Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) — Even U.S. President Barack Obama took notice of them. Now, New Yorkers may do, too, as the Arab world’s first superheroes make their screen debut at the New York Film Festival.
Naif Al-Mutawa yesterday presented “THE 99,” his series starring supernatural characters. His creations have also appeared as comics, alongside Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. They are based on the 99 attributes of Allah mentioned in the Koran, such as wisdom, generosity and tolerance.
Batina, which stands for the Hidden, is a Burqa-wearing character from Yemen, while Hazel-eyed Widad, or the Loving, has long lustrous brown hair and originates from the Philippines.
The giant Jabbar, or the Powerful, is a native of Saudi Arabia and resembles the Hulk. His sneeze can bring down a house and his touch can shatter a brick. These are some of Al-Mutawa’s heroes on a mission to conquer evil.
“It was about creating positive role models for my kids that are based on our culture but are universal in nature,” Al- Mutawa says in an interview. “It doesn’t matter what religion you are, it doesn’t matter if you have a religion — they are basic human values.”
The 40-year-old clinical psychologist from Kuwait says he came up with the idea in 2003 while in a London cab. It’s all about “secularizing religious content”, he says. Western heroes such as Batman and Superman are based on biblical archetypes, and he wanted to create the same from the Muslims’ holy book, he says.
Posted by ZIP on Monday, October 3, 2011, at 11:52 am
Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Even U.S. President Barack Obama took notice of them. Now, New Yorkers may do, too, as the Arab world’s first superheroes make their screen debut at the New York Film Festival.
Naif Al-Mutawa yesterday presented “THE 99,” his series starring supernatural characters. His creations have also appeared as comics, alongside Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. They are based on the 99 attributes of Allah mentioned in the Koran, such as wisdom, generosity and tolerance.
Batina, which stands for the Hidden, is a Burqa-wearing character from Yemen, while Hazel-eyed Widad, or the Loving, has long lustrous brown hair and originates from the Philippines. The giant Jabbar, or the Powerful, is a native of Saudi Arabia and resembles the Hulk. His sneeze can bring down a house and his touch can shatter a brick. These are some of Al-Mutawa’s heroes on a mission to conquer evil.
“It was about creating positive role models for my kids that are based on our culture but are universal in nature,” Al- Mutawa says in an interview. “It doesn’t matter what religion you are, it doesn’t matter if you have a religion -- they are basic human values.”
The 40-year-old clinical psychologist from Kuwait says he came up with the idea in 2003 while in a London cab. It’s all about “secularizing religious content”, he says. Western heroes such as Batman and Superman are based on biblical archetypes, and he wanted to create the same from the Muslims’ holy book, he says.
Twin Towers
It was also an attempt to alter the global perception of Islam, following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York in 2001. The comics have made a “dent” in how the religion is perceived globally, he says.
“If you get bitten by a snake you become afraid of rope,” Al-Mutawa says. “Our message keeps getting tied to bombs and guns. My thinking was if I go back to the same place where the bad guys pulled their messages and in their place put tolerant multicultural messages, they just become bad guys with bad ideas and you delink them from the religion.”
In his April 2010 speech at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship in Washington, Obama praised “THE 99” and its creator for spreading tolerance, saying the comic books were “most innovative” and “captured the imagination of so many young people.”
Prisoner Torture
Al-Mutawa, who has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Long Island University, worked with former prisoners of war in Kuwait and survivors of political torture at in Bellevue Hospital in New York. Helping people who have been prosecuted because of their religious and political beliefs led him to the project.
“I heard too many stories of people growing up to idealize their leaders as heroes only to be tortured by them,” Al-Mutawa says in an interview in Dubai before travelling to New York.
A total of 26 half-hour episodes was created out of Al- Mutawa’s comics with the help of entertainment company Endemol, a writer in Hollywood, and production by a U.K. company and India’s Sanraa Media. The sequence of four TV series, which are being translated into various languages, is showing in New York.
Discovery Channel bought the rights for the series in the U.S., Cartoon Network in Asia and MBC in the Middle East.
Like all superheroes, there’s a big market for merchandise. Al-Mutawa is looking for the right partners to create a feature film and games. The first theme park based on the characters was developed in Kuwait and talks are continuing on a second park in an Arab Gulf country, he says, declining to be more specific.
Promoting the series, let alone making a feature film, will not be the easiest task for Al-Mutawa, who said he was accused of radicalizing kids and trying to spread shari’ah law through “THE 99.”
Wearing jeans and a black jacket, he speaks at an art gallery showing his TV shows before the festival. With a documentary film on the making of “THE 99” planned for release on Oct. 13 in the U.S., Al-Mutawa says he hopes people will realize “we are not the bad guys.”
http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/20...38_620x350.jpg Image provided by DC Comics via Bender/Helper Impact shows interior panels of November 2012 issue of the latest Green Lantern series featuring character Simon Baz, DC Comics' most prominent Arab-American superhero and first to wear Green Lantern ring. / AP Photo/DC Comics via Bender/Helper Impact
(AP) DETROIT — When DC Comics decided to blow up its fabled universe and create a brave, diverse future, Geoff Johns drew from the past for a new character: his own background as an Arab-American.
The company's chief creative officer and writer of the re-launched "Green Lantern" series dreamed up Simon Baz, DC's most prominent Arab-American superhero and the first to wear a Green Lantern ring. The character and creator share Lebanese ancestry and hail from the Detroit area, which boasts one of the largest and oldest Arab communities in the United States.
"I thought a lot about it — I thought back to what was familiar to me," Johns, 39, told The Associated Press by phone last week from Los Angeles, where he now lives. "This is such a personal story."
Baz's story begins in a standalone "zero issue" available Wednesday that's part of a companywide effort to fill in the gaps or tell the origins of a character or team. Johns has no plans for Baz to fade into the background — the character in February is bound for the Justice League of America, one of DC's premier super team books, to fight alongside Green Arrow, Catwoman and Hawkman.
Johns said he took economic as well as ethnic cues for the character from his native Detroit area, with Baz resorting to stealing cars after being laid off from his automotive engineering job. He steals the wrong car, which inadvertently steers him into a terrorism probe and, eventually, an unexpected call to join the universe's galactic police force.
The olive-skinned, burly Baz hails from Dearborn, the hometown of Henry Ford and the capital of Arab America. His story begins at 10 years old, when he and the rest of his Muslim family watch their television in horror as airplanes fly into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Events unfold from there as U.S. Arabs and Muslims find themselves falling under intense suspicion and ostracism in the days, months and years following the attacks.
"Obviously, it's affecting everybody," said Johns, who grew up in nearby suburbs in a Lebanese Christian household and got into comics when he discovered his uncle's old collection in his Arabic grandmother's attic. "One of the things I really wanted to show was its effect on Simon and his family in a very negative way."
Baz is not the first Arab or Muslim character to grace — or menace, as has historically been the case — the comic world. Marvel Comics has Dust, a young Afghan woman whose mutant ability to manipulate sand and dust has been part of the popular X-Men books. DC Comics in late 2010 introduced Nightrunner, a young Muslim hero of Algerian descent reared in Paris. He is part of the global network of crime fighters set up by Batman alter-ego Bruce Wayne.
Frank Miller, whose dark and moody take on Batman in "The Dark Knight Returns" in 1986 energized the character, took a different tack in his recent book, "Holy Terror," which tells the story of The Fixer and his efforts to stamp out Islamic terrorists. The graphic novel initially took root as a look at Batman's efforts to fight terrorism, which grew out of Miller's experiences of being in New York on 9/11.
A broader mission to bring Islamic heroes and principles to the comic world comes from Naif Al-Mutawa, creator of "The 99." The U.S. educated psychologist from Kuwait has been gaining followers across the globe since the 2006 debut of the comic book that spawned a TV series. "The 99" is named after the number of qualities the Quran attributes to God: strength, courage, wisdom and mercy among them.
The series gained a wide audience in 2010, when it worked with DC on a six-issue crossover that teamed the "The 99" with The Justice League of America.
Johns, who also has written stories starring Superman, The Flash and Teen Titans, said going diverse only works if there's a good story, and he believes he found that with Baz. But don't mistake him for a hero in the beginning: Baz disappoints both devout Muslims — his forearm tattoo that reads "courage" in Arabic is considered "haram," or religiously forbidden — and broader society by turning to a life of crime.
"He's not a perfect character. He's obviously made some mistakes in his life, but that makes him more compelling and relatable," he said. "Hopefully (it's) a compelling character regardless of culture or ethnic background. ... But I think it's great to have an Arab American superhero. This was opportunity and a chance to really go for it."
Of course, Johns hopes Green Lantern fans accept Baz, who joins other humans who have been "chosen," including Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner and Kyle Rayner. The overall relaunch has been good for DC, which has seen a solid gain in sales and critical reception — as well as some expected grumbling — since coming out with the "New 52" last year.
Johns also sees the debut of Baz as a chance to reconnect with people in his home state: He's scheduled to visit Dearborn this weekend for events related to the release that include a signing Saturday at a comic book store and a free presentation Sunday on his career and characters at the Arab American National Museum. He worked with museum staff to make sure he got certain details right about his character and the Arab-Muslim community.
"It doesn't completely define the character but it shapes the character," he said. "My biggest hope is that people embrace it and understand what we're trying to do."
Someone’s creating a new superhero, which means it must be a day of the week ending in “y.” But Marvel Comics’ announcement about a new Ms. Marvel series deserves special attention. The company announced in a press release today that the new Ms. Marvel will be a superhero of the Islamic faith — the first-ever Muslim title character from Marvel Comics and pretty much the first Muslim superhero from the mainstream comic publishers to get her own monthly book. (Although last year DC introduced Simon Baz, a new Green Lantern who’s currently a member of the Justice League.)
According to the press release, the new Ms. Marvel’s real name is Kamala Khan, a 16-year-old from Jersey City. “Kamala has all of her opportunities in front her and she is loaded with potential, but her parents’ high expectations come with tons of pressure,” Marvel describes. “When Kamala suddenly gets powers that give her the opportunity to be just like her idol, Captain Marvel, it challenges the very core of her conservative values.”
The “Ms. Marvel” name previously belonged to Carol Danvers, a blonde Air Force badass who got fused with Alien genes and developed superpowers. Danvers is now known as Captain Marvel, not to be confused with the Captain Marvel who died in the ’80s or the Captain Marvel from DC Comics who everyone just calls Shazam. (Comic books!) The new Ms. Marvel will feature in a special issue in January before her series begins in February. Which means we only have a couple months to decide: Is America really ready for a superhero from New Jersey?
November 7th, 2013, 01:08
Segestan
Re: Indoctrinating Children: Muslim Superheros
Childish fantasy is just exactly what Islam is. Allah and his A**wipe Mohammad would also fit perfectly as evil Satan characters much better.
November 9th, 2013, 02:27
Avvakum
Re: Indoctrinating Children: Muslim Superheros
Quote:
Originally Posted by Segestan
Childish fantasy is just exactly what Islam is. Allah and his A**wipe Mohammad would also fit perfectly as evil Satan characters much better.
I'm sure that the hardcore moslem types will paint this as a devilish 'trojan horse' plot to pussify moslems worldwide and turn them into secular modernists singing 'kumbaya' around a campfire.
