Punk Rock Jesus

Product Information

Even more so than box office champions like Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man, the Jesus Christ of pop culture is arguably one of the most exposed character in the history of humans telling each other stories. From the New Testament to Jesus Christ Superstar, to various cameos on South Park, to The Passion of the Christ, to Loaded Bible: Jesus vs. Vampires, and all the iterations in between, The Son of God has largely tread the same ground with little innovation devoted to his continued narratives. I also don't understand how I'm supposed to believe that somehow this evil corporate dude was able to hold Chris & his mother hostage for years with the cameras running. And then basically kill people who got in his way without any interference from the government or police agencies. A multinational entertainment company starts a project called J2, which creates a clone from Jesus Christ's DNA, and make a 24 hour live reality show on clones daily life from birth. Half of the world considers it as the second coming of christ, and other half names him as the Antichrist and declares war against him, and the show TRP keeps getting higher and higher. The story unfolds with different characters around the project, and each of them has different reasons to be in this story. In 2005 he published his first original graphic novel, Off Road, which went on to win an American Library Association Award for young adults. [1] The Plot Holes #1-5 (script and art, with Matt Hollingsworth, Massive Publishing, September 2023 - December 2023)

Batman: Curse of the White Knight (script and art, with Matt Hollingsworth, sequel to Batman: White Knight, eight-issue limited series, DC Comics, July 2019 - March 2020) Imagine the Truman Show, except with a clone of Jesus Christ, made with DNA samples taken from the Shroud of Turin...and implanted in a Teenage Virgin.The "B" story is about a former IRA terrorist seeking redemption as Chris' bodyguard. When Thomas first came into the story, the reader's first impression would be that this stern guy is a Punisher clone. Thomas ends up more nuanced than Frank Castle. Though his name may suggest the doubting disciple, he's a believer, this Thomas is.

A few times I asked myself, “would this be as interesting if the clone wasn’t Jesus?” If you took away the Christ element, you would have a story of a boy and his mother broken by the manipulation of media and religion. I think we’d have a story with potential insight into our media-hungry world. The story never proves that Chris is a clone of Jesus. The scientist behind the cloning even has her doubts; she never saw them extracting the DNA from the shroud. Don't get me wrong -- I've never been more satisfied with anything else I've ever done. But it's also taught me that being a writer/penciller/inker combo isn't for everyone.

Ultimately the premise of the story could have been something really thought provoking and different but it was very one sided and ironically all independent thought is smothered by the author's obvious opinions. He does not ask you to think, he tells you what to think. J2 causes both outrage and adulation. Religious zealots either love or hate the show, angry politicians worry about its influence on the nation, and members of the scientific community fear the implications of cloning a human being at all, let alone the Son of God. Throw in a hugely manipulative media director, who controls everything, and is wholly evil beyond belief. My big takeaway was the tragedy of blind faith. The Christians in the book largely had it– the IRA did as well, in hindsight– but Chris did too. I think his militant atheism is examined, but never glorified by Murphy, and I think it’s meant to be tragic that Chris perishes with that mindset intact.

Great review, JP. I think you came to this book in an open-handed fashion and you have a very clear view of it.

GRAPHIC NOVEL GUIDE

The characters are pretty interesting. Chris is certainly interesting for many reasons but the side characters grabbed my attention throughout too. Some people may be turned off by the monochromatic color palette, however Murphy wields this well. He provides variety in the white space and in the remarkable details. Content Warning I think there’s some confusion in this book on the difference between killing and murder. I say this regarding the scene where Thomas is freaked out that he’s going to Hell after killing people in an attempt to save lives because he thought it’s murder but... it’s not murder (“unlawful killing without justification”) if it’s to save lives. In the end there are some questions left unanswered, What happened to Tim? What happened to Dr. Epstein research? was some of it lost in the island fire? Is it getting implemented? What did the audience of the show think about the death of the protagonist? Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of religious content in the story. Most of it is depicted negatively: a Christian apologist on TV is rather dumb, most Christians are essentially the Westboro Baptist cult on steroids with guns. The only devout Christian is also a murderer; plus, he truly believes that Chris is the second coming of Christ.

Batman: Beyond the White Knight (script and art, with Dave Stewart, sequel to Batman: White Knight and Batman: Curse of the White Knight, eight-issue limited series, DC Comics, March 2022 - February 2023) The book means a lot to me, so I'm working extra hard on the art. Maybe part of me is afraid that people will think that the writing is no good, and by increasing the level of art I'm hoping to convince them I'm a better writer than I really am. Deuteragonist: Chris might be the most important character in-universe, but he's really more of a plot device than a character for the first part of the story. Thomas is arguably the real protagonist.

This comic book contains examples of:

Adams, Tim (July 16, 2020). "Batman: White Knight Universe Expands With Harley Quinn Spinoff". Comic Book Resources . Retrieved December 8, 2022. As a collective group, those of us who don't believe in God need to stop acting like belligerent teens and start acting like the intelligent, thoughtful people we claim to be. The next time that Jehovah's Witness is standing on your doorstep, maybe you should offer them a bottle of water before sending them on their way? Usually of a group of religious zealots hoarding guns don't have to wait too long before they meet their maker... 'round these here parts. The ending was unbelievably anti-climactic. I'm not going to spoil it for you, but prepare yourself for a turd. It felt like Murphy had about 10 minutes left to wrap the whole thing up and just rushed through the motions. Murphy tangles the story in some really absurd parts, "there´s no alcohol in the island, but we have seen Gwen become and alcoholic before and the audience digs that"