In mentioning a taste that does not likely align with another adult’s taste C.S. Lewis said, “A certain shame or bashfulness attached itself to whatever one deeply and privately enjoyed.” I have a bit of reticence to even bring up comic books. There is a touch of stigma associated perhaps because of its elementary literary level or categorization as a picture book.
But I do enjoy comic books, they are a lighter fare and different medium in the genre of storytelling. I almost feel pressured to mention the plethora of other books I am currently reading to justify the presence of the comic book but I will save that reading system for another day.
The comic book is an enjoyable medium often associated with superheroes. There are many other types of stories in the medium but my reading sits firmly in the realm of the superhero and their cosmic adventures.
The first comics I read were given to me by my youth pastor in Jr. High. I read about the Silver Surfer traveling the cosmos and observing the vastness of space and the altogether otherness of different planets. As a Jr. Higher, I was spellbound. I hadn’t even begun to imagine the type of visuals and grand stories I was witnessing (and it did feel like witnessing). I had, through this little floppy book, a window into a world far bigger and fantastical than my own. Through this window were stories amazing and wonderful that stirred the imagination.
This feeling is very much akin to the feeling C.S. Lewis describes experiencing when he encountered Norse Mythology. He, and I, was aware of their fictitious nature but nonetheless stirred by their grandeur.*
I lost the medium through most of high school and college and rediscovered them a couple years ago when Starbucks offered a free digital download of the new Action Comics #1. I was transported back to the same wonder I had before. All of a sudden, I again had a window for my imagination.
I added comics, mainly Superman stories and now old Marvel stories, into my reading regiment. They serve as simple reads that can be a quick respite from the stress of the day or a pallet cleanser after reading a 500 page tome on 13th century history.
I just finished Crisis on Infinite Earths which is a universe-spanning and all-of-time-encompassing story full of peril and end of the world type adventure. Time and space are bent and everything about the universe (the DC Universe to be precise) is reshaped at the end of the story.
That is just pure fun!
But it also takes my mind past the scope of my day to day work and catapults my perspective back into the grandeur of a universe wide story. This perspective, albeit in a fictitious realm, is more in line with the cosmos-invading nature of the story I actually belong to. Every time I read a cosmos-changing storyline I am reminded of the study I did in Ephesians that reveals the cosmic scope of the Gospel story:
[9] and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, [10] so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Ephesians 2:9-10
The Gospel shows up and the Church reveals the wisdom of God not just to the street level people changed by it but also to every authority and ruler against it in the heavenly places. That’s cosmos wide, my friends.
While it is can be slightly silly, and Batman is lurking in the genre, the stories are one way I remind myself of that grand truth and scope and that is worthwhile.
* Surprised by Joy. C.S. Lewis