Jesus in a Comic Book??

I got an email from the friend I co-conspire with on the Witchfire stories.  Apparently DC Comics had a plan to start a new comic book called “Second Coming”.  The premise was that Jesus returned to Earth and shares an apartment with a superhero.  DC cancelled the project after some major blow back.  The writer, Mark Russell, says he’s got another company lined up to do the project though.  part of the premise also apparently is that Jesus is keeping a low profile and won’t use his spiritual powers because people got too hung up on the loaves and fishes thing and ignore the message he had the first time around.

OK, I’m hardly the perfect Christian.  FAR from it to be honest, but I have major issues with this.  Many of them based on what comics have become the last decade.  Here is the email reply I sent to “Deanna Troi”:

 

I could definitely see where the concept could be interesting, if done right.  Overall, I’d have to lean towards the “don’t do it” side on this one however.  This based on your report that he really is the second coming.

First, DC is messing with peoples’ religion.  There’s a very specific set of prophecies around the second coming, and I really doubt DC or this other company would give them the consideration they’re due, until they need a big epic event to boost sales and then suddenly the superhero He’s rooming with is fighting the apocalypse in Jesus’s place.  Oh and it’ll get repeated as often as Ragnarok does in Thor comics despite each one being the “final” one.  I think peoples’ religious beliefs deserve a little more respect than all of that.

Granted, we could get into a separate conversation about characters like Thor and if they’re respectful of Wiccan and pagan beliefs, but up till about the time Jane Foster became Thor, I think Marvel mostly did a reasonable job there.  WAY off the rails after that, except for the movies, but that’s another conversation.

Getting back on topic, there’s the whole way that comics distort everything also.  Jesus only has “super powers” in the very broadest definition, being the literal son of God.  “He doesn’t want to use them as he figures that’s where things went wrong the first time”, is a textbook example.  Again, that’s assuming you relayed what was said 100% accurate.  First, it implies Jesus was running around making mistakes.  If so, he wasn’t perfect and His sacrifice for our sins would be meaningless and ineffective.  He did what was necessary to demonstrate faith in God and prepare Himself for the cross.

Now, Mark Russell had a partial point there though.  In my opinion, people are WAY too wrapped up in the victim game nowadays and delight in blaming God for not making their life a cakewalk.  Reality is, 90% of the suffering in the world is man’s inhumanity to man.  We’re here to be tested and grow as beings.  It’s ironic, really.  The rebellion in Heaven lead by Lucifer was supposedly over whether or not people would be puppets down here, OR be allowed to have free will and make their own mistakes and thus grow more.  Putting it in more “worldly” terms, look at the way helicopter kids turn out vs kids that are raised to be responsible and self-reliant.

As far as not listening to His words, that’s a LONG talk I’ll spare you, LOL.  Suffice it to say that the vast majority of folks are guilty of picking and choosing what they take from the Bible and Jesus’s teachings, and putting their own sometimes twisted spin on it all as well.  “Judge not” being the most famous example with many folks.  The proper interpretation is “Judge not unrighteous judgments lest you be judged”.  Point being, it’s perfectly right to say some things (rape, child abuse, murder, etc…) are wrong.

Remember some of the conversations we’ve had in the recent past about how far off the rails comics have gotten the last decade also.  The Muslim Green Lantern being the perfect example.  He was a terrorist before he got a power ring.  He never took responsibility for his actions though, and claimed it wasn’t his fault because he was just the driver and didn’t know the whole plan.  THEN he doubled down on it by being mad at the government for treating him like a criminal WHEN HE WAS!  Instead, in an effort to show how enlightened they are DC Comics played up the whole persecuted Muslim angle.  OH, and then they have him carry a gun on top of his power ring “just in case”.  He has no faith in the ring or himself, which makes for a crappy lantern, and DC actually made him look like the stereotypical evil violent Muslim by having to carry a gun also.  The entire story could have played out COMPLETELY different and helped the cause of decent Muslims by having him an innocent bystander who helped victims and having that courage earn him a power ring.

THESE are the same people that wanted to portray Jesus walking the Earth again.  Yeah, I’d be wary also, and am.

Personally, IF I were going to tackle the topic, I would have left it VERY much up in the air if the guy really was Jesus.  Make the audience wonder and make up their own minds.   He talks the talk, can do miracles, maybe keeps a low profile, won’t outright say he’s Jesus, but makes remarks that imply he might be, etc…