Five Superhero Movies About Forgiveness After Failure

In between his inappropriate one-liners and knowing breaks of the fourth wall, the foul-mouthed antihero Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) heaps occasional praise upon Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in Deadpool & Wolverine. But Wolverine takes exception to these compliments. After all, the wounded X-Man carries the guilt of failing his friends and comrades, resulting in their deaths and leaving him a despairing mess.

Most Christians can understand Wolverine’s feelings. No matter how many times we read about God’s perfect grace—the forgiveness offered freely to all of us—we condemn ourselves and thus refuse to participate in God’s good work. Deadpool & Wolverine is hardly alone in portraying people finding their way back from failure. Here are five other superhero movies that deal with issues of redemption and forgiveness, their over-the-top stakes drawing bright lines under their central themes, allowing Christian viewers to better remember the promise that God’s mercies never end.

The Incredibles

Bob Parr (voiced by Craig T. Nelson), who once fought crime under the name Mr. Incredible, feels insignificant. New laws banning superheroes and familial duties have forced Bob to hang up his tights and get a real job, something he resents. When a shadowy organization offers him new missions, Bob happily resumes his Mr. Incredible mantle, even though he hides his activities from his wife Helen (Holly Hunter), also a former superhero. Too full of his ego to care about lying to his family or to notice the strange circumstances behind his missions, Bob plays right into the hands of the villainous Syndrome (Jason Lee).

Late in The Incredibles, Bob realizes that he’s been duped and fears that his family has died as a result. His massive form droops in defeat, his once-booming voice becomes frail and thin. But as soon as Bob learns that his wife and children still live, he pops back to life and recommits himself to the mission. Running through the jungle outside of Syndrome’s lair, hurrying to rescue their kids from henchmen armed with space-age weapons, Bob admits to Helen that he was wrong to lie about his doings. When Helen snaps back about his actions forcing them to run for their lives through the jungle, Bob answers, “You keep trying to pick a fight, but I’m still just happy you’re alive!” The scene ends with all four family members working together to defeat the henchmen, punctuated with a shot of them posing together—superhero speak for reconciliation.

The uncomplicated way that Bob understands his confession and repentance recalls the simplicity of 1 John 1:9, which wastes no words: “If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Purified in this way, we can once again do God’s work unimpeded, feeling as strong as Mr. Incredible bounding into action.

Iron Man

The first act of this inaugural movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe finds Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) cocky, flippant, and charismatic. The son of a successful arms manufacturer, Tony has massive wealth and enjoys every bit of it. By the final act, Tony has become Iron Man. He has devoted his genius and his wealth to stopping the proliferation of weapons. Tony puts his life on the line to keep the killing machines that made him rich from getting out into the world.

What accounts for that change? It’s the moment that a bomb exploded in front of Tony, leaving him with life-threatening shrapnel in his body. The name on that bomb? Stark Industries.

Tony’s near-death experience illustrates an oft-overlooked fact about sin. We are punished by our sins far more than we’re punished for them, as the very act of straying from God’s design harms us. That’s why one of Jesus’s earliest messages was a simple one about turning away from our self-destructive ways: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

The same bombs that made Tony rich forever change his body, forcing him to develop an arc reactor—a device in his chest that keeps the shrapnel from entering his heart. Iron Man demonstrates both repentance and redemption here. More than a punishment for his sin, the arc reactor powers Tony’s Iron Man suit, becoming the means of helping others, of bringing light to the dark places of the world.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Thanks to the time-travel plot of X-Men: Days of Future Past, the mutant telepath Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) is haunted not by his past, but by his future. Charles once held a dream of helping mutants overcome the bigotry heaped upon them by the rest of the world. But eventually, that bigotry overcame him and he gave up, using a serum to turn off his psychic powers.

Xavier’s guilt and anger comes to the fore when a device allows him to face his future self, portrayed by Patrick Stewart. In his future, the younger Xavier sees both a respected leader and an utter failure, a man whose constant struggle has not resulted in peace between mutants and humans. Instead, the future Xavier broadcasts from a ruined base, where the last remaining mutants hide out from aggressive oppressors.

Despite his surroundings, the future Xavier encourages his younger self, urging him to keep the faith and show the humans a better way. When the younger Xavier reminds his future self of his mistakes, the older Xavier offers words of hope that resonate with Christians: “Just because someone stumbles, loses their way, doesn't mean they’re lost forever.” Paul writes something similar at the start of Ephesians: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.”

In X-Men: Days of Future Past, the young Xavier’s shortcomings unleash supervillains and violent robots. But his repentance involves boldly doing the work of serving others, despite the guilt he feels. As Christians, we have even greater stakes when we show love and understanding to even our enemies. And we have an even greater promise of the future, secure in Christ’s redemption.

Avengers: Endgame

“You should have gone for the head.”

In Avengers: Endgame, the powerful Thor (Chris Hemsworth) punishes himself by remembering those words, spoken when he failed to stop the villain Thanos, who would go on to wipe out half of the living beings in the universe.

Even after killing Thanos at the start of Avengers: Endgame, Thor cannot shake his depression over his previous mistake, transforming from a superior specimen to a bedraggled wreck. Thor spends his time not using his formidable gifts for the good of others, but avoiding his feelings with video games and pizza.

None of us can fly or harness lightning, but we each have our own gifts, gifts that can be squandered not only when we refuse to accept forgiveness, but also when we try to earn forgiveness through our own efforts. “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith,” Ephesians 2:8-9 teaches. “And this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Thor learns this lesson midway through Endgame, when he gets a chance to have one more conversation with his late mother Frigga, played by Rene Russo. (Again, time travel!) “It was too late,” he says of his killing Thanos. “Just an idiot with an axe.” Frigga doesn’t completely disagree with him, saying, “An idiot, no. A failure, yes.” But then she continues with wisdom for her son: “Everyone fails at who they're supposed to be, Thor. The measure of a person, of a hero, is how well they succeed at being who they are.”

We all know what it’s like to fail and not be who we wanted to be. But as Ephesians reminds us, what we are is forgiven, equipped by grace to still use our gifts in God’s service. In the same way that Thor follows his conversation with his mother by lifting his magical hammer, Mjolnir, and saying, “I’m still worthy,” we pick up our cross and do God’s work, knowing that Christ has made us worthy.

Birds of Prey

By the mid-point of Birds of Prey, the former supervillain Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) has found her community. After breaking up with her abusive boyfriend, the Joker, she went on a journey that brought her alongside singer Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett), vigilante The Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), teen pickpocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), and disgraced detective Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez).

When they are all targeted by the gangster Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor), also known as Black Mask, the women form a community of necessity, relying on one another when they can’t rely on anyone else. At the same time, the quintet frequently gets on each other’s nerves, continually irritating one another.

In many ways, our churches are also collections of misfits—groups of people who have little in common outside of our desire to follow Christ. For that reason, we often offend, annoy, and even hurt one another. But as Christ-followers, we need to practice forgiveness and acceptance.

That’s why Colossians 3:13-14 urges church members to “bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

The women of Birds of Prey never reach perfect unity, exactly, but they do learn to forgive each other and work together. During one action sequence, Harley notices Dinah trying to keep her hair out of her face as she battles baddies. “Hair tie?” Harley offers, helping her former rival see clearly. It might not be the most significant thing in the world, but sometimes small acts of repentance and forgiveness lead to amazing things—things that can inspire even the most unlikely members of the body of Christ.

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At Think Christian, we encourage careful cultural discernment. We recognize and respect that many Christians choose not to engage with pop culture that contains particular content, such as abuse, sex, violence, alcohol or drug use, or that employs the use of coarse language. To that end, we suggest visiting Common Sense Media for detailed information regarding the content of the particular pieces of pop culture discussed in this article.