I think you will find it more in the indies, than mainstream comics, because of the Code and fears of alienating potential authority figures, more than readers. The Code came about not just due to Wertham and Kefauver; the Catholic League of decency and some other Catholic and Protestant groups were also attacking comics (just as Catholic authorities had comic strips, a generation before). You don't see much in mainstream comics, until the 80s, when the Direct market became more prominent.

Gim Allon, Colossal Boy, was shown to be a nice Jewish boy, under Levitz, wearing a yamaka in at least one story. Ben Grimm was later bar mitzvahed, in a Mark Waid story, thanks to the input of an old pawn store owner who Ben had run afoul of, in his youth, with the Yancy Street Gang.

Scout is a kind of twilight world for this. Tim Truman centers things around Apache mythology and spiritual rituals; but, he also suggested that it could all be in Santana's head, leaving it up to your interpretation. Christmas stories used to be the place where you might run into a suggestion of religion, more than anywhere else, other than straight religious comics.

In that world, the Christian Spire comics with the Archie gang were pretty positive and a bit less dogmatic than the Catholic Treasure Chest of Fun & Fact series, which had a lot of anti-communist propaganda in it (and some questionable history). Max Gaines Picture Stories from the Bible and DC's later Joe Kubert-drawn Bible stories were quite excellent adaptions o biblical tales, while Pix used to have a mix of Bible stories and religious adventure stores (like Tulus).

I don't think, though, that you can necessarily paint a story with a corrupt or murderous religious figure as anti-religion, necessarily. It isn't hard to find real world examples for parallels to such figures, as there have always been those who use faith as a platform for personal wealth and power, rather than any actual spiritual belief. Illustrating that doesn't necessarily condemn the religion as much as the actions and hypocrisy of the individual. It comes down to how the creative team handle the story, whether they make statements that say this is all religion or this is one person (or group) who have used people's faith against them.

I think that is one of the reasons it is generally shied away from, still. I also think a lot of creators kind of focus more on general moral principles, rather than religious tenets, as moral codes aren't exclusive to religious beliefs.

Neil Gaiman had positive and negative portrayals in Sandman, depending on the character. he also showed various manifestations of religious figures or deities, particularly in Season of Mist, where Lucifer quits Hell and hands the key to Morpheus, leading representatives from various pantheons to negotiate for it, including two angels of Heaven (or the Silver City, as he called it).

I also think a lot of creators in the field don't necessarily have strong convictions in this area, and the ones that do are the ones who have made themselves the most heard.

Sure. It's not at all unreasonable to show the potential for religion to exert a negative force against which a character might strive. I was more interested in exploring the prevailing narratives about organized religion. As you imply, it comes down to the individual authors. Some are more interested in showing a realistic diversity of religious experience than others are. And looking more big-picture, a lot of authors simply didn't do a lot of character development at all, and characterization is the main place that you're going to have the opportunity for positive portrayals of religion. Otherwise, the main narrative use of religion will be as an obstacle to be overcome somehow, e.g. "God Loves, Man Kills."

My favorite religiously themed comic of all time was published under Shooter's watch:




And, if Shooter was objecting to religious themes in Marvel Comics (not sure I buy that), we should probably also discuss this:





For what it's worth, I have speculated in my Thunder Agents at Tower Comics thread that part of the reason Manny Stallman was let go was that he was making The Raven too Jewish and too pro-Israel.

Daredevil is widely known as Roman Catholic, but it depends on the writer how heavily the stories lean into this. Frank Miller obviously was one of the writers who did, being Irish Catholic himself, and writing a story titled "Born Again" (from the Gospel of John, chapter 3, just a few verses before the famous John 3:16) and featuring Matt Murdock's mother, a nun. The film and TV series ran with this as well, the latter including a number of scenes with Matt in confession or having chats with the local parish priest -- including this scene, which is perhaps my favorite non-action scene from the first season:




Not long ago, there was a limited series written and illustrated by Lee Weeks titled "Daredevil: Dark Nights".  There are several allusions to Murdock's Christianity/Catholicism, including one panel showing him slumped over at his desk, having fallen asleep while reading the Bible.  Another panel had one character beating up another character tied to a chair while asking "What fool takes a beating for another man's debt?" -- clearly an allusion to Christ's suffering for the sins of others.  Lee Weeks is an evangelical Protestant who is pretty open about his faith, so I'm fairly certain these were all very intentional references to Christianity.

More recently, Tom King wrote an issue of Batman (that also happened to be illustrated by Lee Weeks!) that talked about Thomas Wayne's apparently devout Christian faith and Bruce's differences with that faith, suggesting that he was an atheist:

www.syfy.com/syfywire/is-bruce-wayne-an-atheist-dc-comics-latest-unpacks-the-religion-of-batman



 

I think it's been a good thing in the comics I've read, even read some from Spire and Crusaders comics in the past that one could file under propagandist and it didn't do me any harm. In fact one was even political, a Spire title about some Nixon dude who found the Lord after taking the fall for his un-indicted co-conspirator in chief.

I grew up with a lot of British tv that usually shows parrish based Anglican Christianity as a part of daily life, not immune from human failings, but also a potential force for local good. A small c christianity you might call it compared to more show-bizzy media savvy American Christianity.

No, I can't say I've seen much of worth about Vodou/Santaria/West African rooted religion though I suppose, not that I'd look for it in English language comics anyway unless maybe they were from Haiti. From what I did receive in Buddhist instruction in my youth there's not much in all the ninja and samurai type comics worth mentioning either.

Whenever I think of comic books and religion, the first thing I think of is The Seraph.




In his first solo story in the back pages of The Super Friends, he continued to beat up someone who had surrendered, admonished by God, and had his powers removed because of that. He did penance, and at the end of the story he got his powers back. I remember when the letter column was printed for that issue, there was one reader who said the fact that God was in the story speaking to the hero made him 'uneasy'.