Wednesday, March 21, 2007
On The Separation Of Church And Stately Wayne Manor
Steven Grant is right on all points. But the primary reason why I can't stand "concrete Judeo-Christian figures"--be they God, superhero angels, or divinely-directed Spirits of Vengeance in my superhero comics is that atheistic and rationally thinking characters are by default rendered as at best misguided, and at worst as delusional fools in deep denial, desperately rationalizing away their interactions with The Demon, The Spectre or the big guy himself.
Comic books typically excel at making the abstract concrete; that's highly problematic when you're dealing with issues of faith. The natural tendency of the cartoonist to draw the thing, to create visual representations of ideas, directly cuts against a force or concept which gains all its power from its invisibility and unprovability. To be blunt, comics featuring these concepts as concrete characters are almost always every bit as stupid as religious fundamentalism itself. I resent that in modern comics the atheism of Ted Knight or Mr. Terrific isn't a matter of debate-they're simply wrong. It's particularly galling to see this point made repeatedly in the DC universe, a direct descendant of Julie Schwartz's "clockwork universe" which had the good sense to leave God off the table (aside from "The Voice" in the Spectre strip.)
At least we seem to be past the 1990s tendency for superheroes to solve problems through non-denominational Super-Prayer; by clasping hands and believing together in the power of good to vanquish bad vibes (see: Mark Waid). Whatever else can be said about Civil War, at least it didn't go that route.
Comic books typically excel at making the abstract concrete; that's highly problematic when you're dealing with issues of faith. The natural tendency of the cartoonist to draw the thing, to create visual representations of ideas, directly cuts against a force or concept which gains all its power from its invisibility and unprovability. To be blunt, comics featuring these concepts as concrete characters are almost always every bit as stupid as religious fundamentalism itself. I resent that in modern comics the atheism of Ted Knight or Mr. Terrific isn't a matter of debate-they're simply wrong. It's particularly galling to see this point made repeatedly in the DC universe, a direct descendant of Julie Schwartz's "clockwork universe" which had the good sense to leave God off the table (aside from "The Voice" in the Spectre strip.)
At least we seem to be past the 1990s tendency for superheroes to solve problems through non-denominational Super-Prayer; by clasping hands and believing together in the power of good to vanquish bad vibes (see: Mark Waid). Whatever else can be said about Civil War, at least it didn't go that route.
The Current State Of The Bush Administration
Which is ironic, considering the pretext on which they first made their authoritarian power grab.
Logic, which was never a strong suit with these guys, has now been completely abandoned. I have been fooled before, often by myself, but it's really, finally looking like jig-is-up time for Chimpy. All that remains is a last, desperate dance to play out the clock and avoid prison.
