Oh...mine is good ol' Captain Marvel. That way you get all your gods in one. (Kind of.)
...and there's just something about lightning!
Shazam is pretty amazing in many respects - and on a side note, thanks for the pic as that's a pretty amazing one.
I always liked the fact that he had multiple super-powers going for him and all of them were based on mythology....
But (and I hope this doesn't hurt
) I always tended to find Superman to be more amazing
- especially when seeing the theistic background that Superman tends to represent. Fr. Niko said it best when saying that Superman is not just a science fiction character since his story is modern mythology...he is one of a long line of Messiah archetypes in fiction.
For a good review on the issue, one may wish to investigate the following:
For an excerpt:
He is a metaphor for Moses, the aspiration of two Jewish teenagers from Cleveland who created him, and the star of a multi-billion dollar movie franchise with six entries in the series, and a seventh, Superman vs. Batman, coming in 2016........
......Lets throw in a little theology and go back to the origins of the Superman character, back to a neighborhood in Cleveland in the early 1930s. In a predominantly Jewish section of the city lived two teenagers, Jerome Siegel and Joseph Shuster, one an aspiring science fiction writer and the other a starving young artist. One night in 1930, Jerrys father, Mitchell Siegel, was shot and killed in his secondhand clothing store by a burglar stealing cash out of the register. Out of the ashes of this tragedy, and compounded by the frustration of living in an immigrant ghetto during the Great Depression, emerges a new genre in American pop culture.
Brilliantly examined in Larry Tyes masterpiece Superman: The High-Flying History of Americas Most Enduring Hero, Jerry longed for an imaginary world in which his dad could have stood up to this burglar. He could have saved his family from hardships if only he were super-strong and (you got it)
bulletproof. Many other responses to problems of the Depression were incorporated in creating the character of Superman, such as a fierce longing for justice, and, unlike men who couldnt hold down or even find a job to support their family in the 1930s, the ultimate expression of masculinity. Jerry Siegel, of course, went on to create the character of Superman, after which Joe Shuster created the most famous costume in the world- big S shield, red cape, and all- in the hopes of being sold to a science fiction magazine to pay rent for a few months. They were later allowed thirteen pages in Action Comics #1 by National Publications (later DC Comics) in June 1938. The rest, as you know, is history. But lets not forget the first aspect of Jerry and Joes background I mentioned and the part which interests me the most- their Jewish faith. Supermans story begins, as it always does, on the planet Krypton. His name on Krypton is Kal-El. His fathers name is Jor-El. His uncles name is Zor-El. Names that end in El are all over the place in Siegels writing. They are also all over the place in the Old Testament.
How about Emmanuel, Daniel, Samuel, Azazel, Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and even Israel, among others. In Hebrew, any name that ends with El means ____ of God. Gabriel means messenger of God, Michael means Who is like God?, etc. Krypton was meant to be a heaven-like place. In Siegels mind, Earths greatest hero was always supposed to come from heaven, always sent from above, if you will.
This is why every faithful Superman adaptation always begins with a Krypton that is meant to, at least metaphorically, look like a heaven-like place. For Jerry Siegel, it was meant to be a harmonious civilization of technologically advanced, flying people.
.
Superman will always have a Messiah type-background that I never saw as strongly with Shazzam. And as a believer in CHrist, that is something that always stands out for me. Of course, I'm down with others who've often said that Christ Himself was the Original "
Superman"---and in ultimately, Christ will ALWAYS be more POWERFUL than Superman will ever be...the only one whom the entire universe looks to for a Savior/Redeemption.
Interestingly enough, within the comics, there've been ALOT of references in regards to Superman sharing thoughts in regards to Christ:
Concerning the above pictures,
as said best here by those examining the religion Clarke Kent follows:
Although he comes from a Protestant background, Superman is apparently flexible in his Christianity. In the story arc "Superman: For Tomorrow," which appeared Superman issues 209 through 215, Superman spends considerable time visiting a Catholic priest for confessional and later returning to further counsel with the clergyman. The image on the left above, depicting Superman standing before a statue of Jesus Christ on the cross in a Catholic church, is from Superman issue #209, published by DC Comics: New York (2004), page 13. The issue was written by Brian Azzarello, with pencils by Jim Lee and inks by Scott Williams. The image on the right, depicting Superman with the priest he has come to confide in, is from page 28 of the same issue. From: Action Comics #591, DC Comics: New York City (August 1987), written and illustrated by John Byrne, page 20; reprinted in Superman: The Man of Steel, Vol. 4 trade paperback, DC Comics: New York City (2005), page 133.
And of course, the writers were very direct at other times in showing Christ and SUperman connected..
That said, If interested, there's an excellent work on the issue that really stood out to me called
"Up Up and Oy Vey! How Jewish History Culture and Values Shaped The Comicbook Superhero" ...and there have been alot of people who've greatly enjoyed it. The organization of AISH.com did a good review on it
here..and other believers also shared some wonderful thoughts on the subject, as seen if going to the following:
As said there (for a brief excerpt):
Up, Up, and Oy Vey by Simcha Weinstein is both theological and fun, and how often does that happen?
You might not think a book about the Jewish cultural connection to the comic book world could be theological, but think again. Didnt you notice theological themes in Superman and Batman, for instance? Weinstein could possibly open your eyes to a depth you never expected to find in comic books.
The subtitle is How Jewish History, Culture, and Values Shaped the Comic Book Superhero. The opening paragraph is an ironic reflection on the Clark Kent existence of many Jews:For most of my life, I lived a Clark Kent existence: that of a Jew living in Machester, England, intent on blending into the modern, secular world. I kept my Hebrew name a closely guarded secret. My desire to assimilate required no less.
As Eastern European Jewish Immigrants poured into New Yorks Lower East Side in the 1900′s, they too viewed the stories of the Bible through the prism of their hard lives in a sometimes baffling new land and passed them on to their children. And those children in turn retold those Jewish tales using dots of colored ink on pulp paper, beginning in the 1930′s. (Actually, Superman was first drawn on cheap brown wrapping paper, but more on that later.) In those days the shadow of persecution was descending upon European Jews once more, and no one seemed willing to come to their rescue. The world needed heroes.
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, creators of Superman.
Bob Kane (born Kahn) and Bill Finger, creators of Batman.
Jerry Robinson, creator of the Joker.
Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber), creator of Spiderman, the Incredible Hulk, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men.
I particularly enjoyed a chart correlating comic books to Jewish values:Supermanintegrity.
Batman and the Spiritjustice.
Captain Americapatriotism.
Justice Leagueteamwork.
Fantastic Fourfamily values.
Hulkanger.
Spider-manresponsibility and redemption.
X-menanti-Semitism and reconciliation.
Brilliant material, IMHO--and definately makes see the virtue of comics in a different light when seeing the Jewish aspects to them
