National Superheroes’ Day
Apparently today is National Superheroes’ Day. I’m a big fan of superheroes generally, so it only seems appropriate to mark the occasion somehow.
A couple years ago I wrote a series of articles: The Superheroes’ Guide to Catholic Social Teaching for the Voyage Comics blog. The general idea behind the series was that Catholic Social Teaching and Superheroes have a basic common purpose: to serve the common good of humanity and try to make the world a better place over all.
Church teaching identifies seven basic themes. Each of these are illustrated through comic book heroes and their stories. The social justice themes, and the accompanying superhero themes, are:
- Rights and Responsibilities: The Wages of Great Power (Spider Man)
- Life and the Dignity of the Human Person: The Joker Conundrum (Batman/the Joker)
- Preferential Option for the Poor: Being Clark Kent (Superman/Clark Kent)
- Family, Community, and Participation in Society: The Greatest Good You’re Ever Gonna Get (The Incredibles)
- The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers: Saving the World for Fun and Profit (Luke Cage: Hero For Hire)
- Care For Creation: Not As A Wasteland, But To Be Lived In (Swamp Thing)
- Solidarity: This was going to be an article about the Legion of Super Heroes, but somehow I never finished it. One of these days I’ll get around to completing this series!
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