{"id":3293,"date":"2025-06-11T10:08:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T13:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/?p=3293"},"modified":"2026-09-27T17:48:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T20:48:25","slug":"divine-round-up-001","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/?p=3293","title":{"rendered":"DIVINE ROUND-UP 001"},"content":{"rendered":"

As long as we’re dipping into the aliens of comics, we might as well go all the way and dig out all the various gods etc that people have made up too. Comic book divinities fall into a few broad styles:<\/p>\n

-real objects or creatures worshipped animistically but which do not display any real divine power<\/p>\n

-idols, verbal invocations or other trappings of religious worship without any indication that the being being represented is really real<\/p>\n

-actual supernatural beings, including:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

–versions of actual deities<\/p>\n

–new additions to real-world pantheons <\/p>\n

–gods made up out of whole cloth<\/p>\n

Obviously there is some overlap between these categories. The idol that bestows curses or good luck, the invocation that does the same. Is a sacred tree an idol or animism or both? What if it delivers blessings on the faithful? <\/p>\n

The other<\/i> thing to mention about comic book representations or religion is that huge swathes of them are being presented through the triple lenses of Smug 40s Rationalism, Default Christianity and White Supremacy in a real racist trifecta. Barring the odd exception we’re going to see a lot of It’s Silly to Believe in a Non-Christian God<\/b> and All Non-Christian Religions are Actually Long Cons by Priestly Classes<\/b> along with some If There is a Real Entity Behind This Then They are Actually a Horrible Evil<\/b>. Plus a lot of elder god-monsters and culturally safe classical deities and so forth.<\/p>\n

So: on we go! <\/p>\n

the Guardian of the Grotto of Jewels<\/b>: <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

Though the Red Mask is the leader of some or all of the peoples of the island of Kakura, he doesn’t seem to have much regard for their culture (as befits a proper 1940s rationalist hero, I suppose), as in quick succession he a) brings a girl to the sacred Grotto of Jewels, b) gives her<\/i> some of the eponymous jewels and c) kills the grotto’s guardian god-monster with a boat. <\/p>\n

God-style: animistic worship of a real beast (Best Comics 001, 1939)<\/p>\n

Akrifa<\/b>: <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

Akrifa here is the god worshipped by the evil King Tongo. He’s some sort of fire god who Tongo does human sacrifice to, but before he really gets a chance after building Akrifa a shiny new temple, Ka\u00e4nga ends up smashing the idol to flinders and Tongo <\/i>is killed by an elephant. <\/p>\n

God-style: idol only (Jungle Comics 009, 1940)<\/p>\n

Ailus the Flamingo God<\/b>: <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

He may just be another idol that a hapless white lady almost gets sacrificed to to you, but Ailus the Flamingo God has a certain whimsy that is lacking in most of his ilk. <\/p>\n

God-style: idol (Jungle Comics 011, 1940)<\/p>\n

Baako<\/b>: <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

There’s not a lot of detail given here but who cares. Baako is a Martian<\/i> god, and you know I’m going to be into something like that. And just in case you need a bit more sauce to get excited about a Martian deity, this one was created by Jack Kirby!<\/p>\n

God-style: invoked (Crash Comics Adventures 003, 1940)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As long as we’re dipping into the aliens of comics, we might as well go all the way and dig out all the various gods etc that people have made up too. Comic book divinities fall into a few broad styles: -real objects or creatures worshipped animistically but which do not display any real divine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,5,99,406,218,1735,839,234,297,7,1668],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-69","category-5","category-fiction-house","category-god","category-kaanga","category-red-mask","category-solar-legion","category-standard-better-nedor","category-temerson","category-the","category-wambi-the-jungle-boy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3293"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3294,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3293\/revisions\/3294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theskeletoncurse.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}