When War Reunites a Family

 

As stated in my March 28th post I really love the Azzarelo/Akins run on Wonder Woman (around 2011-2014). Sorry to repeat myself, the stories, characters, cliffhangers are still the best I've read. The series is so entertaining that I find myself dipping back into that pool for another reflection.

By issue 18 the character of War (Ares/Mars) seems well-defined as a kind of brutal villain, and as someone who values life, I really resonated with that portrayal. But like all good writing, the author fleshes out the character with nuances, motives and surprising behaviors.

Although I personally look forward to the day we beat our swords into plowshares (Isaiah 2), and we no longer make war with one another, I did find myself really enjoying the fictional personification Azzarelo provides. 

War is depicted as brutal, with bloody feet, but also as an old soul who has seen too much. This character is like an old soldier who just does what 'has' to be done and bears the damage it does to his own soul without complains or excuse. 

Spies, Batman, and the free will of man?

 

Although I've watched every episode of old Adam West Batman TV show, I never really tried to watch the Man From UNCLE. I picked up the book hoping for a bit of mindless 60's mod fun and the book did deliver in that way. However, I was a bit surprised at the pokes the book took at how we view good vs evil.

no surprise, the book is filled with Batman's TV criminals, but happy surprise, most of them were very low tier. Most I hadn't even remembered (I'm thinking of you, "Cossack Queen." 

To be fair, the Penguin and Mr. Freeze do appear in the book, and both Poison Ivy and Scarecrow are on hand, even though I'm pretty sure neither of them were on the old TV show, so yeah, it's a full gallery of rouges along with the secret organization of bad guys, THRUSH. What, you didn't think we could have team-up without both parties bringing their own set of bad guys did you?

While the book is full of typical punching and shooting and ducking and kicking, it also leads us to very unusual spy base under the sea. It's not the 'under the sea' part that I find intriguing, it's the use of the space to create an atmosphere of creative effort that could ultimately save the planet and reform us of our worst behaviors. That's right...

SPOILER ALERT:

The 'big bad' of this book has altruistic plans that are flawed by the whole free will thing. If the (unnamed here) big bad can just manipulate, pay off, and brainwash everyone on the planet, he can save us from the climate crisis, mass shootings by psychopaths, maybe even the hunger and war caused by greedy corporate interests... 

That Time Wonder Woman Disappointed War

 

Brian Azzarello's 2012-2014 run on Wonder Woman still stands out to me as the ultimate comic book Odessey. Our hero, Diana the Wonder Woman befriends a lost soul with her infant who is being hunted by the ancient Greek gods. The storyline delivers twists, cliff-hangers, and insights into modern philosophy and its roots in early Western Civilization.

Azzarello tends to refer to the gods by their elemental position in modern thinking, Poseidon is really just water, Zeus is Air, and most notably Ares is War.

In the middle of the end of this storyline, we are given a little backstory into the rocky relationship Wonder Woman has with War/Ares. You might think, duh - war is bad, right? But Diana is a warrior as well as an ambassador, so maybe her odd love/hate relationship with the whole concept of war needs a little more explanation. 

The Golden Age

 

I was a little surprised to find a sweet little bit of homey advice and insight nestled in a publication called “Action Comics." In Action Comics 1029 Superman passes on the wisdom he gained from his adopted pa to his son 

(Yes, Superman now has a son).

The exchange (below) reminds us of our humanity, and that it’s OK to fail. It also gives us a possible motive for covering up our failures. Pa Kent nobly tells us that it is to “give our kids the confidence to take risks. To feel safe, To grow into their best selves.”

The homily calls this time of our innocence “the Golden Age.”

For true comic-book geeks (like me), this term evokes the original crime-fighting superheroes who always did the right thing, the right way, for the right reasons. Their enemies were obviously bad people who just needed to be punched and if you wanted to do the punching, all you had to do was put on a colorful costume and maybe a cape.

Just like Pa Kent opines, this “Golden Age” of comics did provide hope during the devastating Great Depression and the terrors of the Nazi threat and World War 2.  Superman himself was the embodiment of hope, created by two Jewish men living under the shadow of the impinging Nazi ideology. 

Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s Superman spawned an entire industry dedicated to providing us with the ultimate escapist literature, the superhero comic book. A wellspring of hope and inspiration, even the hope that we can overcome our own limitations so that we can make the world (or the universe) a better place.

While we might love the idealism that our ‘glossing over’of our shortcomings, or pretending to have all answers might provide hope to a small child, we should consider the last part of Pa Kent’s message…

“But everybody falls Clark. And that’s OK.”

At some point we have to accept that others can see our faults, missteps, and even our sins. At some point, we have to let them be seen so that we might confess them (1 John 1:9). At some point, we have to accept that we are not dealing with children who need a false sense of security, but that we are all in need of God’s blessings and care.

I can’t help but wonder if the church has passed out of the ‘Golden Age’ in the past generation? Have the church’s obvious hypocrisies and lies caught up with her, and those we have treated like children are now seeing our shortcomings and letting us know through empty pews that they do not need our false hopes and empty promises? Is the Church not overdue for a true time of confession?  

What would happen if the Church just admitted that we were on the wrong side of Chattel slavery and genocide? What if we admitted that we didn’t believe that black lives mattered, and so we allowed our brothers and sisters to die at the hands of evil men and that we helped create and support systems that benefit us by trying to subjugate and marginalize anyone we deem “other?”

"Listen Clark,

There’s a golden age when every kid knows their parents are indestructible. That we never fall, and we always know what the right thing is.

We let you see us that way so that you’ll feel…Safe, I guess. Safe enough to take risks, figure out your limits. That’s how a kid is supposed to feel.

But everybody falls Clark. And that’s OK.

Someday your kids’ll see you fall. And that’ll be OK too."

RATING: 12+ 33 PAGES RELEASED MAR 23, 2021

WRITTEN BY:

Becky Cloonan, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Michael Conrad

PENCILS:

Michael Avon Oeming, Phil Hester

INKS:

Ande Parks, Michael Avon Oeming, Eric Gapstur

COVER BY:

Mikel Janin, Hi-Fi, Phil Hester, Eric Gapstur

What can the Church learn from Supergirl, Woman of Tomorrow?

 

Supergirl, Woman of Tomorrow starts out in a very un-Superman approved way. Kara has traveled to a planet where she is powerless so that she can celebrate her birthday by getting drunk. While this might seem very out of character for either the Silver Age Supergirl or even the modern version of Superman, it actually feels just about right for the current continuity.

While this version of Supergirl might feel less wholesome than her earliest adventures, this Kara retains the core of a caring hero who would willing live and die for innocents around her. To enhance the flavor of the story, Supergirl's horse, Comet, appears along with fan-favorite, Krypto the Superdog.

The story centers around a young girl, Ruthye, seeking revenge for her father's brutal and senseless murder. Each episode ends with a startling cliff-hanger that leaves the reader to wonder, how will this possibility get fixed? We are also introduced to a uniquely hate-able villain that Kara spends the entire adventure chasing. 

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Forget Darkside and Lex Luther, Krem of the Yellow Hills is the kind of villain you actually hopes dies a horrible death.

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The adventure finally closes with the assertion that violence will only result in more violence. If Ruthye kills her villain, his army will come looking for her and anyone she loves and torture them before subjecting them to violent deaths. But we can't just let Krem get away with it, so how can we properly punish such a person, keep him from committing more atrocities and not encourage his friends to continue this cycle of violence? Isn't this really the question peace-loving people are always faced with?

Jesus Christ was violently murdered leaving His disciples with a similar question. How do we enact vengeance, or even justice without feeding the cycle? The cycle of violence was typical for oppressed people, like those Jesus lived among. Someone plots and executes the murder of someone you love, you get even by killing that person, whose friends then find you and kill you, so that your friends are now expected to find and kill them...You get the picture, it's a never-ending cycle

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...Until Jesus.

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Jesus breaks the cycle by not staying dead. His disciples have no reason to hunt down Judas or the religious leaders who paid him. Jesus is different, He is outside of the cycle. Over time, the question comes up again, as Christ's followers are martyred, but instead of seeking revenge, the survivors remember that Jesus is outside the cycle. They refuse to fight back, and Christianity flourishes and takes over the Roman empire. (Matthew 5)

But this feels really unsatisfying for those who have suffered the loss. Besides, if we don't stop the bad man, won't he just hurt more people, and then it's on us. Right? 

Supergirl seems to teach us that we can beat up the bad person, imprison the bad person, but never kill the bad person. The final scenes of this adventure pull back the curtain and reveal that everything our heroes have experienced was a teaching moment. Ruthye learns from Supergirl that constantly seeking revenge or satisfying our need to posture only hurts us and Supergirl learns she really isn't immune to the bloodlust of revenge.

Like Supergirl, Christianity is at its best when helping the poor, the weak, the marginalized, and the oppressed. But Christians are not above the violent nature of our flesh and this world. It's natural to want to impose our values on everyone else - because it's for their own good, they'll thank us later. Giving in to that kind of thinking and behaving reduces the power of Christianity and undermines our faith and faith community.

I won't pretend to have solid, practical answers to the pacificist's dilemma, and I'll admit that I'm speaking from a place of insane privilege. I can't promise I would rise above those who would hurt me or my loved ones, but I do hope that I will at least pause and consider if my actions are retaliation meant to somehow soothe my hurt, or if my response is miraculously more like something Jesus would do

Maybe after so many years, even superheroes need a change?

 

Wonder Woman, a celebration of 75 years. provides the reader with a very brief but sweeping look at this unique character's personality, role, and appearance as it's been shaped over time. Each era adds, removes, or clarifies different aspects of her person and story.

Superman must decide if colors are good

 

Superman Red and Blue is a wonderfully fun compilation of stories spanning his different versions, eras, continuities, and genre. The gimmick is that all of the stories use only variations of blue and red, although most stories also allow black, and white (as in white space).

The book’s only all black and white (no red or blue) story, readers are given the reason for the color gimmick. 

In the story, “Human Colors” Superman discovers an entity from the fifth dimension has stolen color from our dimension. Not being truly good or evil, the entity returns the colors to Superman with a question - should you really release them back into your world? The entity advises Superman that while colors did seem to make the world more interesting, they also seemed to bring pain and suffering. 

“It’s possible you’ll think you were better off like this.” 

Colors obviously become a metaphor for various emotions, or at least the intensity of those emotions. Thus, we are left to wonder how important and how harmful are our emotions? Are the risks and realized harm of our deepest feelings worth the joy and goodness they bring?

To make the decision more difficult, no one remembers that colors existed. The story illustrates how difficult it is to describe or explain something that no one has experienced. Like Paul trying to describe Heaven, or like Jesus describing a world of love and sharing, Superman is unable to articulate a clear definition and explanation of what had gone missing.

Superman falls back on shared experience to explain our loss. Asking, “Do you remember we used to sit and watch the sunrise? Why did we bother? It’s only…That?” When remembering the sense of awe and wonder felt as watching a simple, everyday sunrise, and now feeling the loss of that wonder, we might also ask - what changed?

We might also ask ourselves what once brought us wonder and awe, but now seems insignificant? What was stolen from us? Can we, or should we pursue it? When did we see it last and could it still be there, waiting for us to care enough to retrieve it?

Spoiler alert!  After consulting with friends and family, Superman comes to a decision, he will let two colors out and back out into the world. He determined that he could let out two colors and see what kind of effect these colors had on the world. But which two colors to let loose?

Superman’s wife in the story, Lois Lane, relates that Superman chose red, the color of love, anger, fire, and bloodshed and the color blue, representing sadness, music, water and blood not shed. In the end, Superman chose to give us the colors of humanity - to first restore our humanity before considering anything else. Maybe because without humanity, we cannot enjoy the rest of the colors. Maybe being human is the key to accepting and embracing everything else.

Another spoiler alert.

The final pages of the book deviate from the red and blue theme dramatically but demonstrating what happens when we embrace all of the colors, or all of the people in our life. 

Reminding us of a recent storyline, Superman reveals his real identity to the world. Determining to build greater trust and transparency, Superman claims his Clark Kent identity. Yes, Baby-Boomers, I know this feels like a betrayal of the Superman you grew up with and love but give it a beat and the stories that follow will delight you and spoiler alert within a spoiler alert, the reveal is actually short-lived. Superman’s secret identity is once again a secret.

The point of this storyline’s inclusion is that Superman’s courage to own who he really is inspires a boy to come out to his family and let them know that he is gay. Sure, we’re not as important as Superman, but we can still inspire those around us when we live truthfully and embrace our most authentic selves. 

Maybe this was how some of Jesus’ followers felt when he asked them to do as He was doing (Matthew 20:25-28, John 13:13-16). Living the grace that God has provided to us through His Son seems like the best way to inspire others to live better and to become curious about the God we serve. 

May we all choose to embrace all of the colors, acknowledging the beauty and horror that is visible in all of us.

by John Ridley (Author), Brandon Easton (Author), Henry Clayton (Illustrator), Steven Lieber (Illustrator)