Tag Archives: christianity

academic, articles and essays, cultural, reviews

Rao Reads the Blogs

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The blogosphere frequently has a great deal to offer on comics & religion. Here’s a taste of what’s currently being covered at some other notable sites:

The Comic Book Bin‘s “Religion and Comics” section has two new offerings from two of their contributing voices. First, Hevre St-Louis examines the 14 Stations of the Cross as sequential art: “My point in arguing this simple premise about the 14 stations and comic art is of course to show how omnipresent and an important part of world culture the comic book is.” Then, Andy Frisk remains with Christianity as he looks at the character of Thor, naturally tied to pagan Nordic religions, as a “warrior Christ,” specifically highlighting the God of Thunder’s portrayal by Mark Millar in Ultimates 2 as the epitome of this vision.

The Apocalypse Plan

ComicAttack.net‘s “Comics Are My Religion” offers insights from Jeff Jackson, this month focusing on (mis)portayals of Revelation in comics. Fortunately, one new book, The Apocalypse Plan by Rafael Nieves and Dan Dougherty, seems to get it right, at least in a creative manner. “Nieves’s book is not a literal retelling of Revelation, although it does wrestle with the literal sensibilities that most interpreters give it.”

Steve Bergson’s Jewish Comics blog provides an extensive and impressive account of the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) from a Hebraic perspective. Bergson delivers details not only on the panels that relate to Judaism but also on high-profile creators with backgrounds or works pertaining to the faith.

Finally, Faith in Four Colors both gives its Swedish recommendation of Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels (also covered by Jackson last month) and puts out a call for people’s personal experiences with Chick Tracts. Information on how to respond is available at the blog site.

interviews

Writer Joshua Dysart on Religion in Unknown Soldier

Though the series was recently canceled by DC Comics, the Unknown Soldier has once again been nominated for an Eisner Award. Over at The Comic Book Bin, Beth Davies-Stofka conducted a multi-part interview with its writer Joshua Dysart, and, in this featured segment, she focuses on the role of religion in the series. Dysart tells Davies-Stofka:

There was virtually no conflict between the Christian culture and the Islamic culture as I saw it when I was traveling through Uganda. And I just was obsessed with that. I was fascinated by it.

Read the entirety of the interview for the role of religion in the main character’s life as well as subsequent parts that segue into discussions of general morality.

controversy

More on Nightrunner, the Muslim Batman of Paris

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Since the previous posting, additional sites and commentators have gone on record regarding Nightrunner, Batman/Bruce Wayne’s selection for his “deputy” in Paris.

Tim Murphy at Mother Jones remains rather neutral and unalarmed on the issue, suggesting that there are two controversies overlaid here: first, that “Frenchmen (and Frenchwomen) would never embrace a Algerian Muslim as a national savior,” and, second, that, in the words of “US comic book creator Bosch Fawstin, […] ‘DC Comics has submitted to Islam.'” This doesn’t seem to be Murphy’s position, though, as he satirically footnotes the report by saying, “Presumably this comes at the expense of the traditional mom-and-pop superheroes, who, now unemployed and compelled to put food on their table by any means possible, turn to crime. It’s the perfect cycle.”

Rory Mulholland of the Agence France Presse (AFP), published online through The Daily Star: Lebanon, also quotes Fawstin. But Mulholland notes that the issues have sold briskly and raised little attention in France itself. Olivia Snaije of Publishing Perspectives says that the French are “bemused” by this controversy (though she offers no French bloggers either by name or by URL).

OnIslam.com lets many of the complaintants speak for themselves but includes author David Hine in the discussion. He explains:

“The urban unrest and problems of the ethnic minorities under (President Nicolas) Sarkozy’s government dominate the news from France […] It became inevitable that the hero should come from a French Algerian background.” […] He said that the Nightrunner is “the kind of hero I would want to see in a comic book if I were French.”

For Hine, then, Nightrunner is not a slight but, rather, a character born out of current events. Add to this the idea posited by an nonymous commenter at the Hindustan Times, suggesting that “Comic book heroes were always about politics and social engineering.” If that is correct, is Nightrunner that far afield? IkhwanWeb believes that the furor over Nightwing isn’t that he has Algerian roots or is potentially representing the French; rather, their article suggests that right-wing bloggers simply feel “a Muslim [is] not fit to play the role of a superhero and fight crime.” In short, the subtext of protests against Nightrunner seem to stress that Muslims cannot be superheroes. Though not discussing Nightrunner, the Malaysian Sun2Surf features the debut film of a new Muslim superhero, the eponymous Haq. Co-director Jumaatun Azmi is quoted as saying, “These values are also universal and they apply to all faiths. Even if you’re not a Muslim, you can still relate to the values,” a possible retort to the right-wing subtext.

At the forum for SuperheroHype.com, the conversation has inverted somewhat, questioning whether a superhero can be as overtly and outwardly Christian as Nightrunner is Muslim. Additionally, the poster lebenskuntzler at LiveLeak.com argues that only multiculturalism is permitted in popular culture, including superhero comics, going so far as to suggest a supervillain modeled on Mohammed (pbuh) be more fitting for Batman comics.