Page - 126 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 03/01

126 | Ken Derry et al. www.jrfm.eu 2017, 3/1, 123–155 Puckett, a self-proclaimed Marvel nerd, agreed to the session, which came to feature six scholars from several groups within the AAr in addition to rfVC: Anthropology of Religion; Black Theology; Critical Approaches to Hip-Hop and Religion; and Religion and Popular Culture. Many of the participants had never encountered one another before, and so the roundtable became an opportu- nity to cross disciplinary lines, to bring together a diverse range of voices and perspectives, and to meet some seriously excellent people. The diversity of our roundtable panel fit well with one of our broad criti- cal aims, which was to demonstrate that there are many ways to think about religion and popular culture. One starting point is to ask where and when we see what might be commonly understood as “religious tradition(s)” explicitly on display. regarding superhero narratives, this question invites us to analyze ostensibly religious images and tropes in various media incarnations including comics, film, and television. Such analysis could include, for instance, identifying characters modeled on religious archetypes, such as Jewish messianic figures, Buddhist arhats, or Anishinaabe tricksters. it could also include allusions to reli- gious texts such as the Qur’an, the Bhagavad Gita, or the Bible. Another direction we might take would be to think about superhero narra- tives themselves as “religious” in some way. following after theorists such as Jonathan Z. smith, talal Asad, and tomoko Masuzawa, if we regard “religion” as a conceptual tool that scholars use to categorize and thereby better under- stand particular dimensions of human experience, we can begin to recognize the ways in which superhero narratives (and the worlds they create) may serve some of the functions typically reserved for “the religious”.3 this hermeneutic can illuminate aspects of such narratives that might otherwise go unnoticed. this article takes a variety of approaches to understanding religion in rela- tion to Luke Cage (2016). Doing so highlights the polysemic nature of popular culture in general, and of superhero stories in particular. Like religious traditions themselves, the show is complex and contradictory: it is both progressive and reactionary; emphasizes community and valorizes an individual; critiques and endorses Christianity; subverts and promotes violence. Depending on the ques- tions you ask, Luke Cage (2016) provides many, many different answers. “seNsAtiONAL OriGiN issUe!” the character of Luke Cage was created in 1972 by two white men, Archie Good- win and John Romita, Sr., in the spirit of the Blaxpoitation films of the time. He first appeared in Luke Cage, Hero For Hire #1 (fig. 2), written by Goodwin and Roy thomas, and drawn by George tuska. Born Carl Lucas, Luke is framed by his old 3 Smith 1982; see also Asad 1993; Masuzawa 2005.