The Bible as Influence

As I promised in an earlier post, I would like to point out the Bible references I have encountered in my favorite form of literature, comic books and then take a brief look at movies and television that share similar homages to The Bible.

This is not all of them (I do not think you could find them all!) This is a small few that I have found and remembered long enough to share.

Everyone knows Superman. Clark Kent. Or back home on Krypton, he was known as Kal El. But did you know that Kal El resembles Hebrew words that translate to "The Voice of God."

The X-Man Angel was dramatically re-envisioned as Archangel when the character became Death, The Fourth Horseman of The Apocalypse; which draws heavily on The Book Of Revelation.

The X-Men villain Exodus was the chosen disciple to lead mutantkind on a migration to the stars

And my favorite Bible mention in comics comes from Ghost Rider, (which deals more with Christian notions of Heaven and Hell than with the actual Bible being as the Ghost Rider is an angel that thought he was a demon...) This is not a reference so much as an observation made through the character Johnny Blaze (who is Ghost Rider.) After learning that he is an angel, Blaze says he has begun reading the Bible and noticed that God kills millions and millions of people, while Satan (The Devil, The Adversary, etc. ) has only killed 10, Job's seven sons and three daughters and only after he makes a bet with God. Blaze says "Which one should we really be afraid of?" Now, being that I have not read the entire Bible, I do not know if this is true; however, In as much as I have read and following our class discussions I am inclined to believe this body count distribution as stated above.

(Now I want to read more of the Bible just to see if Blaze is right!)

Comics not doing it for you? Well look no further than Anakin Skywalker's virgin mother and you have a direct Bible influence on one of the greatest film series of all time, The Star Wars Saga.

Even outside of Western Culture, I have seen Japanese anime that use Cain and Abel as the central protagonist and antagonist of the series Trinity Blood.

With all of that being said, there is no doubt that the Bible has had a significant influence on every form of media, from paintings and sculptures to literature and cinema.

Moses with Horns.