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Top 10 Season Two #2

posted by Matt Knicl at 12:24 am.

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Christian characters in modern comics are jokes. This can be debated, of course, but the general attitude towards these token characters tends to be hostile. The secular mindset prevails in most comics and gets the last word over Christians that may be in any given book. Other religions are another issue - non-Christian religions are usually respected, yet when secular or atheist negativity appears it is usually directed towards the Christians. Every once in awhile a writer will throw in what they feel is a genuine Christian character, you know to be nice to that minority, and it usually comes off as a flat representation of what people think Christians are.

courtesy DC

Alan Moore’s Top 10 was a fantastic series, not just because of the crazy homages to super hero and comic conventions, but because its characters where fully developed in the short time they were introduced. Peregrine is a super hero who flies using a wing suit, happily married to her husband, and a member of the Top 10 police force. She also happens to be Christian. Moore handles this character with respect, putting her in a faith questioning situation in the original comics, and reinforcing her beliefs even though Christianity is in disagreement with Moore’s practice of magic and belief in a Roman snake god.

Let’s jump forward to the first “sequel” to Top 10, Top 10: The Farthest Precinct. Here writer Paul Di Filippo was just mean to the character Peregrine. He has Peregrine see Jesus drunk in a bar, having been called in to deal with his disorderly conduct. This sends her into a faith questioning spiral that was handled without regard for the way Moore had already set up the character. Likewise, this recent issue of Top 10 Season Two, not written by Moore, has Peregrine’s husband cross dressing into other costumes, a socially unacceptable practice, especially for this conservative Christian. In fact, the couple goes to Premise Keepers, clearly a parody of the Christian men group, the Promise Keepers.

I can understand Di Filippo’s treatment of the character as an innocent attempt at challenging the character - all other characters in the series were challenged extremely in that series after all. But why then did two creative teams pick out Peregrine for s%$^ treatment? It’s not just that she’s being challenged, I mean, all characters need to be challenged, but it’s the way that she’s being challenged. Her faith and marriage are attacked in cruel ways, and she’s being punished for being Christian and conservative.

I look at Paul Cornell’s Captain Britain and MI: 13, where he has a Muslim woman who wears hijab named Faiza Hussain, the current bearer of the legendary sword Excalibur. Faiza is Muslim and that is addressed sometimes, but it is not the focal point of her character necessarily. Moore and Cornell show a deep maturity with these religious characters, They address religion as it fits character development, but never use it as a focal point for the entirety of the character. On CBR Cornell stated “I think superheroes are too prone to being standard bearers for whole communities.”

What is happening here is writers not being able to see past Peregrine’s religion and fail to treat her like a person. They see her as a conservative Christian stereotype, so she becomes one. And the fact that she is punished shows just how tolerant mainstream comics are of the non white male secular world - prescribe as needed.

Matt Knicl: My name is Matt Knicl. I'm a U of I alumn and one of those unemployed English majors Garrison Keillor likes to make fun of. I've been reading comics since high school and one day I would like to write them. My goal is to expose readers to what is out there in the world of comics and using my English powers, show what is worth reading or not. I can be reached at buzz.comics@gmail.com.