Books

‘A New Gnosis’ assesses superheroes as modern mythology

A collection of scholarly essays.

June 19, 2023

Comic books are inescapable. Whether it’s through movies, TV shows, or the wacky and cosmically complex world of the books themselves, all of our modern lives have been subject to them in one way or another. Many people have thus questioned whether or not comic books are more than just stories of romance and intrigue, that they could be the next bridges into mythology and spirituality within the modern world its cultures that now dominate the world of today.

A New Gnosis: Comic Books, Comparative Mythology, and Depth Psychology is an academic collection that digs deep into these new questions that we’ve all had, and breaks them down into a thought-provoking and digestible series of essays.

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Edited by David M. Odorisio, A New Gnosis asks the humorous question” Do Gods wear spandex?” in an intelligent way that reflects similarly built academic essays of the past. Each chapter, written by various professors and researchers, showcases their personal findings and the religious and belief structures hidden within comic books of the past, with characters and pieces such as Batman in John Todd’s The Shadow of the Bat: Batman as Archetypal Shaman and Craig Chaquist’s Dreaming the Myth Onward: Comic Books as Contemporary Mythologies. The collection throws us into a spot that creates the idea of urban mythologies and how that fits into our everyday lives spiritually.

Many people pride themselves in the metaphysical aspects of mythology and apply wisdom from it in their everyday lives. While the lenses of older sources of mythology are still sought out, the modern society takes heed in the heroes and villains of the cosmic and often wacky worlds of comic books and their various adaptations. Heroes such as Star-Lord and Swamp-Thing hold origins that are tied deeply within plays of mythology and religion to sculpt and mold a character in ways that fundamentally bring light to these questions about comic books and their origins.

'A New Gnosis' assesses superheroes as modern mythology

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But if you’re looking for something that answers your questions about comic books and mythology, A New Gnosis may not be entirely for you. Each academic piece gathers its thoughts and presents them well, like how Odosirio opens the collection with an observation of his own, expressing how Christianity and religion hold the key to many grand cosmic stories and the mystical side of comics, but it leaves you asking more questions than receiving answers. This is more trying to form your own viewpoint of urban mythology and how that shapes your life and the comic book fiction you read.

Many essays in A New Gnosis make a complex observation on the comics medium as a whole, as the authors look across their own favorite characters or the mystical errors of more racy stories and their often offensive and bigoted interpretations of culturally embedded mythology as a key to understanding how comics fit as, what many believe, the modern equivalent of Greek storytelling. This is beautifully addressed in Yvonne Chireau’s From Horror To Heroes: Mythologies of Graphic Voodoo in Comics, which exemplifies the greatest strength the collection has — that it leaves no space unexamined.

A New Gnosis understands its place in a more academic setting, with layers of research and analysis that goes into the world of “modern Gnosticism.” As the essays encourage you to understand your own beliefs and values on the subject, I found myself agreeing with the complex world of Odorisio’s writings and Todd’s primal writings for Bruce Wayne because, as the book comes to a close, the reader’s curious eye becomes more consumed with the realizations that comic books are mythological through the lack of spiritualism in modern day society.

Comic books act almost like a spiritualist’s supplement. People’s passions for the chaotic landscape of comics slowly grows to reflect personal observations of religion and culture, as comics have built themselves on old religious ideas. Heroes are blessed by Gods to be powerful protectors of the world, and they experience what Odorisio coins a “zapping,” when they’re able to take themselves to new heights of spiritual awareness. Comics aren’t necessarily proper replacements for religion and mythology, but they’re almost certainly a fictional vitamin, a step into understanding a broader field. It takes a long-time fan to seek a deeper connection to their own spiritualism and the spiritualism hidden deep inside their favorite characters.

Characters like Star-Lord, from the original Marvel Preview days, hold themselves together through the frustrations and uncertainty that come with being chosen by God or a god. His “zapping” meant great purpose as it does to every other cosmic body in the Marvel universe. Peter Quill reflects the spiritual struggles of many in the real world, which lends itself to the love that people grow to for these heroes. Spiritualism and the journeys that people and fictional heroes find themselves on are hugely influenced by the emotions and evolution one goes through. A character is never the same as they were before or after their blessing or spiritual journey, providing the greatest strength for comic books as modern mythology: relatability.

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As I kept reading and understanding many of what the writer’s observations were, I realized that A New Gnosis is a spectacularly expansive book. Odosirio’s editing and selection of essays lends itself to the educational structure presented in the collection. A New Gnosis holds itself up as a must-read for those curious about how the largest and most important minds of the mythological look at comic books, and how they would hold up in the future as our societies grow beyond the mythologies of their past and slowly shape into the colorful and mythically inspired world of comics.