Oropeza, B.J., ed. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2005.
295 pp. $32.95 (USD). ISBN: 0820474223.
[1] As Superman Returns hit movie theatres in
the summer of 2006, debates arose in newspaper columns, entertainment
shows, and Christian evangelical media channels about whether
Superman should be understood as a Christ-like saviour figure. Superman,
of course, originated as a comic book hero created by Jerry
Siegel and Joe Shuster, two Jewish Americans, in Action
Comics #1 (1938), where he is described as the “champion
of the oppressed” who was sent by his father to our planet
in order to “devote his existence to helping those in
need.” On the cover of this first issue, Superman
stands in an active pose in blue tights and a fluttering red
cape, lifting a green car over his head to prevent it from
crashing into an innocent victim. In tribute to this
issue, Superman Returns features a scene in which Superman
(actor Brandon Routh) stands in the same iconic posture, holding
up villainess Kitty’s car to prevent its crash. Does
this salvific act have a religious message? What is the
relationship between comic book superheroes and religion? What
place do the stories of superheroes like Superman have in our
lives? These are some of the questions explored in the
collection of essays that make up The Gospel According to
Superheroes: Religion and Popular Culture, edited by B.J.
Oropeza.
[2] In the introduction, Oropeza outlines his approach to the
study of religion and popular culture, drawing upon phenomenologist
Mircea Eliade to explain how superhero stories “tap into
universal mythic elements” (4). Focusing on the
theme of the quest for a restored paradise, he explains how
superheroes typically have suffered a tragic loss of one kind
or another (for Superman it is the destruction of his home
world and the loss of his birth parents) which impels them
to battle evil forces and work toward the betterment of society
in an effort to bring about paradise on Earth: “As in
virtually all traditions, saviors are sent to overcome evil
and restore people to paradise” (7).
[3] The essays in The Gospel According to Superheroes are
divided into three sections. In the first, the classic
American superheroes of the 1930s and ’40s “Golden
Age” are discussed: Superman, Captain America, Wonder
Woman, and the early Batman. The first chapter, for example,
is an essay by Ken Schenck (“Superman: A Popular Culture
Messiah”) that explores the seemingly countless variations
on the theme of the restored paradise as Superman has been
recast over time by different comic book creators and in new
media like radio plays, television shows, and films. For
creators Siegel and Shuster, Superman’s origination story
was loosely based on the infancy of Moses, while his strength
resembled that of the biblical Samson which he used to save
the world from Hitler’s Nazis throughout the 1940s. Since
the 1950s, Superman has fought an array of evils including
communism, racial intolerance, and dictators with nuclear power
in his quest for a greater America or world peace. And
for many Christians today, Superman is a Christ-like saviour: “Changing
audiences have each created a Superman in their own image,
according to their own ideals and fantasies. Some of
these images endure, others we now recognize as the echoes
of passing cultural preferences. In every case he has
been a ‘super’ man, a larger-than-life representation
of the rest of us, the embodiment of our values” (36-37).
[4] In the second section, the essays analyze “Silver
Age” superheroes, including the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man,
the Hulk, the Silver Surfer, and the X-Men. The superheroes
of this age, spanning from the mid-1950s to the mid-1980s,
are more complex than their classic predecessors, and their
humanity is often emphasized as much as their superpowers. In
his essay (“The Perfectly Imperfect Spider-Man”),
B.J. Oropeza discusses his own adolescent fascination with
Spider-Man, first introduced by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in
1962: “I could relate to the growing pains of Peter Parker,
Spidey’s alias. My family just moved to a suburban
neighborhood; I was the ‘new kid’ at Toyon Elementary
School, very bright, and yet the other children laughed at
me my first day because I didn’t know where to sit” (127). Spider-Man
was popular with many fans precisely because he was not Superman:
he was a science geek, he was unpopular, he was a wimp. As
Oropeza demonstrates, Spider-Man also differed from Superman
and other Golden Age superheroes in his guilt—for despite
his powers, Spider-Man cannot save all of his loved ones. It
is this guilt that causes Oropeza to compare Spider-Man’s
story to the Passion of Christ: “Mortals like us can
identify with what is human about a savior. Jesus worked
as a carpenter, grew hungry, tired, cried at the loss of loved
ones, and of course, suffered and sacrificed himself for others. It
is definitely in the humanity rather than the deity of Christ
that we see reflections of Spider-Man most clearly” (140).
[5] The third section focuses on comic books from the post-1986
era and on the expansion of comic book superhero myths into
new media, especially film. Particularly interesting
in this section is Thom Parham’s essay (“Superheroes
in Crisis”) wherein he explores the “seminal postmodern” comic
books that brought this era into being, including Alan Moore
and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen and Frank Miller’s Batman:
The Dark Knight Returns. Discussing how different Watchmen is
from earlier comic books in its presentation of the quest for
a restored paradise, Parham writes: “Though the Watchmen’s
world teeters on the brink of nuclear annihilation, the conflict
is resolved through a unique synthesis of scapegoating and
manipulation by an unlikely adversary. The authors imply
that humans, no matter how godlike, are still ill-equipped
to discern an equitable balance between justice and mercy when
the fate of humanity is concerned” (202). This
is not your father’s superhero story.
[6] Also featured in The Gospel According to Superheroes is
a short foreword by comics legend Stan Lee, who describes himself
as an “equal opportunity writer” who tried to avoid
references to organized religions (xii), and a useful selection
of images from comic books of each of the three eras discussed. Comic
books were initially overlooked by scholars of religion and
popular culture; this book joins Greg Garrett’s Holy
Superheroes! (Navpress Publishing, 2005) and other recent
works in the effort to address this gap. Academic readers
interested in the superhero phenomenon in comics and films,
people of faith interested in exploring the relationship between
comic books and Jewish and Christian worldviews, and “equal
opportunity” comic book fans interested in further exploration
of their favorite superheroes will all find The Gospel According
to Superheroes insightful reading.
Karline McLain
Bucknell University
kmclain@bucknell.edu
