Wonder Woman and Shazam RELIGION SUPERHEROES Superheroes have

Wonder Woman and Shazam

RELIGION & SUPERHEROES

Superheroes have always been the product of their culture • Superheroes reflect their society’s values and beliefs • Superhero stories from past and present incorporate religious images, ideas and stories • The bible incorporates early civilizations’ superhero stories • Present-day superhero stories incorporate characters, images and plotlines from bible stories

GILGAMESH • Gilgamesh is the oldest “superhero” story that I know of (roughly 18 th century BC) • The story of a Mesopotamian king born with super-strength who fights monsters and engages in conflicts with gods and goddesses • Elements of rural v. city (remember, Mesopotamia is considered “the cradle of human civilization”) • Eventually, Gilgamesh goes on a quest to find eternal life, learning important lessons along the way • Numerous parallels to stories in the bible (which was written 4, 000 years later), including a great flood an Eden-like garden Gilgamesh and Enkidu fight the forest guardian Humbaba.

BEOWULF • Written in England around 1, 000 AD • Combined Norse, Pagan and Christian imagery and values into a story about a man with super-strength who fights monsters • Beowulf himself can stand in for a Christian god – he comes from a distant land, defeats evil and then returns home to rule over his kingdom • Introduces us to familiar archetypes: a traditional hero story, good v. evil, monsters as spawn of biblical figures, etc.

SUPERHEROES AND THE OLD TESTAMENT Old Testament | noun | The Christian bible is divided into two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is the collection of Hebrew/Jewish writings that features Genesis, the flood, Noah’s ark and any other story that pre-dates mentions of Jesus and his apostles. Jews only believe in the Old Testament while Christians believe both the Old and New Testaments

Superman: A Modern Messiah | noun | a: the expected king and deliverer of the Jews, b: Jesus, c: a professed or accepted leader of some hope or cause – Merriam-Webster

Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster Siegel and Shuster first started creating the Superman idea as high schoolers in Cleveland, OH • Both creators came from Jewish immigrant families •

Superman: a Modern Messiah Moses Superman • Born to a scientist whose warnings about the destruction of their home planet go unheeded by the leaders • sent him down the river where he was found by the Pharaoh’s daughter and raised in their palace His parents put him in a spaceship and send him to Earth where he lands in Kansas. He is found adopted by the Kent family • Superman serves as the protector of the people of Earth • Later, Moses is chosen by G-d to lead • Superman’s alter ego is Clark Kent, but his Kryptonian name is Kal-El. “El” means G-d in Hebrew (the language of the Jews) and “Kal El” means “voice of G-d” • Born to a Jewish family during a time where the Egyptian Pharaoh decreed that all Jewish male babies should be killed at birth • His parents put him in a basket and the Jews out of slavery, protect them and take them to the promised land

Moses/Superman On the left: Pharaoh’s daughter discovers Moses in the Nile On the right: From the first ever Superman comic (1938) Kal-El’s rocket crash lands in Kansas where he’s discovered and raised by the Kent family

From the film The Ten Commandments, Moses parts the Red Sea which allows the Jews to flee from Egypt. The sea closed in on the Pharaoh’s troops, killing them all. From Superman v. Batman: Dawn of Justice, Superman is portrayed as a savior to people around the world.

More recently, artists and directors have come to draw parallels between Superman and Jesus

Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Marvel Comics • Creators of Marvel Comics and popular heroes like Spider-Man, the Hulk, Doctor Strange, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Daredevil, Thor, Captain America and the X-Men • Both were born into Jewish immigrant families • Marvel has used religion to add depth to characters: Daredevil and Nightcrawler (from XMen) are devout Catholics, The Thing, Magneto and Kitty Pryde (from X-Men) are Jewish • Even though Captain America isn’t Jewish, he first appeared in 1940 punching Adolf Hitler - before the US had entered WWII

The Thing (from Fantastic Four) • Created in 1961 in the middle of the space race • Ben Grimm, a pilot, gets blasted with cosmic rays while flying a spaceship. (This is how all of the Fantastic Four get there powers) • Grimm transforms into “The Thing: ” large, super strong, orange and with tough, rocky skin • Grimm was one of the first superheroes to have their religion revealed. In a 2002 comic it’s revealed that Grimm was raised Jewish in New York City

The Thing: a Modern Day Golem • Not to be confused with Gollum from Lord of the Rings • The Golem is a story from Jewish folklore • Golem were statues created from mud or clay, then given life by writing certain Hebrew words on its head • The most well known story goes that a rabbi in Prague (a city in what is now the Czech Republic) created a golem to protect the city from anti-Semitic attacks

See the similarities?

Golem (Marvel Comics hero) Marvel created a Golem superhero in the 1970 s based on the Jewish folktale • It soon became clear that the Golem superhero wasn’t gaining popularity and Marvel soon scrapped the character • The character’s run basically ended after he fights The Thing, who sends him to sleep in the East River •

If The Thing and the Golem character came from the same source myth, why did the Thing succeed as a comic character while the Golem faded away?

So what makes a successful superhero? “THE BEST SUPERHERO STORIES DEAL DIRECTLY WITH MYTHIC ELEMENTS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE THAT WE CAN ALL RELATE TO, IN WAYS THAT ARE IMAGINATIVE, PROFOUND, FUNNY, AND PROVOCATIVE. THEY EXIST TO SOLVE PROBLEMS OF ALL KINDS. . . AT THEIR BEST, THEY HELP US CONFRONT AND RESOLVE EVEN THE DEEPEST EXISTENTIAL* CRISES. ” – GRANT MORRISON, SUPERGODS *Existential: Questions about human existence and life itself

Kingdom Come day 1 For today, read to page 39 of Kingdom Come. Keep track of as many religious allusions as you can: - Allusions to biblical stories -Characters in the comic similar to biblical figures -Symbols in the comic similar to religious symbols -Quotes in the comic matching quotes from the bible At the end of class today answer these two questions: 1) Does knowing the religious connections before reading lead to a deeper understanding of the characters or conflicts? 2) In understanding the religious background of the characters and/or story, what unanswered questions are raised in the first chapter of the book?