WARNING: If you have not yet seen Man of Steel, stop right now, bookmark this post and come back after you've seen the movie. There are spoilers below.
Our Saturday morning local paper had an article about the allegory between Jesus and Superman. It was intriguing. I would post a link to this story, but it was picked up from another newspaper, so it wasn't on the newspaper website. I did find some other articles, and I'll post the links at the end of this blog post.
Our family went to see Man of Steel over the weekend. I decided to see if I saw the allegories that the article mentioned. I found even more allegories than those mentioned in the article.
The Kryptonian surname "El" means God in Hebrew. Clark's Kryptonian name, Kal-El, means "voice of God" or "vessel of God" in Hebrew. As Moses' mother sends Moses down the Nile in a basket made of reeds to save him, Jor-El (God the Father) sends Kal-El (God the Son) to Earth in a spaceship so that he will live. Jor-El even says about Kal-El, "He will be as a god to them." Interestingly, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman, were Jewish.
Like Jesus, Clark had two fathers, a heavenly father and an earthly father. While roaming in Alaska, Clark ends up in the Fortress of Solitude, which is not referred to as such, but those familiar with the Superman story will recognize it. Jor-El appears to his son as a ghost (Holy Spirit) and tells his son of his destiny. Lois Lane follows Clark into the Fortress and a Kryptonian robot attacks Lois. Clark heals her with his laser vision, and Jesus healed the sick in the Gospels.
Zod shows up with his minions and wants to conquer Earth. Clark is unsure as to what to do. He goes into a church to talk to a priest. During this scene, Clark is standing next to a stained glass window depicting Jesus as the Good Shepherd. That was an allegory that couldn't be missed!
Superman gave himself up to Zod to save mankind. Jesus died on the cross to save the world from sin. Superman was 33 years old and Jesus was 33 when He was crucified. And the epic battle between Zod and Superman reminded me of the battle of good and evil. And of course, good always wins.
Did you see the movie and see any Superman-Jesus references I missed? Please post them below. As promised, here are the links to the articles:
From Breibart.com: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2013/06/15/Man-of-steelfilled-with-christ-references
From Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/06/14/man-steel-filled-with-jesus-christianity-references/
From Metro (warning: some language here): http://metro.co.uk/2013/06/11/man-of-steel-the-top-20-reasons-why-superman-is-jesus-3837465/
From First Post: http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/movie-review-man-of-steel-an-attempt-to-create-a-modern-jesus-christ-873371.html
Thanks for reading! See you next time!
Diane
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