HAVE you ever wished the superheroes on comic books, television and big screens quoted the Scriptures and behaved like a believer – relying on the powers of the Lord rather than on his own muscular strength and prowess? Well, your wish has finally come true!
Meet Captain Salvation, the star of a new Christian comic book created by Curt Hawn, a one-time youth minister who lives in Harrisburg, northeast of Charlotte in the US.
Hawn decided to engage kids by giving them a super hero whose power comes from his dependence on God when he discovered that a lot of the heroes don’t live up to children’s hopes.
Hawn is reaching out to kids with his comic book, which has been shipped to missionaries around the world.
To give Captain Salvation the superhero look, Hawn hired Greg Waller, a former Marvel and DC comics artist. When he discovered he needed lots of money to fund the project, he sold DTI Global, the technology company he had started in Atlanta to help law firms in document services.
According to his own admission, Hawn is attempting to ‘create the largest Sunday school in the world’ through comic books, live performances and filmed adventures – all of which will have Captain Salvation playing the lead.
Captain Salvation is disguised as a mild-mannered salesman born as the son and grandson of superheroes. He accepts Christ and is born again as Captain Salvation when he survives an accident in which the villain he confronts straps a bomb to his chest.
The Christian superhero even has a masked sidekick named Joshua. He quotes verses from the Bible and loads his slingshot with magic yams.
Captain Salvation’s vehicle is a vintage Harley Davidson motorcycle that he calls ‘Holy Roller’.
At the end of the first part of the comic book series, Captain Salvation urges kids to pray with him to ‘activate your salvation.’
Till date, 1,200 kids have recited the prayer. “That’s what it’s all about,” he says. “My goal all along has been to inscribe the Word of God in children’s hearts.”
