Writing God(s) Panel at NYCC 2017

-- A video recording by Charlie Gillette of the Writing God(s) Panel at NYCC 2017 --

Superheroes are Gods.

We read stories of their glory and revel. We bear witness to their losses and mourn. We viciously defend the sanctity of their character against any who would misrepresent them. We attend gatherings with the fellow devoted. We pore over every word that has been written about them so that we may preserve an accurate account of our shared history. We look to their examples for guidance on living better lives.

Superheroes are Gods. And we worship them.

The intellectual value of comic books, and of superhero comics in particular, has been largely unexplored in academic circles. However, the Institute of Religion, Culture, and Public Life is dedicated to engaging with the comic book medium as something worthy of scholarly discourse. To do so we will bring together top creators in the field with scholars of religion and media for a panel conversation that will cut to the heart of why superhero comics have had such a tremendous impact on our world today.

We will examine how superhero comics have developed along socio-cultural lines, the role that superheroes have had on shaping a shared American imagination and mythology, the interplay between religious and secular themes in superhero stories, and whether comic books and their characters can perform a similar type of “work” (moral, communal, religious, spiritual, and philosophical) as traditional religious practices and figures.

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