Catholic representation in comics was brought back to my attention when reading Watchmen for class. I immediately recognized the Lord’s prayer at the Comedians funeral, and decided to look into what other ‘superheros’ were Catholic, and where else in the comic world has Catholicism popped up, when it wasn’t specifically a Catholic graphic novel.
http://wulibraries.typepad.com/mghlnews/2013/09/a-look-at-the-watchmen.html
In Netflix’s live action version of the Daredevil comics Matt Murdock is Catholic, as he is seen praying in a confessional in the first episode. Curious that a super hero would so ‘openly’ be expressing his religion in such a secular world I did some digging into him. In the 1980’s and again in the 90’s Frank Miller worked briefly on the Daredevil comics where he brought his Catholicism to the forefront of his character.
Photo credit: Sequart.org “I decided he needed to be Catholic because only a Catholic could be a vigilante and an attorney at the same time.”- Frank Miller
Daredevil couldn’t be the ONLY catholic superhero, so I did what anyone does when they need to write an article for class and can’t sleep, I did some research. It turns out that from the X-Men, Nightcrawler is also shown as a practicing devote catholic quite a bit. In some issues it was stated that at one time he was a priest, however from what I have read this a disputed piece of Nightcrawler’s story line.
Photo credits: Adherents.com
For some reason I have a strong feeling that Bruce Wayne is also Catholic, but I had trouble finding anything cannon to support this. If anyone can help me out please link below!
Cover photo credit to: allthingscatholic.tumblr.com