The True American Gods: Comic-Book Heroes
by Carl Pettit
Some people worship the old gods — supreme beings scattered across Western and Near Eastern civilization — like Allah, Jesus and Yahweh, while others embrace the Eastern gods, like Gautama Buddha and Krishna. Regardless of your religious affinities, or lack there of, it might surprise you to learn that the gods of the American pantheon did not originate in the lands of our ancestors. They have been revealed to us, in fact, through the pages of comic books, and on the silver screen.
You might pray to Allah or Jesus in times of need, but when you’re in a real fix, Superman is the larger than life character you’d probably like to call — assuming he wasn’t a fictional character. When the Man of Steel catches a woman in midair, plummeting off a tall building, or prevents an airliner from crashing into the ocean, his good work is clear and tangible. No abstract interpretations of “God’s will” necessary.
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