Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Return Of The Son

Christianity Today: "According to Stephen Skelton, author of The Gospel According to the World's Greatest Superhero, the parallels between Superman and Jesus Christ are no accident, but rather, designed on purpose by the Superman TV show and movie storytellers."

Also got a thought-provoking article from Alpha

Quentin Tarantino nailed it in a monologue by Bill in Kill Bill, where he says an essential characteristic of superhero mythology is that there must be a superhero, and an alter ego: Bruce Wayne puts on a suit to become Batman and Peter Parker does the same to become Spider-Man. But Superman was born Superman - his alter ego is Clark Kent.

"His outfit with the big red S, that's the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears - the glasses, the business suit - that's the costume. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent? He's weak, he's unsure of himself … he's a coward. Clark Kent is Superman's critique on the whole human race."

Maybe this is what is most Christlike about him - not what it is to be heroic, but what it is to be human.


More Reflections on the movie:
Superman Or Perfect Man?
Jesus Christ Superman
What do Superman and Jesus have in common?
Christ Figure of American Pop Culture
Superman, Jesus Christ and Jim Caviezel

2 comments:

Leon Jackson said...

The story of superman is just not possible in any other culture than Christian saturated USA. And yet, he captures our imaginations the world over - the idea of a being so powerful, and yet benevolent, so much like us, and yet so different. Most of all superman really touches a raw nerve in the psyche of mankind that desires a saviour.

Yet in another sense, he is a reflection of how different our idea of a saviour is to God’s. Christ takes the way of the cross, winning over His enemies through self sacrifice, whiles superman uses sheer power to achieve his ends.

Leon Jackson said...

"Superman Returns" director Bryan Singer said the notion of Superman as a messianic figure is simply another case of contemporary storytelling borrowing from ancient motifs.

From CNN Article found here;
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/06/14/film.supermanchristfigure.ap/index.html