Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes

This take on comic book superheroes is well researched and even better delivered. Mr. Knowles offers the unique perspective that most of us knew deep down but never actually realized. As a lifelong fan of comics, this book does a great job of taking readers through the historical relevance of superheroes and relates them to cultural, religious, and mysterious figures, complete with backstories and tie-ins. It’s a great read for comic fans, or anyone seeking a perspective on the origin of many of today’s pop-culture icons. Highly recommended!

Fun and interesting. You don't need to be a Comic book nut to love this book. I bought this book for two reasons. As a child in the sixties and seventies I always loved Comic books but I was frustrated by the inability to regularly get the books and follow the stories in sequence. Eventually I abandoned them for Sci-Fi and Fantasy Paperback Book series that I could really dig into. Chris's book rekindled the love I had for Comic books, and connects the dots on how they developed and where they went since I put them aside in the 70's. The second reason is a long interest in the esoteric and occult. Chris deftly digs into the fringe underground that became expressed in early Comic books. It is very interesting and surprising to find symbols and ideology from the dark past of esoterica in Comic book pages. All in all a fun and interesting read for anyone.

Interesting Thesis Brilliantly PresentedOur Gods Wear Spandex sounded perfect for me. I love comic books and the world of esoterica.This book is a good read, one of those, can’t put it down books. In addition to satisfying the promised link between comics and the esoteric, the book provided a concise history of comics and comic book creators, it gave me some biographical information on key artists and writers, and it directed me to some masterpieces I might otherwise have missed not the least of which being Marvels (January 6, 2010 by Kurt Busiek, Author, and Alex Ross, Illustrator, don’t miss Marvels, no seriously buy it now if you don’t already own it and thank you Chris for turning me on to it).The book is 222 pages long, nicely illustrated by Joseph Michael Linsner, it is indexed, and if you want to know more about comics or the esoteric or comic book creators it has a helpful if at this point dated bibliography.The author states, “Superheroes have come to fill the role in our modern society that the gods and demigods provided to the ancients.” Certainly, the success of the superhero/action/summer blockbuster film argues somewhat in favor of the authors central thesis.Mr. Knowles writing style is witty, engaging, and insightful though at times, in my opinion condescending, and for me this was the one and only negative. I expected more empathy to the esoteric if not religious ideology in general but I really didn’t find it in the pages of this book and as a person of faith I found some of his comments abrasive if not insensitive.In his section on “Magic Men,” page 114, he said that the success of the Harry Potter series could be attributed to the insecurities of its audience. That is a whopping amount of insecurity. In his section called, “The Messiahs” on page 120 he stated that “salvation through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross makes sense only to those completely committed to the Christian faith.” It’s like being pat on the head and told, “You’ll understand when you are older and wiser like me.” But that kind of ideological condescension is quite common place in our culture. I don’t let it rain on my parade any more then I let it spoil the fun of this book.I enjoyed the book and I recommend it even if I do wish the author was down and dirty with the ignorant masses rather than commenting from above.

Fantastic cultural overview of the history and origins of our caped and non-caped spandex wearing superheroes. Full of interesting facts and information that will be eye opening when the reader discovers how deep the cultural and social roots go.

For someone like me who loves reading about the occult world and it's characters, but who has never really been that big of a comic fan, this book will give a new appreciation and insight into the world of modern day pop mythology and the comic book hero's universe.The picture of the "Last Supper" on the front cover is appropriate, as I think this book really does offer some food for thought.

An excellent book. Also doubles as a mini history of the occult - fascinating!

Dieses Buch wird seinem reizvollen Titel leider in keiner Weise gerecht; weder als akademischer Text noch als populärwissenschaftliche Unterhaltungsliteratur.Die Kapitel sind oberflächlich und kommen nahezu ohne Quellenverweise aus. Dies wäre noch zu verschmerzen, wenn der Text denn wenigstens unterhaltsam und informativ wäre, bzw. wenn der Autor seine zentralen Thesen auch wirklich verfolgen würde. Doch leider ufern gerade die späteren Kapitel sehr stark in eine bloße Wiedergabe der fiktionalen Biographien diverser Superhelden aus, anstatt diese tatsächlich zu analysieren. Mit anderen Worten: was einem hier geboten wird, ist teilweise kaum mehr als das, was man aus einem Wikipedia-Artikel über Spider-Man, Batman oder Green Lantern erfahren könnte.Schade! Die Grundidee ist äußerst spannend, und hätte in etwas kompetenteren Händen sicherlich zu interessanten Resultaten geführt.

Very happy with the content of the book.