Comic books have consistently brought ought representations of spiritual characters. They have become increasingly become a vehicle for serious commentary and innovative indigenous spiritualism. There are many ways where each culture uses spirituality and there can be variance in the application of comics. For instance, those that practice traditional religions and new religious movements have employed comics as missionary tools. Settlers, missionaries, and governments have had an impact on spiritual beliefs and practices through the use of comics. Comics feature humanistic and perspectives on spiritualism which can be fused to reflect and showcase about traditional theologies. Comics also feature American Superheroes that blend various religious and patriotic symbols that represent the culture of the United States. Indigenous spiritualism representation in comics can be seen in the portrayal of spirit dancers, creation stories, tricksters, supernatural beings, and sacred organizations.
Spirit dancers
Spirit dancers used to perform masked dances that were religious and theatrical. The dance is believed to take place when supernatural beings possess an individual and thus demand the performance of a dance or song. These dances portrayed a special relationship between the dancer and the supernatural being. For instance, Spirit dancing was highly witnessed among the Coast Salish (Angelbeck, 2016).
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Comic characters that were portrayed to be consistently religious had a few aspects of religious practices. The characters would go beyond the normal exhibition of religious values such as charity and heroism but would go at great lengths to showcase their religious affiliation. They would portray their religious practices through the use of practices such as prayer and dances as a form of worship. For instance, Ghost Dancer engaged with those in the world of spirits through supernatural dances. He would then gain a number of unspecified magical abilities. He could blast through portals and open multidimensional spaces as a result of his powers.
Creation Stories
Comics can retell the stories of creation by explaining the origins of cosmos and elements. Most cosmic strips usually start with stories of creation as they try to expound how their characters came into being. Comics blend the use of the written word with sequential drawings to find the intermediate section between the abstract and realistic world. One example of a comic that starts with the explanation of the creation of the universe and its elements is the West of Eden. The famous statement in Genesis that states that in the beginning, God created heaven and earth is portrayed through the use of colorful and realistic drawings. These abstract images are representations of different cosmologies (Zitnick, 2016). There are other gods which represent indigenous spiritualism that is represented in the creation stories. For instance, the Atum from Egyptian myths and the Babylonian goddess of love, fertility, and war. All the gods represented essentially have their own creation stories.
Comic strips also feature the creation stories through the portrayal of the sun, moon, stars, and humans. The comic story the Manga Bible retells the story of the Judeo-Christian story with the use of texts from the Bible. The portrayal of various aspects of the creation is referred to through the use of abstract images. There are representations of various aspects of the creation and heavenly bodies such as the sun, stars, and the moon. It also follows the story of the creation with the introduction of the first two human beings on earth. Additionally, other comics feature various heavenly bodies like that of the Sun-Eater. A fictional and artificially created living weapon within the DC Comics universe. It is a living nebula that can cause the emergence of other stars and eat other stars since it has the ability to drain other stars of their energy.
Tricksters
The trickster in comics is represented as a clever, mischievous person or creature that gets to their end through the use of trickery. The trickster could trick others simply for amusement or they could be a character that is physically weak and is trying to survive in a dangerous world. They could represent chaos which the world needs to function. Trickster characters could be individuals from different religions and characters. They could be male, female, helpful, hero, foolish, wise, human, half human half spirit, young, old, or troublemaker. One portrayal of a comic trickster was in the issue of the Power Girl series in 2009. It featured the story of a Muslim girl named Rayhan Mazhin who was overzealous about law enforcement. She had been suspected to be a terrorist when she was essentially saving lives. The story of the trickster made a statement against discrimination on the basis of ethnicity and religion (Kent, 2015).
There are other tricksters that have indigenous spiritualism that include Coyote, Mohawk, and Raven. Coyote was a mythological character that is common to the indigenous people living in North America. The comic character was portrayed as a male who was orphaned after his parents died in an above-ground nuclear test. He was taken and joined by a witch that became his foster mother. He became the coyote-man after a ceremony where he killed his adoptive parents and went away to live in a desert. He is portrayed to have some physical features like that of the coyote with fur, pointed, ears, yellow eyes, claws, and a tail.
Mohawk was a member of the cult known as the Children of Heaven. She was involved in an indigenous cult that was run by a Mutant named Phillip. She stole fire from the gods for mankind who was the mediator between life and death. The Archangel broke the cult up and Mohawk had to defend their leader from a more powerful mutant. Mohawk suffered a terrible ordeal and her fate is yet to be revealed (Pustz, 2012). Raven is another character that showcases her indigenous spiritualism s the half-demon/half-human daughter of an interdimensional demon. She was conceived due to the marriage of a demon and human and grew in an alternate dimension. She grew to become the most powerful figure in her world.
Supernatural beings
Comics feature the stories of supernatural beings that have the power that is beyond that of the common person. Hercules has appeared in several comics as a fictional Olympian god. The story was based on the Greek demigod also known as Hercules (Falkner, 2011). Hercules was shown to have special abilities like that of godly strength with enhanced speed, stamina, and endurance. He appeared together with several Greek mythology characters in the comic that features Wonder Woman. Hercules is often portrayed as a hero that represents masculine violence. He is a man that is muscle-bound and wears a lion skin.
The story of Lucifer as told by the Judeo-Christian religion is also seen in comics. Lucifer is inhuman but could have physical human manifestations. He is seen as the ultimate form of evil and seeks to overthrow God. The comic Lucifer by Vertigo derives a lot of detail and background from the story of Lucifer in Judeo-Christian tradition. There are a few changes like the place where Lucifer tries to overthrow God. The Lucifer series is different as it portrays him as a protagonist. He is a form of an anti-hero that rebelled against Heaven since he felt that after his creation and predetermining his life, he was robbed of the right to choose his own destiny.
The Marvel Comic series also portrays a Supreme Being in the Marvel Universe that comes from the Living Tribunal. The being is the most powerful being apart from God. However, God himself is hardly portrayed in most Marvel Comics. The living Tribunal is often portrayed as the supreme being with a firmly established presence. He is omnipotent but claims to be powered by a being that is even greater. There are also several other characters that are based on indigenous influences on religion and spiritualism. Nightcrawler and Wolfsbane are staunch Christians in the Catholic and Presbyterian demonization. Thor and Hercules are gods and they are members of pantheons where they belong while Spectre is represented as God’s hitman.
Sacred Organizations
The idea of sacred organizations is quite popular in most comic books. It can refer to a group of bad guys or a secret group of good guys that try to enforce their beliefs. However, sacred organizations have been mostly portrayed to exist in darkness and in the presence of whispers (Parker, 2016). One example of a sacred organization is known as The Brotherhood of evil. The organization is secret and operates under the radar as a criminal group. This is similar to hunting groups as seen in indigenous groups. The Brotherhood members are always hiding and gathering their resources for the next move towards world domination.
The league of assassins is also a sacred organization that had existed for several hundreds of years in secret. The organization follows practices that are similar to that of indigenous spiritualism. Recruits undergo tireless training, renounce their former identities and should be able to sacrifice their lives for the leader. The League of Assassins is a popular society which no one should interfere with. Just like other religious cults and groups, the group has a long-time leader known as Ra’s al Ghul. Under his leadership, the group was able to assassinate important people in the world politics. They were able to steal important artifacts and could steal items from anyone that could come in their way.
The Black Glove is also an example of a comic society that can be used to represent the operation of elders in indigenous societies. The group was made of wealthy individuals that would orchestrate large schemes through the use of corrupt individuals. They would essentially have ultimate control over their city. The organization would hunt Batman and would bury him alive. Batman survived the ordeal in a near death experience. The Black Glove was however wiped out of existence by the League of Assassins.
In conclusion, indigenous spiritualism is an important part of history and a defining element of human life. It goes along with the concept that deities and God have a central place in aspects of the modern culture. The subject of indigenous spiritualism is thus bound to recur repeatedly in pop culture and in various mediums such as comics. Sacred dancers are seen when comic characters engage in practices that would please supernatural beings. Tricksters are present through the use of wit for their own gain. Supernatural beings are portrayed with immense power beyond that of the average human being and some can transcend through the spiritual and physical world. Sacred organizations also exist where individuals work towards a common purpose under a leader. The general aim of indigenous spiritualism representation in comics is to show that indigenous and spiritualism elements can be added to entertainment without being overly religious.
References
Angelbeck, B. (2016). Localized rituals and individual spirit powers: discerning regional autonomy through religious practices in the Coast Salish past. Journal of Northwest Anthropology , 50 (1), 27-51.
Falkner, D. E. (2011). The Legend of Hercules. In The Mythology of the Night Sky (pp. 127-137). Springer, New York, NY.
Kent, M. (2015). Unveiling marvels: Ms. Marvel and the reception of the new Muslim superheroine. Feminist Media Studies , 15 (3), 522-527.
Parker, M. (2016). Secret societies: Intimations of organization. Organization Studies , 37 (1), 99-113.
Pustz, M. (2012). Comic books and American cultural history: an anthology . Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
Zitnick, C. L., Vedantam, R., & Parikh, D. (2016). Adopting abstract images for semantic scene understanding. IEEE transactions on pattern analysis and machine intelligence , 38 (4), 627-638.
