Citings & Sightings of Dante's Works in Contemporary Culture
“A witch that harvests souls for Azazel. Became a temporary ally to Frankenstein’s Monster, using her magic to brainwash some of the faculty of the Jean Grey School into believing they were members of the Murder Circus.
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First Appearance: Wolverine and the X-Men #19 (December, 2012)” –“Calcabrina (Earth-616),” Marvel Database Wiki, March 30,2018
“With Dante’s death, what historically has been known as the ‘Golden Age of Magic’ came to an end. Gone were the variety theaters of the world, and with it were the large traveling magic productions that had thrilled and mystified millions for generations.” –“Harry August Jansen,” Wikipedia, 21 September 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
Learn more about Dante, the “King of Magicians,” here.
“In 1982, Marvel Comics incorporated Dante Alighieri into their superhero universe in Ka-Zar the Savage Issues #9-12. Apparently, Dante based the Inferno on a pre-historic, Atlantean amusement park, one where cultists killed Beatrice in order to summon inter-dimensional demons. Dante managed to defeat the cultists with his prayers, but they return to power seven centuries later to attempt to summon their demon-lords again. That leaves it up to Ka-zar the Savage to climb down an animatronic Hell to finish what Dante started.” –Paul Jenizm
(Contributed by Paul Jenizm)
In 2014, the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise released a set of trading cards called “Duelist Alliance.” The set featured characters from The Divine Comedy, including Dante (“Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss“), Virgil (“Virgil, Rock Star of the Burning Abyss“), and Malebranche demons like Graff (“Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss“).
Contributed by Ramiro Castillo (University of Texas at Austin, ’17)
Considered one of the most important authors of Japanese manga, Go Nagai is creator of a Dante-inspired comic series called Mao Dante (also known as Demon Lord Dante in English). Nagai published the first series in 1971, and he has revisited these Dantesque themes, characters, and images in several series since (among them his 1972 anime series Devilman). Nagai’s illustrations were originally inspired by the dramatic 19th century lithographs Gustave Doré produced for the Divine Comedy. In 2017, it was announced that J-Pop would re-release Mao Dante (see here).
See also Dante Today‘s posts on Nagai’s Dante Shinkyoku and Devilman Lady.
Click here for a discussion of Go Nagai’s work in relation to three other Dante-inspired graphic novelists (article in Italian).
Contributed by Andrea Sartori
