Breaking News: Batman is an Atheist

[Mel B]

Batman is an atheist. Who knew?

On the Friendly Atheist blog site Hemant Mehta tells us, "The latest issue of the Batman series (Batman #53) includes a confession from the Caped Crusader that he doesn’t believe in God. His father raised him as a Christian, but after his death, Bruce Wayne just… walked away."

Read more at It’s Official: Batman’s an Atheist – Friendly Atheist

 

[Altfish]

"Holy no religion, Robin"

<<POW>>

 

[Father Heathen]

Worry not. Believers still have a superhero that they can look up to:

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

An utterly inconsequential aspect of the character that will effect nothing. Stand by for the imminent horror screams of the Usual Suspects as they shriek about Christian persecution and having liberalism/atheism "shoved down their throats."

NB. None of these people will have read a Batman comic in their lives.

 

[ImmortalFlame]

An utterly inconsequential aspect of the character that will effect nothing. Stand by for the imminent horror screams of the Usual Suspects as they shriek about Christian persecution and having liberalism/atheism "shoved down their throats."

NB. None of these people will have read a Batman comic in their lives.

As much as I would love to have an openly atheist superhero out there, I'm very much inclined to agree with you here. Religion is a subject that basically never comes up in mainstream superhero comics these days, as the writers generally want them to be as universal as possible, so giving each superhero a religion is not really in their best interest.

That being said, there is at least a Muslim superhero in Marvel comics right now, so it would be pretty great if a major superhero like Batman came out and said "I'm an atheist" (even though there's a problematic element in that Batman is pretty much the definition of the "grim, dark, embittered, highly-logical loner" archetype that has become something of an atheist stereotype, to say nothing of his atheism being brought on by a terrible tragedy), but I doubt it will mean anything in the long run. Looks to me like the writers deliberately chose to make it somewhat ambiguous as well - never explicitly saying Batman is an atheist, just implying that, at some point, he lost his father's beliefs. The fact he's speaking in past tense doesn't help either. I'm willing to bet if he was straight up asked by another character whether he was an atheist or not, he'd probably just give a vague response like "That's none of your concern".

 

[Jumi]

Well he's one now. The one in 80s and before that comics probably would focus on the case, instead of metaphysical speculation.

 

[Apologes]

Batman is my favorite hero and I'm not surprised at all. It's a pretty irrelevant detail for his character and we all knew Bruce was no church boy given his sexual promiscuity (a part of his playboy millionaire facade to trick the public) so the model of a pious Christian was never really there to begin with.

Comics in general tend to always side with the current mainstream ideologies. One good example, specifically from the Batman universe, would be the character of Batwoman. In the early days, there were rumors going around of Batman and Robin being gay for rather obvious reasons (two men in tight costumes running around in the night..) and Batwoman was created as a love interest for Batman specifically to dismiss that rumor.

Now fast forward to the newer continuity which accompanies the modern times and that very same character of Batwoman is now an open lesbian herself! As the old conservative values started to fall out of favor and more liberal policies became vocal, the writers went on to accommodate the view that most readers are more likely to hold. Same can be seen with certain white characters becoming black (Nick Fury) or the male dominated cast being changed into a more feminist friendly one (Thor and Iron Man).

Make what you want from this, but super hero comics hardly ever did anything that wasn't already the accepted view at the time (at least not the Marvel and DC ones, Image is another story...) so it should come to no surprise that with the west moving away from the traditional set of values, the stories produced in the west would also reflect that.

 

[Father Heathen]

I just googled this up. I've no idea what it's from, it mentions Wolverine so I guess X-Men?

Heh, "faith reserves".

 

[Subduction Zone]

Worry not. Believers still have a superhero that they can look up to:

It is much better if you watch it with some friends:

 

[ImmortalFlame]

I just googled this up. I've no idea what it's from, it mentions Wolverine so I guess X-Men?

Heh, "faith reserves".

That page is particularly weird considering the Marvel Universe has practically an entire pantheon of God-like beings, and a single, all-powerful creator simply known as "The One Above All":

List of deities in Marvel Comics - Wikipedia

Bloody Kree mathematicians, always getting stuff wrong.

"I finally finished my life's work! And my calculation proves that there are no Gods at all!"
"Lemme see... Erm, you forgot a decimal point here."
"Oh... Now my calculation proves that there are actually loads of Gods... That's embarrassing."

 

[Jumi]

Heh, "faith reserves".

Even my past atheist self would have cringed at this. Oh well.

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

As much as I would love to have an openly atheist superhero out there, I'm very much inclined to agree with you here. Religion is a subject that basically never comes up in mainstream superhero comics these days, as the writers generally want them to be as universal as possible, so giving each superhero a religion is not really in their best interest.

That being said, there is at least a Muslim superhero in Marvel comics right now, so it would be pretty great if a major superhero like Batman came out and said "I'm an atheist" (even though there's a problematic element in that Batman is pretty much the definition of the "grim, dark, embittered, highly-logical loner" archetype that has become something of an atheist stereotype, to say nothing of his atheism being brought on by a terrible tragedy), but I doubt it will mean anything in the long run. Looks to me like the writers deliberately chose to make it somewhat ambiguous as well - never explicitly saying Batman is an atheist, just implying that, at some point, he lost his father's beliefs. The fact he's speaking in past tense doesn't help either. I'm willing to bet if he was straight up asked by another character whether he was an atheist or not, he'd probably just give a vague response like "That's none of your concern".

I look forward to Thor coming out as atheist.