I have a suspicion that in light of Caitlin becoming a wolf sorceress on the Flash telly along with turning Bart Allen into a sorcerer and sending magic characters like Zatanna and Dr Fate to Hell (both of them are beloved by readers) and turning Barry Allen into a proxy for Dante Alighieri would make for a rather almost fundamentalist take on things. Especially if/when these happen along with Barry’s newfound religiosity makes it sometimes too unbearable for certain readers.
Ironically, DC never really shied away from religious references in Superman. Superman being quite obviously based on Moses with his cousin Supergirl standing in for Miriam especially in more recent stories. At some point when Supergirl herself got changed into somebody else, she ended up fusing with a lost young girl who seemed to be into dubious things. Afterwards the two became one and she ended up doing a lot of good.
For all its flaws, Peter Allan David’s take on Supergirl seemed very close to the Christian idea of salvation wherein the hapless human gets bonded to a supernatural character and starts life all over again. Even the atheist Gail Simone considered pitching a series where Cassandra Cain became a born again Christian. This is a character who wanted to undo her parents’ bad influence and her becoming Christian would’ve fit into it.
(As if Simone actually got it.)
The Flash becoming the place to recreate the Divine Comedy with seems like a far too logical conclusion to be ignored as well as properly updating it. It even makes sense as most superhero stories tend to take place in a world closely resembling the ones readers are used to and still are. This would make Barry’s newfound religiosity as well as Zatanna going to hell seem far too damning and too alarming. Even if these bear resemblance to Christian testimonies and mystical visions.
(The Divine Comedy’s sometimes considered one.)
Perhaps even more alarmingly, the Flash might even become a more religiously explicit version of Narnia. Especially when it comes to magicians, queers (Pied Piper, even Darryl Frye) and dog owners (the evil Caitlin Snow) being equally as suspect as actual criminals are and why even superheroes like Zatanna go to hell anyways. Which’s very in line with the Bible.
It’s not that Narnia’s not Christian but when it comes to Barry’s newfound religiosity and the like with Central City obviously resembling an actual city, it makes the Flash way too close to home by then for atheists. Nobody wants to see their favourite characters going to hell. Nobody wants to read up on Barry’s conversion to Christianity or his own grandson Bart dabbling in magic with Caitlin.
All of these are shocking, even moreso than Narnia. Not that Narnia’s bad but that the Flash’s brand of Christianity’s so explicit as to be naked. (You know, sorcerers and dogs being as unwanted as queers and criminals are even if dogs are relatively more ambiguous by being more useful.) It’s not that Narnia will be forgotten but that the Flash might become the foremost Christian speculative work ever produced and even moreso as it uses familiar characters.
Which makes its shock value about as credible as saying Princess Diana’s in hell.
fynm 