{"id":1192,"date":"2016-06-30T13:47:20","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T19:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sixseeds.patheos.com\/watchinggod\/?p=1192"},"modified":"2016-06-30T13:47:20","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T19:47:20","slug":"batman-v-superman-has-issues-daddy-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman-has-issues-daddy-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Batman v Superman Has Issues: Daddy Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

OK, most of us agree\u00a0that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice<\/em> wasn\u2019t a great movie. But it was, at times, a surprisingly thoughtful one. And with the Zack Snyder-helmed superhero flick now available on a variety of streaming services this week, it\u2019s time to take a look at one thoughtful thread: The movie\u2019s recurring thoughts about fatherhood\u2014even when we\u2019re talking about the heavenly Father.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no coincidence that Christians call God our \u201cFather,\u201d after all. The Bible has loads of references to our creator as our Father. And according to some experts<\/a>, how we feel about our own, corporeal fathers has a huge impact on how we view religion. If you have a loving, caring dad who took you to church all the time, you\u2019ll tend to view God in the same light. Strict, taskmaster fathers tend to rear kids who have a very Old Testament view of God.<\/p>\n

In Batman v Superman<\/em>, we see that spiritual influence brought to bear in pretty significant ways. You could argue that it drives the entire story.<\/p>\n

Consider Superman, the optimist of Batman v Superman<\/em>. In Man of Steel<\/em>, Snyder spends quite a bit of time with both of the superhero\u2019s fathers: Jor-El is a distant-but-wise figure in Supes\u2019 life\u2014almost a God-like being who sends him to Earth and points him down the right path. \u201cYou will give the People of Earth an ideal to strive towards,\u201d Jor-El says. \u201cThey will rice behind you, they will stumble, they will fall. But in time, they will join you in the sun, Kal. In time you will help them accomplish wonders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"superman\"<\/p>\n

Jonathan Kent, his adopted father, was no less influential. He raised Superman\u2014now known as Clark Kent\u2014with his strong Midwestern values and a tireless sense of right and wrong. \u201cYou just have to decide what kind of a man you want to grow up to be, Clark; because whoever that man is, good character or bad, he\u2019s going to change the world.\u201d While it was slightly preposterous how and why Jonathan Kent sacrificed himself in Man of Steel<\/em>, it was thematically resonant\u2014important to the sacrificial Christ-like figure that Superman would become.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s very much that person in Batman v Superman<\/em>\u2014the hero who believes in justice and goodness, who has faith, both in himself and in humanity.<\/p>\n

Batman is a much different, much darker sort of superhero here. Batman v Superman<\/em> recaps his well-known origin story: Thomas and Martha Wayne, Bruce Wayne\u2019s parents, were gunned down in an alleyway when Bruce was just a child. Their tragic death spurred Bruce to start dressing like a bat to fight crime.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s clear that Bruce hasn\u2019t gotten over it yet. In Batman v Superman<\/em>, when the two heroes are at odds and beating each other to a brisket, the Dark Knight brings up their divergent upbringings and zings the Man of Steel with it<\/p>\n

\u201cI bet your parents taught you that you mean something, that you\u2019re here for a reason,\u201d he spits. \u201cMy parents taught me a different lesson, dying in the gutter for no reason at all \u2026 They taught me the world only makes sense if you force it to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"batman\"It may not seem like it at first blush, but this is a deeply spiritual statement. Whenever we say that we\u2019re here for a \u201creason,\u201d we\u2019re no longer in the realm of a purely scientific worldview, wherein evolution and chance rule the world. When used like this, words like \u201creason\u201d and \u201cpurpose\u201d point to a force\u2014a moral force\u2014that has plans for us. That wants <\/em>us to do certain things.<\/p>\n

This Batman\u2014as dark a Batman as we\u2019ve seen anywhere (and a far different Batman than I\u2019ve written about before<\/a>)\u2014rejects that sense of purpose. His father and mother are gone. And, for Batman, so is God and any sense of real, overarching meaning.<\/p>\n

But not only do we know how pivotal dads were in Batman and Superman\u2019s respective upbringings, we also know something about Lex Luthor\u2019s dad. He was abusive\u2014ruthlessly so. That abuse impacted Luthor\u2019s view of faith. \u201cNo man in the sky intervened when I was a boy to deliver me from daddy\u2019s fist and abominations,\u201d he tells Superman. \u201cI figured out way back if God is all-powerful, He cannot be all good. And if He is all good, then He cannot be all-powerful. And neither can you be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luthor was helpless under the \u201call-powerful\u201d force of his father. His view of God was warped by his upbringing. Without this understanding, Luthor\u2019s abject hatred for Superman is difficult to explain\u2014a plot hole. But with it, everything fits together. Luthor, because of his dad, can\u2019t embrace the God of Superman\u2014that loving, just sense of meaning. He can\u2019t simply dismiss God, as Batman has apparently done. No, he hates God and anything\u2014anyone\u2014that resembles Him. For Luthor, God and the devil might as well be one. And Superman is as close to divinity as he can get.<\/p>\n

\"lexOver and over, Luthor refers to his arch-enemy as a being from above \u2026 or below. \u201cDevils don\u2019t come from hell beneath us,\u201d he tells a senator. \u201cNo, they come from the sky.\u201d He tells Martha Wayne, Superman\u2019s earthly mother, that his son is a \u201cflying demon,\u201d and that she must therefore be a witch. He calls the conflict he manipulated between Batman and superman to be \u201cGod versus man; day versus night.\u201d \u201cAnd now God bends to my will!\u201d he exalts. And when it appears that his plan to pit Batman against Superman has failed, he unleashes a terrible monster\u2014an twisted abomination of another Kryptonian son. \u201cIf man won\u2019t kill God, the Devil will do it!\u201d he shouts.<\/p>\n

Batman v Superman<\/em> is, at its core, a spiritual story, and a surprisingly psychological one. While conflicts manifest in extraordinarily muscular ways\u2014fisticuffs and heat rays and kryptonite-tipped spears\u2014the conflicts began in the mind. In the soul. And in the formative first days, when fathers and families taught their sons some powerful lessons\u2014for good or for ill.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OK, most of us agree\u00a0that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice wasn\u2019t a great movie. But it was, at times, a surprisingly thoughtful one. And with the Zack Snyder-helmed superhero flick now available on a variety of streaming services this week, it\u2019s time to take a look at one thoughtful thread: The movie\u2019s recurring thoughts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2036,"featured_media":1193,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[365,3],"tags":[21,129,388,80,332,231],"class_list":["post-1192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors-choice","category-movies","tag-batman","tag-family","tag-fathers","tag-god","tag-superheroes","tag-superman"],"yoast_head":"\nBatman v Superman Has Issues: Daddy Issues<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"OK, most of us agree\u00a0that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice wasn't a great movie. But it was, at times, a surprisingly thoughtful one. And with the Zack\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman-has-issues-daddy-issues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Batman v Superman Has Issues: Daddy Issues\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OK, most of us agree\u00a0that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice wasn't a great movie. But it was, at times, a surprisingly thoughtful one. And with the Zack\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman-has-issues-daddy-issues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Watching God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-30T19:47:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/469\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul Asay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Paul Asay\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman-has-issues-daddy-issues\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman-has-issues-daddy-issues\/\",\"name\":\"Batman v Superman Has Issues: Daddy Issues\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-30T19:47:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-30T19:47:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#\/schema\/person\/b7d54df93630808a5dce9d242d5e0183\"},\"description\":\"OK, most of us agree\u00a0that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice wasn't a great movie. But it was, at times, a surprisingly thoughtful one. And with the Zack\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman-has-issues-daddy-issues\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman-has-issues-daddy-issues\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman-has-issues-daddy-issues\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Batman v Superman Has Issues: Daddy Issues\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/\",\"name\":\"Watching God\",\"description\":\"Finding faith with a box of popcorn.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#\/schema\/person\/b7d54df93630808a5dce9d242d5e0183\",\"name\":\"Paul Asay\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be136f94fadd74743ab6da681563930d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be136f94fadd74743ab6da681563930d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Paul Asay\"},\"description\":\"Paul Asay is an author, journalist and entertainment critic who now serves as a senior associate editor for the popular Christian entertainment review site Plugged In (pluggedin.com). He has been published in a variety of other secular and Christian publications, including The Washington Post, The Gazette in Colorado Springs, YouthWorker Journal and Beliefnet.com. He has a love of old movies, a disturbing affinity for bad ones and an appreciation for all things geek.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/author\/paulasay\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Batman v Superman Has Issues: Daddy Issues","description":"OK, most of us agree\u00a0that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice wasn't a great movie. But it was, at times, a surprisingly thoughtful one. And with the Zack","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman-has-issues-daddy-issues\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Batman v Superman Has Issues: Daddy Issues","og_description":"OK, most of us agree\u00a0that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice wasn't a great movie. But it was, at times, a surprisingly thoughtful one. And with the Zack","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman-has-issues-daddy-issues\/","og_site_name":"Watching God","article_published_time":"2016-06-30T19:47:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":480,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/469\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Paul Asay","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Paul Asay","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman-has-issues-daddy-issues\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman-has-issues-daddy-issues\/","name":"Batman v Superman Has Issues: Daddy Issues","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-06-30T19:47:20+00:00","dateModified":"2016-06-30T19:47:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#\/schema\/person\/b7d54df93630808a5dce9d242d5e0183"},"description":"OK, most of us agree\u00a0that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice wasn't a great movie. But it was, at times, a surprisingly thoughtful one. And with the Zack","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman-has-issues-daddy-issues\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman-has-issues-daddy-issues\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2016\/06\/batman-v-superman-has-issues-daddy-issues\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Batman v Superman Has Issues: Daddy Issues"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/","name":"Watching God","description":"Finding faith with a box of popcorn.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#\/schema\/person\/b7d54df93630808a5dce9d242d5e0183","name":"Paul Asay","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be136f94fadd74743ab6da681563930d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/be136f94fadd74743ab6da681563930d?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Paul Asay"},"description":"Paul Asay is an author, journalist and entertainment critic who now serves as a senior associate editor for the popular Christian entertainment review site Plugged In (pluggedin.com). He has been published in a variety of other secular and Christian publications, including The Washington Post, The Gazette in Colorado Springs, YouthWorker Journal and Beliefnet.com. He has a love of old movies, a disturbing affinity for bad ones and an appreciation for all things geek.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/author\/paulasay\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2036"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}