point I made to Constantine. Adapt and survive, I told him. If you can't beat them, join them. Or lead them. Declare Rome Christian. Take the whole empire over to Jesus. Re-brand: once the taxes are tithes and the wars are crusades, you'll get away with more than you ever did."

Add a hilarious scene involving the Beast of Revelation and you've got the makings of what I wish this series had been for all six issues: a clever critique of religion that doesn't descend into nastiness for its own sake.

A pity, then, that Ennis spoils it in the last pages of #5. When God finally shows up, he's an idiot who can neither speak nor keep his hand out of his robe. The thing that irritates me isn't the ugliness of the image (though it is more than a little ugly)—it's the unoriginality of it. Ennis is retreading old ground with this caricature, which is essentially the same thing as the inbred heir of Jesus that appeared in the pages of Preacher. It doesn't bother me overly much if Ennis wants to say nasty things about God—that's what I expected from page 1 of this series. But I hoped it would be much, much more clever than this. (Not to mention the fact that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, logically. If this is what God is like in this universe, how could he have devised any kind of plan for Wormwood to oppose? But I digress.)

Anyway, the conclusion mostly makes up for it, with Jesus and Wormwood refusing to give into their parents' plans. In spite of everything, Wormwood ends up delivering a message of hope. He gives an inspiring speech to Jesus that concludes:

"You have to hope things'll get better. D'you know why? Because it's eactly the kind of hope in the face of unimaginable despair that you've always asked of everybody.

Though Ennis paints a truly ugly picture of God, he obviously has a great deal of affection for Jesus. The dual defeat of God and Satan at the book's conclusion is presented as a victory for humankind. Despite its intention to blasphemy, Chronicles of Wormwood ends up delivering a moral message that's almost... well... Christian.

Exasperated, nitpicking note: Dear comics industry, Hollywood, etc. The Book of Revelation IS NOT PLURAL. Please leave out the final "s" from now on.

TenNapel strikes again

2007-08-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

Check out this review of Doug TenNapel's new graphic novel, Black Cherry.

The New Shazam!

2007-07-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

What's the magic word?

Since my fellow bloggers on Holy Heroes!! have more comics in their little pinkies than I have in my whole body, this is my first post. You may think of me as one of those minor heroes or maybe a sidekick: I squeaked onto the team because just once I did something worth noticing, an overlong and overwrought essay on Bone. Of course, those wimpy sidekicks and underdog superheroes do usually do something worthwhile somewhere around the climax; however, I don't know when the climax of this blog will be, but this probably isn't it.

Hopeless fan that I am of Jeff Smith, I forewent my usual habit of waiting for the paperback and bought all four issues of Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil, the new Captain Marvel comic he has recently completed for DC. DC has been in the process of creating new origin stories for its superheroes, perhaps the most notable of which is Frank Miller's Batman: Year One. Shazam! is a new origin story for Captain Marvel.

Smith's easily recognizable, Walt Kelly-inspired art style proves quite effective for recreating a much shorter version of Marvel's battle with the Monster Society. The highly cartoony but unquestionably excellent look of Smith's art, and especially his young Billy Batson, who has a perfectly, slightly oversized head, are ideal for the story.

To make a long and sometimes nonsensical story short, Billy Batson is an orphan living on the streets, pestered by a thug named LaGreen. After following a mysterious man into a subway station, he boards a train and finds himself in a cave occupied by a figure known only as "The Wizard" who gives Billy a magic word ("shazam") that will cause lightning to strike him and turn him into a full-grown, muscle-bound, tights-clad superhero, Captain Marvel. Soon after, Billy learns he has a sister, Mary (approximately six years old), and he also accidentally brings into our universe a nefarious misanthropic villain, Mister Mind, from beyond the edge of time, and Mister Mind brings with him a host of anthropomorphic man-eating alligators. No, really. And somewhere in there, a talking tiger named Talky Tawny shows up and...oh, forget it.

Smith has quite a task here, telling the origins of all the major players in four short issues. Somehow, the comic never quite feels crammed, but it does feel too short. It would have been nice, for example, if Smith spent more time developing Billy's hopeless schoolboy crush on beautiful news reporter Helen Fidelity, because nobody does schoolboy crushes quite like Smith.

I confess to having never read the original (I will use my tender age as my primary excuse for this), but I am aware that one of Smith's biggest changes is in the character of Mary Marvel; originally, Mary was a teenager. In Smith's version, however, Mary is about six years old and acts like it. Much of the second issue of the new Shazam! features Mary dealing with her superpowers and Captain Marvel dealing with Mary: upon finding herself a superheroine, Mary does what most children would do and bounces around New York like a rubber ball while Captain Marvel, now a parent figure, chases helplessly after her. Smith's flair for expressive faces and good humor serve him well here. A smattering of reviews suggest some diehard fans are uncomfortable with the new Mary Marvel, but I suspect they will warm up to her if the series continues.

I must complain that Smith's alligator monsters (crocodiles in the original) do not get enough time on the page. Though not particularly challenging opponents for Marvel, the alligator monsters, determined to devour children but perpetually unsuccessful, are downright hilarious. Marvel himself is also perpetually funny. New to our world and generally oblivious, he has some great scenes; on his first appearance, rather than saving a man from falling out of a blimp or rescuing a girl from lions or doing any of the other acts that generally start a superhero's career, Marvel begins by eating a hot dog and declaring hot dog vending the greatest achievement of modern civilization. When a bystander asks sarcastically if he's off to find a phone booth to change in, he replies, oblivious, "No... I'm off to see the wizard."

I must also complain about Smith's attempts at--ugh--political relevance. Not content with one supervillain, Smith also gives us Dr. Sivana, the U.S. attorney general, who's head of the "Department of Heartland Security." In the second issue, Sivana gives us this wonderful statement: "You have my PERSONAL ASSURANCE that the DEPARTMENT OF TECHNOLOGY AND HEARTLAND SECURITY will go through the credit accounts of every citizen until we find something SUSPICIOUS!" You know, I'm not a fan of the current White House either, but honestly, I'm getting bored with all the satire: Marvel is doing its "Civil War" thing, DC, last I checked, had Lex Luthor in the White House, and Hollywood has been turning out movies with negative views of the presidency at almost the same rate it turned out positive views of the presidency during the Clinton years. I'm bored already! Why is a reference to the War on Terror in Shazam!? That's almost as bad as putting one in The Last Mimzy.

Smith is a great author/illustrator, but he'd be better of leaving the political satire to his master Kelly and sticking with the mythological stuff because, frankly, Smith isn't very good at political satire. As evidence, I refer the reader to the Cartoon Books publication of Bone volume 9, Crown of Horns. After it's all said and done, Smith inserts a one-shot featuring Smiley and Phoney Bone washing dishes in the Barrelhaven Tavern. When Phoney demands to know why everyone dislikes him, Smiley answers that it is because he's greedy. As the little comic develops, Phoney proposes creating a combination religion and political party founded on greed, but then gives up the plan with the words, "Nah, it'll never happen." I have wracked my brains, but I honestly can't figure out what Smith is referring to; my best guess is the Republican Party, except that's not a religion. Someone should tell Smith that good satire has to make sense.

Besides, Kelly was at least taking something of a risk by criticizing Joseph McCarthy. By criticizing the Bush White House, Smith is only at risk of having his back patted.

The medieval undead

2007-07-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

Just as a follow-up to Gabriel's zombie post below:

One gets the feeling that the medieval undead were a lot more jolly than modern zombies.

[via Eve]

The Religion of Batman

2007-07-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

"On the subject of Batman's religious affiliation, there is some disagreement among fans as well as among writers about whether the character is a mostly lapsed Catholic or a mostly lapsed Episcopalian. There is universal agreement that the character is not an active churchgoer in any faith."

Read more about The Religion of Batman at Ain't Christian.

Better Late Than Never Dept.

2007-07-11T12:51:00.000-07:00

Two old posts recently discovered on other blogs:

Douglas Wolk's week-by-week review of DC's universe-spanning series 52 includes an exploration of the "religion of crime" practiced by some of the DCU's villains in "Black Adam and Grey Theology."
Glen O'Brien's review of Ang Lee's The Hulk was more positive than most, largely because he sees the character as an embodiment of sin: "The Theology of the Superheroes I: The Incredible Hulk."

Zombie faith

2007-07-10T16:16:00.000-07:00

Quick quiz:

According to recent horror comics, a zombie invasion:

a) is a sign of divine election
b) proves that God does not exist
c) heralds wedding bells
d) all of the above

Find out the answers at my main blog, SF Gospel:
What place does religion have in a world conquered by zombies?

Peace be upon you!

2007-07-04T11:55:00.000-07:00

Ever wake up in the morning and say: "Gee, I wish there was a comic featuring a Muslim protagonist, mythological Hindu superheroes, and a cute girl?"

Well, your wish has been been fulfilled:

Meet Vimanarama, by Grant Morrison and Philip Bond. The religious elements seem a bit garbled, but the story features Satanic villians who curse God and seek to foul all Creation. They're opposed by the Ultra-Hadeen, heroes drawn from Hindu mythology. The main character's Ali, a hapless young Muslim who lives in the UK. He spends some time in Heaven, or someplace near it - a sequence that's drawn with great imagination. But religion aside, Vimanarama's just a whole lot of fun. Give it a look. And peace be upon you!

Superheroes and the "Utopian Problem": Justice, Black Summer, Miracleman

2007-06-26T14:55:00.000-07:00

My favorite superhero story is Alan Moore's (and later Neil Gaiman's) Miracleman. It's become a bit of a cliché to describe this kind of story as an exploration of "what it would be like if superheroes existed in the real world," but Miracleman rises above some of the pitfalls that such stories can fall into by unabashedly devoting itself to its utopian themes. By the conclusion of Moore's story, the eponymous hero directs his energies not to apprehending petty criminals or foiling dastardly plots, but to actually making his world a better place. In Miracleman 16, the book's heroes remake the world in their image, ending war and famine and granting superpowers to all who desire them. It's become popular to refer to the series as Marvelman, the title under which the first few chapters were published before a certain publishing company took issue with Eclipse's use of the name. But I prefer to call it Miracleman, because by the time Moore wrote his conclusion, and especially during the later Neil Gaiman issues, the word "Miracle" takes on a key role in the story's world. The superhero creates an Age of Miracles (not Marvels) because he is a god, a redeemer, the founder of an earthly paradise.

Miracleman is hardly the only story in which superheroes create a perfect world. Interestingly, though, these stories inevitably blur the line between utopia and dystopia—the Squadron Supreme brainwashes their friends and enemies alike; the archvillain of Watchmen baptizes his new age of world peace in innocent blood; the heroes of Warren Ellis' The Authority are perhaps the definitive flawed messiahs. Generally, the stance of these stories is that the superhumans, in remaking the world, rob ordinary humans of their free will. But despite this criticism, the nagging thought remains: if superheroes truly cared about justice, would they allow famine, poverty, and war to exist?

In their recently-completed Justice League saga Justice, Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, and Doug Braithwaite give voice to the "utopian problem" of superhero stories. In #4 of the 12-issue series, Lex Luthor declares his intention to solve the world's most persistent problems, and challenges his world's heroes on their negligence:

"But we're also wondering why they never tried to do what we've been doing. Why they never attempted to use their powers and abilities to make this world a better place. I believe that their inaction is as criminal as those felonies we went to prison for. Preserving the world and not daring to change it means keeping food from the hungry. Keeping the crippled in wheelchairs. Bowing to the status quo of human suffering. And still, they call us the villains... Sure, the Justice League may save us all from a giant alien starfish in the middle of the ocean from time to time. But they save us only to send us back to our old lives. Back to our bills, back to our useless jobs, back to our suffering. If they were really the heroes they claim to be, they'd save us from those same lives as well. They're the monsters, really, to have allowed things to go on the way they have.

In light of this challenge, the villains set out to create a utopia: Captain Cold creates icebergs that bring water to deserts. The Toyman builds prosthetic limbs for landmine victims. In short, the villains step up and do what the heroes of the DC Universe have refused to do: solve their world's problems for good.

A similar idea forms the starting point for Warren Ellis' forthcoming series Black Summer, which takes a highly politicized approach to a similar idea. In this series, a 20-page preview of which was released earlier this month, a superhero kills the president and demands that the American people rebuild their government. In an essay in the preview issue, Ellis explains the extrapolation from costumed crimefighting to political assassination:

"If we invite or condone masked adventurers to fight crime outside the law, do we get to draw a line where they stop? Condoning their activity is much the same as giving them carte blanche to fight crime wherever they perceive it to be... If a self-identified crimefighter lives in a country where a President can be said to have prosecuted an illegal war and therefore can be said to have killed a great many people in the enactment of his criminal enterprise... What does that masked man do?"

Ellis' essay is remarkably similar in tone to Lex Luthor's critique of the status-quo-upholding superheroes of the DCU in Justice. Crime, justice, and legality can be quite difficult things to define, and so why wouldn't (or shouldn't) beings as powerful as Superman fight the greater ills of their world as well as the lesser?

Of course, later issues of Justice reveal the sinister motives behind the villains' plan. But regardless of the flaws of the messenger, Luthor's question remains valid: Why don't the heroes fight for true, lasting justice? Why do they permit suffering to go on when they could eliminate it? Sadly, Justice doesn't provide a very satisfying answer. In the closing pages, Batman asks us to imagine "a world transformed," but doesn't give an explanation for why he hasn't already made it a reality.

The prosaic reason for the lack of true change in the DCU involves publishing schedules and audience accessibility—the world the superheroes inhabit needs to be readily understandable by new readers; the imaginary world must match the real world up to a point. More importantly, a true superhero utopia would lack drama, and the imperfections of these universes makes room for the conflict that the stories require. (Admittedly, Gaiman's Miracleman issues challenge this last argument). Most of the stories of superheroes taking over their worlds are standalone stories or limited series. But these concerns have been worked into the metaphysics of superhero universes: if Superman exists, there must also exist supervillains powerful enough to keep his world at equilibrium. While reading an issue of Spider-Man a few years ago, I realized a certain absurdity in the ease with which superheroes are able to find petty crimes to fight. In Spider-Man's New York, an hour of web-slinging will reveal muggings on every streetcorner, car chases in Times Square, and a handful of broad-daylight bank robberies. Our world simply isn't like that—there's much, much more crime in a superhero universe than in the real world. They have powerful protectors, to be sure, but they also have far more danger to protect against. Between Spidey, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers, I'm amazed Marvel's New York has any crime at all—perhaps it's more stupidity than evil that leads to the aforementioned daylight robberies. The good of superheroes is counterbalanced by the evil of supervillains. New York will always have the Fantastic Four, but Latveria will always have Dr. Doom. Superman reigns in Metropolis, but Black Adam is king in Khandaq. Superhero worlds are not utopias because their evil is strong enough to limit their good.

For more on the religious aspects of superheroes (including Miracleman), see chapter 6 of The Gospel According to Science Fiction: From the Twilight Zone to the Final Frontier.

MORE MEDIEVAL COMICS!

2007-06-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

Eddie Campbell on the Morgan Bible. Although he also implies that calling such things "comics" is "lowbrow cultural colonialism," which I will ponder while drinking a Coke and listening to 80s pop hits....

eta: Campbell link via Journalista.

AGE OF APOCALYPSE: The temporal panel and the infinite page

2007-06-05T21:19:00.001-07:00

[Hey, people. This is my first post here. It's kind of art-theory, and I apologize if it isn't right for the community. I thought it might interest you guys, though.]

A few weeks ago I saw NYC's recent Morgan Library exhibit, "Apocalypse Then: Medieval Illuminations from the Morgan." It was a small exhibit, mostly made up of pages from the Las Huelgas Apocalypse, a 12th-century (maybe early 13th??--can't remember) illuminated manuscript of the books of Daniel and Revelation.

I had a really hard time, at first, figuring out how to approach these pages. They seemed flat, static. One of the other patrons felt the same way: I heard him telling a friend that he couldn't really get into these pictures at all. We didn't understand how they worked.

But somewhere around the third glass case, I got it. These were comics.

They weren't even especially innovative comics! Their techniques would be immediately intelligible to anyone who read '70s X-Men, or this week's manga. But seeing the same time-shaping techniques in such an unfamiliar context made me consider whether comics weren't the best possible medium for an apocalyptic text.

First of all, these manuscripts mixed words and pictures much more freely than your average illuminated manuscript. The Morgan exhibit did include examples of other Apocalypses, and they were much more standard: words and then, here and there, illustrations. The Las Huelgas manuscript was much more fluid. Pictures--and the symbols showing relationships between pictures--helped to tell the story, rather than simply illustrating the story told by the words. A Biblical family tree (with many faces oddly shy, hiding at the bottom of their portraits!) conveyed information through its mix of words and pictorial structure. There was at least one obvious "splash page": the woman clothed with the sun, vs. a huge dragon spilling across the page. Panels showed progression of action: The top of the page showed Babylon at its height, and then as the page (drawn to resemble a shaking tower, in which each floor was a panel) descended, the city itself was destroyed. Babylon burning had no top border to its panel, although the side and bottom borders were there, suggesting that it burned past temporal boundaries into heaven.

There were familiar pleasures here: The angels' wings, for example, had a beautiful sharpness and clarity, like knives made out of sky. But the comics elements were striking. An angel breaks into a panel, shattering its black border, signifying that it comes from another world. (This was perhaps the most obvious use of comics conventions.) Snakes form the border of a page and its panels, serving both a structural function (here is the edge of the picture) and a thematic one (whatever you see between these snakes is evidence of depravity).

These pictures don't work the way we think paintings should work. A Caravaggio doesn't work this way, nor a Cassatt. We tend to expect paintings to capture one moment in time, to show us the entirety of that moment unmoored from any narrative, or open to multiple narratives.

But for the Las Huelgas manuscript, the narrative is the point. Opening these scenes to multiple possible narratives would be ridiculous: The whole point is that every moment is embedded in a larger story whose ending is already known. One of the Las Huelgas pages showed a star at the top of the page, which fell--complete with "Dennis the Menace" action-lines--down into the pit at the bottom of the page.

Moreover, apocalyptic time is weird, in itself. It's a kind of time in which events really do happen--but in the Bible, we see those events through the eyes of a prophet. And the prophet sees simultaneously like a creature and like God. He sees simultaneously the series of events, our shock, our fear, our confusion; and the narrative of God, in which the ending has already happened, in which the victory is already won by the Lamb.

How to represent both fear and faith? The comics format seems so perfectly designed for this task that I'm kind of shocked that the other manuscripts in the show didn't do exactly what the main manuscript did. In comics, the panel can take the temporal, creaturely stance, showing events as they unfold. Our eyes follow from panel to panel, creating a time-bound narrative. And yet our eyes also take in the page, as a whole: start to finish. We're able to see both time and infinity, both event and story.

This effect would be possible even if the medieval manuscripts didn't bother with other features of comics--from the most mainstream to the most experimental. But in fact the Las Huelgas manuscript shows how many comics techniques are intuitive! Using panel borders to create atmosphere (panels made of snakes, or bordered with stars, or cut through by the Tigris River) and breaking panel borders to express metaphysics (angels crashing through) are almost commonplaces: My favorite example is a '70s Ann Nocenti X-Men page, in which Rogue's upside-down, falling silhouette forms the outline for the panels showing her story.

A lot of people compare comics and movies, noting that both use each panel/frame to present both action and atmosphere. But I'm not sure a movie could show the same coexistence of time and eternity that comics could show, and that these medieval manuscripts do show.

Action Comics #849

2007-06-04T17:00:00.000-07:00

Action Comics #849
by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Allan Goldman (penciller), and Ron Randall (inker)
DC Comics

As many of you may remember (and the rest of you, click here), a couple weeks ago I reviewed Action Comics #848 with more than a little frustration. The story was about religion, but in a largely incomprehensible way, attempting to paint Christian missionaries as supervillains. It didn't work, but as it was the first half of a two-parter, I was willing to grant that it could start to make some more sense in the second half.

Well, it doesn't.

Where to begin? First of all, there's this doozy of a page at the book's beginning, when Superman faces off against the newly-minted religious superhuman Redemption:

Dang, Superman. The dude asks you to help the helpless and you dislocate his shoulder? That is cold. Even worse, on the next page he decides that maybe Redemption is right, so he flies back to Nyasir to help the missionaries himself. We don't see it happen, instead getting a caption between panels: "He was right. I liberated the Sakira. They've been placed under United Nations protection." Well, hallelujah to that. Good thing their protection wasn't delayed by any unnecessary superhero brawls. Now when are you planning to apologize for the dislocated shoulder?

Following this, Superman goes to visit the elderly woman who thought he was an angel in Superman #659. Remember that one? The one I called the best Superman story in over 20 years? The scene tries to bring some of the poignancy of that story across, and to its credit it's the most interesting scene in the book. But it's also tough to see where it fits into this story. There's some pontificating about faith being relative, but I simply fail to see how it ties in with Redemption's attempt to protect unarmed missionaries from an oppressive government.

The moral of the story seems to be that missionary work is wrong by definition. No matter how great the good done, no matter how unjust the obstacles to that work may be, the risk of "imposing one's beliefs" outweighs them all. Here it is in Superman's own words: "All of those good works come with strings attached—and often an intrusion into the culture or laws of other lands." And Redemption, who has been converted to Superman's view by the story's end: "We don't need to be in Nyasir." I'm not saying that missionaries never act unethically, and I'm particularly disturbed by the belief, held by many prominent evangelicals, that it's better to give a starving person a Bible than a sandwich. But this sort of isolationism is unspeakably dangerous. Take Darfur, for instance—the oppression of the Sakira in Action #848 looks an awful lot like a Janjaweed raid. Is Superman really encouraging isolationism in reaction to this sort of oppression? In the end, the story seems to say that it is better to do nothing in the face of injustice than to do something in the name of religion.

As Paul noted a few weeks ago, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman to be a champion of the downtrodden, and "Redemption" is an egregious betrayal of that spirit. It's not just a bad story—it's downright irresponsible.

TheoFantastique

2007-06-04T15:10:00.001-07:00

TheoFantastique has a new post on spirituality in comics.

Relgionlink on superheroes and religion

2007-06-04T13:58:00.000-07:00

Religionlink gives a primer on Superheroes and spirituality: the religion of the comics. It gives a good list of sources, including the always-handy Adherents superhero database. But where's Holy Heroes!!?

St. Wilgefortis & her bearded nuns

2007-05-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

Medieval carvings of a tunic-wearing, androgynous, crucified Christ puzzled Northern Christians. They asked "Just who is this bearded woman and why was she crucified?" This in turn led to the creation of a legendary saint, Wilgefortis (from the German for 'Holy Face.') The legend stated that a beautiful teenaged noblewoman was promised to a pagan king in marriage. She prayed for deliverance and overnight was granted a beard, which ended the engagement. Her enraged father had her crucified. This fictional Wilgefortis became something of a feminist icon, and was known as the 'strong virgin.' Abused women prayed that she would free (or 'uncumber') them from cruel husbands.*

Linda Medley's hefty graphic novel Castle Waiting is a retelling of various fairy tales, generally from a female point of view. Generally humourous and occasionally moving, the story meanders hither and thither without much urgency, looping into flashbacks and stories within stories. However, the final two hundred pages focus on the actions and memories of Sister Peace, a zany 'Solicitine' nun. The Solicitines are an order dedicated to none other than Wilgefortis, and are made up entirely of bearded women. Peace relates a legend of Wilgefortis which is true to the medieval version but which adds on some interesting twists and turns. She explains the origins of her order and its tradition of good deeds, tells the stories of various Sisters, and reminisces about being a bearded teenage girl in a circus. Throughout the book she contends for the souls of the castle's inhabitants, trading scriptural quotations and put-downs with a smart-aleck demon. She also has a penchant for bad puns:

Sister Peace: What d'you think the good Lord would be doing on a beautiful day like today, huh?
Simon: Ummm... tending His flock?
Sister Peace: Nope! He'd be loafing and fishing. C'mon, let's go!

While it doesn't contain the epic conflicts of the even heftier Bone, those who enjoy humane and humourous fantasy with strong female characters (and bearded nuns!) will enjoy Castle Waiting.

*While Wilgefortis never existed historically, her mythology is somewhat reminiscent of the virgin martyrs, who did. In her book The Geometry of Love, Catholic writer Margaret Visser argues that these early Christian women symbolically resisted and overcame the misogynistic pagan culture that sought to control them, though later accretions and our own context make it hard to understand how radical their actions were at the time.

Afterlife reviewed at SF Gospel

2007-05-18T18:23:00.001-07:00

At SF Gospel, I've just posted a review of a very interesting volume of manga—Stormcrow Hayes and Rob Steen's Afterlife, which offers a bleak but very interesting interpretation of life after death. Check it out!

Death's Sting: Stormcrow Hayes and Rob Steen's Afterlife

Wolfskin #3

2007-05-16T05:34:00.000-07:00

Wolfskin #3
by Warren Ellis (writer) and Juan Jose Ryp (artist)
Avatar Perss
In this, the last issue of Warren Ellis's ultraviolent Conan homage, the eponymous barbarian antihero sees god. Having been severely wounded in #2, Wolfskin eats the flesh of his tribal god—that is, he takes some hallucinogenic mushrooms—and has a face-to-face encounter with the bloodthirsty deity. He's not named, but it's safe to assume that it's Odin, since he's only got one eye (and Juan Jose Ryp draws him without an eyepatch, so it's a pretty ghastly sight). Following an oddly Job-like dialog (and an offhand revelation about the torments in Wolfskin's past), the barbarian awakens into a berserker rage that lasts the remainder of the issue. The story just kind of ends, which is a bit unfortunate. But Wolfskin's disturbing encounter with his patron god lends the series as a whole a greater depth than many of the sword and sorcery stories to which it pays tribute. (Speaking of paying tribute, was this series intentionally based on Red Harvest/Yojimbo/A Fistful of Dollars, or am I imagining things?)

Action Comics #848

2007-05-13T19:47:00.000-07:00

Action Comics #848
“Redemption, Part One: If You Believe, a Man Can Fly”
by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Allan Goldman (pencils), and Ron Randall (inks)
DC Comics

Fabian Nicieza—who, with Kurt Busiek, cowrote an excellent parable about faith and responsibility in Superman #659—takes a different approach to the same questions in Action Comics #848. The results, sadly, are frustrating at best. In the story’s opening pages we learn of a powerful metahuman named Redemption who serves as a protector to Christian missionaries in Nyasir, a small (imaginary) African country. The missionaries—members of the “First Church of Redemption”—have converted the Sakira tribe, but the government of Nyasir uses troops to systematically threaten and harass them. Redemption—whose powers stem from the faith that others have in him—accidentally kills several of these troops, prompting Superman to investigate the new superhuman and the church to which he belongs. When Nyasir’s government eventually kills the missionaries, Redemption attempts to avenge them, and Superman intervenes.

Unfortunately, the story is quite muddled, and its message is obscured. The setting—both temporally and geographically—is unclear. We know next to nothing about the missionaries, the Sakira tribe, or the government troops who threaten them. The story is structured as if we are supposed to view Redemption as the villain, but he is nowhere near as reprehensible as the jackbooted thugs he opposes. Superman muses that

"There is a fine line between having a belief, sharing a belief and imposing it. What happens if a metahuman crosses that line...?"

But is that what Redemption does? He’s not attempting to convert the Nyasirian troops, but rather to protect unarmed civilians from them. After he accidentally kills them (in self-defense), Superman states that “I don’t care to see carnage enabled behind the excuse of religion.” But given what the readers have witnessed, that’s a severe misinterpretation of what’s going on. Redemption seems to be, like Superman, a champion of the downtrodden; his only crime is lack of training. At the issue’s close, Superman confronts Redemption—who has just disarmed the Nyasirian troops without harming them—and declares “this ends now.” In this moment, Superman looks for all the world like the protector of a tyrannical dictatorship. How, exactly, does protecting unarmed missionaries from armed militias make Redemption a supervillain?

It’s possible that this story is intended to be a continued explorations of the themes so elegantly portrayed in Superman #659. But by neglecting to give us background, by failing to adequately explain the central character’s moral approach to the situation at hand, Nicieza turns this exploration into a confusing mess. The next issue will conclude the story, and it’s possible that some much-needed explanation follows. But given the bafflement of this issue, I have little faith that the saga of Redemption will reach a satisfying conclusion.

X-Factor #16 revisited

2007-05-13T18:49:00.000-07:00

My review of X-Factor #16, in which mutant private eye Jamie "The Multiple Man" Madrox tracks down a duplicate of himself who has become an Episcopal priest, immediately preceded the foundation of Holy Heroes!! I was quite impressed with the story's strong characterizations and theological depth. And it looks like I wasn't the only one: in the lettercol of X-Factor #18, Rev. Jeff Jackson, an Episcopal priest from Savannah, GA, writes in to praise the story:

Dear X-FACTOR,

I cannot thank you enough for writing such a thoughtful story in issue #16. I am an Episcopal priest myself and Jamie Madrox has become one of my favorite characters, so to see Jamie & John's "dilemma" was a treat. But more than that, it was so good to see a religious character depicted in such a way. Usually, religious folk are portrayed as fanatical, or strict, or "holier-than-thou." John Maddocks was refreshingly real. A faithful person, sent to learn what he can about religion, and who finds the truest meaning in the bonds of his family life. I imagined what I would do if a duplicate of myself walked through the doors of my church, hoping to reabsorb me, and the sorrow that John experienced became so real.

On the other side, Jamie's character is only deepened by his acceptance of this dupe to continue what he's doing as a priest and as a husband and father.

Also, thank you for writing a piece that was theologically sound. Instead of John or Jamie raging at God because of this predicament, you kept the story within the bounds of a stewardship sermon, no less. Nothing is ours, not even our lives. What right to we have in taking another person's?

Keep up the great work.

Peace,

The Rev. Jeff Jackson
Savannhah, GA

Superman, Wish Fulfilment, and Eschatalogical hope

2007-05-09T18:27:00.000-07:00

Superman's roots are undeniably Jewish.

The co-creators of Superman, Jerry Siegal and Joe Shuster are both ethnically Jewish, although according to Gerard Jones' excellent history of the origin of superhero comics, The Men of Tomorrow, neither were relegious. Likewise, Harry Donnefield, the founder and first president of DC. Even Donnefield's sometime accountant sometime vice-president Jack Liebowitz was Jewish. All of these people were secular Jews and Siegal and Shuster disavowed or downplayed any influence of relgious Judaism on their works.

Siegal and Shuster's first Superman was in a short story written by Siegal and illustrated by Shuster. This story, titled The Reign of the Superman features a scientifically enhanced Nietzschian superman who reaks havok before being finally overcome. In 1933, as Hitler ascended to power in Germany, calling himself the Nietzschian superman, Siegal and Shuster re-imagined Superman as a hero.

It may be a coincidence that the two Jewish young men's creation of a heroic superman coincided with Hitler's rise, or it may not. Regardless, Shuster and Siegal's creation eventually sold, and in popular consciousness the Superman was forever linked with protecting the weak, instead of with the use of power to dominate and destroy the weak.

Superman is the ultimate immigrant: he comes from some other place, and lands in America. He masquarades as one of them, but at his core he isn't. As Clark Kent he seems meek and weak and easily pushed around, but behind his secret identity he is a powerful warrior for good. He's not an American, but he fights for the American Way.

Even deeper than the political symbolism is the religious symbolism of Superman. Superman is rooted firmly in the talmadic injuction to do good for its own sake. He is, in short, a very Jewish superman, and his strength comes with a moral compass.

Kal-El's arrival in a basket is strongly reminiscent of Moses' appearance in a basket in Exodus. The Exodus is the central story of the Torah, and its most significant instance of salvation. As such, Moses is the most important saviour in the story of Israel. Superman is a Moses figure in more than his appearance as a baby in a basket, but also in that he is a saviour, whether that means in his very person symbolically saving Krypton from complete extinction, or saving an man from being wrongfully executed for a crime he didn't commit, as he did in his very first appearance. For much of his history, and especially in his original incarnation, Superman spent more of his time protecting the innocent than fighting supervillains.

Yet since Moses is a prophetic precurser of the Messiah, Superman is also a Messiah figure. He is a Messiah figure even before he is a Christ figure. This distinction requires some clarification.

Though as most Christians and Jews already know, "Christ" (Greek) and "Messiah" (Hebrew) both mean "Annointed One", the terms are, especially for Jews, not synonomous. I use "Christ" to refer to Jesus of Nazareth, but "Messiah" to refer to the promised savour of the Jews. As a Christian myself, I believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, but a distinction is still helpful.

But Superman is a Messiah figure even before he is a Christ figure. He represents the Jewish eschatological hope of salvation, the hope of God's intervention, the hope that things will not always be as they are now. Superman symbolises the Jewish conviction that the world can be better than this.

Superman is often accused of being adolescent wish-fulfillment in action: a super-strong hyper-masculine muscleman created by two geeks, a bullet-proof man created by Jerry Siegal, whose father was shot dead by a petty thief. He is all of this. But even more than this, Superman, despite Siegal and Shuster's supposed secularism, is a Jewish messiah figure--a personification of the hope of Judaism. He is a protector of the weak and champion of good in a world with too much evil.

Superhero Spirituality Quiz

2007-05-09T08:09:00.000-07:00

Beliefnet has a very interesting quiz in which you can test your knowledge of superheroic religious beliefs and practices.

For example:

In which of the following comic books series has Jesus Christ not made an appearance?

Ghost Rider
Daredevil
Fantastic Four
Avengers

Spider-Man 3 and Venom's ecclesiastical roots

2007-05-08T14:29:00.000-07:00

There are certainly some things to say about the religious themes in Spider-Man 3, but most of them have been said elsewhere already. In addition to the review by Holy Heroes' own Sci-Fi Catholic, I found some intriguing reviews (of varying depth) on BeliefNet, The American Papist, The Dallas News' religion blog, and BeliefNet again. There's even a Bible Study Guide for the movie, written by Craig Detweiler of the Reel Spirituality Institute. The reviews tend to focus on the film's sin/redemption themes, and I don't have too much to add to those points. (Though I should probably add that many of these reviews are a little overly kind to the movie's many faults, such as the fact that those self-same redemption themes are occasionally shoehorned in at the expense of coherent characterization.) So instead of talking about those well-discussed themes, I'll give some background on one of the key moments in defining the film's religious landscape: the bell tower scene.

Here's what Spider-Man 3 gives us: our hero, who has been turning into an insufferable jerk on account of being possessed by alien goo, goes to a church steeple to brood. (In movieland, it's probably supposed to be a Catholic church. But sharp-eyed New York-savvy viewers will note that the exterior is actually Grace Church, which is Episcopal. Not that it matters much, especially since the interior is another church entirely.) And lo and behold, his rival Eddie Brock, another insufferable jerk, has picked precisely this moment to go to the same church to pray for Peter Parker's untimely death. As the bells toll, we discover that the aforementioned alien goo really, really doesn't like loud noises (or at least not church bells), and Parker is able to separate himself from the evil symbiote, just in time for it to descend the bell tower and answer Brock's prayer.

This scene is lifted more-or-less directly from the pages of Web of Spider-Man #1 (1985) and Amazing Spider-Man #300 (1988). Web #1 (written by Louise Simonson with art by Greg LaRocque and Jim Mooney, and a truly incredible cover by Charles Vess) was the original conclusion to the saga of the alien costume, and it's interesting to see that the story concludes with the same sort of redemption motifs we see in Spider-Man 3. In this story, Spidey enters the bell tower of a yet-nameless church during a battle with some C-list villains (The Vulturions, if you must know), and the sound of the bells separates the costume from him. But separation from the symbiote, combined with the overwhelming sound of the bells, nearly kills Parker himself. The costume, in its final moments, redeems itself by pulling Parker to safety before finally disappearing in a puff of smoke. As the costume took control of Parker, it absorbed some of his humanity and compassion, and in its final moments it atones for its sins.

...OR DOES IT?

It turns out the question of why the symbiote saved Parker does not "haunt him for the rest of his life," as the final caption in Web #1 states. In fact, it was retconned out of relevance three years later when Venom was introduced in Amazing #300 (written by Dave Michelinie, with art by the anatomically-challenged Todd McFarlane). The symbiote did not, in fact, die in the church (now dubbed, somewhat generically, "Our Lady of Saints"), but simply rested their, recuperating until another suitable host appeared. It finds such a host when Eddie Brock, a Catholic newspaper reporter who became a laughing stock over some shoddy reporting on the Sin Eater case*, goes there to pray about his desire to commit suicide. Like the film's Brock, Venom's appearance answers his prayer—but the religious symbolism doesn't end there as they do in the film. When Venom finally traps Spider-Man, the manner in which he attempts to kill his rival takes on a decidedly liturgical tone. Webbing Spidey inside the bell that had allowed him defeat the symbiote three years prior, Brock transforms the costume into a priest's robes.

It's tough to say how much significance there is to the religious trappings of this scene—are Michelinie and McFarlane trying to make some greater point about the misuse of religion for violent and worldly ends, or are they just being ironic? In any case, Venom's origins are rooted in religious symbolism that survived the transition to the big screen. (Too bad we can't say the same for the characterizations of, oh, the entire supporting cast. But that's another can of fish that I won't get into here.)

*You think this origin is convoluted? Don't get me started on Cable.

Secret origins II

2007-04-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

It's important for a hero to have an origin story. You know, like if your parents were killed by an ancient Norse radioactive spider with an admantium proboscis, and you swore "By Great Hera's Ghost! I'll strive to ensure that this fate ne'er befalls another," dedicating your life to:

A) fighting crime
B) protecting Earth from alien threats
C) making sure that neither God nor the Devil win their long-standing bet
D) protecting the seas from pollution and arrogant land-dwellers
E) madcap tomfoolery

Some of these origin stories are foundational, iconic, and must never be tampered with: Kal-El slumbering in his little space-boat, Bruce Wayne crying in the alleyway, or Peter Parker slapping at his forearm. Others get over-hauled every few years. And there are some heroes whose appeal comes partly from their mysteriousness - pinning down the details of their origin strips them of a great deal of their power. It's important that Wolverine never find out exactly what was going with the Weapon X project, or where he was born. Hey, with his healing power, he could be thousands of years old! Finding out that he was originally a 19th century farmhand, or maybe a caveman, is anticlimatic and really, really lame. We can always imagine something better than that. We need some blank spaces on our maps.

I think my favorite biblical example is that mysterious man Melchizedek. A priest and a king, he shows up out of the blue to bestow God's blessing on the victorious Abram, giving him bread and wine. After that he quickly and quietly vanishes away. Nobody's really sure where he comes from, or where he goes: no origin, and no death. Thus in the Psalms he becomes immortal: "Thou art a priest for ever after the manner of Melchizedek." And in the Christian tradition he is held up as a type, or symbol, of Jesus Christ: "Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually." Scholars, of course, can give you all sorts of textual and historical explanations for him, but they're not very interesting from a literary point of view (and are remarkably reminiscent of the nitpickings of serious comic book geeks). Melchizedek's mysteriousness leads to his becoming a name to conjure with in assorted apocryphal works (or as I like to call them, 'fanfic'), a powerful character in Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism, and Mormonism, not to mention Hermetic magic and modern bank fraud schemes.

Of course, Melchizedek's power is not just bound up in his origin, but in his deathlessness. As in comics and soap operas, if you don't see a body, you know they're not dead. If you do see a body, they might be dead, but don't count on it. So he's still on the loose, having escaped the bonds of space and time, like Elijah or Christ himself, evading capture and moving undetected behind enemy lines. In fact... is that him standing right behind you?!?

The Claw scratches your itch-- for sneak peeks!!

2007-04-17T08:35:00.000-07:00

I want to reassure all three of our readers (or as I like to call 'em, True Believers) that Holy Heroes!! will not just consist of my attempts at superhero humor. Not for long, anyways. My posts are simply like the Bullpen Bulletins and Stan Lee Soapboxes in old Marvel comics: partly news, partly bad puns, mostly filler. But enough about me:

Item! I have it on good authority that Paul (aka "Numinous Boy") has an essay underway about Superman's religious roots! Who'da thunk it?

Item! Rumor has it that "All Hallowed" Eve is wrestling with a thesis arguing that... the best Catholic comics are horror comics?! Whaa--? I guess you'll just have to wait and figure that one for yourselves, gang!

Item! "Glorious" Gabriel McKee has been making cryptic remarks about Animal Man of late. Hmmmm...!

Item! Your humble scribe has been reviewing the religious elements in a fairytale comic entitled Castle Waiting, with an eye to creating a post. I'll give you a hint: beards.

I know you've had enough of me babbling on. I get it - you can stop sending me those letter bombs. Remember, kids, we must not become so embittered that we take Satan's methods as our own! But we do welcome non-exploding letters, here at The Claw's Corner.

Until next time: Keep the faith!

The Bat Eagle lends a hand

2007-04-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

Thanks to SolShine7, aka The Bat Eagle, for pointing out her post, "Black, Christian, and Super-duper!"

That's interesting. I remember DC distributing Milestone Comics, back in the day. I bought some and thought they were pretty cool. The Milestone artists' feeling was that there were too few minorities represented in superhero comics, and they wanted to redress that. I noticed that Grant Morrison made two of the Seven Soldiers of Victory African-Americans (Mister Miracle and The Guardian) along with a number of the supporting characters. And of course Klarion the Witch-Boy is a minority, cause he's, well...Blue.

I took a test I found on The Bat Eagle's blog, and apparently this is my super-hero name:

Your Superhero Profile

Your Superhero Name is The Jade Arrow
Your Superpower is Piracy
Your Weakness is Alcohol
Your Weapon is Your Grenade Axe
Your Mode of Transportation is Zip-line

What's your Superhero Name?

Secret origins

2007-04-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

Our team members have a long and glorious history of writing about comics at their home blogs. Here's some examples to whet your appetite for their upcoming work on Holy Heroes!!

Ian really likes Miracle Monday by Elliot S! Maggin. And check out his visions of Moses, Jacob, and Adam.

D.G.D. explores Jeff Smith's Bone, and a Little White Mouse.

Eve tries to hook the world on Love and Rockets, and lists fifty things she loves about comics: part 1 and part 2.

Gabriel considers issues of X-Factor, Superman, Wormwood, and Astro City.

Paul ponders the problem of pain in the DC universe, and explains why Superman is a Christ-figure.

And as for me, here's my reviews of Creature Tech and Blankets. Plus, I'm enthusiastic about Grant Morrison.

Issue #0

2007-04-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Holy Heroes, a team blog about religion in comics: anthropomorphic coyote saviours, mutants in holy orders, Superman's relation to the problem of pain, New Gods, old ones, and whatever else we come across.

The site is still undergoing some construction, and will look much cooler in a week or so. I promise.