Douglas Rushkoff’s Testament

Loren posts some interesting thoughts on Douglas Rushkoff’s Testament comic book series over at Suspension of Disbelief: Gimme That Old Time Religion.

A while back I had to choose between heading into Old Testament studies or into (systematic) theology. I chose the latter, though the Old Testament intrigues me and I enjoy working with OT texts as part of my theological studies (though my Hebrew hasn’t had a good workout lately). So when I see a comic book that attempts to integrate an interpretation of Old Testament narrative with socio-political commentary and cyberpunk genre I’ll be first in line to buy a copy to see what it’s like. (Rushkoff’s motivation including his idea of the Bible as open-source can be found here.)

So having read the first three issues here’s some thoughts.

Rushkoff’s approach of taking three narratives and interweaving them is interesting. In each of the first three issues he takes a story from the Genesis narrative, adapts it, and juxtaposes it against a contemporary story set in an America in the not too distant future. So he takes the Abraham and Isaac story (Gen 22) in issue #1 and sets that against a US military complex that seeks the sacrifice of young persons in multiple “wars against terror”, and then in #2 he uses the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 18-19) and Lot’s incest (Gen 19) in #3. Linking these ancient and contemporary narratives is the third narrative within a mostly spiritual dimension. Here the figures of Astarte and Moloch vie with agents of Abraham’s god, though the use of human agents in the narratives.

It’s a novel approach which works sometimes and other times doesn’t. Some people have found a lack of Ancient Near Eastern background a problem with understanding the deities and others have found that Rushkoff’s allegories are too heavy-handed. Personally, I thought #1 and #2 did it pretty well, but #3 didn’t work for me.

In order to do this Rushkoff has to play imaginatively with the biblical narratives – his method asserts the text is a fluid framework that we then interweave our own narratives and imagination into. So literary context falls victim (e.g. Gen 22 occurs before Gen 18-19) in places (see also Loren’s comments). But it does an almost Ignatian meditative approach in allowing figures in the narrative to ask questions of the text. So Abraham’s people ask why he goes to sacrifice his son if he follows this new god, and Lot’s wife asks why is it okay to save the visitor(s) to Sodom by “sacrificing” his daughters to the mob. Good questions that people might ask of the text. But the additional material linking Lot’s daughters to the cult of Astarte’s temple prostitution (#3) is not supported by the text – though necessary for Rushkoff’s contemporary narrative.

As well, the comic is definitely for adults – it has a “suggested for mature readers.” Any comic with that disclaimer, and has an active fertility goddess in it can expect nudity and sexual content, though the violence isn’t as overt as it could be. Various characters become associated with the different deities and so manifest behaviour associated with them.

So does it work? As a style I think it has merit, though I’m not sure Rushkoff can pull it off in the long term. Halfway through #3 I had decided I’d seen enough of the style to get the idea of how it was being used, but the narrative in #3 didn’t grab me. So I’ll file the three issues together in the comics file and look out for the TPB when it comes out. Maybe I’ll pick it up them. In the meantime I’ll be looking out for other comic material in a similar vein.

Official DC Comics information

• VERTIGO – Testament #1 – had sample pages and mini-poster.
• VERTIGO – Testament #2
• VERTIGO – Testament #3

Relevant articles and interviews

• Comic Book Resources – CBR News – The Comic Wire – TESTIFYING: RUSHKOFF TALKS VERTIGO’S “TESTAMENT”
• NEWSARAMA.COM: SDCC Day 2: CSN@Newsarama – DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF TALKS TESTAMENT
• Rushkoff Deconstructs the Bible in Testament – 1/3/2006 – Publishers Weekly
• Testament #2 Review – Silver Bullet Comics- Friday, February 10, 2006
• Testament #3 Review – Silver Bullet Comics

Blog postings

• Suspension of Disbelief: Gimme That Old Time Religion
• TallSkinnyKiwi: Rushkoff’s Testament
• way out west: Rushkoff Comics
• Greenflame: The Lone and Level Sands

Useful Wikipedia articles

• Testament (comic) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Moloch – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Astarte – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia