(those creatures that, above all else, superheroes are bent on destroying) are not arbitrary or mindless. Michel Foucault, a French philosopher and social theorist, claimed that “there are monsters on the prowl whose form changes with the history of knowledge.” Monsters capture the pulse of history’s movement and a society’s reconciliation with difference. Think of dynamic duo of Jessie Pinkman and Walter White in Breaking Bad. Or the presence of vampires and zombies who far outweigh the likes of the superhero in popular books, films, and sitcoms. Or even consider the lovable monsters in Monsters, Inc. and Despicable Me. Villains and monsters are mediating our very human relationships with the other, whether that other is our spouse, our classmate, or our gay neighbor. We live our most personal, most psychological, and most theological questions through the creation of monsters. While Superman continues to wear the same red cape and Batman will always respond to the Bat Signal, monsters and villains are much more dynamic, complex, and interesting characters. Like Foucault says, our monsters change with culture, and therefore, will tell us a lot more about ourselves and our world than their nemeses. Christian tradition reminds us that Jesus consistently shows up in the face of the stranger (Matthew 25, the Good Samaritan, the list could go on. I think we are putting flesh on the stranger by how we dress up our monsters. Sufjan Stevens hauntingly reminds us in his song about John Wayne Gacy, Jr., that when we look beneath the floorboards, when we undress our monsters, when we come face-to-face with the other, we will discover that even in our best behavior, we are really just like them. We project our fears of difference and insecurities of stranger onto monsters only to discover ourselves captured inside them.
Morrison concludes that “We love our superheroes because they refuse to give up on us. We can analyze them out of existence, kill them, ban them, mock them, and still they return, patiently reminding us of who we are and what we wish we could be” but regardless of who we wish we could be, I think it’s time to start seeing ourselves in those villains and monsters that we are so quick destroy. Who knows, we may otherwise find ourselves contending with the very presence of Jesus himself.
SAMANTHA CURLEY