All posts by Stephen Garner

articles and essays, contributors

Religion, Spirituality, and Comics – A Sampler (Part 3 of 3)

In the final part of this three–part sampler of religion and spirituality in comics and graphic novels, we look first at The Magdalena, the most active example of the warrior nun genre in comics, dip into Matt Murdock’s Catholicism in Daredevil: Guardian Devil, and finish up with atheist J. Michael Straczynski’s spiritual road trip exploring faith, hope, theodicy, and sacrifice. After that, a brief list of other comics that might be of interest is provided.

8. The Magdalena

Warrior nuns. Not the first thing you think of when you think of comics. But they are a thing, and an explicit connection between religion and comics. The most well-known and developed are Warrior Nun Areala and The Magdalena, as well as others such as Chrono Crusade, The Sisterhood and, obliquely, Sisters of Sorrow. Of all of these, The Magdalena is currently the most active, with the Reformation story line, published in 2017,  setting up the series for further adventures with a further generations of the supernatural protector.

The Magdalena first appeared in 1998 in the comic series, The Darkness, set in Top Cow’s universe that includes Witchblade, the Angelus, the Aphrodite characters, and the Artifacts series. Over time, she appeared in various crossovers as well as her own eponymous title. The Magdalena character is cast as the supernatural and superheroic protector of the Catholic church and wider world. Armed with the Spear of Destiny, the Magdalena is the Church’s trouble shooter – a kind of special operations figure – handling things the regular church apparatus can’t handle. The Magdalena conforms to the warrior nun genre in a variety of ways: attractive, energetic women, serving in a Catholic-oriented religious order, with martial arts skills, often with a connection to Mary Magdalene, and who engage in both spiritual activities and physical violence in the pursuit of opposing evil in accordance with the Catholic Church’s will. Continue reading Religion, Spirituality, and Comics – A Sampler (Part 3 of 3) →

articles and essays, contributors

Religion, Spirituality, and Comics – A Sampler (Part 2 of 3)

In the first part of this religion, spirituality and comics sampler, we looked at Mark Waid and Alex Ross’ Kingdom Come, Vertigo’s Lucifer, and Matt Hawkin’s The Tithe. In this instalment of the sampler we turn to a couple of Superman stories, encounter the mysterious Phantom Stranger, and investigate a murder in the Vatican.

4. Superman: Redemption

The trade paperback, Superman: Redemption, brings together three different Superman stories with religious contexts:

Angel: Superman #659.
Redemption: Action Comics #848 & Action Comics #849
The Beast from Krypton: Superman #666.

The stories are interesting because the writers use an existing ‘non-religious’ narrative world or character – Superman – to explore something of the notion of religion and religious authority.  Continue reading Religion, Spirituality, and Comics – A Sampler (Part 2 of 3) →

articles and essays, contributors

Religion, Spirituality, and Comics – A Sampler (Part 1 of 3)

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been a reader of comics. I grew up on the old Planet Comics black-and-white newsprint anthologies of DC titles before moving onto the more expensive and imported coloured individual issues of Marvel and DC from the US and the weekly issues of Tornado and 2000AD from the UK. Because I’d read anything in that format, I read various religious tracts and comics, as well as graphically-adapted works of classics like Jules Verne’s Mysterious Island or Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and the serialised comics in the back of the daily newspaper.

I’ve always been intrigued by the power of these storied images, and as a Christian theologian with an interest in popular culture, I’ve spent the last twenty years or so collecting comics and graphic novels that have religious themes and material or touch on spiritual matters. Sometimes these comics are representations of sacred texts like the Hebrew or Christian scriptures; other times they explore themes of sacrifice, redemption, faith, and suffering. They might take an established comic book character and explore their religious dimension or fashion a detailed cosmology inclusive of heaven(s) and hell(s). There is something about the graphical format that lends itself to not just traditional narrative prose but also to poetry, to wordless stories, non-linear storytelling, and being able to tell stories from a variety of cultural and ethnic settings.

In these posts I’m going to highlight ten particular comic titles that I might recommend to people if they asked for examples of religion and spirituality in comics and graphic novels. I’ve deliberately steered away from graphical adaptations of religious texts like the Bible or material intended to educate or encourage the faithful. I may do a series on those eventually as they are also very interesting, but in these posts I want to highlight where we might find religion and spirituality in other contexts. I do not expect everyone (or anyone!) to agree with my choices, but I hope get you thinking about how people are telling religious and spiritual stories in this format. Continue reading Religion, Spirituality, and Comics – A Sampler (Part 1 of 3) →