I’m hoping not to get any letters of complaint from any X-Men fanatics out there with this piece, let me first remind everyone that I’m a comic book fan as well, and the X-Men stories are epics that, for me are as important culturally as the Lord of The Rings (no, I did not just say that). So I mean no harm to the X-Men series as I type this…

But…

Wolverine is not Jesus.

There, I’ve said it, after previously making saviour links between the story of Wolverine and Jesus for discussion I’ve decided to re-consider some of my original thoughts, in particular to the Wolverine as portrayed in the X-Men movie trilogy, and more precisely the final scenes of the third and final movie “The Last Stand.”

Wolverine, for the most part is a leader who does not want to lead, he shows all the character traits of a leader, but instead of leading he pushes people away, he refuses to get alongside others, he resists all efforts to make him a team player, this is possibly one of the major roots of his issues with the X-Men, he is, but is not one of them, and this will always be the case, he might at any time disappear and never be heard from again.

In contrast Jesus becomes a leader and a team player, a carpenter who, by most rights shouldn’t have been seen or heard in discussions of faith, philosophy and politics finds himself at odds with everyone in power. Jesus calls people to follow him, to be a part of his family, he visits friends houses and grieves in community, Wolverine on the other hand does none of these. Where Jesus calls towards him Wolverine pushes away, Jesus visits friends while Wolverine goes it alone.

Secondly, one might think that both Jesus and Wolverine resurrect, death does not control them and as such are fairly similar, I would argue that their responses however are vastly different. Wolverine almost becomes numb to his healing, he runs into battle with little to no thought of his resulting death, pain and possible death. Jesus however suffers, he grieves, he is found in the point of his impending death praying that God may take this cup from him, he suffers on the cross and does indeed die, where it seems that Wolverine has a death wish, we’re aware in the stories of Christ that he did not, and instead valued his life and felt the pain that was caused.

Thirdly Wolverine believes in noone but himself, when it came down to it noone was trustworthy, not even Charles Xavier, he could and would only ever trust himself. Jesus on the other hand believes in a higher power, and not only does he believe in God, he talks with God regularly and bases his vocation, his life calling and story on that which he knows God is calling him to. Jesus also believes in his family to carry on his work, he knows that he can go back to God after he is resurrected and trust that his family will continue the vocation to that which he was called, the trust is that they will continue the work. Wolverine however keeps on coming back, noone can do a job better than he can.

The fourth, and for the purpose of this piece (and my wanting it to be shorter than most things that I write) is where this line of thought originally started, in the final battle scene of the final movie of the X-Men Trilogy where Wolverine faces off the Phoenix. Skin being torn off of his metal skeleton and constantly healing Wolverine stumbles towards the out of control Jean Grey, in the final scenes she looks at him and asks “for them? You would die for them?” at which he turns around and says “not for them, for you, for you…”

Some preachers might actually have you believing that Jesus did all he did for you and you alone, that his death, his life, his mission was entirely and utterly for you. Accepting this means to accept that Jesus is your own personal Jesus, your’s completely, no-one else’s. This kind of message might sit really well with the consumerist, self loving, independent, individualistic and vein society, sure, Jesus lived for ME, not for them, for me…

But you see, Jesus’ answer would have been different, because he did it all for everyone else, not for those whom he is closest, not for his best friend, not for those who he cherished the company of, but instead he did it all for the others, the poor, the lame, the sick, the meek, the stranger, the imprisoned, the outcast, the enemy. Yes, my Jesus, not Wolverine is the real Saviour, my Jesus turns the tables on the saviour message of Wolverine’s story, at the time when The Phoenix asked “For them?” Jesus would have turned around and, quite possibly said “Yes, for them, for them I do it all, even for those out there who don’t know or love me, for those who are killing me I do this, for them I will die.”

Now, I know that others may want me to say also that Jesus would have added “and for you I do this, for you I shall die” but I’m not so sure if this would have sat well with his message, and I know that the self-loving self-righteous world doesn’t need any more reasons to love themselves, to think that God is in it for them alone.

Instead of Wolverine we’re faced with a saviour who calls us into a relationship with each other, who calls us to be a part of his team, and who calls us to forget ourselves and take on the challenge of participating in the mission of the gospel for them, for everyone else, the poor, meek, weak, dying, blind and, as hard as it would be for all of the X-Men, Wolverine in particular, to love our enemies…

Jesus Verses Wolverine, two different types of saviours, I know which one I put my trust in…

Download the discussion guide below…

Link: IMDB Entry

Link: Hollywood Jesus Review

Download: Discussion Guide for X-Men – The Last Stand (pdf)

My Rating: