Deathstroke #20 - "Monster"

[laughing_tree]

I’ve asked DC Comics to send a preview copy to Christianity Today. No word yet on if they’ve done so. But I’d really like comics to take more and greater chances and to expand our audience beyond the traditional market. There are *billions* of dollars– with a “B” –to be made in the evangelical market. It mystifies me as to why neither DC nor Marvel are in it.

I doubt any Christian bookstore would carry Deathstroke #20, mainly because it questions religion as much as embraces it. With traditional Christian bookstore chains, there’s a certain quantity of Kool Aid that must be consumed, which misses the mark of Christ’s message by about a mile.

Great art, great books and great music are typically banned from these chains which insist on a kind of inoffensive rounding off of reality and adherence to an evangelical message. In my experience, questioning my faith has only strengthened it.

-- Christopher J. Priest

Comments

[nyadnar17]

I get why more media isn't aimed at the religious market. Most creators types seem to be hostile to organized religion. They like using the imagery and sometimes the culture but any more than that....

Its a shame to because its super interesting. The theology relating to forgiveness and redemption on display here is soooo interesting. "Soon as I ask you to you have to forgive me". Well that is certainly one way to interpret scripture. But its not the way that most Catholic, Jew, and Protestant theologian would. How would she? What type of Christian is she? Has she even ever really thought about what the act of forgiveness really is? Will she now that Slade is putting her to the test?

It so interesting to me. IMO its much more interesting watching people struggle to act in accordance with their faith than writers simply dumbing religion down to "feel guilt while trying to be a 'good' person".

[miramira]

Funny: I don't consider myself particularly faithful, and this still strikes me as such a self-serving, surface-level interpretation of forgiveness that it borders on offensive. Which may be the point, at least in terms of establishing what Slade's really doing here, but I suspect Christianity Today would just roll their eyes and tell Priest to come back when he's delved a bit deeper into the existing literature on the subject.

[shadowpsykie]

he's using religion as a weapon here. he MIGHT be truthfully trying to change. But he's a weapons master and in order to CONVINCE her he is being serious, he has weaponized the bible... it's pretty brilliant. if we really do see slade, AND the others struggling with this idea of faith/forgiveness/Change etc, its gonna be interesting. Priest hasn't really let me down so as a Agnostic Catholic (it's complicated) I really want to see where this goes...

[thezmage]

I find that more people have a hard time dropping the "catholic" than any other religion I know of.

[miramira]

I dunno. I feel like this is a pretty easy argument to dismantle, whether you can cite a counter-verse or not: forgiveness needs to be freely given, and you don't get to demand anything else in exchange. If she decides she wants to try and redeem him anyway, that could definitely have interesting possibilities, and maybe it's clearer that's what's going on in the rest of the issue. But here he just comes across like every atheist chatroom warrior ever, and I don't see much reason for her not to remain skeptical.

[nyadnar17]

I honestly don't know. I big discussions among many Christian thinkers (at least in Reformation branch) is how surface level many professing Christians are. "Know what you believe and why you believe it" is kinda a moto of the Reformational denominations and the sheer number of Christians, especially young Christians that couldn't give Slade a clear rebuttal here is alarming.

I would like to think they would see the issue that was being addressed here and not just write Priest off as another hack without at least glancing at his Wiki page.