Universal Religion?

Reading through the news online over the past month, I’ve noticed one recurring story that stuck out from the rest. It wasn’t about politics, relationship scandals, murder, or anything else that would be generally newsworthy. It was about who was rumored to be auditioning for and who was eventually hired to play Captain America for Marvel’s upcoming superhero films.

Significant focus and discussion about Chris Evans, the actor hired, can be seen on blogs and news stories that deal from actor hired and range from everything from how his past roles and physical looks will affect the “Captain America” image. Then thought struck me: the only other time I can remember focus on a casting decision being this strong was when James Caviezel was cast as Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ.”

But in today’s world, superheroes are celebrated at Comic Con, adult and kids costumes, art, toys, kids and adult apparel, movies, etc. Why? A superhero is a type of stock character possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers.” Their purpose is to use their powers to keep peace and protect the people of earth from supervillians.

Isn’t that sort of what God is for us? Teach us moral values through stories, provide peace, and protect us from Satan?

It is easy to see how a monotheistic culture would identify with single superheroes characters like Superman because many times the stories mimic that of the Christ archetype: they manifest divine qualities display loving kindness and forgiveness, fight for justice, being guided by the spirit of the character's father or father figure, and are often martyrs, sacrificing themselves for the greater good.

On the other hand, polytheistic cultures can identify with the superhero groupings. In superhero groupings, even though each character have in their own comic books (Captain America, Thor, etc) they also join together in comic books series’, like the Avengers and X-Men, which shows how the superheroes use their powers to achieve a common goal. The dynamic of these groupings mimic ancient religions like Norse and Greek mythology, as well as modern day religions such as Hinduism. Some characters, like Thor, have even been based off of polytheistic gods.

The even cooler thing is that even with the Christ archetypes and polytheistic undertones, superheroes still appeal to atheists. The comics themselves never allude to a supreme god and superheroes never seek to be seen as gods. In fact, many of the superhero creation myths mimic that of the atheistic position of evolution. The Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles bathed in the toxic ooze thus mutating their DNA, a radioactive spider bit Spiderman, and the X-Men got theirs through a gradual and natural evolution.

So ponder this readers… Has society’s deification of superheroes, and superhero stories themselves, in essence created a universally unified religion?