Why aren't there more overtly Christian superheroes?

Why aren't there more overtly Christian superheroes?

Other urls found in this thread:

youtu.be/zFuMpYTyRjw
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

Because it's easier to make them into evil bible thumping fanatics.

You've had 2000 years of fiction, why would you want more?

*tips*

Most comic writers are jews or anti-christian atheists

Drop the cape, watch anime

Did I stutter?

Is there a biblical fiction where the hero is aware that god's idea of dualism is basically behind every violent conflict

Nope, just tipped.

>Have godlike powers
>Regularly fight other beings with godlike powers
>Aware of the existence of literal planet eating gods and gods of time and space
>Aware of an entire multiverse
Maybe if they were a street level hero who never iteracted with anyone above that, but otherwise it doesn't make a lot of sense.
Though I guess religion in general doesn't make sense.

>Chr*stians
>heroes

Top kek

You already have Bibleman, though.

Because it ain't exotic.

It's retardedly blasphemous.

>Fighting the main purpose of it

Anime is sin

Constantine.

Yeah but heaven is basically Mary Sues

Question. What are the greatest christfag Sup Forums works? I don't recall seeng a Sup Forums recomenation list.

Pic possibly related. It's Robert Crumb writing about hellfire.

In all seriousness though, it's probably too fine of a line for most creators to walk. On the one hand devout, even moderate, or mildly devout Christians are likely to find the relegation of their sacred 2000 and/or 4000 year old mythology to pop-culture iconography off putting at best.

On the other hand, any non-christian readers are likely to find such a work/characters proselytizing and be off put for that reason. Your audience would probably end up being the narrowest of niches within an already niche readership.

It's hard to have a threatening villain when the main good guy is literally God

Villains make the story

Because Superman has covert Christianity baked into his very concept (arguably less the early social crusader Superman, but definitely the Superman who is more well-known). Garth Ennis, of all people, made his Christianity explicit in the JLA/Hitman mini-series.

The only devout Christian writers in comics I can think of off-hand are Gene Luen Yang, Paul Cornell and Priest, all of whom manage to keep religion out of their books, except Priest who has Slade actively mock Christianity. So I think the answer to OP's question is because Christian/overtly religious superheroes are redundant or come across as preachy because they're already clearly moral people if they're choosing not to rob banks and shit with their powers.

I think the biggest problem with making a movie about the Christian faith is that almost all creators feels the need to preach to choir and letting that drive the whole movie. 95% of Christian movies are "Christianity is awesome" and nothing else. And what's especially bad is that you can all that in a church or online, so watching an hour long movie of preaching the same thing is annoying. Another problem is that Christian makers don't want to take a risk, with their characters, plot, or dialogue. They don't make anything "controversial" as they see it as something, when taking that said risk is the magic of storytelling. Look at movies about the the bible stories, most was really good and what they did would never fly off with today's Christian makers.Another thing is that all of these Christian movies are always fueled with falseness and never with hard boiled emotions. Religion, to a theist and even an atheist is something very personal, trying to act it up badly is insulting. It's not impossible to make a movie of a guy finding the beauty in Christianity, just have it real, risk taking, and actually made well.

yeah, remember what's-his-name in hercules and andromeda?

each had overtly religious episodes or scenes and the one i remember in andromeda was just them all coming to a complete stop, a moment of silent obsequy that shit all over the idea of the series but mainly was boring

kind of like kneeling in awe for forever, eh?

Westerners are too easily triggered.

Because contrary to what many believe, putting religion, even Christianity, in your product is a kiss of death in the US.

I'm really not sure exactly why since so much of America is strongly religious, but it's held true since pre-war times. Some famous examples are Nintendo and Disney avoiding religious iconography, and Jim Shooter ruining the end of Tony Isabella's Ghost Rider run because it had Jesus in it.

Is it because there are too many conflicting sects of Christianity in the US? Is it because kids associate religion with No Fun Allowed? I dunno.

Crumb's Illustrated Genesis

It's pretty close to blasphemous, and arguably against Christian principles. Then factor in who actually writes the comics. Staying within the lines of a Christian hero it would be difficult to pull off without making them very flawed, or very lame.

Yeah, they're created by a bunch of guys from New York and Los Angles.

Not a big surprise that most of them aren't eager to portray Christianity in a positive light.

Archangels: The Saga
90s as hell Christian comic

Cause comics are a field of creatives and christians tend not to encourage that kinda stuff.

Considering guys like Tolkien and Lewis where making Christian adventure stories barely a century ago, most of the problem lies with the gate keepers in and out of the church that dictate what gets to be Christian lit. Outside the church you have turbo autists who are still upset their parents made them get up on Sundays, but worse is inside the Chruch, where busybody churchladies take it upon themselves to sanitize everything to their sensibilities, stifling the divine inspiration they've been called to cultivate.

On top of that, the Christians who do make good stuff either have to hide their faith, or the media completely underplays it. How many people know that Gary Gygax, Alice Cooper, and John Woo are Christians?

Daredevil is the best superhero and he's catholic.

Nightcrawler is the best X-Men and he is also Catholic

...

There are a few, right? Daredevil, Firebird, Nightcrawler. There are also some characters who are low-key Christian.

Ethan Edwards, the Skrull Superman, he was so devout God gave him the power to heal people.

And Then he got Bendis'd.

It sounds euphoric but christian villains are some of the easiest religious villans to write but the hardest heros

Project Superpowers has Samson who looks like blindfolded Gandalf on steroids.

>>Have godlike powers
>>Regularly fight other beings with godlike powers
>>Aware of the existence of literal planet eating gods and gods of time and space
>>Aware of an entire multiverse
And?

1. It tends to come off as hamfisted and condescending. Either you offend non-Christians by making Christianity unequivocally correct, or you offend Christians by not being biblical accurate in depictions or by making your character into what is considered a Poison Pill or fair weather Christian, IE, not a real Christian, a shill piece for liberals and the media to weaken the faith by making compromise seem ok

2. On Biblical accuracy, any power that does not come from God is considered to be the devils work. This is why fundamentalist groups freaked out so much about Harry Potter and other shit. This is going to be something your character has difficulty reconciling unless they are a "No True Scottsman" Christian (see above) or, you make God the source of their powers. Once you've involved God in the fucking story, you've either: A. Taken away all dramatic tension because there is no way to fail, or B. Need to swallow the "Christianity is Right" pill, bringing you back to the problems above.

It CAN be done. The technology exists. But it's a TIGHTROPE, and the public outrage isn't worth it, because Christian Fundamentalist and Lifestyle Groups are active and mobile in civic society in the United States. That doesn't mean they can't be taken on - again, Harry Porrer - but for most big companies it isn't worth the time, effort, or headache. Boycotts by Christian Action or Soccor Mom Groups can and will hurt your bottom line and ad revenue.

In short, it's a no-go for various social, political, and financial reasons. Other religions and mythologies are fair game because they aren't as populous and organized in the US.

As a sort of weird deist hippy Christian who considers themselves a Christian but not part of any church, I think it's a shame, because a depiction of a God who is unknowable and mysterious who puts protagonists into difficult situations and forces them to work it out would be, in my mind, accuracte to both real life and Biblical temprament.

I believe his point is the broader and more educated your perspective, the less likely you are to believe, at least in any fashion currently constructed by an organized church

Forgot picture

Defin overtly.
I think spiderman counts.

Another way to do it respectfully is to leave things ambivalent. Like, really ambivalent. Don't outright say God is real or involved, but hint heavily. The problem with that is as soon as another writer takes over they'll fucking ruin it by confirming one way or another for cheap canned heat, and you know how often writer swap goes on in the industry these days. Like, you may have a stellar run of Jesus Guy, but as soon as they put you on something else, Jewy McJewFace, or worse, Mark Millar, will take over and drive it into the fucking ground by revealing what you thought was god was actually an inter-dimensional alien entity all along haha

Why though? Just because someone has super powers doesn't mean he can't believe in a higher power. Previous user mentioned gods but DC/Marvel have made a real effort in portraying gods as more like aliens or "super powered being that just live longer". For example, for the most part Darkseid and the other New Gods live on a planet that you can reach by ship, and even when it's changed that you can only reach it via boom tube, a lot of people end up replicating the technology and creating boom tubes of their own.

I think OP means 'powers from god'.
Like The Sentry or old school Ghost Rider.

Yes, and at that point you've taken the God out of God, and made them god. YWVH is no longer this mysterious omnipotent omni-benevolent wellspring from which the universe flows. He's some dude, or dudette, or spaghetti thing with fancy remote controllers. They're a 'god' in the same sense that the Greek or Norse pantheon were gods. Just more powerful, advanced beings. In order to keep the capital G, God must remain a mystery.

Daredevil Born Again

Even if you told a kick ass story there would be all this baggage attached. The fedora squad would hate it, the extreme bible squad would hate it. Both without reading it.
It just seems smarter to slip it in on the down low. Unless you want to pick a fight or "start a conversation" which seem to be the same thing now. And in that case you'd better bring your A game or you'd run the risk of being labled 'that guy'. Yeah, just stealth it.

there is something funny about the fact that they were based on x-men

This. It's the one religion you can consistently make the bad guy and not get called a Nazi or have the threat of getting your head cut off.

Any religious person find a way to contribute EVERYTHING to their personal god in one way or another.
No matter how many universes and near immortal beings they encounter, they will see them as their deitys creation.

Zauriel was a great character.

Didn't Marvel recently make him an atheist?

youtu.be/zFuMpYTyRjw

In removed scriptures Moses and the Chosen people did have a fight with the kindred of giants at one point, led by a king Giant that hitched a ride in Noah's ark.

Maybe because superheroes are a form of idolatry and therefore blasphemous.

Despite being the two biggest catholic superheroes in Marvel, how come you never see Captain America and Daredevil bonding over the infallibility of The Pope and Mother Mary's divine status?

holy shit

I totally forgot about this, as a reward when I was in catechism I got to collect something from a treasure box and this comic was the least lame thing in it

it was so ridiculous and so obscure it doesn't even have a wiki article

Is he playing Devil's Advocate?

BEEEEENDIIIIIISSSSSSSSS

Well you got Azrael. And debatably Zauriel and then whatever else from the Lucifer comics if you can even classify them as "heroes".

>turbo autists who are still upset their parents made them get up on Sundays
Yeah, people are autists fo not liking when their parents forced religion down their throats.

Christian mythology is actually pretty cool. Christians, on the other hand, not so much (unless it's a slutty nun or something).

People are too lazy to read Dostoyevsky: a prerequisite if you want to competently write fiction about christianity.

Crime and Punishment would have worked better as a play; as a novel it was so theatrical.

Depends, OP are we talking about explicitly christian heroes (Night Crawler, Dare devil etc.) or Christianity THEMED heroes (Archangel, Superman depending on the writer)?
Also your pic is awesome may I know the source?
>You've had 2000 years of fiction, why would you want more?
Super hero fiction has not existed for that long this thread is about Christian Superheroes.

Don't forget the Spectre.

there we go

>Daredevil
>Nightcrawler
>Huntress
>Hellboy
If the superhero "ironically" looks like the devil, he's probably Christian.

Because after the Satanic Panic, and Christian Fundies became 'No Fun Allowed' assholes, it's been fun to make them over the top villains.

Because most Christians are faggots.

>when euphoria hits

seriously

I am sure you do IRL, gentlesir

Soule actually.

For a christian the only possibly hero they could accept is god/jesus.

If someone had supernatural powers given to them by god, it would bring to question the principles of christianity and how much god gets involved in the world.

It also brings to question what kind of power god has if he needs a human to do his bidding, but then again, the bible is full of that.

>because it had Jesus in it.

Not because Jesus was in it, but because Jesus appears as a deus ex machina to save him, and he was going to make Ghost Rider a born again Christian, basically ruining the entire gimmick of the character.

Aren't we all?

If Christians would be more than pic related I would gladly convert. But they aren't...

Dude, Anime does christianity worse than American comics my dude.

it's all about proximity
most american writers that come across religious fanaticism in their real lives have dealt with christian crazies as opposed to other kinds of crazies
also christian crazies in america are the first to try and ban books or movies or really any kind of media that vaguely threatens their fragile beliefs
if you are a creator of anything it makes them an obvious villain

with how things are going in america, it might happen.

Blue Devil too.

Dayum! Is he only wearing a banana hammock?

>worse
You mean way better.

true faith right there

Until its gets LoveCraft kinda weird and lead boy wants to sword fight (with penises) with an Angel.

I think that's something that all of his major works have. Characters tend to act as if they were on a stage. I don't mind it, but it's a bit unconventional.

You know, I could never figure out if those were tattoos or if he just wears a white costume which makes him look naked because his skin in also white.

They exist but most of them are like Ned Flanders. It's impossible to make them fun. I blame years of terrible cringey Christian cartoons and music.

I see a problem in a comicverse like DC and Marvel.
But i dont see a problem in its own universe.
>Get power by a mysterious god
>Fight demons
>Fight other gods and their minions that are considered to be heretics.
>Fight aliens that dont believe in gods

Dont see a problem besides putting comicverse=reality and trying to force "religion is right"

If this is true I'm going to fucking kill myself

DC did an adaptation of some of Genesis. Never read it, but Joe Kubert's on art so it's probably pretty tits

AHAHAHAHA ITS FUNNY BECAUSE HATS

That's the most euphoric villain I've ever seen.

Careful or your butthurt might disturb your euphoria.

>sword fight (with penises) with an Angel.
shinji and kaworu is still pretty accurate. Jesus and little John the Baptist would go on erotic weekend beach adventures, excluding the rest of the team. It's true shit. google that shit man.

because, being faithful Catholics, they leave such topics to those who have studied them thoroughly-.

Contrasts are great though.

Try Vatican Miracles Examiners.
It does christians quite well.

Captain America is protestant.