Astral spirits? What?

[Crowley]

Does this game have a bad case of political correctness? It's odd how characters in the game speak of 'astral energy' and 'astral spirit' when it would sound much more natural to just say 'soul'. This reminds me of the old days of when Sega and Nintendo of America would censor any religious references in their games. I just can't figure out what anyone expected to accomplish by such unassuming writing.

[Lionsden99]

I believe the game is purely just pulling straight from the comics.  Dr. Strange has been using Astral projections since the early 60's and Prof X started fighting on the Astral plane not too soon after that.  By saying "astral" it makes things more mystifing and open to different interpertations. And yes I'm sure Marvel was also trying to dodge bullets over controversy of pushing religion, evolution, or anything else that would get impressionable's children's parents into a tizzy.

[Crowley]

I believe the game is purely just pulling straight from the comics.  Dr. Strange has been using Astral projections since the early 60's and Prof X started fighting on the Astral plane not too soon after that.

I could understand it being used in such places, but this game seems to use it as a catch-all phrase to replace 'soul'. For example it says Mephisto held the 'astral spirit' of Doom's mother, warriors in Valhalla speak of valkyries taking the 'astral spirits' of fallen warriors there and so on.

[Teancum]

That's how Marvel does things, it's not the game.

[PackerFan8459]

y does Marvel do that? SO what if they make references to religion or evolution or anything else.

[Teancum]

So maybe they thought it sounded cool.  Maybe it has nothing at all to do with religion.  Chill guys.

[Gevth]

It comes from when people were scared of everything, aka the late 80's and early 90's. You see there was a moment when parents got really scared because they thought their kids worshipped the devil and stuff, fear that came from that crazy heavy metal music and how kids dressed, and maybe some remnants of the whole cold war paranoia.
Hence, many different things had to be changed. D&D and other fantasy games had to remove all pentagrams and references to demons. For comics, it meant among other things, that Mephisto turned into a really powerful being from another dimension, rather than being the devil himself and his realm, hell.
Also, this is what I deduce by mixing some random tidbits of information, and while it might not be correct, this is what I believe. Don't thing this is the official explanation.

[boreman]

I could understand it being used in such places, but this game seems to use it as a catch-all phrase to replace 'soul'. For example it says Mephisto held the 'astral spirit' of Doom's mother, warriors in Valhalla speak of valkyries taking the 'astral spirits' of fallen warriors there and so on.

I understand the astral form more as a conscience projection away from the living body. Since Xavier is a psychic, you could say the astral plane and astral projections of forms are more related to the mind than the soul.

Marvel doesn't avoid religious themes. The whole Ghost Rider mythos is proof. The Mephisto thing can have many explanations: a) ubber-powerful characters are boring and you can't write a constant hero or villain that is the source of all evil and too big to be defeated (even Galactus has a weakness), b) you have at some point a lot of characters related with devils and demons, and suddenly you realize there is a Satan, a Lucifer, a Mephistopheles, a Set when they should be just the original devil (and also many 'hells'), so you just turn them into inter-dimensional ultra-powerful entities that resemble the mental image of demons (like the Deviants themselves), or c) as a sci-fi explanation, where everything has to be explained by Marvel science, where demons aren't plausible, but inter-dimensional energy wielders and shapeshifters are.

To rest my case: Morbius, Dracula, Daredevil, Darkdevil, the whole Inferno saga, Apocalypse, Damian Hellstrom, the Ghost Rider angels, Lucifer, Brother Voodoo, Black Talon, Nightcrawler, they all have religious connotations too deep into what the character is to take them away just because of parental pressure. Heck, even Spider-Man met God once (SSM40).

[Philly T]

Yes it seems that marvel does take a stand on evolution and God. They imply that the scientific answer is the only one. I believe that this is because there is no catastrophe that God couldn't fix and this would minimize any heros role in the grand scheme of the marvel universe. So an omnicient, and caring God would spoil the world threatening plot. How good a story would it be if even if the heroes failed God came in and fixed everything. I believe thats why the marvel universe avoids reference to God, he is the ultimate superhero and thus spoils the plot. Marvel is alot more about the greatness in human nature than the divinity of God. All dieties are redefined in the comics as a different interpertation. Religion is a topic writers try to avoid as not to create a problem but also to have a protagonist that could lose.

[idrinkdrpepper]

Yeah, there's religion in the Marvel Universe.  For example:

Also, I think there are pentagram symbols in Mephisto's realm, so I don't think astral spirit is really censorship.  And if you check out XML2, Nightcrawler has a power where he makes the sign of the cross.  Is the word 'spirit' less religious than the word 'soul'?

[PackerFan8459]

i agree with Philly T, it would be awesome if the heroes failed and God fixed everything.

I just wanna say that it's because of stupid athiest bastards that tv shows, news shows, etc. have to worry about being "politically incorrect" so they have to kiss their ass so they won't get sued.   What bitches!

[boreman]

i agree with Philly T, it would be awesome if the heroes failed and God fixed everything.

Even then... God would be called THE EXILES!!!

[muafan]

To rest my case: Morbius, Dracula, Daredevil, Darkdevil, the whole Inferno saga, Apocalypse, Damian Hellstrom, the Ghost Rider angels, Lucifer, Brother Voodoo, Black Talon, Nightcrawler, they all have religious connotations too deep into what the character is to take them away just because of parental pressure. Heck, even Spider-Man met God once (SSM40).

the f4 also met God , when trying to save the thing. he was a comicbook artist!

[Rasdel]

There IS religion in Marvel... Dust in another example, isn't she a muslim?

Cheers