The Boys
The Boys is a comic series set in a world where superheroes are corrupt, greedy, selfish, and - frankly - human. They are liable to misconduct in many ways. When they step out of line, "The Boys" take them down a notch.
Annie January, a.k.a. "Starlight", is a superheroine in this universe, and surprisingly, she's one of the few characters who (at least at the start of the series) has her morals intact. She grew up Christian and stayed true to her beliefs, but with her introduction to "The Seven", the premier hero team in America, she is forced to grapple with what she believes about the world. She finds herself questioning if God is even real, and if so, why would He test her with the things she faces? Eventually, she determines that God was never testing her, and the challenges she faced were brought on by her own ambition.
In a strange sort of way, Annie is half correct. God did not test her with the trials she faced, and the things that have come to pass have been the result of her ambition. However, where Annie falls off track is that her conclusion that her own ambition led her astray causes her to conclude that God is not real at all.
Now, there are arguments and conversations and monologues I could offer about how her conclusion and reasoning are fallacious, but frankly, I'm more concerned about the way that faith itself is depicted here. Jesus becomes a silent statue, a non-entity - an empty religious symbol. Essentially, the comic quietly delivers the message: God is not real.
I'm frustrated by this because this depiction is so overtly anti-Christian, while simultaneously making no overt assaults against it. It just quietly depicts a Christian girl losing her moral standards and faith, drawing the conclusion that God is not real, and Jesus is the target they paint for that conclusion.
The Boys became an Amazon Prime series this year, which means high visibility for the storyline. This particular story arc doesn't seem to be featured, but the Starlight character still is, and the series will likely draw attention to the source material, which means that conversations can be had about the depiction of Christ in the comics and the truth of who Christ actually is. Unfortunately, it may be necessary to introduce this corrupted perspective of who Christ is in order to start the conversation, but the truth of Christ is far better. What began as a corrupted view of Christ may yet be redeemed as an opportunity for truth to be spread.
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