Religion
Related: About this forumDennis O誰eil: Iron Man Is A What???
by Dennis O'Neilon
January 31, 2013 at 8:00 am
So there I am, about to do a column themed to last Sundays episode of The Good Wife, when the telephone rings. Its my main DNA-sharer and in the course of the ensuing chat, I mention the column idea and while we talk he does a Google search and egad! the digital oracle indicates that my premise is wrong.
Thank whatever benevolence caused Larry to call when he did, even if that benevolence is, in this instance, blind coincidence, because I really dislike being ignorant in print.
What I was going to impart to you is that on the aforementioned television program, a quiet revolution occurred. The title character, who is admirable and capable and sympathetic, came out of the ecclesiastical closet and pronounced herself an atheist. My thesis: with non-Caucasian and gay characters pretty common on the tube these days, the last barrier is the religious one. Your hero can be black or gay or female, I might have written, but your hero can not be a non-believer. Same is true in politics (I might have asserted): though the battle is not yet over, and Im certainly not claiming that it is, race and gender no longer automatically preclude election to high office. But I cant think of a single poobah who proclaims his atheism the way Mike Huckabee and Paul Ryan, to name just two of many, proclaim their Christianity. There may be the odd office holder here and there willing to deny faith in the almighty, as the great Senator Barney Frank denied heterosexuality, but they are emphatically in the minority.
But, alas, the revolution I was about to claim for The Good Wife didnt happen. Rather, its been happening for a while now. Larrys Google search revealed that there are at least 17 atheist characters on series television and here comes the shocker! nine in comic books. Among them is a fella I thought I knew pretty well because, for three years or so,I was his chief biographer. Tony Starks the name, and Iron Mans the game.
http://www.comicmix.com/columns/2013/01/31/dennis-oneil-iron-man-is-a-what/
I hold out hope for Aquaman.
Gidney N Cloyd
(19,834 posts)Pab Sungenis
(9,612 posts)And if he says Iron Man is an atheist, then it's (forgive me) the Gospel Truth.