DC, Marvel & The Soteriology Of Comics

It is clear that there is a difference between the way Marvel and DC approach it's heroes and the idea of "saving". There is, interestingly, an underlying soteriology operating behind both "worlds". In the Marvel universe, salvation is something that ultimately comes from within the human condition. More specifically, it is the extraordinary individuals among us who can and will save us from the forces that threaten us. Spider-Man, Captain America, The Fantastic Four, these are extraordinary individuals who through luck and personal genius attain the positions that allow them to use their "extraordinariness" to help and even save the world.

Marvel is secular or at the very least humanist. Even those characters who do descend "from on high" like Thor or Silver Surfer come to Earth and dwell among humanity for their own self-help. Humanity offers help to its "gods", the divine is not the source of our salvation.

In DC, most of the characters, certainly the biggest, come from a transcendent (in multiple senses of that word) worlds to come to earth to offer the help we need. Wonder Woman and the Green Lanterns are sent on missions to humanity. Superman is sent in hope for all he can do for us. Even Batman in some sense descends from a world of wealth to save the helpless. Underlying DC's world is the idea that we need salvation from "on high"... we cannot find the salvation we need from within.

Common people are not looked down upon. No one is inherently "special" but neither is any person inherently better than anyone else. Superman on several occasions derides a villain who sets himself as somehow "better" than the common man. There is no marvelesque Nietszchean twist.

It is interesting that the older I get, the more I am attracted to DC over Marvel. I still love much of the Marvelverse, but DC is the center of my interest. When I was young, I saw myself as special and amazing, and fantasized about being Spider-Man or Iron Man. After all the mistakes I've made, knowing now that I cannot save myself much less than anyone else, I only hope in the darkness that perhaps God will use me to further his own activity in the world. It is clear why today I read more Superman than Spider-Man.