Tag Archives: nordic

[This column by Michael J. Miller originally appeared on his site My Comic Relief. It is copied here with the permission of the author.]

The centerpiece of Jason Aaron’s epic seven year run writing Thor: God of Thunder/The Mighty Thor/Thor was Jane Foster lifting Mjölnir when the Odinson found himself unworthy to do so. She became Thor, the Goddess of Thunder, and the stories that followed were the best Thor comics I’ve ever read. It may be the best executed single story arc I’ve ever ready in any comic ever. When the Odinson eventually reclaimed his title as the God of Thunder, Jane returned her focus to her civilian life, medical career, and – most importantly – fighting the cancer raging inside her. However, her superhero career was far from over and the stories Jane Foster now finds herself in (written first by Jason Aaron and Al Ewing and now by Jason Aaron and Torunn Grønbekk) dance along the mysterious, wonderous, frightening, sacred threshold that is the dividing line between life and death.

When the Dark Elf Maliketh’s War of the Realms invaded Earth, Jane – mortal and powerless but with her cancer now in remission – once more stood alongside gods and heroes to fight his evil army. Maliketh’s forces were ultimately vanquished, but not without great sacrifice. Among those fallen in battle were all the Valkyrie. In Norse mythology (and similarly in the Marvel Universe) the Valkyrie are a race of warrior women who decide who lives and who dies in battle. The Valkyrie then had the sacred duty of transporting the souls of those who died to the realm they’d reside in for their afterlife. At the end of the War of the Realms, Jane Foster was given the responsibility and the gift of being the last Valkyrie.

Jane bonds with Undrjarn at the end of the War of the Realms. / Photo Credit – Marvel Comics

Continue reading Jane Foster: Valkyrie – Glimpsing Transcendence in Death →

academic

CFP: Religion and the Marvel Universe (9/15/18)

August 2, 2018 A. David

Editor: Gregory Stevenson (gstevenson@rc.edu)

Theology and Pop Culture is currently seeking contributions for a potential edited volume from Rowman and Littlefield on the intersection of theology and the Marvel Universe. Essays may focus on comic books/graphic novels, film, and television/streaming series. Essays should be written for academics, but avoid “jargon” to be accessible for the layperson.

MARVEL logo

Potential ideas include but are not limited to:

Greek mythology and the Marvel superhero; Catholicism and the character of Daredevil; Ms. Marvel and the rise of the Muslim superhero; Ghost Rider and the deal with the devil; Spider-Man and moral theology; Luke Cage and liberation theology; Black Panther and African theology; Iron Fist and the conflict between capitalism and spiritualism; violence and redemption in The Punisher; religious tolerance and intolerance in The X-Men; the depiction of cults in Marvel’s Runaways; Dr. Strange and the conflict between faith and science; christology in Marvel; Iron Man and Tony Stark’s quest for redemption; Marvel’s cosmic beings; Thor and Norse theology; Captain America and the role of faith; apocalyptic themes in Marvel stories; Cloak and Dagger and the metaphor of light and darkness (this list could go on indefinitely so feel free to propose any relevant topic)

Submission Guidelines:

Please submit an abstract between 300-700 words with CV or resumé, including a list of any previous publications, to Gregory Stevenson at gstevenson@rc.edu by September 15, 2018
Submission deadline for drafts of accepted papers is April 30, 2019 (if a particular essay needs to incorporate the fourth Avengers film, a later submission date can be negotiated)

academic, contributors

Martin Lund on the Possibilities of “Pantheonic Bricolage”

September 15, 2017 Martin Lund 1 Comment

[The following piece was originally published at MartinLund.me and it is reposted here with the author’s permission.]

Is It a Thing? “Pantheonic Bricolage.”

If you are at all familiar with my work, you know that I have a particular interest in the intersections between comics and religion. I have spent countless hours studying comics in relation to Judaism and Jewishness, on editing a book about Muslim superheroes (the release of which is so close now I can almost taste it!), and I’m currently drafting a book about the recently deceased evangelical comics propagandist Jack T. Chick (about whom I have written here and here).

In addition to this, I’m also working on a guide to comics and world religions with a couple of fellow scholars of the topic. We have hashed out a rough structure and are working separately on our chapters. In addition to writing about the Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), I will also be tackling what we have chosen, for now, to call “Archaic Traditions.” (I just might make another “Is it a thing?” post about that label somewhere down the line.)

This means that I am writing about Greco-Roman, Egyptian, and Old Norse religions. And I am loving it to no end. There is so much interesting material to work with here, and I will be sharing thoughts and reviews as things progress.

But for now, I want to bounce a thing off the internet and see what happens.

I want to talk about what I have been calling, for lack of a better term: “pantheonic bricolage.” It sounds complicated, but it really isn’t.

Continue reading Martin Lund on the Possibilities of “Pantheonic Bricolage” →

controversy, cultural

Whose God Is Thor?

May 10, 2011 A. David

In the wake of Thor‘s #1 opening weekend, Comics Alliance is reporting that another group is unhappy of its godly portrayals. Whereas the Council of Conservative Citizens previously railed against the casting of Idris Elba, a black man in the role of a Nordic god, (mentioned in a previous entry), this objection is a tad more level-headed. Namely, some modern-day Neopagan practitioners are rumbling over the depiction of their deities in the film.

A follower of Ásatrú (or Germanic Neopaganism, as it is also known), writer Eric Scott of religious discourse magazine Killing the Buddha made the sincere and deeply personal observation whilst inspecting Thor merchandise in a Walmart.
I held that foam hammer in my hand for a long time, which I’m sure only confirmed my weirdness to the nightgaunts of the third shift. With my other hand, I rubbed the Mjolnir necklace I have worn every day since my initiation into my family’s coven. I did not know what to think of it.
The truth is, I looked at the toys in my hands and I saw the result of millions of dollars of development and thousands of hours of manpower, put into something bearing the name of a god, my god, and it had nothing to do with me.

Scott suggests that his fellow practitioners were “too few to matter” to the corporations using this material for their merchandise. Pagan Blogger for Patheos.com Star Foster feels quite the opposite: that Thor will bring attention to active Pagans in a positive manner.

The issue here is not just appropriating a mislabeled “dead religion,” but also how these deities function for real-life worshipers versus storytellers. A sideline discussion over at City-Data.com offers the thought that the word “gods” is misused in various narratives, comic books in particular. Are Thor and his fellow Asgardians distinctly gods in the movie, or are they some other classification? Would calling them, say, onses show a greater sensitivity by storytellers or would it divorce them even more harshly from real-world practitioners?

Sacred and Sequential