Generally you don't hear much about comic book characters' religions, unless it's a holiday special or they're making the sign of the cross over a man they just killed. Which makes sense. Religion can be a divisive issue, and listening to a sermon doesn't rank high on what we like to see comic book characters doing.

If, however, you're curious about the spiritual allegiance of various costumed vigilantes, there is a website that has been keeping track. "Comic Book Religion" has a database of comic book characters sortable by number of appearances, faith, nationality, and name.



There aren't a lot of big surprises there, although it's fun to see the particular denominations of the characters who appear in the annual holiday specials. Alfred Pennyworth, for example, is Anglican, and brought up Bruce Wayne to be Episcopalian. Lois Lane is Catholic, one of the relatively few Catholics in comics who aren't lapsed, but Clark Kent is Methodist.

Tony Stark gets an entire novel by is name, including 'futurist,' 'technophile,' and the note, 'sometimes prays.' One of the funnier entries is Green Arrow, who is listed as an agnostic -- famously, he declared himself agnostic while actually dead and in heaven -- and also as a 'Liberal Marxist'. This would probably not have gone over with Karl 'Religion is the opiate of the masses' Marx. Perhaps he'd feel better if he knew it was a mass of one, and even that one wasn't particularly sedate.


There are also a few confusing entries. "Devil" is not only a religion, but a religion which has a lot of adherents. What a crossover that would make. Also, "anthropomorphic animal" seems to be a religion, and the one exception to my "it's no fun to see comic book characters listen to a sermon" rule. I think seeing those particular services would be a hoot.

If you're curious, bored, or just want to win a bet about a character with your friends, go over and look up your favorite character. And if you won the bet by guessing 'anthropomorphic animal' as a character's religion, do let me know.