Him coming down from the Cross to lay waste to the enemies humanly speaking , which He does in that comic, is failing the test in the wilderness, which was to make an earthly Messiah hat comic shows Him as one. a Messiah who kicks butt, which is Antichrist.
To assume the Lord restraining or blasting an enemy is a matter of humanly speaking is like assuming that Christ crushing the enemy under His feet (as well as death) is not a literal event - or that all enemies of Christ won't physically acknowledge Him, (every knee will bow and tongue confess Christ is Lord in Philippians, etc.)
The comic was pertaining to His victory at the Cross - something the Messiah was promised to bring in regards to the Kingdom of God/Heavenly realm winning. Christ in His death was not extinguished of Life - He commended Himself to the Father and, after giving His Spirit to the Father (Luke 23:46-50), was victorious over a defeated/humiliated prince of darkness and all other principalities who God defeated as well. Christ died - and in His death, when He faced Hades/the Grave and the Enemy, he was victorious in all He faced. The comic wasn't about him coming off the Cross and refusing to die - but on Him making a spectacle of His enemies as St. Paul already noted. As said before, St. Paul speaks of this destroyed work in cosmic terms:
"And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he [Jesus] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross" (Colossians 2:15) - Sin, death, and the devil (along with the demons) were defeated when Jesus died on the Cross and that is never a small thing - and for that, I appreciated the concept the artists did when noting that Christ cannot be conquered nor the Divine ever erased.
IMHO, it doesn't do anything saying a comic shows someone as an "earthly Messiah" for defeating the Devil in His death/subduing his enemies spiritually as scripture already noted ....nor is Christ ruling the entire universe/defeating the Kingdom of Darkness seperate from the enemy being soundly beaten (Ephesians 2:1-10, I Peter 2:9-10, etc.). For as Christ was already described in the Early Church and by the Apostles, he rules/reigns.
And last I checked - per Revelation 19:11-21 or Revelation 20 (where it says "With justice he judges and makes war..."and him ruling over his enemies plainly while sharply seizing the Devil/rebuking and restraining forcibly) - the Lord being physical didn't equate to Him NOT being the Messiah.
As it is, the test in the wilderness had nothing to do with the Lord conquering the Devil (which He DID) and the powers of Darkness by His death/resurrection - something the Messiah was always destined to do when it comes to him restraining the power of the enemy and taking away the very power of death that the Devil had...and humiliating Him. An earthly Messiah (as the enemy sought to tempt him to become in the wilderness) was based on him seeking to glorify Himself ABOVE what the Father wanted - and to rule in THIS life rather than await the kingdom/dominion the Father would give him when he submitted Himself to the Lord's Will and was exalted above all ...brought back to his position He already had before coming to Earth.
Again, the concept of His disarming and humiliating the powers/principalities by the Cross was focused on the concept of what the Messiah would be - something St. Paul well understood
alongside others in the Jewish world when it came to the Messiah conquering His enemies....and when Christ returns, Christ will physically conquer His enemies again as it pertains to those in this life - but the enemy has been defeated. This is why Christ is the head over EVERY power and authority (Colossians 2:9-15). Several suggestions have been made on who the powers/authorities are that Paul speaks of, including (1) demonic powers, (2) the gods of the powerful nations, (3) angels (highly regarded by the heretical teachers of St. Paul's day), or (the government of Rome). The demomic powers is a view strongly held by much of the Early Church - so it's not an issue to me when seeing Christ defeat them in the Spiritual realm..
And as St. Paul noted, "Then the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.....For He must reign until he has put ALL His enemies under His feet - the last enemy to be destroyed...for He has put everything under His feet." (I Corinthians 15:24-29).
As noted before (
when it came to the concept of militancy and the Messiah), I always find it interesting whenever the example of Christ is solely placed within the confines of dying for others even though how he returns is anything but non-violent.
The events of the Second Coming of Christ are found in the Bible, including the Book of Revelationwhich is the last book in the New Testament. Jesus will judge and wage war (Rev. 19:11), his robe will be dipped in blood (19:13), and he will be accompanied by armies (19:14) with which he will strike down the nations (19:15), including the Gentiles in general and the nations that were opposed to him in specific. This will result in the utter destruction of all his enemies. Furthermore: in his second coming[,] he will complete their destruction, when he shall put down all opposing rule, principality, and power. Once he conquers the infidels, Jesus will rule them with an iron rod (Revelation 19:15)..
At that time Jesus will will release the fierce wrath of God (Rev 19:15) on them, and he shall execute the severest judgment on the opposers of his truth. Consequently, every tribe on earth will mourn because of him (Rev. 1:7), and they will express the inward terror and horror of their minds, at his appearing; they will fear his resentment. ....just as the people of Canaan were terrified by the Israelite army of the Lord. And again, as St. Paul noted:
1 Corinthians 15:24 [Jesus] will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power.
I Corinthians 15:25 For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet.
In His First coming He did the things mentioned in Isaiah 61:1-2 - but in His Second Coming He will do the things in verses 2-3. For when He returns He will bring judgment on unbelievers. This will be the day of Gods vengeance.
To say the Messiah "kicked butt" at the Cross would be an understatement - His Death literally reshaped the whole of all reality and that's not a small issue...
But all of that comes directly back to why the Incarnation is so important to begin with when seeing how His coming into the world was monumental - as another Christian comic (from a Catholic perspective) well illustrated when it came to showing how superior Christ is because of His living as the Messiah was meant: