Monday, October 01, 2012

Those Pagan Kryptonians!

A rather surprising response from Weisinger, who generally portrayed Krypton as far more advanced than Earth. Of course, you can see the problem; if he responds that they had some different kind of religion (or no religion at all), he's implying that's superior. So he almost had to come up with the answer that he did.

It does raise an interesting point, though. Surely Clark was brought up in whatever religion the Kents practiced, most likely some form of Protestantism. And yet his creators and longtime editor and publisher were all Jewish (which is probably why, after the Golden Age, there were almost no stories that mentioned Christmas or any other religious holiday).
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11 comments:

  1. Lee12:23 AM

    I think it was in Adventure Comics #291, Dec. 1961, (in the Superboy story) that there was the first mention of Jesus Christ in a National/DC comic for many years.

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  2. Anonymous8:45 AM

    IIRC, in some 1970s stories, Superman and/or Supergirl would occasionally say things like, "Thank Rao I got here in time to rescue the victims." Maybe Rao was that personification of Krypton's red sun. I assume the Kents were Protestants, but I don't recall any stories that showed them actually attending church or practicing any religious customs. DC probably tried to avoid too many references to one specific religion, since they needed to appeal to as broad an audience as possible.

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  3. Anonymous10:10 AM

    I've read that Lee and Kirby both decided Ben Grimm was Jewish but nevr said so for fear of offending some readers.-Fraser

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  4. Pat10:40 AM

    Googling it reveals that Rao was indeed the Sun God of Krypton. Of course, it makes little sense for Kal to invoke that god's name, as he was an infant when he left Krypton.

    Lee, I checked my copy of Adventure #291 and found no mention of Jesus.

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  5. Anonymous12:19 PM

    I assume Clark Kent was raised to believe that saying "Jesus Christ" was blasphemous?
    If so, "Great Rao" might have been a good substitute. He wasn't raised with the Rao belief, so it wouldn't hold much weight.

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  6. Kirk House5:12 PM

    Rao is ALSO the name of the red Kryptonian sun itself... as a star. There's a story from the modern "Sandman" series in which a group of stars are having a gathering, and among them is a young Rao.
    One fairly early Justice League story (in the first 40 issues, I'd say) includes little cameos (by Mike Sekowsky) of Moses, Jesus, and other great religious figures.

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  7. Lee3:22 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. Lee4:36 AM

    Pat, it was the Superboy story in Adventure Comics #280, Jan. 1961 (ironically written by the Jewish Jerry Siegel) which made possibly the first reference to Christ in a DC comic, at least for many years.

    Sorry if my mistaken reference to #291 wasted your time, or put you to any inconvenience.

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  9. David Morefield10:38 AM

    I have to confess it always bothered me that the scientifically advanced, sophisticated Kryptonians would practice a faith based on sun-worship. It just don't add up.

    I just realized, though, that Jor-El's chest emblem is a red sun. Does this mean he was a cleric of some sort? Or is this the Kryptonian equivalent of wearing a "WWJD" t-shirt, or putting a "Jesus Saves" sticker on your bumper?

    If so, maybe it makes more sense that no one listened to his "the end is nigh" speeches.

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  10. Pat2:41 PM

    No problem, Lee, I was just interested. It's kind of odd that it's in the context of no coin having a BC date on it; IIRC, DC reused that plot point at some later date. BTW, Mark Engblom pointed out a few years ago that there was an indirect reference to Christ in another Silver Age Superman story; Perry White had the gang over for Easter Dinner.

    David, I always thought that Jor-El's religion was science; as I have pointed out several times, DC in the Silver Age was very much pro-science (e.g., remember the Science Police of the Legion stories?), and yet they were still somewhat down on applied science--that is, technology (which, given the rather unreliable tech of the time, may have just reflected reality).

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  11. Lee3:22 AM

    Superman #166 is the only Silver Age Superman family comic I can think of (off the top of my head) with an overtly Christmas-themed cover (inside is an "imaginary" story by Edmond Hamilton).

    A bit off-topic, but it has often struck me since I started rereading comics fourteen years ago - for the first time since I was a child - how there seems to be an almost complete absence of reference to Jews or the Jewish faith in Golden and Silver Age DC comics, apart from possibly the ancient Israelites in a handful of Superman family stories, like "Superboy Meets Ben Hur".

    Rather ironic, I think, given the number of Jewish writers, editors, and others with influence at DC in that period, for example: Mort Weisinger; Julius Schwartz; Jack Schiff; Jack Liebowitz; Irwin Donenfeld; Jerry Siegel, and many others.

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