Corby Brandes is a man from Lincoln City, Oregon who is doing his best to make superheroes the basis of a new religion. Evidently, he's not joking. According to his Facebook page, Brandes wants "to teach life's moral lessons through the stories of the superheroes in modern comics." He extols the virtues of the X-Men as a means to educate parishioners against discrimination, and on his Facebook page, Brandes makes suggestions for patron saints. He writes,
"Now that we have so many followers I would like to go over... superheroes as our patron saints. The ones that have already been suggested are as follows: Spiderman/Saint of determination, Tony Stark/Saint of technology, Deadpool/Saint of fried Mexican foods. Who has some more?"
While Brandes says he's "always been a Marvel fan personally," he has plans to "branch out," as far as church services are concerned.
The Church of Superheroes Facebook page has nearly 550 likes from users, some of whom appear to be taking the notion seriously. Many posts like the one above get a number of replies. Brandes' recent request for donations of services to create a website, logo and other means of operations for the church received offers from a voiceover talent, a web designer and a silkscreen t-shirt maker prepared to provide their services gratis.
Brandes did a Los Angeles radio interview with Kevin and Bean, in which he said,
"I've always wanted to find a church that I was comfortable at, but I've never been able to take that leap of faith. I didn't want to have to do that just to surround myself by people who were like-minded. I decided that it would be a great idea to do this through the superheroes."
Currently, Brandes is trying to raise the $2000 necessary to file for tax-exempt status, before which he has to go through a number of legal hoops, such as writing by-laws and obtaining status as 501(3)(c). He eventually hopes to have a brick-and-mortar superhero church.
As well as the Facebook page (to which Brandes refers as the "virtual church"), interested worshippers may also connect with the church on Twitter. Get your religious fix there.
-Via ComicBook.com | Image: Church of Superheroes Facebook page