JUNE 4, 2007

MOVIES
Superheroes and spirituality: the religion of the comics

From last year’s summer blockbuster, Superman Returns, to this summer’s third installment of Spider-Man, comic book heroes are bringing their pseudo-religious characters to the cinema. Religion experts and observers of pop culture say these superheroes reflect — some more overtly than others — traditional religious archetypes and values in nontraditional settings. Yet the popularity of these heroic figures endures, no matter what media they inhabit. May 25, 2007, marked 30 years since the first Star Wars movie introduced Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and company. The series and its spinoffs have generated an estimated $20 billion in revenue, a figure that is likely to increase amid the anniversary hoopla.

Why it matters

Anyone tracking the religious currents streaming through American life cannot limit that search to institutional faith. Experts largely agree that many Americans — especially young people — who shun traditional expressions of faith are attracted to religious messages and symbols, most often in popular culture. Those symbols and messages are perhaps most overt in the superhero figures who are migrating from comic books to movies and television. Some experts see in many of the explicitly American superheroes a mixture of the patriotic and religious symbols that reveal the persistence of a “civil religion” in the United States.

What's new

• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer premieres June 15. Spider-Man 3 premiered on May 4, proving that big-screen adaptations of comic book heroes continue to draw crowds. Next summer, Christian Bale returns as Batman in The Dark Knight, and Robert Downey Jr. is set to star as the Marvel comics hero Iron Man. Another Hulk movie is reportedly due in 2008, and another Superman movie in 2009.
• The Sci Fi Channel’s reality show Who Wants to Be a Superhero? returns for a second season starting in July. The show features average folks who bring their own costume and character and compete to win a prize as a true superhero. As the promotional materials say, “No one will be asked to perform feats of impossible strength; our superheroes will be tested for courage, integrity, self-sacrifice, compassion, and resourcefulness — all traits that every true superhero must possess.”
• The NBC drama Heroes is continuing after a hiatus. The program recounts the stories of regular people around the world who discover that they have superpowers and how this affects their lives and the lives of those around them.
• “The 99” are Muslim comic book superheroes and the creation of an American-educated artist, Naif al-Mutawa. Mutawa’s characters battle evil, and each character represents one of the 99 qualities that Muslims attribute to God. Read a Jan. 22, 2006, New York Times story about “The 99” at Adherents.com.
• The comics-religion connection is increasingly becoming a two-way street as religious organizations use superheroes to get their spiritual message across. The American Tract Society has a pamphlet based on the latest Spider-Man movie. The ATS did the same a year earlier with Superman Returns.

For more sources and background, see these previous ReligionLink editions:

• Guide to experts on religion and pop culture
• Gospel of dollars: Is Hollywood becoming Holywood?
• New movies blend religious and moral themes

Click the map for interview sources in your state and region

National sources

• Preston Hunter, founder of Adherents.com, has analyzed dozens of comic book characters and has their various religious affiliations listed on the Web site. He says Batman may be a lapsed Roman Catholic or disaffected Episcopalian. The Thing from The Fantastic Four is Jewish, a rare instance of a character’s faith being discussed openly in the story. Hunter says the X-Men’s Rogue is Southern Baptist, Cypher from New Mutants is a Mormon and Elektra from Daredevil is Greek Orthodox. Captain America is a churchgoer, and Spider-Man sometimes addresses God in spontaneous prayer. Hunter’s Web site also has a popular image bank that groups comic book characters by religious affiliation. Contact Hunter at webmaster@adherents.com.
• Christopher Sharrett is a professor of communication and film studies at Seton Hall University, a Catholic school in South Orange, N.J. Sharrett has written widely about comic book literature and religion. He traces the modern exploration of religion in this venue to the 1980s. Contact 973-761-9474, sharrech@shu.edu.
• Thomas V. Morris is a former professor of philosophy at Notre Dame and author, with his son Matt Morris, of Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice and the Socratic Way. Thomas Morris founded the Wilmington, N.C.-based Morris Institute, which seeks to apply ancient wisdom to the modern world. Contact tmorris@morrisinstitute.com.
• Danny Fingeroth is a former editor and writer at Marvel Comics and author of Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society. Fingeroth teaches writing and edits the magazine Write Now!, a publication of TwoMorrows Publishing in Raleigh, N.C. Contact through the publishing house at 919-449-0344, or by email at WriteNowDF@aol.com.
• George Aichele is a professor of philosophy and religion at Adrian College in Adrian, Mich. He writes frequently about the nexus of religious themes and entertainment media. Contact 517-264-3959, gaichele@adrian.edu.
• Harry Brod is a professor of philosophy and religion at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He presented a paper titled “The People of the Comic Book: Jewish Men and the Creation of Comic Book Superheroes” at the 2005 American Academy of Religion conference. Contact 319-273-2693, Harry.Brod@uni.edu.
• Greg Garrett is a professor of English at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He is the author of Holy Superheroes: Exploring Faith and Spirituality in Comic Books and co-author, with Chris Seay, of The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in The Matrix. Contact 254-710-1768, Greg_Garrett@baylor.edu.
• David A. Zimmerman is an associate editor at InterVarsity Press in Downers Grove, Ill., and the author of Comic Book Character: Unleashing the Hero in Us All. Zimmerman also produced IVP’s Superhero Investigative Bible Study Guide (PDF file). Contact 630-734-4038, dzimmerman@ivpress.com.
• H. Michael Brewer is a pastoral theologian and author of many books on popular culture and faith, including Who Needs a Superhero? Finding Virtue, Vice and What’s Holy in the Comics. Contact tusitala@juno.com.
• Ben Avery is a high school English teacher in South Bend, Ind., and editor of Community Comics, a four-person Christian studio dedicated to creating “quality Christian comics.” Avery can comment on the interplay bewteen the secular and sacred in comics and the media. Contact ben@communitycomics.com.
• Nate Butler is president of Comix35, based in Albuquerque, N.M. Founded in 1996, Comix35 is a Christian ministry devoted to “training individuals and ministries around the world in the production and effective use of comics-style literature” for evangelization. Butler has an adjunct organization, Christian Comics International. Contact comix35@comix35.org.
• John W. Vest is the associate pastor for youth ministry at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago and a Ph.D student in Biblical Studies at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Vest wrote “When a Hero Dies,” a June 2007 essay from Sightings, the online journal maintained by The Martin Marty Center at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. In the essay, Vest discusses the death of the Marvel Comics hero Captain America and the role of superheroes in America’s civil religion. Contact 312-981-4037, jvest@fourthchurch.org.

Background

STORIES
• Read “When a Hero Dies,” a June 2007 essay from Sightings, the online journal maintained by The Martin Marty Center at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. In the essay the Rev. John W. Vest discusses the death of the Marvel Comics hero Captain America and the role of superheroes in America’s civil religion.
• Read a May 11, 2007, Dallas Morning News story, “The existential quest of Spider-Man,” about the ethical challenges and lessons in the latest Spider-Man film.
• Read a June 26, 2006, interview with Bryan Singer, director of Superman Returns, in Christianity Today.
• Read a July 10, 2006, article in Books & Culture about the movie Superman Returns.
• Read a July 1, 2005, story in Episcopal Life titled “Holy Heroes,” about religious themes in the comics.
• Read a March 11, 2006, story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel titled “God comics: Illustrated fiction spreads word on religious ideas.”
• Read a Dallas Morning News story from 2002, posted at Beliefnet.com, titled Comic Faith: The Thing’s Religion Revealed, about a character from the Fantastic Four announcing he is Jewish.

BOOKS
• Comic Book Character: Unleashing the Hero in Us All, by David A. Zimmerman
• Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America, by Bradford W. Wright
• Comics & Ideology, a collection of 11 essays edited by Matthew P. McAllister, Edward H. Sewell Jr. and Ian Gordon
• The Gospel According to Superheroes: Religion and Popular Culture, by B.J. Oropeza
• The Gospel According to the World’s Greatest Superhero, by Stephen Skelton
• Holy Superheroes: Exploring Faith and Spirituality in Comic Books, by Greg Garrett
• Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology, by Richard Reynolds
• Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice and the Socratic Way, by Thomas V. Morris and Matt Morris
• Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society, by Danny Fingeroth (foreword by Stan Lee)
• Who Needs a Superhero? Finding Virtue, Vice and What’s Holy in the Comics, by H. Michael Brewer
• Up, Up and Oy Vey! How Jewish History, Culture and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero, by Rabbi Simcha Weinstein. Weinstein can be contacted through his Web site.
• Captain America and the Crusade against Evil: The Dilemma of Zealous Nationalism by Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence. This book on post-9/11 American civil religion follows the authors’ previous book, The Myth of the American Superhero.