Hero worship

Let's just examine ourselves this morning:

Who was your childhood hero? Teen idol? What attracted you: Strength? Beauty? Smarts? Coolness? Hero worship is an interesting thing to examine, and I believe it tells us quite a bit about our personality, about our inner desires even.

I'm going to try to make an illustration from two sets of "heroes" this morning, Marvel Comics heroes and DC Comic heroes.

Earlier this year, we had Marvel's The Avengers, which became the third-higest money making movie in history. This week, we have DC's The Dark Knight Rises, which features the Dark Knight himself, Batman. These characters live in distinctly different worlds.

For the uninitiated, Marvel and DC are the two largest publishers of comics over the last 70 years. DC was the first major publisher, but it was originally known as National Allied Publications in 1935. Their greatest acclaim comes from inventing the modern version of the superhero with Superman, who was followed quickly by Batman. Other notable characters include the Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and The Flash. For the purposes of this article, Vertigo comics, an imprint of DC comics, will be left out because they are not part of the DC universe.

Marvel comics have existed in one form or another since 1939, but Marvel was not a major player until 1961. That year, the legendary Stan Lee and Jack Kirby wrote the Fantastic Four. Soon after, Lee, Kirby and Steve Ditko became the veritable golden geese, creating Spiderman, Daredevil, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, the X-Men and the practice of yelling “Excelsior.”

Marvel’s characters undeniably beat DC in terms of quantity in high-end characters. You can count the number of DC A-list heroes on one hand before you start scrapping the bottom of the barrel for mistakes like Aquaman and the Wonder Twins. Marvel, on the other hand, seems to have an endless parade of fan favorites, each with their own unique qualities and interesting quirks that make them relatable to us all. Peter Parker struggles to pay the bills, the Hulk has anger issues and the X-Men are discriminated against every day.
DC and Marvel tie in terms of comic quality.

 DC has some of the most revolutionary and classic comic books in history, including “Batman: The Killing Joke,” which involves the Joker paralyzing Batgirl, and the “Dark Knight Returns,” in which an aging Bruce Wayne returns to his role as Batman. These stories were a lot more intense than other comics, and signified a step toward a darker, more serious tone in comic books than the happy-go-lucky plots of the past. Marvel currently pushes the boundaries of modern comics with events like Civil War, which consisted of the United States government instating a superhuman registration act, a modern spin on a post-Sept. 11 society, and critically-acclaimed titles like “Runaways” and “Astonishing X-Men.”

After two losses, how will our Marvel heroes survive this caped encounter? Licensed content comes to its rescue. Marvel’s movies have hands-down crushed DC in quality and performance. “The Dark Knight” stands as one of the best movies ever made of any genre, but not even that masterpiece can make amends for “Superman Returns” and a complete absence of a Wonder Woman, Green Lantern or recent Flash movie.

Meanwhile, Marvel has more than enough box-office clout. “Iron Man” was one of the biggest and best movies of the year it came out. The Spiderman series was a record-setting blockbuster monster, and the re-boot has done reasonable well. Thor and Captain America starred in their own hits. The Hulk struggled in its own movies, but was the star of The Avengers.

Comparing the two companies heroes is interesting to me. Marvel's heroes live in real cities and fight real problems. DC's heroes live in fictional cities and never seem to have a problem at all other than the current fight they're in. For all the realism of the Dark Knight, he still lives in Gotham City in a world that simply doesn't exist.

It's interesting to me that the battles featuring The Avengers were almost exclusively filmed in daylight. The battles featuring the Dark Knight are filmed in, well, darkness.

Marvel's characters are funny. Batman is a lot of things, but funny isn't one of them.

So, what' the point of all this? I think it says a lot about us as to who our heroes are. I also think Psalm 136 is a look into hero worship that points us to the proper place ... into the light instead of the darkness.


"Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good," the Psalmist wrote.
The response is "His love endures forever."
"Give thanks to the God of gods."
"His love endures forever."
"to him who alone does great wonders,"
"His love endures forever."
My hero? God himself.