MARVEL Movies and the Creed: Defend, Guard, Protect and Avenge

By Rev. Ted Giese

There’s only one God, Ma’am, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.

This sarcastic remark by Captain America in Avengers: Avengers Assemble probably took some movie viewers by surprise. After all, there doesn’t seem to be too much public expression of faith in God in the entertainment industry. As Christians, “We worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity ... For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Holy Spirit is another,” 1 as we say in the Athanasian Creed. However, one of the best ways to keep all of this straight is to learn, mark and inwardly digest the more concise Apostles’ Creed. It’s direct, to the point and easy to memorize. You confess it with your congregation, it’s one of the six chief parts of the Catechism that you are studying or have studied during confirmation classes, and Dr. Luther in the Small Catechism suggests that you include it in your daily prayer life, along with the Lord’s Prayer at the beginning and close of each day. The Apostles’ Creed is an amazing summary of our faith, confessed for centuries.

It’s one thing to have this Creed memorized and to understand it, but what’s the point of learning something if you never apply it to anything? It would be like learning math and then never solving an equation. I know some of you would rather skip math altogether but I guarantee you it’s not a good idea to skip solving equations any more than you should skip applying your faith to the world in which you live.

There are the serious situations to which we apply our faith, but there are also times when we engage in the gift of entertainment, like watching movies (something I enjoy greatly). As with books, music, or any kind of art, production film makers are busy trying to express ideas to you—ideas you might find entertaining or thought provoking, interesting, or boring. In light of that, as you watch movies in the incredibly popular superhero genre of movies, in particular MARVEL movies, there is a place for analyzing these flicks through the lens of the Creed. Doing so gives us practice in learning to confess what is true and what isn’t about the faith we believe. So in the case of the character of Captain America, when he says to Black Widow, after Thor appears on the scene, “There’s only one God, Ma’am, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that,” the God that Captain America is talking about is the true God—the one you and I confess in the Apostles’ Creed. That’s a curious thing to have pop up in a super hero movie nowadays, isn’t it? Something worth thinking about, perhaps?

The character of Steve Rogers grew up in the 1920s and 30s and therefore is far more likely to share the Christian faith of your great-greatgrandparents. If you recall, he’s a man out of time in a world gone mad. He feels greatly out of place at times, but let’s face it, don’t you as well? Even in many Christian circles, adhering to a creed of any kind is seen as “too religious.”

In addition to Steve Roger’s remark above, the terms “god” or “gods” get tossed around a lot in the MARVEL movies. In Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) Hawkeye’s wife, Laura Barton, says to her husband, “I see you with the Avengers, and, well ...” Hawkeye replies, “You don’t think they need me?” Tenderly she tells him, “Actually, I think they do. They’re gods, and they need you to keep them down to earth.” Steve Rogers would be the first to say he’s no god. And while the Avengers are powerful and fight to defend, guard and protect people against evil, they are not all-powerful, all-knowing, or all-present. They have limitations.

Then you have the MARVEL characters who are based on the gods of Norse mythology. There are the Asgardians like Thor, his adopted brother, Loki, and their father, Odin. Within the MARVEL movies they are still only creatures; none of them are depicted as being the Creator, nor are they presented as omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent. So in the first article of the Creed when we Lutherans confess, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,” it’s good to remember that none of the Asgardians even claim this role as their own. Loki, in the first Avengers film, talks about how humans were “made to be ruled,” but he doesn’t claim to have made them himself. Even Odin, the All-Father, in Thor: The Dark World (2013) makes no personal claim on creation; while talking to his adopted son Loki he says, “We are not gods! We’re born, we live, we die, just as humans do.”

The reason MARVEL’s movies are so very powerful and attractive is because they appeal to our deep need to have a hero (a Savior, if you will). We love the idea of rescue and redemption. Do you recall when Thor “died” and redemption stepped in and he was able to regain his powers and deal with Loki? That pivotal part of Thor engaged that very appeal, but it is merely a shadow of the One who truly conquered death for us: Jesus.

As the Creed expresses, we believe that Jesus lived and died just as humans do (without sin), but that death was not the final word for Jesus because He did not remain dead after His crucifixion and three days in the tomb. “He rose again from the dead,” and, “ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.” The Creed teaches that Jesus was uniquely “conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary,” and we confess that the Son of God is eternal, having neither beginning or ending. In the book of Revelation Jesus says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty” (Revelation 1:8 ESV). This Jesus we acknowledge in the Creed was given to you by God the Father as a gift in His incarnation. Jesus gives Himself to you as a gift at the cross and in His Supper, and the Holy Spirit gives Jesus to you as a gift in your faith made sure by your Baptism. When compared to the stories told in the MARVEL films it’s clear that characters like Thor and Odin can’t begin to measure up to Jesus and the Father as found in Holy Scripture and confessed in the Creed, even if aspects of them shadow the One True Savior.

So when movies, TV, art, music or books talk about God, or gods, it’s fair to ask, “Does this fit with what I believe and confess?” Be encouraged! You can use the Creed as a jumping off point to evaluate practically anything. Use it to compare, to contrast, to examine the thing you’re looking at, whatever it might be, and when it comes to the MARVEL films, regardless of what they throw at you, know that you can heartily agree with Steve Rogers,”There’s only one God, Ma’am, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.”

Rev. Ted Giese is the associate pastor of Mount Olive Lutheran Church in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada; a contributor to KFUO-AM Radio, The Canadian Lutheran and Reporter/Reporter Online; and movie reviewer for the Issues, Etc. radio program. You can follow Pastor Giese on Twitter @RevTedGiese.

1 Athanasian Creed - Lutheran Service Book, Concordia Publishing House 2006, Pg 319 verses 4-5.