Like I've said in the past these lists every week are for the most part inspired by things happening in the New 52 that week, or something going on in my own life. Well I was asked recently by friends to officiate over their wedding and in order to do so last Saturday I became a ordained Minister. Yeah it's a bit crazy because religion normally gives me the wigs, but for a friend I'll do almost anything. So I got to thinking this week about how religion normally is something I don't ever want to be apart of, but in comics I love the characters that are connected to the Judeo-Christian god and even others. So for this list I don't want really devout religious people claiming how there is only one god, because that list would suck and I don't want you pressuring me into making a sucky list. So leave you're misconceptions about god at the door, and put on your superhero cape because we're entering the world of superheroes and the gods that encompass that world. Besides I'm the Minister here, so trust me and this week's Top 5 list as we explore the Top 5 DC Comics Characters Connected To God. Let's check it out.
#5. Shazam and Black Adam
Now these two characters are so similar that they get equal share of spot #5. I told you we would be exploring more than a one god system here, and I can't think of any better way to start off the list than by exploring the many gods, demigods, titans, heroes, and kings that lend their power to this hero, and anti-hero. For Shazam's powers he gets the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury. As for his counter part Black Adam, he receives his gifts from the Egyptian Gods of his time. The stamina of Shu, the swiftness of Heru, the strength of Amon, the wisdom of Zehuti, the power of Aton, and the courage of Mehen. I could spend all day researching all those Egyptian gods, but it's my job to supply the list the rest is up to you. So as you can see without the different gods, and god like figures these two wouldn't even create a blip on our super hero/villain radar, and the world would be a sadder place. With any luck you guys and gals out there in interwebs land will do the reading, and get interesting in these characters so I can eventually get a Shazam book. Yeah it's for purely selfish reasons.
#4. Phantom Stranger
I guess you can say this is a no brainer, because without "God" or "The Presence" as we like calling him, the Phantom Stranger really wouldn't have anything to do, except skulk around all Stranger like. Of course I'm talking about the New 52 re-imagining of the character and not the original version who seemed to be completely devoid of a true origin story. No for the one we're talking about he gets the pleasure? Burden? He gets something for being the betrayer of the lamb himself, Judas Iscariot. For his betrayal of Christ, the Council of Eternity cursed him to forever walk the Earth as a stranger and a witness to man's greed. Eventually though Phantom Stranger would begin work towards redemption as "The Presence" would use the Stranger as a tool to betray people towards his grand design. Each time the Stranger works towards "The Presence's" design one of his pieces of silver that are kept around his neck fall off, and once they are all gone the Stranger can begin to find peace from the ultimate betrayal he committed against his lord. It's not the 90's anymore but I guess we can still call Phantom Stranger a tool. But a tool for god.
#3. Wonder Woman
I'd say being a demigod yourself is a pretty good way to earn a spot on this list. After the New 52 reboot we were all surprised to find the once confusing, and always changing origin of Wonder Woman had finally been nailed down to her being the daughter of the big Greek King of the gods himself, Zeus. If that wasn't enough to grant her the spot, her title is completely driven by her interactions with the gods and demigods of the DC Universe and is actually the God of War herself at this time. I guess if you didn't know any better you'd say that "Man she should be given the top spot!", but you'd be wrong simply for the fact that I decided against it. If you don't want to get all involved with the whole DC Universe when you dive into comics but you love Greek mythology, then you should really be reading Wonder Woman's title because for the most part it's completely separate from the rest of super heroics going on in Prime-Earth. But I'm a completionist and that really just means that after a month of comics I'm really poor. Let's move on and see what other gods we can talk about. Oh it's just that one again.
#2. The Spectre and Eclipso
How much closer to connected to god do you need? For all you Christians out there we're looking at the right hand of god, the spirit of vengeance themselves The Spectre and Eclipso. For those of you who don't know Eclipso was the original wrath of god before he became corrupted, encased in the heart of darkness diamond, and replaced by the wrathful loving Spectre we all know and love. One of the tasks performed by Eclipso when he was the right hand man of the big guy upstairs was creating the flood that would lead to Noah's story. As for Spectre, his big achievement that landed him in the book that people take too literally was the slaying of all the first born children of Egypt. Oh yeah the wrath is high with these two, but don't worry like so many before and after them it was all in the name of god. Good God Y'all! But as far as characters go, I'm not a fan of Eclipso but hope that we get a bunch more of my boy Spectre and all his vengeance in the new series in October Trinity Of Sin.
#1. Highfather and Darkseid
I'm going to be leaning towards the New 52 origins for this section mainly for the fact that the New Gods have been one of the biggest confusions of my life next to manual transmissions and women. When these two characters began their journey to New Godhood they were simple farmers. Darkseid known as Uxas then, hated the gods that everyone feared and prayed to. Eventually his hate led him to climb to their mountain home, and like the serpent in Eve planted a suggestion into one of the god's ears while they were sleeping. This led to a massive war among the gods, where Darkseid would wait until they were weak and then kill them usurping their power. Eventually Darkseid killed all the gods except for the lord of the sky who knew his time was up, and as his final act he bestowed his powers onto Highfather. Now with all the gods dead except for the newly fashioned New Gods Highfather tried to reason with Darkseid that they could create a better world, but Darkseid with all his hate split the world in half. Eventually the one half would become Apokolips and the other New Genesis. So as you can see I left the #1 spot for the characters that actually became gods themselves. With a bit of reading from Darkseid's villain month issue and a couple issues of Wonder Woman you too can become not so confused by the characters that inhabit the Fourth World.
That's all I've got for you this week and if you're not one for the whole religion thing (which I understand because I'm not either) don't worry about it because we're talking about the DC Universe and as we've seen since we were children anything goes there. So any god you want to believe in or not believe in has a place in that Universe we call our free time home. Hope you enjoyed the list and as always if you have a selection to the list you feel I missed let me know so I can look at it and wonder how the hell I ever missed that one. See you again in a week where maybe I'll have something new and crazy going on in my life that can inspire a list, but I really hope it's just something to do with comics. You guys are getting to know me too well.
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