The Religious Affiliation of
Sunfire
Shiro Yoshida

This was written for Scripps Howard News Service.

From: Andrew A. Smith, ""Comics superheroes of many faiths", published in The Houston Chronicle", posted 3 February 2000 on the Houston Chronicle blog website (http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/religion/446482.html; viewed 30 November 2005):

So, if you were going to dress up like a bat and fight crime, what church would you attend?... Which is not to say that comics are a Christians-only playground. Most superheroes haven't had a faith established, but those that have are all over the ecclesiastical map.

...The Japanese mutant, Sunfire, is a Shintoist.

From: "X-Men religious affiliations" forum discussion, started 1 June 2002 on the rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks newsgroup website (http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks/browse_thread/thread/78e6830d00083d2f/102a03cd2dab9fda; viewed 13 June 2006):

From: Chris Dodson
Date: Sat, Jun 1 2002 9:38 pm

I'm looking for information on the religious beliefs of all the current X-Men for a story I'm submitting to Marvel. The only one I know for sure is Nightcrawler (Catholic). I get the impression that Wolverine is an atheist or agnostic, but I have no in-comic evidence to support this. Any help you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated. Also, in your responses, could you provide titles and issue numbers of the comics in which the information is stated? Thanks.

From: Patrick McClue
Date: Mon, Jun 3 2002 8:52 am

re: "I don't think there are any followers of Buddhist, Islamic or Shinto traditions"

Sunfire might be Buddhist/Shintoist and M might be Muslim.

From: Adam T. Reid
Date: Mon, Jun 3 2002 1:07 pm

re: "I don't think there are any followers of Buddhist, Islamic or Shinto traditions"

Unless you count, of course the Japanese characters (Sunfire, Sunpyre, Silver Samurai, Matsu'o, Revanche, Mariko, etc.) that pop up every once and awhile. Japanese generally practice Buddhist or Shinto beliefs, sometimes both. I can only say for certain that the Yoshidas practiced Shinto traditions, notably at M'iko [Mariko] and Logan's aborted wedding back in the UXM [Uncanny X-Men] # 170's.

From: Prestorjon
Date: Tues, Jun 4 2002 7:13 pm

re: "I don't think there are any followers of Buddhist, Islamic or Shinto traditions"

For Shinto Sunfire possibly?

From: "Up, up, and oy, vey!" forum discussion, started 5 February 2006 on the MetaFilter.com website (http://www.metafilter.com/39326/Up-up-and-oy-vey; viewed 19 June 2007):

posted by Asparagirl at 8:14 PM on February 5

...By the way, Marvel apparently recognized early on that its original books had been too whitebread. All five of the original X-Men [Cyclops, Iceman, the Beast, Angel and Jean Grey/Marvel Girl] were WASPs ["White Anglo-Saxon Protestants"], but when they revived the book in the 1970's, the new team members (Havok, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Storm, Wolverine, Thunderbird, Banshee and Sunfire) were WASP, German Catholic, African Pagan, Canadian, Native American, Irish Catholic, and Japanese, respectively...