On Comics and Catholicism

A new online magazine has just launched. Voyage Comics is focused on comics and popular media, approaching it from a Catholic perspective. So of course I had to write something for their inaugural issue.

I wanted to write something in anticipation of the upcoming Shazam! movie, along with DC Comics’ corresponding relaunch of the character’s comic book. Shazam is a character and a property that I think has a lot of potential for interesting concepts and storytelling, but for the most part I feel that publishers never quite know what to do with him. So I wanted to explore that a bit as I look forward to a re-imagining of his franchise.

If C.S. Lewis had ever tried his hand at the American comic-book superhero genre, he might have come up with something like this. Currently going by Shazam!, the Hero Formerly Known as Captain Marvel is steeped in a potpourri of Classical Mythological references, of Ancient Magic, and of ordinary youth in extraordinary circumstances, drawing on Mysteries of the past to become the best possible versions of themselves. To me, it has always teased at the kind of deeply transcendent spirituality which Lewis excelled at.

Read the rest at Voyage Comics’ website.