An Unexpected Journal

What Makes a Superhero?

Superheroes captivate our cultural imagination. From reading comic books in our childhood bedrooms to watching the latest blockbuster on the silver screen, we long to see the champion defeat the villain and ultimately rescue the world from certain destruction. Though the stories may be fantastical, our desires are not. Our hearts are drawn to superheroes because we want someone to triumph over evil and save the world. This issue of An Unexpected Journal proposes that just maybe our desires have already been fulfilled.

ContributorsJesse W. Baker: "The Power of Weakness" on Questions of Violence
Donald W Catchings, Jr.: "He Will Rise" on Nolan's Salvific Themes
Annie Crawford: "Super-Women and the Price of Power" on Gendered Superheroes
Joseph Holmes: "Superhero Moves Are Worship, Not Theme Parks" on the Attraction of Superhero Movies
Christy Luis: "Ex-Cult Member Saved by Grace" on the Dangers Of False Heroes
Jason Monroe: "Answering Joker's Dark-Knight-Defying Anarchy"
on Competing Worldviews
Seth Myers: "Global Superheroes from the Disneyverse and Studio Ghibli" on Heroism Manifested around the World; "Once a Prince or Princess: MacDonald's Moral Superheroines and Heroes in the Princess Tales" on Ordinary Heroic Actions; and "Planets, Poetry, and the Power of Myth in Halo and Destiny" on the Apologetic Power of Video Games
Annie Nardone: "Just a Sidekick?" on the Importance of Support
Cherish Nelson: "Person or Persona: What's Inside the Spider-Verse?" on Plantinga's Conception of the Multiverse
Megan Joy Rials: "Diana Prince, Apologist? Salvation and the Great Commission in Wonder Woman" on an Unlikely Apologist
Jason M. Smith: "Worth Reading" on Some Good Starting Points
James M. Swayze: "Superheroes, Saviors, and C.S. Lewis" on Epic, Myth, and Human Longings
John P. Tuttle: "Humility Contra Pride as Represented in Thor (2011)" on the Superiority of Virtue
Clark Weidner: "Faith on Trial in Frank Miller's Daredevil Comics" on Questions of the Greater Good


About the Cover
We are all looking for a hero, someone to battle monsters that threaten. A hero can battle the monsters without, but only the Superhero can conquer the monster within.

An Unexpected Journal
Summer 2021
Volume 4, Issue 2
300 pages