Superheroes, Saints And Gods

No posts for the last few hours because I have been to see Captain America: Civil War. This film should be discussed on the Comics Appreciation blog so why mention it here? Because it has some formal parallels with the historical fiction tetralogy by Poul and Karen Anderson that we have been discussing.

Civil War is the latest installment of a long series featuring powerful characters that have attained modern mythological status. It stars superheroes and mentions the god Thor. The King Of Ys stars gods, saints and historical and legendary figures and also mentions Thor. Civil War presents a civil war between superheroes whereas Ys presents a civil war in the Roman Empire. In Civil War, the UN must cope with a steadily increasing number of dangerous superheroes and the challenges that they engender whereas, in Ys, the Empire responds inadequately to encroaching barbarians and strange gods. Magic works and miracles happen. Thus, witches and saints have the equivalent of super powers. The Witch Queens summon a storm and a saint walks on water. Superheroes fly, shrink, move at super speed etc.

In fact, there are more parallels than I realized when I started to write this post.