Whose imagination is not stirred by the idea of having superhuman strength? Stories like the Hulk delighted me as a boy and still excite me today. (cheesy computer animation aside)
My comic books (Hulk, Spiderman and Thing, the rest were too scary)were full of tales of heros that right wrongs using muscle and brute force, the only language bad guys understood.
In the bible I found the same bigger than life superheros beating impossible odds. Judges 3:31 boasts of a man named Shamgar, a good name for a superhero,who single handedly stops an army of philistines and kills 600 of them with a pointed stick. Lets not forget David the warrior king who was said to have singlehandedly killed a bear a lion an 11 ft tall giant and tens of thousands of regular sized men.. The best of course wass my hero Samson. He kills lions of course but aso tears up and carries away stone city gates weighing tons. He also kills bad guys. 1000 of them met their demise when he wacked them with a jawbone of an ass. Earlier he killed so many he piled them up, legs and thighs. He lives in a cleft in the rocks he drinks from water magically produced from the ass jawbone(see footnotes NWT). Now here is a man's man. I remember the stories about him told me as a boy as I pushed out my chest and flexed my muscles I wanted to slay lions and Philistines too!
Then I learned about Hercules in school. I had found another hero with super human strength. He too killed a lion. He too killed thousands with a crude weapon. He also had long hair. I was confused. Did Jehovah give Hercules his muscles too? No he was not a real person I was told. He was mythology.
My favorite was still the Hulk ( Lou Ferrigno not the computer one). He had everything the others guys had but he never got messed up with girls.
The Incredible Hulk
by peacefulpete 3 Replies latest watchtower bible
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peacefulpete
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Maverick
There does seem to be a deep need for super-heros. I remember as a child lifting big blocks of snow and pretending I was super-strong and they were stones. All cultures have tales of men and women doing wonderous things to save their people. People who rise above the ordinary, overcome the odds, and succeed. We have sports figures and action actors who get very rich satisfying this need! Maverick
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Latin assassin from Manhattan
The Power of Myth: Lessons from Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell made a career of examining the myths of the world and how they are all connected by similar themes. The more I read the Old Testament, the more I start to believe that these stories are no different than those of Greek mythology.
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Big Tex
a man named Shamgar, a good name for a superhero
You're right. I wonder if he was part of the Avengers.
I loved comic books when I was a kid. You're right, it created a whole other world. When bad things happened to good people, someone had the power and desire to step in and correct it. I collected the Hulk comics, and I had a pretty good collection going back to the early days when Marie Severin drew the book. Can't quite remember the issue number. Wasn't it called something else before it was The Incredible Hulk? Something like Tales to Astonish or something like that. Alzheimer's is setting in I guess.
My favorite character was Professor X. Mainly because his power was to read minds. I would have loved to have that, so I could know who was lying and who was telling the truth. And there would be no secrets, I would know everything and nothing could be hidden from me.
The dreams of childhood.