Tag Archives: judeo-christianity

academic, contributors, reviews

Review – Arnaudo’s The Myth of the Superhero

MYTH OF THE SUPERHEROMarco Arnaudo, The Myth of the Superhero, Trans. from Italian by Jamie Richards [Il fumetto supereroico: Mito, etica e strategie narrative, 2010], Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins U.P., 2013, 206p. [July7]

Better late than never! This book was published in English four years ago (and in Italian seven years ago), but apparently it fell through the cracks. It is difficult to explain why it received so little attention, with only one book review by Jason Archbold from Macquarie University according to my library research engine. Maybe it is because the back cover blurb does not seem to propose anything new:

“Through a series of close readings of DC and Marvel comics, Marco Arnaudo explores the influence of religion and myth on superhero stories as well as their relationship to the classical epic.”

Situating the superhero phenomenon within mythology and religion has been done in many articles, chapters or entire books (e.g. Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces,  Knowles’ Our Gods Wear Spandex, Weinstein’s Up, Up, and Oy Vey!, all cited in his book).

However, I just read Arnaudo’s book and found it an excellent short (150 pages for the main text), dense, and clear synthesis with, actually, some original ideas.

Continue reading Review – Arnaudo’s The Myth of the Superhero →

from the Internet, reviews

Review – The Goddamned #3: The Mark of Cain (Sequart.org)

(The following article by Ian Dawe first appeared at Sequart.org on 4/7/2016. It is presented here with his permission.)

THE GODDAMNED #3Jason Aaron’s The Goddamned is best described as a cross between the Bible and Mad Max, with all the brutality and wit that implies. But somehow it goes so far into the depths of inhumanity that it crosses over into being funny, and even joyful. There’s the spirit of a dare about the whole book, as if the creators are just pushing their imaginations as far as they can be pushed, well beyond the realm of bad taste. For example , an early scene in issue #3 features a flashback to just after Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden, and Eve spits out the charming line, “Fuck you. The snake was more man than you are, you dickless coward.” Adam, serene and buff, simply cradles Cain in his hands and points out that the whole world is his for the taking. And what a world it is.

Continue reading Review – The Goddamned #3: The Mark of Cain (Sequart.org) →

controversy, cultural, raowantstoknow

Batman for only Judeo-Christians, implies politician

Rep. Louie Gohmert

In July of 2012, the Huffington Post reported that Representative Louie Gohmert (R-TX) responded to the Aurora movie theater shootings by stating that “the shootings […] were a result of ‘ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs.'” These comments from The Heritage Foundation’s “Istook Live!” radio show have some ugly implications to them: not only do Batman movies attract primarily Judeo-Christian audiences (hmm, ok…) but that the victims of the shooting were paying the price for attacks on specifically this theology. Link this to the relatively Orientalist nature of the first and third films’ villains (i.e. Ra’s al Ghul), and there’s a growing strain (see previous “By Rao!” posts) of either Islamophobic or non-ecumenical taint artificially attaching itself to Batman’s mythos.

Rao wants to know: Is Batman becoming associated with a particular faith?