Tag Archives: pantheons

academic, contributors

Martin Lund on the Possibilities of “Pantheonic Bricolage”

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[The following piece was originally published at MartinLund.me and it is reposted here with the author’s permission.]

The Marvel Universe pantheons

Is It a Thing? “Pantheonic Bricolage.”

If you are at all familiar with my work, you know that I have a particular interest in the intersections between comics and religion. I have spent countless hours studying comics in relation to Judaism and Jewishness, on editing a book about Muslim superheroes (the release of which is so close now I can almost taste it!), and I’m currently drafting a book about the recently deceased evangelical comics propagandist Jack T. Chick (about whom I have written here and here).

In addition to this, I’m also working on a guide to comics and world religions with a couple of fellow scholars of the topic. We have hashed out a rough structure and are working separately on our chapters. In addition to writing about the Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), I will also be tackling what we have chosen, for now, to call “Archaic Traditions.” (I just might make another “Is it a thing?” post about that label somewhere down the line.)

This means that I am writing about Greco-Roman, Egyptian, and Old Norse religions. And I am loving it to no end. There is so much interesting material to work with here, and I will be sharing thoughts and reviews as things progress.

But for now, I want to bounce a thing off the internet and see what happens.

I want to talk about what I have been calling, for lack of a better term: “pantheonic bricolage.” It sounds complicated, but it really isn’t.

Continue reading Martin Lund on the Possibilities of “Pantheonic Bricolage” →

academic, articles and essays, contributors, reviews

What Makes A Scholar’s Pull-List? Part 1

Those who study comics are often avid consumers of the medium. How do I select comics for myself? I cannot read or afford everything. Nor is every comic equal in my eyes as an object of study. What does my list say about me? Or about comics today?

This post and my next outline my pull-list as an extension of my scholarly interests. These items suit my eclectic tastes, but they also identify several trends in recent publishing themes (especially from Image). I could say that the Gods Have Returned, but that seems overly simple. As A. David Lewis’ recently released American Comics, Literary Theory and Religion makes the case for the centrality of the superhero afterlife, I think there’s a broader case to be made for the emergence of religious themes as the narrative choice of the day. The gods have returned, yes, but we’re also going to hell (Hellboy in Hell), heaven/hell (The Life After), and bringing all of the spirits along for the ride (Wytches, Wayward, and Hexed). It’s a veritable Great Awakening out there, readers.

Here’s what my physical list looks like. It is surely missing at least another half-dozen titles I’m currently vetting for their pull-worthiness. This is from my local comic shop in Irvine, California:

DMcConeghy's Pull List as of 3/25
DMcConeghy’s Pull List as of 3/25

As you can tell, my love for Image’s title selection is literally overflowing. I shun the conventional superhero titles from DC and Marvel. (I read the latest Thor but I have recently dropped Ms. Marvel when it became apparent that her religious identity was becoming more gimmick than substance and when Marvel decided her character would be crossing over into multiple other titles.) For clarity this makes my list:

  1. Low
  2. East of West
  3. The Wicked + The Divine
  4. Manifest Destiny
  5. Supreme Blue Rose
  6. They’re Not Like Us
  7. Rasputin
  8. Wayward
  9. Chrononauts
  10. Nameless
  11. Hellboy: 1952
  12. Outcast
  13. Wytches
  14. Ody-C
  15. Hexed
  16. The Devilers
  17. The Life After

See if you can imagine what drives this diverse collection. Continue reading What Makes A Scholar’s Pull-List? Part 1 →

contributors, reviews

Review: Marvel’s CHAOS WAR, an Epic (of Sorts)

“In the Marvel Universe, gods walk the Earth.

Some side with heroes.
Others spread dread and despair.
One god cares for neither.
He is the Chaos King.
And he will stop at nothing to end everything with
Chaos War.”

Hercules in THE CHAOS WARThus, with typical Marvel bombast, Greg Pak and Fred van Lente of Action Philosophers! and Comic Book Comics fame introduce the 2010–2011 “Chaos War ” storyline.

In many ways, “Chaos War” is a classic superhero comics event. It has the mandatory brawls between heroes who then become allies. It has the brains versus brawn tension and the triumph of ingenuity over smashing things that Marvel comics so often employ. It is also, like so many comics events, a massive weave of intertextual references: as always, it connects with established continuity in too many places to count and references to film and literature similarly abound. By virtue of the advanced age of many of the characters involved, there are a number of historical references (such as Sersi remarking to Thor that one fight “[k]inda reminds you of the siege of Paris by the Danes in the ninth century, huh, big guy?”). And, given its focus on gods, godlings, and pantheons, it also makes numerous implicit and explicit references to myth, story, and (what we can somewhat anachronistically label) theology.

But many of these references are arguably superficial. In most cases, “Chaos War” provides enough information for the reader to situate a specific god within the religious tradition from which it is appropriated, but there is not much of what we can call substance in those references. They have names that can be traced to one pantheon or another and an appearance that gives them the flavor of a place and (in most cases) a time, although there is a preponderance of gods in superhero-style garb. Thus, they are all interweaved and largely undifferentiated. The gods co-exist, they know each other, and some have banded together before the story begins, while others do so after. This mix gives the impression of a divine melting pot where all deities are superheated to become alike, so as to better fit the genre in which they appear. In this respect, it is significant that Amadeus Cho tells Hercules that he has “hooked [him] up with all-father powers” and that the hero is called a supergod more than once; even godhood follows the logic of power-levels and -types in the Marvel Universe. Continue reading Review: Marvel’s CHAOS WAR, an Epic (of Sorts) →