Comicbook Heroes Religious Affiliations

[ashfire]

I found on Yahoo.com that they had for offer a website that shows the religious affiliation of super heroes http://www.ComicBookReligion.com

[Ashley]

Huh, I knew Kitty Pryde was Jewish, but I had no idea it was so varied. Rogue is without a doubt the coolest Baptist chick, evah. XD

[Yeshua-Knight]

while they're not the coolest mutants, both cannonball and husk are also in the xmen too, so i guess it looks like the baptists kinda outnumber the other religions and denominations in that group

...i never pegged wolvie to be a buddhist though, i mean, granted, he just uses his hands to fight, but i have yet to see him toting prayer beads with him

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Lutheran Super-heroes? This is too funny!

[Shadowchild]

Isn't that the title of a song? Hmm... *ponders*

[Arnobius]

sorry double post when I meant to edit

[Arnobius]

Looks like a mixed bag for my denomination. Some portrayed devoutly (Nightcrawler) and others portrayed rather stereotyped.

Of course overall, I think it was interesting that most of the chara of all denominations (older ones anyway) started out with no religion and then developed it as the chara evolved.

...i never pegged wolvie to be a buddhist though, i mean, granted, he just uses his hands to fight, but i have yet to see him toting prayer beads with him

Probably came around with that Japanese arc in the 1980's with Lady Mariko

[Yeshua-Knight]

yeah, between her and lady deathstrike, i tell ya i don't know of any other superhero with as many ties to japan as he does, i don't think even the silver samurai himself has as many


..which makes me wonder...


what is wolverine's favorite anime?


.....prolly hamtaro or somethin' like that

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Funny how there are only two Lutheran Superheroes. Maybe they didn't like the change? (lol)

[Arnobius]

yeah, between her and lady deathstrike, i tell ya i don't know of any other superhero with as many ties to japan as he does, i don't think even the silver samurai himself has as many


..which makes me wonder...


what is wolverine's favorite anime?


.....prolly hamtaro or somethin' like that

LOL. That would be ironic.

speaking generally:
It was interesting reading the article on Daredevil... so much of what Marvel did there was just plain inaccurate.

[Rexman64]

Funny how there are only two Lutheran Superheroes. Maybe they didn't like the change? (lol)

Look a bit closer at those two... Jimmy Olsen's not even really a superhero, and check that Mastodon guys profile: "Raised Lutheran, now atheist".

Say... I wonder what religion Thor is? XD;;

[bigsleepj]

They also have neglected to say what belief Dr Strange holds. Oh well...

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Crud. Lutherans get a bit of a bad name then, eh Rexman?

[Kaligraphic]

I wonder what religion Thor is?

Well, the real Thor, of Norse mythology, was a pagan, raised in the old Norse ways. He'd heft a drink to himself now and again (and again, and again, and again) by way of observance. As for the comic character, idk.

[Arnobius]

They also have neglected to say what belief Dr Strange holds. Oh well...

The Horry hosts of Hoggoth?

[ashfire]

Since these were all American comic book heros, how would anime characters in manga or anime itself be affiliated with a religion.
I figure most of the characters in Saint Tail would be Catholic.

[Yeshua-Knight]

as i understand it, most anime characters, simply due to various abilities that they seem to demonstrate, would be buddhist, either that or atheist

[Nate]

Yeah, most anime characters would be atheist or agnostic. There are quite a few Shinto anime characters...and yes, most of the characters in Saint Tail are Catholic. But that's a bit off topic, methinks.

[soul alive]

It's interresting that Superman and Supergirl are both Methodist (the church I grew up in). Superman's back story seems pretty reasonable, but Supergirl sounds rather, iffy, at best with the whole earth-born angel thing...
Haven't read hardly any superhero comics myself, though, only a few Superman comics that my dad had as a kid.. so I can't really say.

[bigsleepj]

Although I found the site interesting, I found a majority of some super-hero characters' beliefs to be superficial at best, even the non-Christian lot. Off course those whose powers are based on a belief-system (like the Voodoo-heroes) are a different matter, but overall even the Buddhists are very dry in the respect of the depiction of their beliefs. This however sometimes is the result of decades of different writers giving different spins on the characters.

And another problem is that sometimes the person's beliefs is used in a sensationalistic sense, as if to give some sort of 'kick' to some oddballs. For instance the confessor character who uses "exploding rosary beads" and tells his victims "I will absolve you of your sins."

Edit: That said, I'm not really dumping on the comics and super-heroes as a whole (I love reading these stories), its just that I'm not fond of the idea that (a) a character's beliefs are controlled by whim of whatever writer is assigned to him and (b) that sometimes the basics of these characters' beliefs are not understood by the people writing it, even if they don't have an axe to grind with this belief.

[Steeltemplar]

Although I found the site interesting, I found a majority of some super-hero characters' beliefs to be superficial at best, even the non-Christian lot. Off course those whose powers are based on a belief-system (like the Voodoo-heroes) are a different matter, but overall even the Buddhists are very dry in the respect of the depiction of their beliefs. This however sometimes is the result of decades of different writers giving different spins on the characters.

And another problem is that sometimes the person's beliefs is used in a sensationalistic sense, as if to give some sort of 'kick' to some oddballs. For instance the confessor character who uses "exploding rosary beads" and tells his victims "I will absolve you of your sins."

Edit: That said, I'm not really dumping on the comics and super-heroes as a whole (I love reading these stories), its just that I'm not fond of the idea that (a) a character's beliefs are controlled by whim of whatever writer is assigned to him and (b) that sometimes the basics of these characters' beliefs are not understood by the people writing it, even if they don't have an axe to grind with this belief.

Yeah, I suspect that most of the people at Marvel and DC have not been of the devoutly religious persuasion.

Another example (as AH mentioned Daredevil):
"In the "Born Again" storyline written by Frank Miller, it was revealed that Matt Murdock's mother, who he never knew as a child, had left his father sometime after Matt was born and became a nun."

The Church would never accept a woman to be a nun under that condition. I don't know if Frank Miller just thought this would be interesting or has something against Catholicism or Christianity.

[Destroyer2000]

NightCrawlers's father is Satan? Hm...

[Tommy]

Notice how there is no Christian group.

[Arnobius]

as i understand it, most anime characters, simply due to various abilities that they seem to demonstrate, would be buddhist, either that or atheist

I think most anime characters seem to be indifferent to religion.

There was an episode of Sailor Moon where Rei's grandfather was trying to recruit the girls to work at a shrine, and Usagi tried to make an excuse saying "I wouldn't be good at chanting all those suras."

Her grandfather replies with "THIS IS A SHRINE! WE DON'T DO SURAS!"

indicating Usagi can't tell the difference between Shinto and Buddhism

[MorwenLaicoriel]

Notice how there is no Christian group.

Um, you do realize that six out of the 16 groups are actually different denominations of Christianity?

Not that it matters much to me, since i'm non-denominal, but...seriously, there's quite a few Christian groups in there.

[Sammy Boy]

It's quite interesting to read that, but in the comic books the faith of some superheroes actually does not seem to play a real and tangible part in influencing their actions.

A counter example would be the Nightcrawler.

Also, depending on who the writer is, the superheroes seem to have a decidedly different religious inclination. For example, Superman usually tends to acknowledge 'God' as a real entity in his conversations, but in the Godfall series, he got a pro-Kryptonian (Raon) religious slant.

I guess comic writers like to keep their characters flexible.

[rocklobster]

I wasn't surprised to find Batman, Daredevil, and Nightcrawler in their respective categories. I've always thought of Batman as quite devoutly Christian. (He sure acts like it!) But why are Lisa Simpson and Jimmy Olsen profiled? They aren't superheroes.
Actually, as far as anime characters go, I can think of a few characters who seem Christian:

• Wolfwood (obviously, he is a priest, albeit a hypocritical one. But aren't a lot of Christians hypocritical at times. I know I'm guilty of this)
• Alice in Please Save My Earth (she actually prays to God for Rin's life in the manga version. In fact she prays to God quite a lot)
• In Robotech/Macross, one character did a sign of the cross. Forget who it was. But then, I only know this because someone else told me once.