by Mari Pizzini–Dr. Elizabeth Coody brought pop culture to The Bible in Morningside College’s inaugural Humanities Speaker Series Tuesday, Feb. 18. The Assistant Professor of Religious Studies spoke o the connections between DC Comics’ Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn, and Mary Magdalene.
Dr. Coody’s expertise is in biblical interpretation and pop culture. She used this skill set to study and write about changing origin stories within comics, and their influence on female power.
She began her talk by defining “multi-vocal” origin stories. Markets create multiple origins stories for characters to create “jumping off” places for readers, while creators use them to show different aspects of the characters.
“Hearing where someone came from, or pivotal moments in their life, tells you about who they are,” Dr. Coody said. “Origin stories are never innocent. They always have layers to them.”
Their multi-vocal origin stories then change the characters, which often creates points of weakness within female characters.
Dr. Coody said, “Origin stories help re-explain – or even undercut – how women claimed power. They must then own the poorest nature of their origin stories in order to claim power over them.”
She explained that origin stories often followed a pattern: an uncomfortable origin, followed by a revised origin, and ending a look at a cultural discomfort or anxiety.
While describing Wonder Women, Dr. Coody said that both her origin stories – one from clay and magic, the other had a father-figure – are both real parts of her character.
With Harley Quinn, Dr. Coody said “agency shifts majorly across her stories. She actually did the transformation herself.”
With Mary Magdalene, her accuracy comes from how uncomfortable she makes her interpreters.
Cultural anxieties, including reproduction, community, abuse, violence, physicality, and women’s roles in ministry, are all brought into the conversation when each character’s multi-vocal story is looked at.
“Multivocal stories from women can change their power based on the stories they tell about where they come from,” Dr. Coody concluded. “It’s not about them choosing the right one, but drowning power from the fact that they have multiple origin stories.”
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