Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes, page 112

Review: God on the Streets of Gotham

God on the Streets of Gotham: What the Big Screen Batman Can Teach Us about God and Ourselves by Paul Asay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What does Batman have to do with Christianity? To many cynical modern Batman fans, the answer is, "Nothing." Batman is a lapsed probably Episcopalian, maybe lapsed Catholic, with no religious underpinnings. For such fans, Paul Asay's God on the Streets of Gotham will seem like an absurd concept.

However, writers borrow from the culture around them, either intentionally or by accident. Of Shakespeare's thirty-six plays, thirty-five were based on some other work or story. If Shakespeare had to borrow, the writers of Batman have to do even moreso. In addition, God's truth is so woven throughout creation and good fiction reflects these truths. It is possible to extrapolate some truth from anything whether it's the Rocky movies or superheroes.

The point of such a book is not that it necessarily explains some amazing heretofore unknown spiritual truth. Rather, it makes spiritual truths more real and causes us to look at them in a different way. It's a bit of a Mars Hill device in explaining truths about God through something that is known and recognizable to the reader.

By that account, Asay's book works. It delvers a theologically sound examination of themes from Batman that tie into the Christian view of life. One thing that I like about Asay's treatment is that the Batman character affords an opportunity to discuss difficult issues that Christians can tend to gloss over such as pain and suffering.

What makes this sort of book work is the knowledge of the writer of the secondary subject matter (in this case Batman), Asay is a long-time Batfan, so while he cites extensively from the first two Batman movies, he also reference both golden and silver age incarnations of Batman as well as more modern works such as the Knight Fall and No Man's Land comics. Asay knows his stuff and that makes the book worth reading, particularly if you're more familiar from Batman from his large and small screen incarnations.

At times, Asay does stretch a bit to make a point and his chapter, "Tools" in which Asay creates an analogy between Batman's costume and the full of Armor of God listed by the Apostle Paul seemed a little corny with "The Utility Belt of Truth" but mostly came out okay. Also, because these were written before Asay saw the final Nolan Batman film. At least one of his points was negatives.

Overall, if you're a fan of Batman who'd like a different way to think about the Christian life, this is a good book for you.



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The Comic Book Collection

Andrea suggested I talk a bit about my comic collection (such as it is.)

Growing up, as I've mentioned before, I didn't really read comic books. Dad didn't allow them and I tend to think there was some good reason for that as comics were all ready going in a kid-unfriendly direction. There were exceptions such as the tie-ins to the Batman Adventure Series, but those sort of things would be hard to find.

When I first wrote Tales of the Dim Knight, I didn't go and buy comic books. I based most of the gags off of what I'd seen on Television and what I'd heard on the radio with The Adventures of Superman. One person who was kind of a comic book fanatic challenged me for not parodying characters like Hell Boy and other books from Dark Horse comics.

I didn't do that because I didn't want to go too obscure with the humor. If you start parodying something that only 50,000 people have read you really limit the audience and there's a big love of superheroes beyond comics. Only about 55,000 people buy Superman Comics but he's got millions of Facebook fans and millions who remember his books.

As I move into this new series of the Adventures of Powerhouse, I'm moving from strict parody to more comedy and I have some more serious Superhero ideas in the works. Still fun, but more serious.

So, I think it becomes more important to understand the history of comic books as well as just to get more stories and background, so I've begun buying up something that wasn't really available when I was a kid-the black and white prints-Marvel Essentials and the DC Showcase Presents books.

I've gotten quite a few of them all ready with more in the mail from some of the earlier days of Spider-man, Iron Man, Superman, Batgirl, the Atom, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Captain America, Justice League. It's great fuel for the imagination (the creator of the new Flash comics cited them as his inspiration in a recent interview.) and pretty clean.

I don't buy a ton of individual issues just because of fragility and expense. I really only do that unless I like the book and they're not all collected. I love the trades for their stability.

To be clear, I don't intend to "keep" the collection forever. Once I'm finished reading through these books, I'll end up taking them down to the Boise Public Library where other people can enjoy them because I think books are meant to be enjoyed and shared, and I think that these old gold, silver, and bronze stories offer a great contrast to what most modern comic books are putting out.

New Release: Rise of the Robolawyers

I'm pleased to announce the release of the 2nd Novella in the Adventures of Powerhouse Series, Rise of the Robolawyers for the Kindle.



The exciting blurb follows below:

Powerhouse (aka mild-manner janitor Dave Johnson) has defeated mobsters, intergalactic zookeepers, and terrorists bent on igniting a nuclear war, but can he survive a legal attack?

Mitch Farrow, CEO of Dorado Incorporated, crime lord, and agent of the interdimensional alien King Bel is determined to increase public cynicism to reduce the will of the people to resist Bel's invasion. He's determined to stop Powerhouse's efforts to spread hope and justice and sicks an attorney on him to file frivolous lawsuits.

Powerhouse's wife Naomi tries to protect him by giving him a series of new rules that will save him keep him out of court but also threaten to destroy his career. At the same time, she desperately searches for an insurance company willing to give a liability policy to a costumed crimefighter who has been targeted for legal annihilation.

The part-time Johnson family chef, part-time international man of mystery and full time superpowered alien Zolgron is so disgusted by these developments that he sets out to rid the world of what he views as its greatest plague: lawyers. Using his planet's advanced technology he creates a Robotic lawyer to this end, but unwittingly sells the designs to Dorado Incorporated, giving them technology that can be used to destroy Powerhouse.

At the same time, Dave Johnson learns startling new facts about his grandfather and a mysterious World War II superhero that disappeared fifty-five years ago in a Seattle warehouse and unknown to Dave has re-appeared in 2012 and been captured by Mitch Farrow's men. And if that's not enough, another member of the Johnson household gets superpowers.

Rise of the Robolawyer is Powerhouse's most thrilling adventure yet, featuring action, adventure, mystery, and comedy aplenty. Enjoy this exciting new chapter in this ongoing saga.

I will tell you quite honestly, this was an incredibly fun story to work on. We were able to do some really fun things with this adventure and these characters. I thought that we did a great job with Powerhouse Flies Again but this a great step ahead. I had fun writing this and Andrea provided some unique touches on her edits and rewrites.

So, I'd encourage you to go and add Rise of the Robolawyers to your to-read list.

The Rise and Fall of the Superhero Marriage, Part Three: What's So Funny About Marriage..

Marvel wasn't the only ones canceling superhero marriages in recent years. To the credit of DC, it never occurred to them to do something as dumb as The One More Day disaster

In 2011, DC rebooted their entire universe with the launch of the New 52 sending all magazines back to issue 1 as a result of a cataclysmic universe changing event (they're big on those at DC). The New 52 took characters all back to younger earlier stage in their careers in hopes of drawing younger readers.

In the process, they canceled out the marriages of Clark Kent to Lois Lane and of the even longer term marriage of The Flash (Barry Allen) to Iris West.

The Heroic Marriage

Of course, just because the Comic book companies have cut down on the number of marriages, doesn't mean they've gut down on the sex and shenanigans. Sex is bigger than ever.

Marriage not so much. (Unless it's the X-men and a gay marriage.)

In this way, the comic book companies are responding to demographic trends which show less people getting married. By canceling out the marriages of long-time married superheroes and making them available for trysts, they hope to appeal to a younger generation where marriage is becoming less appealing and certainly less inevitable.

But is this new trend heroic?

I really think you can make an argument that both the Golden Age celibate heroes and superhero marriages showed a lot of heroism.

If you think about Superman. The reason he originally stayed away from romance is he didn't have time. His life was completely and totally dedicated to the pursuit of Truth and Justice. And so many of the heroes gave away their normalcy so that they could serve others.

I think if you look at the superhero marriages, there was something noble about that particularly the marriages to "normal people", not just in the superhero and his dedication to try and have a family in the midst of the craziness, but also in the superhero's spouse. You think of Mary Jane Watson or Lois Lane knowing what their husbands are going up against and standing by them and supporting them. There's a strength in that, there's heroism. The same sort of heroism that is shown every day by military spouses and police spouses. Of course, there's all kinds of physical risks they take along with that.

When I read about what's been done to characters like Lois Lane and Mary Jane Watson in recent reboots, you get the distinct impression that they've become less noble, less heroic, along with their former men.

When you get in between marriage and celibacy and in to the more frequent bedding of characters with no commitment, you get a lot of heroes who play with people's hearts and avoid commitments. Or they try to protect people from things that they assume that they can't handle, there's some weak and beggarly about that.

And I think the great irony about this shift in sexuality in order to appeal to millennials is that I don't think it's going to work.

When millennials look even at work, there's an overwhelming desire for meaning. And I'm not sure meaningless superhero trysts are going to cut it at least not in the long term. It's lowest common denominator stuff that may work for a while.

It's lowest common denominator stuff, sure. I honestly think that the untapped potential is out there for well-told stories of relationships that embody and suggest something noble and higher than short term gratification. Sadly, it appears that these concepts have slipped out of reach of modern comic books.

A Lighter Take on Daredevil

Daredevil, Volume 1 by Mark Waid

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Daredevil's back and minus the load of depression. After three decades of gathering gloom, with the last dozen or so years being particularly intense in gloom, Daredevil is reborn under new writer Mark Waid.

While Marvel began the Waid run by relaunching the numbering system making this Volume 3 of Daredevil, Waid doesn't write the book as if the past dozen or so years of pure misery for Daredevil didn't happen. He acknowledges it.

In this collection, Matt Murdoch's got a spring his step. He's not Pollyanna, but he he's made a choice to be positive. In an important short in the first issue, Murdoch lays it on the line. The last few years are going to be rough, but he's going to choose to be happy. Daredevil features Daredevil back as a rough and tumble swashbuckling hero.

In some ways, the book is an improvement on the Silver Age version of Daredevil who was determined to defeat evil but was really a superhero for the thrills and excitement. Here we see Murdoch using his legal skills to help others. When public suspicion of his Daredevil career ruins his courtroom rep, Murdoch to teaching people how to defend themselves. He's helping people in need directly.

The only thing for parents of teens to be aware of is that the book has some innuendo and there's some violence but it's not as graphic as in the Frank Miller days. The overall content of the book is about that of a TV-PG TV series.

Overall, Waid shines a bright life brings back balance to a character that desperately needs it with stunning art, clever writing, and plenty of action and adventure.

Rating: 5.0 out of 5.00.



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The Rise and Fall of the Superhero Marriage, Part Two: One More Day

The TV series, "Who Wants to Be a Superhero" had people auditioning to become the character in an original superhero comic written by Stan Lee.

One of the contestants took an opportunity to thank Stan Lee. He said that his father had committed suicide when he was young and that he'd looked to Spider-man for guidance and inspiration as he grew up and because of that he viewed Stan Lee as a bit of a father figure.

It was clear that Lee was taken aback, but it was nonetheless a testament to the enduring power of Marvel's flagship character.

So What's So Great About Spider-man

Spider-man is very different from Superman and Batman. With Superman and Batman, you have a sense that these characters are pretty much set. It's very hard to tempt them or entice them to do something outside of that character.

With Spider-man, he was really like one of us. He had these amazing superpowers, but his life was a struggle. His health often put at risks none of us can imagine from Man-Spider incidents to multiple arms, he's been through the whole gamut.

But he also struggles with letting down people he love. He's tempted to self-pity and doubt, he's tempted to be selfish with his powers. He wonders sometimes if what he does actually matters. These are the sort of things that we all struggle with. What makes him a hero is that he comes out of that struggle and ends up doing the right thing.

And what did marriage mean for Spider-man fans who'd followed the character for years? It was great. It was like if you had a friend who really hit the jackpot with their spouse. "Wow, what a great couple! They're so cute together." And of course the Spider-man/Mary Jane marriage was filled with a lot of great stories and great times. Most people were quite happy, but there was at least one exception.

Joe Quesada, an editor for Marvel Comics HATED the Spider-Man/Mary Jane marriage. He believed it aged the character. He tried to come up with some way to end it. However, most solutions didn't work. The most popular idea among those who favored ending the marriage was divorce, which would have required Spider-man and Mary Jane to both go way out of character and besides Hank Pym had never recovered from his nasty break up with his wife. Divorce and widowing Spider-man would actually serve to make him older.

That's when he came up with the idea for "One More Day." In it, in order to save the life of Aunt May, Peter and Mary Jane sell their marriage to an interdimensional demon in exchange for Aunt May living. Mary Jane also throws in that Spider-man's secret identity be restored and the deal is struck. Their marriage is if didn't exist. In the follow up to "One More Day," "One Moment in Time," we learn that Mary Jane didn't get married to Peter because she insisted he give up being Spider-man because he missed their wedding day because of it, but they do end up living together and not having kids.

Yes, you read that right. Spider-man made a Faustian bargain to throw his wife under the bus. And resulting storylines violated both the character of Spider-man and that of Mary Jane.

This left fans feeling bitter. The Amazon and Goodreads reviews tell the tale better than I can:

But, as an admittedly middle-aged person who grew up with the character, it hurt to lose someone with whom I'd related to for so long. We kind of grew up together and had reached a number of similar milestones. Marriage, with it's share of ups and downs. Family (if you follow the Spider-Girl storyline), which sometimes makes facing the occasional super villain look like a walk in the park. Life moves on and we all must do the same. Spider-man was becoming an adult (that wore tights and fought bad guys on the side)....Well, thanks for stabbing the loyal fans who supported the Wall-Crawler for all those years! It's nice to see you've moved on and left us with nothing but the memories. I heard Joe Qesada has said that the "Spider Girl" storyline is the perfect avenue for us old-timers who don't like the new direction. Then he cancelled the title altogether. How fitting.

I think I speak for a few people when I say that this one really hurts. You've remade a character that I really cared about into someone I don't know and don't really like that much.

And another:

New kids, if Marvel decides to believe that kids actually read comics in between their video games, can read those titles, but we old 30 something year olds grew up with this nerd, who grew up to become a man, falling in love and marrying this beautiful woman. Because inside each one of us is a Spider-Man...

I don't know how I will read Amazing again.

And on Goodreads:

This is without a doubt an abomination in every form of the word. It spits on years of comic history, the personalities of the characters themselves, and the fans.

This book represents Joe Quesada putting his personal preferences for a character into play in every way. Changing things to what he, not the fans want, and forcing ridiculous reasons for it to occur that make virtually no sense.

The review averages about 2 stars on Amazon and a little more gentle 2.7 stars , but still very negative reaction. J Michael Straczynski who was told to write this as his last assignment for Spider-man so strongly objected, he wanted his name off the cover, but was talked out of it. He still wrote an email trying to distance himself the project and saying that he'd asked to have his name off the last two issues.

Stan Lee, always a team player decided to revert to Peter being single in 2009 to go along with the comic book continuity, but when fan feedback came through, Lee listened and the marriage was restored.

Of course, in our pragmatic world, the question is, "Did it work?" While people objected strenuously, was Joe Quesada that brave visionary whose daring leadership took Spider-man forward into reaching a younger audience?

The verdict is in and the answer is no. The best way to do a comparison is to look at where the comics stood in months not covered by some major that leads to more temporary sales.

Going back to June 2007 (months before the One More Day storyline), the figures show Amazing Spider-man as the 8th highest selling comic book in America selling 108,217 copies a month. In addition, Spider-man had two other titles, "The Sensational Spider-man" and "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man" and they were selling 57,055 copies and 47,855. Total is 213,127 copies. Move forward to April 2009 and Quesada had cancelled the other two series and was running Amazing Spider-man three times a month. The three issues were ranked #17, #19, and #24 selling 192,848 copies. While the sheer number of copies was down by about 10%, perhaps the most important thing was that the fans were down big-time. The top selling Amazing Spider-man issue had only sold 66,410 copies, meaning that the number of buyers of Amazing Spider-man was down 39%. The commercial decline of Spider-man continues today. With the latest figures from October 2012 showing the top-selling copy of Amazing Spider-man (now down to twice a month) selling 58,185 (#23) with the back up Avening Spider-man selling 32,908 copies with total sales for the character at 149,043.

While other factors certainly have to be considered, One More Day has to be considered a key culprit. Joe Quesada's wager didn't pay off.

What he bet on was that we weren't interested in seeing a Peter Parker that grows up and into a mature loving marriage but a Peter Pan who doesn't really mature. Unfortunately, all Quesada managed to do was spoil the good will of many fans and sink Marvel's flagship character.

On the plus side due to the low circulation of Spider-man comics, even with the declining newspaper circulation, far more people think Spider-man is still married to Mary Jane than not.

However, One More Day would not be the last assault on comic book marriages.

Cool Things Authors Get to Do: Listening to Your Own Audiobook

I've been reviewing the audiobook of Tales of the Dim Knight recorded by Scott Wilcox. It's quite an experience. It's right up there with seeing your first book in print for coolness.

There are some things that I've written years ago that I'm hearing for the first time being read by someone else, as well as some gags originally written by Andrea and I'm chuckling at it. Yes, I wrote it, but someone else is reading it.

I also found that I sent a slightly outdated manuscript to the reader. The only big difference was that the older manuscript contained additional info in the final chapter and another of the epilogue, both of which have been cut. It was interesting to hear them, but I remembered why I cut them in the first place. It kind of slogged the ending down. In addition, I've written two complete novellas which make the delete portions non-canonical.

I also was very impressed with the amount of work that the producer put into it and it brought home a key point. It's two years after the release of the novel that I'm actually getting around to getting the audiobook out. The reason? I told myself that I could do it myself, but I never did. The time never appeared for it. I can read aloud fine (I frequently take the scripture readings at church), but doing the audiobook is more than that. It requires editing and getting everything into the right format and remixing. So, I appreciate Scott, and I would encourage writers to check out The Audiobook Creator's Exchange if they don't have another way to make an audiobook. It's a great opportunity.

The Rise and Fall of the Superhero Marriage, Part One: The Fantastic Marriages

The earliest superheroes were not married and for the most part, romance wasn't on their mind. Superman, Batman, and the like were more concerned with doing the hero thing. The same could be said of the Green Hornet, the Shadow, the Lone Ranger, Sherlock Holmes, Nick Carter, and many characters from the same era.

They were single minded in their pursuits. In the case of superheroes such as Superman, it was a single minded pursuit of justice and crime-fighting that left little time for romance.

Some of this lack of interest in the opposite sex probably fueled some unjustified charges of homosexuality against some comic book characters.

However, romance of sorts came to comics. As Superman waged a never-ending battle against the forces of evil, Lois Lane waged a never-ending battle to get Superman to marry her. This happened in the comics and on TV but all turned out to be a dream. Those annoying wake up calls didn't stop Lois. She even got her own comicbook in 1958 that pursued that goal.

It was mostly playful stuff right of a sitcom with Lois Lane much like Sisyphus constantly rolling a stone uphill only to have it roll back down saw her schemes go awry.

The Fantastic Marriage

In 1960s, the Superhero world changed for with the introduction of the Fantastic Four. The Fantastic Four were first and foremost a family team from the beginning. They had amazing superpowers but they were real people as well. Like any family, they fought and had personality conflicts but beneath it all, they cared for each other. The team was made of Reed Richards, his girlfriend Sue Storm and her brother Johnny, as well as ex-football star and pilot Ben Grimm. They are hit with Cosmic rays and become (respectively): Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl (later Invisible Woman), The Human Torch,and the Thing.

While Sue's affections wavered during the course of their adventures with her crushing on Sub-mariner and Ant Man, she did end up marrying Reed in Fantastic Four Annual #3.

Lee had really captured the need for human companionship and marriage even among superheroes and he used it a lot in his work. It also occurred in the FF as Ben Grimm's rock hard personality is softened by the loving blind woman Alicia Masters. Not every romance story worked as well.

Other Superhero nuptials occurred in the 1960s including the Flash to Iris West in 1968, and another two superhero wedding between Marvel characters Yellow Jacket (aka Hank Pym) and the Wasp (1969).

However, as Stan Lee took a break from the torrid pace of writing, one character who had been on the road to matrimony was thrown off of it. Marvel killed off Spider-man's love interest Gwen Stacy because they didn't know what to do with the relationship other than marriage, which they weren't ready to pursue.

Other marriages weren't made to last as Superhero divorces started to occur. Hank Pym struck his wife in anger culminating a series of events that had him drummed out of the Avengers and leading to his divorce from the Wasp.

Other marriages broke up, but just as in the real world, marriages continued to happen. After years of heartache, heartbreak and frustration, Spider-man proposed to Mary Jane Watson leading to the marriage in Spider-man Annual #21, a marriage that fans would come to love and one editor at Marvel would come to hate. (More on that in the next post.)

Finally, Superman himself got married. There had been Superman marriages before but in the twisted continuities of multiple alternate Earths and various characters on Earth One and Earth Two in the pre-Crisis DC Universe, it really is hard to track who was married to who.

The series tracked with Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman which was built on the growing relationship between the two characters. In the TV series, Clark was portrayed as a virgin who saved himself for marriage. While a lot of crazy stuff went wrong in the TV show, one has to admire their dogged determination to get married despite clones, witches, and all these sorts of obstacles.

There are three big superheroes that have the highest name recognition: Superman, Batman, and Spider-man. By the mid-1990s, whatever craziness happened in the rest of the Superhero world, two were quite happily married in the comic books. However, that wouldn't last for long.

To be Continued....

Cover Art: Rise of the Robolawyers

The Cover Art for Rise of the Robolawyers (due out next week) has been completed by our cover artist.



I'm finished a last quick proofread before we go ahead with publishing it next week for the Kindle.

Spider-man in the Funny Papers

Spider-Man Newspaper Strips -Volume 1 by John Romita

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was a fun volume containing the first volume of Spider-man newspaper strips. Stan Lee takes care of the scripting after taking a six-year break from the character in the comic books. This first collection covers the first couple years of the script.

The stories themselves are great with Spider-man tangling with Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, the Kingpin, and Kraven: The Hunter. In addition, the comic strip introduces a unique villain in the Rattler.

These are a blast of 1970s Spider-man. They can be somewhat dated but I prefer to look at them as retro with reference to 1970s pop culture and one strip series that has Peter working at a disco for Norman Osborne and Flash Thompson.

Spider-man's lovel life is put on hold as he and Mary Jane have a tiff and then Mary Jane goes off to Florida with Kraven the Hunter. Spider-man himself navigates a moral dilemma as he needs to provide some help to his ailing aunt May and in a moment of weakness allies himself with the Kingpin's mayoral campaign, but breaks off when he finds Kingpin breaking his word and hurting people.

In addition to the tremendous vintage comic strips, the book includes interviews with the great Stan Lee and John Romita on the development of the strip. On the written page, Stan Lee comes off as very humble saying that he doesn't take ownership of the Spider-man stories as he can't keep up with all the books and that when he does read a story, he always has the thought of, "Gee, that's a great story, I wish I'd thought of that." I've had thoughts quite a bit less charitable. :)

The only thing that's a bit of a challenge to get used to is three-to-a page format of the strips which is a minor issue in such a great collection of Spider-man by Stan Lee. I can't wait for Volume 2 to arrive via Interlibary loan.



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