The Problem of Evil in DC Universe Animated Movies, 2007–2016

• Main Author: El-Khoury, Toufic
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Karl Franzens Universität Graz 2017-05-01
• Series: Journal for Religion, Film and Media
• Subjects: DC comics; animated movies; cinema; theodicy; problem of evil; Leibniz
• Online Access: http://unipub.uni-graz.at/jrfm/periodical/titleinfo/1927224

This article explores the question of evil and its metaphysical and moral implications in a series of animated movie adaptations of the DC Universe produced since 2006. The contemporary evolution of the medium, called the “Iron Age of comics”, has seen the auto-reflexive nature of comics produce problems and themes related to the main question discussed in Christian theodicy: how can we perceive and define the possibility of evil in a world where God’s omnipotence should have eliminated such a possibility? Moreover, why does evil seem to spread indefinitely in spite of all the efforts deployed by superheroes to stop evil? We will discuss the problem of evil as a natural narrative topic in light of comics’ mythological and religious roots and with a particular study case: DC Comics Multiverse as an illustration of Leibniz’s “best of all possible worlds” argument.