Here, God exists in Four Colors and Two Dimensions.

March 7, 2006 1:25 PM

Jimmy Olsen is a Lutheran. Really. And Clark Kent? Methodist, it seems. Daredevil, Gambit, Huntress and The Punisher? Catholics, all of them, though I have to wonder when Frank Castle last went to Confession. With about half of DC Comic's line-up heading to church in the latest issue of Infinite Crisis and knowing that Civil War is imminent in the House of Marvel, what better time than now to contemplate the particular faiths of our two-dimensional heroes.
posted by grabbingsand (44 comments total)

The Society of Sikh Supporting Characters gave me a chuckle.
posted by GuyZero at 1:31 PM on March 7, 2006

Marvel pulls this crap every couple of years. Get's old, IMO.
posted by delmoi at 1:36 PM on March 7, 2006

Frank Castle knows he's going to hell, he's just taking everyone else with him.
posted by Artw at 1:42 PM on March 7, 2006

No Jews? There's gotta be at least a couple of Jewish superheros.
posted by mr_roboto at 1:44 PM on March 7, 2006

Several Jewish heroes. Too many for a Photoshop treatment on the groups page, perhaps.
posted by grabbingsand at 1:45 PM on March 7, 2006

Marvel pulls this crap every couple of years. Get's old, IMO.

I'm not disagreeing ... but what crap? Big crossovers that are usually much ado about nothing? Yeah, but that's been par for the course for comic companies for decades. What's special about when Marvel does it?

Oh, and Batman? Atheist, gotta be.
posted by Amanojaku at 1:49 PM on March 7, 2006

Hmmm. They did a selected few for "Catholic"... Maybe the Jewish hero montage is in progress.
posted by mr_roboto at 1:50 PM on March 7, 2006

Several Jewish heroes. Too many for a Photoshop treatment on the groups page, perhaps.

What the ...? No Moonknight? C'mon -- the guy's dad was a rabbi.
posted by Amanojaku at 1:53 PM on March 7, 2006

Superman was *raised* Methodist, but he was born Jewish. Yes, on Krypton. What?
posted by kyrademon at 1:56 PM on March 7, 2006

If I had to go through the House of M storyline, I'd go to church too.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 1:57 PM on March 7, 2006

One important faith they forgot is the Smashatarians. Members include The Hulk, The Thing (though he is a product of the Clobberite Reformation of 1846), and Juggernaut. Onslaught attempted to convert, but was defeated before he could complete the final Act of Faith*. Strangely enough, Dazzler is also a Smashatarian, but she was born into it and is, at best, considered lapsed.

*Act VII: Throw a car and hit a helicopter in midair.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 2:04 PM on March 7, 2006

at least this storyline acknowledges (in some respect) the state of the country at the moment, without resorting to miller's propagandist garbage.
posted by shmegegge at 2:05 PM on March 7, 2006

So....how would you circumcise an invulnerable guy anyway?

heh heh, I like the Hulk. Not atheist, not nuthin’
Silver Surfer - zenn-la religion?
Ok, I buy some of the off planet concessions, but what the hell is “occult?”
And for thanos - nihilism is a religion?

Thor, yeah.
But I wonder what Galactus would be? He’s certainly “God” class, but he’s pretty secular.
posted by Smedleyman at 2:11 PM on March 7, 2006

posted by PurplePorpoise at 2:12 PM on March 7, 2006

Smedleyman writes "So....how would you circumcise an invulnerable guy anyway?"

The bris would have been on Krypton. Duh.
posted by mr_roboto at 2:19 PM on March 7, 2006

that thor comic is fucking awesome.
posted by shmegegge at 2:19 PM on March 7, 2006

There are indeed Jewish superheroes.
posted by ND¢ at 2:23 PM on March 7, 2006

J. Jonah Jameson
Religious Affiliation: hates Spider-Man

Heh.
posted by Simon! at 2:26 PM on March 7, 2006

Alternately, the izmel could have been made of kryptonite. Haven't we had this discussion before?
posted by kyrademon at 2:33 PM on March 7, 2006

Dan Dare is surely Anglican.
posted by alasdair at 2:35 PM on March 7, 2006

Well, if Superman shaves via his own heatvision, then he had perhaps the worst barmitzvah ever.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 2:35 PM on March 7, 2006

And Amanojaku, Moon Knight was on the page, listed as Egyptian classical religion; Jewish.
posted by kyrademon at 2:37 PM on March 7, 2006

“The bris would have been on Krypton. Duh.”

Nah, eight days man. He was here.

Ok, kryptonite - so, the mohel was who?

Hmmm...Captain Marvel is Jewish. Or is supposed to be. He could have done it.

I actually thought most of the superheroes were Jewish since their last names often end in “man” and they seem to eat a lot of Chinese food. But maybe that’s because they’re so often urbanites.

I’m curious about the ethnicity of superheros. Batman is French/English right?
What kind of name “Strange”?
posted by Smedleyman at 2:46 PM on March 7, 2006

Smedleyman writes "Nah, eight days man. He was here."

Is that canonical? In some versions at least, Kal-El is two or three years old when he leaves Krypton...
posted by mr_roboto at 3:00 PM on March 7, 2006

'... Jewish since their last names often end in “man” ...'


"Ach, the Spidermans are coming over for dinner tonight! Hide the Raid, so they shouldn't take offense!"
posted by kyrademon at 3:10 PM on March 7, 2006

The new version of Mr. Terrific is, however, atheist. Despite having come into contact several times with both The Spectre and Zauriel.
posted by WolfDaddy at 3:15 PM on March 7, 2006

Superman is definately Jewish. He sets my judar a-beeping.

I also suspect Spiderman and Plastic Man.

But Batman? So goyish!
posted by Astro Zombie at 3:34 PM on March 7, 2006

little known fact: 85% of all comic book personalities worship cthulhu. believe it or not.
posted by 29 at 4:03 PM on March 7, 2006

I'm fascinated by the list of religions of superheroes. And I have a hard time believing that The Beast is an episcopalian because he runs around shirtless so much even when there isn't any water.
posted by Mayor Curley at 4:07 PM on March 7, 2006

“Is that canonical? In some versions at least, Kal-El is two or three years old when he leaves Krypton”

Dunno about the cannon - according to some sources he was technically born here because the space ship was in fact a kryptonian birthing matrix.
(Yeah, whole lotta nothing to do between jumps and I don’t smoke...)
One guy worshipped Superman, which it seems to me there would be a lot of.
(whats-his-name, the guy with the horns and the staff? Magog?)


“...85% of all comic book personalities worship cthulhu. believe it or not.”

Katzenjammers. Krazy Kat ... Ignatz. Family Circus. Yeah man. I believe it. Is anyone seriously going to argue Riverdale wasn’t infested with Mi-Go?

Ra's al Ghul isn’t muslim?
The Silver Samurai is listed as “bushido” uh...someones gotta pick up a book over there.

Harley Quinn is Jewish? New Yorker, yeah, but WTF?

I’m not seeing any Astro City. Probably the best take on religious superheros I’ve seen.
posted by Smedleyman at 4:51 PM on March 7, 2006

Siegel and Schuster are on record as saying that Superman is Jewish. Of course, they don't own the character now; DC does.
posted by Clay201 at 5:01 PM on March 7, 2006

Astro City is there. The Crossbreeds are all listed as "Protestant Evangelical Christian".
posted by kyrademon at 5:02 PM on March 7, 2006

I'd agree that Superman was indeed a jewish superhero.
I've posted these links before. I'm just gonna come up with five comments for recycled posting on the blue ad infinitum.

But yeah, the whole "send your kid off in a little vessel to be raised within another group, and later on he'll fulfill his destiny to be awesome as is his birthright" plotline is present in not too many storylines. So yeah, Superman's totally a jewy mcjewerstein.
posted by neda at 5:21 PM on March 7, 2006

The Escapist must be Jewish.
posted by Soulfather at 5:34 PM on March 7, 2006

The Jewcano...
posted by SweetJesus at 5:39 PM on March 7, 2006

Well of COURSE fucking Daredevil is Catholic.
posted by drinkcoffee at 5:46 PM on March 7, 2006

Galactus? Unitarian.
posted by klangklangston at 5:57 PM on March 7, 2006

Booster Gold's an atheist!

What do you mean, "you don't care"?


Harley Quinn is Jewish? New Yorker, yeah, but WTF?

I know that it's canon in the Batman Advertures comic, and I assume by extension, the tooniverse as a whole. As is Harley and Poison Ivy's lesbiantastic relationship.
posted by kosher_jenny at 6:54 PM on March 7, 2006

Silver Surfer? Some sort of hippie, LSD-based religion. Arguably, had he been born on earth, he would have been Tex Watson.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:04 PM on March 7, 2006

Damn it. Tex Watson.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:04 PM on March 7, 2006

WolfDaddy, you just cribbed that out of Infinite Crisis #5!

And I just discovered my superpower is to make myself very, very, very sad.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:47 PM on March 7, 2006

As a Jew, I don't want to claim superman. He's a dick.
posted by piratebowling at 3:42 AM on March 8, 2006

No. You know who was a dick?

Superhitler.
posted by Astro Zombie at 6:17 AM on March 8, 2006

From grabbingsand's link.

Death - Pandenominational/Mormom
God - God

Heh.
posted by Durhey at 2:58 PM on March 9, 2006