Review: Our Gods Wear Spandex, Christopher Knowles

[jeriendhal]

Our Gods Wear Spandex has the goal of supposedly showing the deep cultural connections between ancient and modern esoteric religions and today's comic book heroes. It's an intriguing idea, and does bear some merit. Are the fantastic adventures of Hercules and Jason in ancient myth so different from Superman's or Batman's tales?

Unfortunately Knowles really overreaches with his premise. While some of his connections are interesting (like classifying dangerously independent heroes outside society's control (ie: Batman) as Golems, in homage to the old Jewish myth of the Golem of Prague, a needed but uncontrollable protector), too many of them are facile and obvious.

There's a good examination of how ancient myth and mysticism intertwine with modern comic (Alan Moore and his obsessions being merely one of them) out there to be written, but this isn't it.

Comments

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

So, just to spin an amusingly weird conclusion out of that, the world outside of the USA is practically godless? XD

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Well it was a pretty USAian-centric book, with some asides devoted to Alistair Crowley and Nietzsche, and Neil Gaiman's work on Marvel/Miracle Man. The European continent has a wider range of comic book archetypes to choose from, lucky you.

[ankewehner.livejournal.com]

Not that Germany has a comic industry to brag with.

[lovelyzelda.livejournal.com]

Isn't Superman typically the Golem analogue? I've seen much more interesting bat-thoughts in other books (Batman as the bridge between older heroic characters like d'Artagnan and Zorro and the modern science fiction/superhero character; Batman as a good/helpful vampire type), but I think most of those were essays in Batman specific books.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

"At his core, Superman is a Messiah in the Biblical tradition, who can also be seen as a metaphor for American Jewish assimilation."
-p 122

Actually one of the more insightful bits.