Full disclosure: I have done it too.
Is this caused by a lack of creativity? Perhaps its just a natural path that Christian comic artists will go through.
In life, I find the most overt Christians are typically hippocrates. For example the speeder that ran me off the road, with the bumper sticker "Jesus is my co-pilot". Another example: The loud Christian co-worker with the jean jacket with more Christian patches then you have time to read at work, but he is also known as a liar. Calling out sick, but posting vacation pictures on his FB page demonstrating clearly where he was.
My point is that this overt passive symbolism seems like a shield for liars and hypocrites, and people know it. So as people that trade on iconography (see: Understanding Comic by Scott McCloud) do we raise similar hackles on the back of reader necks when we do this?
On the other hand, the most sincere Christians I have met don't have stickers and patches. You know they are Christians by their behavior. Can we play more subtle, or are we stuck with the overt? Don't get me wrong the Gospel can only be conveyed overtly, but a bumper sticker is not the Gospel. Icons are not the Gospel. Can we be overt when we have them firmly in the grasp of the story?
I know this will open me to scolding, but I hope that perhaps this might be a good conversation to have.
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This is a great question, I personally don't like most of the"Christian" comics that I have seen. One reason is what you said with the hero being superman with a cross. Another reason is that the comics are poorly done.(I know that there are some good comics out there.)
The problem with comics is that we are overwhelmed with superheroes that everyone thinks that is what comics are about, so to be Christian the comic needs its superhero to get his power from God and fight against demons. That in my opinion is a recipe for failure. We try to blend outreach with entertainment.
If we want comics to be an outreach than make it a good one and give glory to God.
If we want comics to be entertainment than make it a good one and give glory to God.
I think you make some good point @Sven Jacobs. I had similar thoughts when watching the last Superman movie. People want a Superman, but they reject the humility of the God man Jesus Christ.
Okay, so is it possible to create a humble superhero? Other genres pull this off. I'm thinking Chronicles of Narnia. Although I suppose someone may argue that Aslan might suffer from some of that.
Perhaps the story of Billy Baxter might offer a pattern. He receives his powers from the gods in a subterranean chamber far from public eyes. Of course that's where any similarity ends. I think Captain Marvel stopped being much of a moralist right along with the comics industry. Not that he was ever represented those pagan gods, the way some of these superheroes try to represent Christ.
Then again perhaps they shouldn't even try, but rather struggle with the same desires and temptations of all men.
Interesting ...thinking through this helps a lot...
In my opinion, the problem is Christian superheroes in general. On the one hand, you have the Son of God stripped of His full glory, meek in countenance, washing his followers' feet and likening Himself to both a lamb and some hillside shepherd. On the other, you have some ornately dressed man or woman with ultrapotential abilities flying around with a cape. And that the former somehow relates to the latter thematically or in spirit is silly. That people can critique the Catholic church for venerating the saints or liberals for barraging Obama with hero-worship, and then draw superheroes we can appeal to as liaisons for God, seems inherently contradictory.
But as to your point - I think what people find bothersome about the crosses and other symbols isn't the hypocrisy they perceive, but how hokey and trite it is. I think a person meant to embody a complex historical system of belief like Christianity (through symbols and sashses) cheapens what they are meant to represent...
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