If we look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we see many figures who become revered by human beings as deities. And yet, all of these fall short of their expectations. They have their origins, their limits. They are finite. They can topple and fall like the icons erected in their honor.
The mysterious “He Who Remains” in the Loki series, Thor in The Avengers, The Watcher in What If…?, Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Arishem in Marvel’s Eternals: all are a far cry from being omnipotent.
These lackluster figures who act within, or observe from without, the existing universe – while fictitious – point to a comprehensive reality which we are all subject to. That is, that all creatures, all created things in existence, will ultimately fail us.
Food is fleeting and in need of continual replenishing. Human companionship, beautiful as it is, runs only so deep. At some point, the car engine will refuse to turn over. The politicians’ promises will be broken. Friends, loved ones, and role models will do things that give us pause and disrupt our faith in them.
It is the unseen God alone who can truly satisfy our deep-most pangs for love and fulfillment, and even then, only if we are so blessed as to witness the Beatific Vision, will our restless hearts be quenched. This inescapable reality is one seemingly woven into the MCU’s storyline as well.
There’s a slew of various tales and myths that crop up among the races depicted in the Marvel multiverse. Yet, none of them can be taken at face value – for the “gods” they portray are nothing more than fellow created entities subject to the wills and powers outside of themselves.
While the false gods of the MCU are plentiful, there are also a few characters who stand out because of their Godly attributes, their Godlikeness. One such character is King T’Chaka in Episode 2 of Marvel’s What If…? series, “What If…T’Challa Became a Star-Lord?”
When our Lord Jesus entered into human history, He used parables to speak about the Kingdom of God, our relationship with God the Father, and our relationship to one another. In many of Christ’s parables, the unnamed King illustrates God’s activity (particularly His invitation and judgment) in the story of our salvation. In a few other parables, Jesus used biological fathers and sons to illustrate various points. Oftentimes, in these, the “father” may represent God the Father, such as in the parable of the tenants (Matthew 21:33-44) in which the master of a house sends his servants and eventually his son to entreat his tenants to give him his due share of the harvest.
The landowner/father represents God the Father; his servants, the prophets; his son, God the Son. The tenants, God’s chosen people, injure the servants and kill the landowner’s son (the latter foreshadowing Jesus’s Crucifixion). Another parable that employs this sort of fatherly imagery, and a famous one at that, is the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32).
In “What If…T’Challa Became a Star-Lord?,” the titular character’s dad, T’Chaka, fills the role of the expectant father in the parable of the prodigal son as well as the role of the King. T’Challa himself is that prodigal son, a reflection of our own human failings in which we seek the perceived goods of this world instead of attending to the things God has in store for us.
The second episode of What If…? explores how T’Challa was always eager to explore the wider world beyond the confines of Wakanda, the kingdom he would someday inherit. King T’Chaka is very protective, however, and relates to his son, only a young boy at the time, that there are evils and dangers outside the boundaries of Wakanda.
This puts a damper on the youthful T’Challa’s dreams. But, in the wild alternate universe presented in What If…?, T’Challa gets kidnapped by the Ravagers on accident. In the years to come, it is T’Challa (not Peter Quill) who becomes Star-Lord. Not only that, but he is more virtuous than his alternate universe doppelganger. T’Challa is responsible for numerous noble and charitable deeds across the galaxy, helping those in need, like an interstellar “Robin Hood.”
Since teaming up with Yondu and the Ravagers, T’Challa was under the impression that his family had died. Through a series of events which unfolds in the duration of the episode, Star-Lord discovers his father is, in fact, still alive – and has desperately been searching for him, this “lost sheep,” for many years.
As T’Chaka explains in a hologram message that his son discovers on an abandoned Wakandan ship:
“And T’Challa, if you are out there, you’re one bright burning light in the night sky of billions, and we will search every last one of them until we find you…on this plane or the next.”
T’Chaka is watching, searching, waiting: hoping for his son’s safe return with an anxious zeal. I get an image of an aged father looking up at the starry dome of the sky anticipating some sight of his missing son. This is a devoted love similar to that of the father of the prodigal son, which itself is a shadow of God the Father’s love for us, His lost sheep.
The watchfulness of T’Chaka is like the constant readiness of the father of the prodigal son in Scripture. The wayward son, who squandered his wealth in a foreign land, returns brokenhearted and repentant to his father, who eagerly awaits him:
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him (Luke 15:20).
The father of the prodigal son is deeply moved at his son’s return, as is T’Chaka, and they both express their joy with affectionate love. Furthermore, the father in the parable throws a grand party for the son who “was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.” Likewise, T’Chaka hosts a party in honor of T’Challa, the son whom he neither knew to be alive nor dead. The prodigal son returns!
But what then do the father of the prodigal son and T’Chaka have in common with God the Father?
It is mercy and love, those attributes which God possesses to the full and which we may emulate when we act like God by showing charity to others. What does Jesus’s parable illustrate about God’s love for us? It shows us that it is undying, that it can only be satisfied when we are utterly His. And it is exactly then that we too become fulfilled – by being filled with love – when we belong entirely to God. The divine love is ever watchful, ever ready to lend aid, offering every opportunity to turn away from the world and turn back to God. The love of Jesus Christ, which resulted in the sacrifice of His own life, is the most perfect and everlasting of loves. His strength is not a finite one like the futile powers of the false gods. Christ, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, transcends the created cosmos. The triune God, like His unfailing love, is infinite.
As the Psalmist writes:
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever (Psalm 135: 1-2).
In the here and now, it is particularly in the Sacraments that God awaits us with His love and mercy. In persona Christi, He listens, advises, and forgives us through the priest in Confession. Under the appearances of bread and wine, He offers us His very self in the Holy Eucharist.
Jesus told us that no one comes to the Father except through Him. It benefits us, then, to devote ourselves to Him in the Sacraments so that we may come to know and love God the Father. Now, thanks to our Lord Jesus, we can hail Him as “Our Father.” Through Christ, our Brother (He took on our human nature), Who is also our Mediator with the Father, we have a share in the life of God.
Through Jesus, we are brought into an intimate and affectionate relationship with God the Father. Somewhat like T’Chaka, God always seeks us out, offering us as many opportunities as possible to enter into a familial relationship.
As St. Paul writes, attributing to the voice of God:
Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty (2 Corinthians 6:17-18).
Like Star-Lord T’Challa, we can return to our roots. We can venture home. We can return to the Sacraments. God awaits our return with eagerness and love. Sometimes, all it takes is for us to realize the moments of grace God extends to us. Even now, He waits.
*All Scripture quotations came from The Augustine Bible: English Standard Version (ESV), Catholic Edition.
John Tuttle
John Tuttle is a Catholic journalist, blogger, and photographer. He has written for Prehistoric Times, Culture Wars Magazine, Those Catholic Men, Catholic Insight, Inside Over, Ancient Origins, Love They Nerd, We Got This Covered, Cultured Vultures, and elsewhere. He can be reached at jptuttleb9@gmail.com.