A pagan Christ figure

Mrs. Curmudgeon may recall the anticipation and trepidation with which I looked forward to Superman Returns in 2006. I so wanted to be wowed by a big-screen Superman, but suspected it would be impossible to make a real human being, interacting with other human beings, take on the larger-than-life image the character requires in order to be successful. I knew that could easily be pulled off with the visual language of a comic book, but probably not in a film. Sadly, I was correct.

Interestingly, other film superheroes have been more successful. Batman, entirely human, is also entirely believable clad in what amounts to body armor. Equally successful have been the recent spate of Marvel superhero movies. Perhaps this is because Marvel's heroes have always been very human and entirely fallible; it hasn't hurt that computer graphics have become virtually indistinguishable from reality to the untrained eye. At any rate, I thoroughly enjoyed the Iron Man and Captain America movies; since they were obviously setting up this summer's Avengers, I figured I should also watch Thor before seeing the biggest hit of the season (thus far).

So it was I sat down with the curmudgelings with a rental copy of the Kenneth Branagh-directed (yes, that Kenneth Branagh) feature. The Norse gods came off as thoroughly believable, and although I've never once felt the urge to buy a Thor comic book, I found him a sympathetic character on film, and, for a deity, believably human. The really interesting bit came at the film's climax (SPOILER ALERT!). Thor was banished from Asgard by Odin for arrogance, divested of his power and, most importantly, the mighty hammer Mjolnir; now his brother Loki (the Norse god of mischief) has sent a really scary creature to kill him and anyone associated with him. In order to save fellow Asgardians and a group of American research scientists he's befriended, Thor presents himself to the creature to be killed. With this, his divine powers and Mjolnir are restored to him, and Thor proceeds to, well, you know where it goes from here. Thor's greatest glorification comes only after he's gone down the path of humiliation.

Only the American comic book tradition, I think, could turn a pagan Norse god into a Christ figure, because only a Christian literary imagination would find humiliation-before-glorification an intuitive character arc. This may be where Superman Returns failed. Though its Superman was clearly a messianic figure, he was only ever glorious and almighty. Only a lesser, entirely human deity like Thor could do the hard work of earning his glorification, a work which we always demand of our heroes.