Summer means different things in different places around the country. For those of us who live in Michigan, it means warmth, longer days, and trips to beach. If you live in southern California, I just described typical Tuesdays. Yet one thing that summer means to all of us in America, no matter which side of the Rocky Mountains or Mason-Dixon Line you live on, is big budget movies are exploding into theaters near you.
If you peruse a list of the summer movies for 2012, here’s what you see: sequels, spin-offs, and superheroes… lots and lots of superheroes. The biggest film of the year, The Avengers, has already bashed and smashed box office records in Hulk-like fashion. It will be undefeatable in sales even by the highly anticipated final installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman series, The Dark Night Rises. Spider-Man has swung back into theaters this month with an emo Peter Parker in another origins flick, The Amazing Spider-Man. (It seems lately, the one thing we like just about as much as our superheroes, is knowing where they came from.) Summer 2012 is the summer of superheroes.
But why are we so superhero obsessed? (And by we, I don’t just mean Americans. The Avengers has grossed almost $1.5 billion worldwide as of my typing this. Less than half of that is from domestic sales.) Why are six of the top ten opening weekend grossing films of all time superhero films? (Yes, Harry Potter is a superhero.) It’s not just nostalgia mixed with big explosions that are filling the seats of theaters. If that were the case, Battleship wouldn’t have made less money on its opening weekend than my neighbor kids’ lemonade stand. We, as humans, are infatuated with the idea of a savior.
In his book Supergods, Grant Morrison, arguable the most important comic book writer of our time, posits that our culture is starved for optimistic images of its own future. Morrison writes, “We live in the stories we tell ourselves. In a secular, scientific rational culture lacking in any convincing spiritual leadership, superhero stories speak loudly and boldly to our greatest fears, deepest longings, and highest aspirations. 
They’re not afraid to be hopeful, not embarrassed to be optimistic, and utterly fearless in the dark…. They exist to solve problems of all kinds and can always be counted on to find a way to save the day. At their best, they help us confront and resolve even the deepest existential crises.” Why are we swooping into to theaters near us with a fistful of cash to take in these films? Morrison thinks it’s because we’re desperate for stories of hope with characters we can believe in.
Morrison later goes on to ask, “Could the superhero in his cape and skintight suit be the best current representation of something we all might become, if we allow ourselves to feel worthy of a tomorrow where our best qualities are strong enough to overcome the destructive impulses that seek to undo the human project?”
Here, it gets interesting. Morrison suggests the value of superheroes extends beyond something to believe in; they may actually offer a way of life for all of us. This isn’t just orthodoxy – it’s orthopraxy.
Morrison participated in a panel discussion at Comic-Con with Deepak Chopra and Deepak’s son, Gotham Chopra (with a name like that it’s no surprise that Gotham grew up to not only love comic books, but also to start his own comic book company, Liquid Comics). While fielding questions from his most adoring crowd, Morrison was nothing short of evangelistic about the idea of tapping into our inner superhero and going out to save the world. In his vision, the world desperately needs our best version of ourselves.
Is this call to be the saviors of the world any different than the Christian idea that the Church is the body of Christ in this world? Is Morrison, in his own way, calling people to be the real presence of hope and love in this world?
When Jesus asked his disciples in Matthew 16 who they thought he was, Peter declared he was the Messiah, the savior of the world. Jesus complimented Peter on his ability to see and then proceeded to explain that this Messiah gig came with a pattern of living that included suffering, dying, and rising again. Death and resurrection is the way of Jesus – it is what he had to do and it is what he calls his followers to step into as well. According to Matthew, self-denial, sacrifice, and laying yourself down for the other is what it takes to be a savior – and to live like one. Jesus was doing both – he was giving orthodoxy and orthopraxy to his followers. “I’m the savior… now live like me.”
While Morrison believes we should all live the way of the superhero, he’s not blind to the fact that not all superheroes are the same. He makes this stunning observation in Supergods, “In a world where wealth and celebrity are the measures of accomplishment, it’s no surprise that the most popular superhero characters today – Batman and Iron Man – are both handsome tycoons.”
This is where it becomes important for us to unmask our infatuation. Why are we celebrating these particular stories with such breathtaking economic investment? Do we look to Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark as models because they are fighters of injustice, lights in dark places, bringers of hope to the hopeless? Are they counter-cultural figures who show us a new way forward?
Or are these characters super-cultural? Are they simply the American dream writ large? Are they a mirror back to us showing our deep obsession with power, fame, ego and technology, exposing our true belief that the combination of these things is what will truly save us all?
Is it possible they are both?
If Morrison is right about our living in the stories we tell ourselves, it seems crucial that we consider which stories are most important to us. What are the stories we are telling about the hope of our world? To whom and to what do we look for our pattern of living – our orthopraxy?
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Eric Kuiper is the Young Adult Life Director at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. If you enjoy this article, you might also want to check out his other writings on his own blog, Burning PineCones, and on rednoW.