"My God, my God, why have [comic book writers] forsaken [you]?"

Why aren't there any Christians in "mainstream" comics?

Hell, for that reason, why aren't there any Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Shintos ... you get the idea.

I'm not talking about Reverend Stryker. I'm talking about honest-to-goodness spiritual people in everyday life. I'm just wondering.

I've been thinking about spirituality in comics, and I wonder why we don't see more of it. It's not like these people in comics aren't used to the supernatural. I ranted a while back about why comic book writers hate democracy, and I have to wonder: do they hate religion too?

There are two ways you can go to have Christianity (I'm going to use Christianity, but insert any religion you like in whenever I use it) in your superhero book. (I'm sorry to use superheroes, but as usual, they are the dominant trope in comics, and what I say here could easily apply to any non-superhero book as well). One, you can have the book be an examination of Christianity (or an religion, really); two, you can characters in the book actually espouse some Christian ideas and live by them. I want to talk briefly about the first before moving on to the second.

As usual, I'm totally going off the top of my head here, so I count on you, the thoughtful readers, to point out any I've missed, but I can think of only a few mainstream comic books that deal openly with religion, good or bad. Let's see: Grendel was one, although I'm not sure that Grendel is all that mainstream. DeMatteis's Dr. Fate. Ostrander's Spectre. Preacher. Jurgens' Thor, interestingly enough. I can't think of any more. Two of these (Grendel and Preacher) were openly contemptuous of Christianity, but at least Wagner addressed the problems of what happens when religion gets too involved in politics and Ennis looked at what happens when we lose our faith. Yes, they held Christianity in contempt, but these books also treated Christianity as something to be examined and studied and questioned. Not bad. Dr. Fate and The Spectre were much kinder to religion. Dr. Fate didn't really deal with Christianity, but DeMatteis, who really likes these kinds of things, looked at reincarnation, the power of love, what it really means to be spiritual, and how we can achieve greatness through spirituality. Dr. Fate remains, I would say, the most absolutely spiritual mainstream comic ever. Ostrander, who once was in the seminary, gives us a brutally honest examination of Christianity and its problems, but also gives us Father Richard Craemer (okay, he was in Suicide Squad, but he really shines in The Spectre), who becomes Jim Corrigan's spiritual advisor and eventually allows him to see why he's been the Spectre all these years: it's not his job, and it's not his punishment, and it's not because God hasn't forgiven him - it's because he hasn't asked for forgiveness and allowed himself to be forgiven. The Spectre, despite its occasional harsh criticisms of Christianity, ultimately, like Dr. Fate, shows the power of spirituality. Ostrander goes further than most by including Jews and Muslims in his book, all portrayed like human beings instead of stereotypes. Have I mentioned before what a good writer Ostrander is? Finally, Dan Jurgens explored what would happen if an actual god (Thor) took over the world. This was more of a popcorn superhero book, and it suffered from inconsistent art, but it was a relatively complex look at what would happen if one of the gods of the Marvel Universe (and let's face it, there are a lot of them running around) decided to assert his divinity. Thor is shown to be a lesser god than, say, THE GOD (who never gets any ink in the Marvel Universe, much less face time), but that doesn't mean it's not a fascinating story about what true religion is and how people worship in both good times and bad. More complex than a lot of standard superhero books, I can tell you that much.

It's not that I want more books like that, specifically. I wouldn't mind it, because religion and what compels people to worship is very interesting to me, but I understand that none of those books (with the possible exception of Preacher, the least overtly religious of them) sold particularly well. However, I do wonder why more characters in mainstream comics don't seem to be religious. Again, I wonder if it's a function of who is writing them. I mean, does Peter Parker go to church? Aunt May probably does. What are sermons like in a Marvel Universe where gods walk around in New York? The only time we ever see a reverend in comic books is at a funeral. If we do see a Christian, he (or she) is usually portrayed negatively. I'm not saying there are a lot of lousy "Christians" out there in the world, but there are probably a lot more "good" ones. (Define "good" any way you want.) We have seen Reverend Conover and his wife (yes, I'm dropping some X-knowledge on you), but they appear VERY rarely (and the last time they did, as far as I know, Ostrander wrote them), and Millar, surprisingly enough, gave us a sympathetic portrait of a priest in Swamp Thing, and I'm sure there are a handful of others, but usually in comics, Christianity = evil. I'm not even that interested in a portrayal of Christianity. Wouldn't it be neat to see a service at the Church of Thor? There has to be a Church of Superman out there, doesn't there, where the worshippers aren't all crazy. Religion is a very important part of people's lives, and it would be kind of interesting to see it in the world of mainstream superhero comics.

Again, I'm not asking for it to be pervasive. But I think it would be neat to see, for instance, Barry Allen objecting to the brainwashing of every bad guy the Justice League has ever encountered (yes, I'm still bitter about Identity Crisis) because it goes against his Christian beliefs. Or Stephen Strange wrestling with his position of Sorcerer Supreme because it conflicts with his Christian upbringing (I have never read Dr. Strange, so maybe they've done that already). I always thought making Nightcrawler a priest was fascinating, but they retconned that right out of there, because it would require too much thought to keep up that story. I just think it's something that isn't addressed in comics, and the potential for great stories is there. Comic book writers miss the boat on a lot of great ideas, and I wonder why. Is it that the writers aren't interested in it (that's probably part of it, but come on - Claremont can't seriously still be interested in Mojo, can he?), or that the editors are afraid of controversy (last time I checked, controversy helped get publicity, which helps sell books), or that they have done polls and the fanboys don't want it? I don't know. I just find it unusual. That's all.

If you're interested, pictures of my new daughter are up here. Yes, it's a shameless plug. That's what I do!

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