Earlier Kevin Yong wrote about super heroes within a consistently Biblically based universe. He touch on some themes such as power. Here is another view of some of the issues he raised.
Natural Power of the Universe.
Another source is the natural power sources that God installed within the universe at creation. Under this would be heat, electro-magnetic, chemical, gravitational, nuclear power sources and so forth which operate according to natural laws that are discoverable by science and harnessed by human technology.
Examples of these power sources are seen in the origins of a great many mainstream superheroes. Superman gained his powers by the lesser gravity of earth and by the yellow sun (his X-ray vision, etc). Many of the Marvel superheroes received their powers via accidents with radiation. The Fantastic Four were bombarded by cosmic rays. The Hulk was zapped by radiation from a Gamma bomb. Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider. Matt Murdock had an accident with a canister of radiation material. The X-men were the children born of parents who were irradiated from nuclear projects.
Another category using natural power sources is high technology. Iron man is an example. Tony Stark devised a suit of armor by his superior intelligence and breakthrough, futuristic technology. The energy that powered of the silver age Green Lantern power battery is a natural type of energy (though perhaps unknown to human science) emanating from the giant power battery on Oa. The concept that the Guardians were themselves as the ultimate power sources was a fairly late concept.
There are problems with these concepts, but not insurmountable ones. There are secondary considerations that follow from these natural origins if you take them literally. In the real world, radiation accidents are almost uniformly deleterious and often fatal to the organism or person involved.
While God ultimately sustains all the energies of the universe, these natural power sources are basically neutral. Christ says, "For he makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust." (Matt 5:45) Likewise both saint and sinner can switch on an electric light. Both are affected by gravity, the laws of motion and thermodynamics.
Occultic or Satanic power: The last power source is that of Satan. Occultic power is condemned in scripture (Deut. 18:9-14, Rev 21:8, 22:15). While most of the originators of these characters would deny it, Dr. Fate, Dr. Strange, Magicman, Nemesis, Ibis, Isis and the other occult based characters ultimately derive their power from kingdom of Satan.
There are some characters that are so fanciful that while they might have myth-magical based powers I couldn't place them into that category. The original Captain Marvel, I would place in a sub-category of pure fantasy. Perhaps his stories are so allegorical like C.S Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia that they could still be placed within a Christian worldview. The stuff of a Captain Marvel story is so different from that of Dr. Fate as to be in totally separate worlds.
Summary: Ultimately, God is the source of all power. (Colossians 1:16, 17). In summary, using God’s power as a power source for superheroes is a possibility, albeit a challenging one to pull it off from a consistently Biblical position. The natural power sources are still a possibility, but a very well worn path. And in a Christian world, occult power is reserved for the bad guys.
From Alpha-Omega #51, 1993
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