Marvel's former president re-translating Genesis

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...

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.)

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

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.

Batman and a Protestant Work Ethic

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

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.)

Secret origins II

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?!?