...been there, done that. First, great strip today. Second, nerd alert time. The character of Zeus has been used in Marvel Comics since the '60s (along with virtually every other Greek God). Actually, both Ares and Hercules have been members of the Avengers.

They've pretty much lifted from every well-known ancient mythology. The really surprising part is that (at least back in the day when I was still reading) they've traditionally been at least somewhat true to the ancient traditions in their characterizations. Zeus is still a grumpy, er, I mean wrathful old dude who sits up on Mt. Olympus meting out his idea of justice. He doesn't have quite the way with the ladies he used to, but come on. The guy's got to be at least 10,000 years old by now.

Actually in the Marvel universe Zeus is technically dead. Having sacrificed himself to save his grandson, Alexander (Ares' son) after the invasion of the Japanese Pantheon.

In the DCU. Zeus has returned to earth after Final Crisis (I have no idea where he was before that cuz in the last couple years he'd been basically sucking up to his daughter, Wonder Girl). That storyline is kinda confusing.

I like the Marvel Universe cuz all the gods are related to each other thru Gaia. She's the mother goddess in ALL the Pantheons! Zeus and Odin were friends for a while (till Odin's death).

I can believe that. I haven't read comics with any regularity since the whole Onslaught storyline. I'm old.

Marvel has plundered the Buddha as well. The Buddha Tara, in a Paul Jenkins' Spider-Man, from 2002 or 2003.

--Wendy

Imagine if Marvel released Jesus as a crime fighting superhero, people would go nuts, lol. The webcomic sinfest had a Sunday strip with Jesus as Batman that was really well done.

I was sad to see the Zeus strip had been purchased, hopefully Dave will bring him back :)

Jesus has been in Marvel actually. He's been in Thor, Wolverine, Fantastic 4, ect. Religion in comics is not new. In fact there's a whole website devoted to the subject. I even helped them out by correcting the religion of the TMNT. *lol*

I love this website. I go to it all the time when I wonder what religion a certain hero or villian is:
http://www.comicbookreligion.com/