It’s rather struck me before how DC Comics’ is more explicitly—for lack of a better word—“in-tune” or “acknowledging” towards Judeo-Christian mythos in it’s comic canon. The Spectre, for example, is directly serving the Abrahamic God as his spirit of vengeance; I think various other angels, arch-angels, or religiously motivated or empowered characters have shown up, now and again.
But on the other hand, I can’t seem to recall any similar characters in Marvel comics’ stable, although there are a few demonic characters, and more than a few from polytheist pantheons—some of whom may just be “god-like aliens,” but others seem to be genuinely supernatural. Not even from the ranks of Marvel’s vampire hunters.
Well, actually, there’s one I can think of—Neil Gaiman’s “Angela,” (!), a “Spawn” bounty hunter character apparently from Heaven (!!) who was recently sold to Marvel (!!!), but she’s technically from another universe, even in-canon, so I’m not sure she counts.
So…am I forgetting anyone? Heck, even any hero or group that fights on an Early organized religion’s behalf?
Doctor Strange famously met God, in that he went back in time and saw a mighty entity – “And what is another name for an all-powerful being at the dawn of creation? I shall tell you as I leave you, gentlemen: it is GOD!” – who of course went all Old Testament on Sodom and Gomorrah (“You have angered – GOD”).
Not long after, Doc fought Dracula and invoked the Big Guy for the win: “In the name of the TETRAGRAMMATON, Jehovah! O great UNMANIFEST, hear my PLEA!”
Nightcrawler from the X-Men was depicted as a fairly devout Roman Catholic, at least when Chris Claremont was writing the book. Amid the various “Secret Wars” mini-series, there was a minor subplot in the X-books about his faith being shaken after being confronted by the Beyonder - an truly ‘god-like’ omnipotent being.
Firebird was a minor hero connected with the West Coast Avengers. She was also a devout Catholic.
Wish I could find a Jpeg of it, but there was a rather famous one-panel from the original Galactus trilogy in Fantastic Four#s 48 - 50, in which Reed Richards laments “How can we even hope to fight against an enemy who is all-powerful?” And Uatu the Watcher responds “Nay Reed Richards! There is only ONE being in all of creation that may claim to truly be ALL-powerful. And his only weapon is the power of love!” (paraphrasing, but something to that effect.) THAT exchange certainly hints at a Judeo-Christian (or just Judeo considering it was Lee / Kirby) deity.
Kitty Pryde (another X-Man) is jewish. I believe Karma. Can’t think of anybody who’s devoutly protestant though.
Well, Ghost Rider’s powers are from hell, as is Mephisto–who is pretty much the Devil, making pacts for souls and everything. But I don’t know if those explicitly mention hell’s Christian origins.
Plus Nightcrawler is Roman Catholic and even was* a priest for a while, despite everyone thinking he looked demonic.
*It’s a bit more complicated than that, but I don’t want to spoil.
I don’t think the OP is looking for heroes that practice Christianity, he’s looking for heroes who get their powers from Christianity. Nightcrawler may be Catholic, but that’s not what makes it possible for him to teleport.
Utterly detached viewpoint here, as I am neither a deep comix geek nor religious, but it seems to me that Christianity is devoid of “powers” as they’re understood by the superhero set. The very minor and local miracles of Jesus are a shadow of OT destruction and world-changing, and much of the OT stuff draws from the older religions that are behind characters like Thor.
Maybe the question is, what would Cross-Man’s powers be?
I don’t think you ever will - it would be too controversial.
Let’s say that Superman, for example, was written as getting his powers from the Christian God. What happens the first time he encounters kryptonite and loses a battle, even if temporarily? You’re saying that kryptonite is more powerful than God - and to people looking for reasons to get offended, you’ve committed blasphemy.
The Living Tribunal has god-like powers but claims to be receiving his powers from The-One-Above-All, who created life, the universe and everything. Not specifically the Christian god, but Christians would like you to think so.
I think the opposite for Mephisto, as at various points in comics (I don’t know what current continuity is) he shares the underworld domains with Satanish, Hel , Hades, Damion Hellstrom and probably others.
Certainly he is heavily influenced by Christian ideas of the Devil, but it’s also clear that he can’t actually be the Christian Devil.
The Living Tribunal was a creation of artist Steve Ditko, who was an ardent devotee of Ayn Rand’s Objectivism. Rand herself was a staunch athiest, who believed all religion was superstitious mumbo-jumbo designed to cow people into “collectivist” behavior. So I would imagine it very unlikely that Dr. Strange and any character originating from Ditko’s original run on the series would have a Christian theme.
Still, the superhuman mentioned by Bryan Ekers neatly sidesteps that: so long as he truly believed he was a righteous crusader Doing The Lord’s Work, he was powerful enough to triumph over Thor – but as soon as he began to doubt whether he was On A Mission From God, his abilities plummeted in proportion to his lack of faith.
The Justice League of America had among its members Zauriel, an angel from Heaven. The angels all served a being known as The Presence, who didn’t have a corporeal form.
