Hand of the Morningstar is a Christian graphic novel series created by Brett Burner, Mike Miller (Volumes 1-3), Eric Ninaltowski (Volumes 3-8), and Ben Avery (Volumes 6-8), combining Superhero Tropes with Signs of the End Times.
The plot adheres to two perspectives of the story. First, the focus is on a group of five superheroes, known as the Hand of the Morningstar, who wages a crime-fighting crusade for their god-like leader, the Morningstar, to spread peace across the earth. Conversely, the story follows Michael "The Tempest" Tempe, another super, and his conflicts with the aforementioned group. The premise gives a different spin on the usual conflict between heroes and villains: "- but what happens when the villain becomes a Christian, and the Superhero carries an evil secret?"
Volumes 1-3 are available to read for free on the main site
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This work provides examples of:
- Art Shift: The artist transition from Mike Miller to Eric Ninaltowski is quite apparent.
- Decoy Protagonist: Surprisingly (but non-fatally), the Hand of the Morningstar thanks to Michael taking the helm since Volume 2. Instead, they undergo a much darker route.
- Heel–Faith Turn: Michael Tempe by his conversion to Christianity. Likewise for Kami a.k.a Jorge.
- Meaningful Name/Meaningful Rename:
- The members of the Hand of the Morningstar were all given CodeNames based on certain Mythological figures.
- Michael "The Tempest" Tempe also counts for his namesake and super identity.
- Multinational Team: The Hand of the Morningstar: Titan (USA), Avatar (India), Shango (West Africa), Kwan Yin (China), and Kami (South America).
- Perspective Flip: The story takes the focus from the Hand to Michael Tempe from Volume 2 onwards.
- Religious Edutainment
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Michael "The Tempest" Tempe had used his storm powers to protest the destruction of the environment while unintentionally contributing to said destruction. After his conversion, he changed to less harmful and more diplomatic tactics to address the issues.
- Western Terrorists: The Sovereign World Army is a terrorist organization that seeks to change international policy through hijacked military Mecha. It does have a Middle Eastern man as the leader though. Allegedly.