Atheism turning up in mainstream comics, even if it doesn't make sense
6 Comments Published by Avi Green on Monday, January 21, 2013 at 8:03 AM.
Nearly 15 years ago, when the second Mr. Terrific, Michael Holt, was introduced in the Spectre, he was established as an athiest. It may have been decently handled at the time, but in the New 52 has surely gotten worse. Also around that time, the second incarnation of the Huntress quit the Catholic faith for a time in the Cry for Blood miniseries, although she did come back.
More recently, I've noticed at least 2 hints of atheism turning up in the Marvel universe too. For example, in Incredible Hulks 622 (Greg Pak wrote it):
And then, more recently in Brian Bendis' All New X-Men, Hank McCoy gets the following dialect and narrative:
This is more subtle, but does have all the earmarks of a potentially atheist rendition.
I don't see how it makes sense in worlds where even pagan deities dwell to make the characters atheists, and while it almost makes sense for the Hulk to be one, if Beast is being depicted as an atheist, it looks more forced.
For all we know, this could be a clue to the dwindling respect for Judeo-Christian beliefs the entertainment industry has, something that began in the movie biz and now must've leaked over to the comics biz as well. If that be the case, it's a dismay.
More recently, I've noticed at least 2 hints of atheism turning up in the Marvel universe too. For example, in Incredible Hulks 622 (Greg Pak wrote it):
I don't see how it makes sense in worlds where even pagan deities dwell to make the characters atheists, and while it almost makes sense for the Hulk to be one, if Beast is being depicted as an atheist, it looks more forced.
For all we know, this could be a clue to the dwindling respect for Judeo-Christian beliefs the entertainment industry has, something that began in the movie biz and now must've leaked over to the comics biz as well. If that be the case, it's a dismay.
Labels: dc comics, Hulk, marvel comics, politics, X-Men
It's always been a source of ironic amusement to me to have characters in works of fiction (which have "creators" guiding the story's reality along) deny the existence of a God. The writer is basically denying his own existence, for all intents and purposes.
I agree. I've always thought it absurd for comic book characters to be atheists, considering they live in universes where virtually every deity from every culture/mythology exists.
The whole anti-Judeo-Christian thing has been going on for years. It's really sad. Remember that X-Men storyline where Nightcrawler became Pope as part of some anti-mutant group's plot and they used explosive communion wafers to replicate the Rapture (never mind that Catholics do not believe in the Rapture)? Yeah, that really happened. And yeah, it was meant to be anti-religion storyline.
In the pre-hack era it was handled far better, and addressed the existence of eg Thor- the "gods" were powerful energy beings or aliens from other dimensions, and beyond their power - far beyond their power- was the true god. They even depicted the true god, if that's the word, but only as a blast of white light.
And that was done tastefully and consistently across the whole of Marvel.
It makes me wonder what kind of solipsistic worldview the current crop of writers actually have. Disturbed and disturbing.
Wait a second. Isn't all life on Marvel Earth created by the Celestrials? Which means the Marvel Universe runs on intelligent design.
Right? I remember thinking that the briefcase with the golden light from pulp fiction, was the characters looking at Quentin Tarantino, their creator!