Grant Morrison, Batman, and (Re)Cycles of Pain: More from a Post-Traumatic Christian

By Matthew Brake As I’ve written before, I have not given up on my Christian faith. In many ways, at least creedally, I think many of my friends and colleagues would find me surprisingly orthodox. But emotionally and spiritually, I have described myself as a “post-traumatic” Christian, riffing on Grant Morrison’s notion of Batman as…

A Response to McGrath and Brake: Batman, Joker, and Nietzsche’s Overman

By John MacDonald On episode 36 of the Religion Prof Podcast, Dr. James McGrath and Matthew Brake shared their interpretations of Nietzsche’s overman in relation to the Batman mythos in popular culture.  McGrath raises the point that it is young Bruce Wayne’s response to his family tragedy that raises him from the level of the…

Grant Morrison, Superheroes, and The Post-Traumatic Christian

By Matthew Brake I was talking the other day to a friend, and the topic of our spiritual journeys came up. This person told me about the burnout and discouragement they felt, not only being involved in different churches, but in the whole “Jesus thing” in general. I then relayed my own story: involvement in…

Evil and the Bat, Part Three: The Meaning of THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE

By Raymond Lam (Read Part Two of this blog series here) In this third and final exploration of Batman and the “theology” constructed by Grant Morrison over the decade of 2008–18, we dive into The Return of Bruce Wayne (RBW) (2010), one of Morrison’s finest Batman works and one that elevated the idea of Bruce Wayne to…

Vision: Batman V Superman – Dawn of Justice

By Stephen Garner ***A version of this article previously appeared in Stimulus: The New Zealand Journal of Christian Thought and Practice,23, no. 2 (2016): 43-45., and is used here with permission from the author and the journal. If you like superheroes, then it doesn’t get much better than current cinema and television. Not only are…

CFP: Theology and Batman

Editors: Matthew William Brake and Rev. C. K. Robertson, Ph.D. In 2019, Batman turned 80 years old. First appearing in Detective Comics #27, that famous title hit #1000 back in March. Since his debut, Batman has been a cultural force across multiple medium, whether in the comics that spawned him, the 1960s campy television series, the…