Although recently more in decline, DC and Marvel movies have greatly contributed to Hollywood's grand box office success on a global scale over several decades.
"Heroes loom large as exemplars of morality. They often embody virtues that we wish to express in our lives,” according to a study highlighted on the Virginia Commonwealth University website*1.
This would be the more obvious explanation for why we - even a large Christian audience - are drawn to watch these movies, as we associate so much with these characters and the stories that comprise them.
The way I see it, there is a two-dimensional aspect to this. First off:
character identification
As highlighted in the quote, superhero movies in particular point to the need for restoration in the face of the absence of virtues and the human yearning for ethical conduct. Hence, there is a need for a personified entity that does away with the lack and constrictions palpable in our everyday world. Someone who is able to turn the bad into good. Yes! Eventually a happy ending, right?
At the beginning of a Christian's journey he/she had held on to the certainty, that they could trust in a God that is good - nothing less.
However, as we have learned from experience, the word 'good' comes in all shapes and sizes, and as part of the Christian theological discourse often times in a way that we gradually start to perceive it as something we have to protect ourselves from, rather than something we are eager to pursue deeply, because we were, or are being told that the superhero actually started setting some limits of when, to what extent, and to whom he will, in fact, execute his heroic powers upon. As a result (and as aforementioned in one of my first blogs), the word 'good' in itself becomes perverted, which synonymously means 'to bend', 'to twist', or 'to distort'. In such a case, John 10:10 suddenly echoes from the walls of our minds, as we - in a blink of an eye - start to understand that maybe it is 'words in counterfeit packaging', as I like to describe it, that might errupt the walls of protection that have gradually formed around our hearts.
Another classic example for this would be the story of Jesus' testing in the wilderness. Briefly before we get to the part where Jesus is being "tempted" by Satan, we learn that God publicly honors Jesus by saying:
"ZEH BNI AHUVI ASHER BO CHAFATZTI"*2
("This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased").
Then, as we move on to the verses where Satan confronts Jesus, we read him saying:
"If you are the Ben HaElohim"*,......
And if the dots haven't connected by now, let's think back to the very beginning of the story of mankind when Satan, disguised in form of a snake (please note: the snake was more cunning, and crafty), tricks Eve:
"Really? Hath Elohim said, Ye shall not eat of kol etz hagan?"*3
(“Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” [Keep in mind the original words spoken by God: "And Hashem Elohim commanded the adam, saying, Of every etz of the gan thou mayest freely eat"])
I think by now you get the idea of where I am headed with this, right?
If you want to make sure that people pull away from believing in their God-given identity as Sons (and everything that comes with the territory, i.e. the inheritance of being a son of the Almighty One), you obviously have to sow mistrust. Once you have accomplished that, it will create uncertainty on the receiver's end, followed by the believer's retreat from spending time with their creator and father because they were led to believe that the person they are dependent on and whom they gave their life to, is actually depriving them of any kind of joy, abundance, and most significantly trust!
Mission accomplished - exactly...in a twisted (and perverted) way...the hero beomes the villain and vice versa.
The tables have turned - so to speak.
But only for a short amount of time...stay tuned, as I will guide you to the happy ending.
And yes, believe it or not, there is a happy ending to this - not just in the movies!
*1 (https://news.vcu.edu/article/Images_of_superheroes_make_us_want_to_help_others_study_finds)
*2 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Bereshis%203&version=NKJV)
*3 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%203&version=OJB)
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