Beer and Comics » Watchmen

Superheroes and Religion

Ian! — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:05:44 +0000

So I read this article on Batman’s religion a while ago, but somehow missed the larger context: this damn-near comprehensive list of comic book characters and their respective religious affiliations.

As someone raised pretty religious (Catholic, for the record), I find it interesting to see the level of detail that different characters religious backgrounds play into who they are. It also raises a few questions. Is this written explicitly in the characters? Definitely in some cases. X-Man Nightcrawler, a devout Catholic, comes to mind. Iron Fist is Buddhist.

But in as many cases, it seems to be more inferred by the contexts that various writers and artists have put them in. The way events which have a religious component are represented reflect how the creative team pictures those events more than the characters themselves. Weddings come to mind, but more often in superhero comics – funerals.

What language is used in services, what religious passages are read, and what garb is worn tells you a lot if you care to pay attention. Edward Blake, the Comedian from Watchmen, receives a burial service that includes a prayer that is used in many services. Among them a number of fairly non-denominational Christian services used by various militaries around the world (including the United States and Australia), but more interestingly (I think) Anglican services.

The fact that Alan Moore (the writer of Watchmen, in case you’re one of the 12 people who haven’t read it) is English means he probably has some background experience with the Anglican Church – despite his own self-proclaimed status as a magician, and his “complete hoax” set of religious beliefs.

To me, the religion of a superhero says more about the writers than the character. Hell, even Seigel and Shuster (both Jewish) creating Superman (who is widely regarded as being Christian) tells you a lot. To me it just reinforces the themes of being an immigrant and trying to fit it in America – something that has been a parallel of Superman and the American Jewish Immigrant experience since his rise in popularity in post-war America.

No point in all of this, just my thoughts on the links I’m sharing.

(and thanks to tumblr user nerviosismo for the above image)

6 Minutes to Midnight.

Ian! — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:02:30 +0000

This is awesome.

Go through it, pass the Rorschach test, and get some exclusive content. They’ve succeeded in getting me MORE pumped for Friday.

Alan Moore reads Rorschach’s Journal

Ian! — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:03:02 +0000

So I saw this once, a LONG time ago, but forgot about it. Then Wil Wheaton (yeah yeah, I know, I’m posting like a madman about Wheaton) linked it (again, in April, and yes, its been sitting open in a tab since then), and I saw it again. Its really good. If you’ve never heard Moore talk, its fucking creepy.

Alan Moore reads Rorschach’s Journal (YouTube)

More Watchmen news

Ian! — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:46:21 +0000

So I’ve been keeping an eye on the Watchmen blog, and there were recently two cool pieces of news.

First is the first video journal from the production. Its cool to see more of the set in film, as opposed to just stills. And yeah, it looks just as good.

It seriously makes me feel really good about this movie. I’ve been pretty optimistic about the whole thing from the get-go, which I know everyone hasn’t.

I mean, Zack Snyder did a good job with 300. I don’t expect films to be 100% true to the original source material, so its nice to see someone handle the spirit of it accurately.

I do like that he’s not doing as much green-screen as he did on 300. Real sets are nice to see.

Its also pretty sweet that they’re allowing fans to create Veidt-themed ads to run on TV screens throughout the movie. That’s kind of neat.

Watchmen Action Figures!

Dave — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:10:30 +0000

It’s no secret to those who know me that I’m a sucker for action figures. I’ve got a whole mess of old Star Wars figs, several of the cooler Unleashed figures, both Army of Darkness figures, a Captain Lou Albano and even an original NIB Maxx Figure. My reaction to these pics of the new DC Direct Watchmen figures was predictably, “HOLY SHIT!” I will be getting all of these, and at $15 a pop that’s not too bad. I just hope they release a scale Archie to go with them.

Superman Sucks.

Ian! — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:41:57 +0000

I make no secret that I’m not the biggest fan of Superman. I’m a Batman guy, and probably always will be.

Bam! Kapow! ran this piece recently – Why Superman Will Always Suck. (Thanks to Ish for the link)

That said, I don’t ALWAYS hate him. As this article points out, Superman fits best in stories when Batman is kicking the crap out of him.

Basically, Bam! Kapow! makes the following points:

Indestructibility is boring.
Moral absolutism is only cool when Rorschach does it (and then only because he’s kind of insane)
Superman can’t really claim right-wing American values when he’s from another planet. (I would debate this, as he’s a classic immigrant, but whatever)
Powers given < powers earned
Batman > Superman (See!)
And “To fix these problems is to turn him into another superhero altogether”

Its pretty well presented, and seriously, who really likes Superman?

Watchpeanuts

Ian! — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:09:51 +0000

So this has already been everywhere on the internet, but I love it enough to include it here too.

Its kind of uncanny how well Schultz’s characters fit into these rolls.

I meant to post it a while back, but I’ve been super-busy (same reason I haven’t posted a follow-up to my post about David Peteresen’s appearance here in Lansing. In short? He’s really nice and he signed my Lieam figurine).

Anyhow, I feel bad being the last person in the world to blog about this, especially when like, 300 people have showed it to me, knowing I was a Watchmen fan.

Watchmen set photos and Video Journal 1 of 12

Ish — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:32:51 +0000

While parts of 300 annoyed me (even if I understand why they needed to be there), something I really enjoyed during the run up to actually watching it were the video journals that Zack Snyder posted about the production of the movie. More than all the marketing hype that surrounded it, what I really liked was how geeked out he was about actually being at the helm of such a sweet project. With that in mind, I’m almost even more excited about Watchmen now that he’s posted the first of twelve video journals about the production of the movie online. I’m really impressed by the level of set building that I’m seeing in this video. As much as green screen offers filmmakers, there are very few areas where it offers more visually than physical sets in my mind. Sky Captain is already looking dated, while Blade Runner looks as stunning as ever, especially in the new Blu-ray special edition. So, they’ve got started on the right foot in my mind. Now they just need to convince me that everyone that they’ve cast is age appropriate. They have 11 more journals to do that in, and I’ll be more than happy to accommodate the exclusion of Tales of the Black Freighter from the final movie (just film it and include it in the video release for fans to enjoy in a marathon 5 hour sitting. LotR has proved that we’re willing to do that).

This is accompanied by a series of set photographs with comparisons to the book posted on Slashfilm.

Video Journals will be released on the 6th of each month following today.

[Via ComingSoon.net & Slashfilm.com]

Watchmen Movie Pic

Brian — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 20:02:26 +0000

Seriously. Holy Crap. If this is any indication of the quality of the movie… this is going to be amazing!

-brian