Batman has a Muslim sidekick

Yes, you heard that right, Batman has a Muslim sidekick, and according to Aasif Mandvi from the Daily Show, it is the end of the world as we know it!

The Daily Show - Batman's Muslim Sidekick
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This could be it for all of us sports fans, First Spidey makes a deal with the devil to end his marriage to a a super model, and now Bats is siding with the Jihadistists. Next thing you know there will be a team of Islamic Teen superheroes...

Uh-oh!

International Heroes

Some time back I became turned on a Kuwaiti comicbook company that initially entered into the US marketplace by licensing Spider-Man to publish in Arabic for the Mid-East. Teshkeel Comics then moved into a new area by introducing their own characters, The 99. The comic (written by Fabian Nicieza) centers around a group of teenagers who have certain aspects of their personality “augmented” by bonding with several “enhanced” Noor gem stones that have been imbued with one of The 99 special traits of Allah, and then passed these traits each of the individuals. If this sort of sounds a little like the X-Men it is probably because Fabian is a former writer of that team.

Given this double connection to Marvel, it sort of makes the next part of this post even more interesting. The 99 Have recently teamed up with the JLA. Yep, DC’s Justice League of America. Now I’m not sure why this first team-up happened with DC, and not Marvel, but — on some level — I really don’t care, so long as these very cool characters become introduced into the American Audience.

It is one of the goals of Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa (a UNESCO award-winning author and the creator of the 99) to present a positive image of the Arab world and Islamic beliefs, and both the comic itself and his editorials in each issue reflect that approach. Dr. Naif was quick to point out that there is no overt religious message in The 99, nor is he attempting to present a religious image of either Allah or Islam, as that would be something to difficult to attempt. Rather, the comic should be viewed as a typical superhero comic that just happens to take place with a cast of characters that is largely Islamic.

As of yet, I haven’t read the JLA/99 series (for of the planned six issues have already hit the stands), but I’m looking forward to doing so as I have read the first 12 or 13 issues of The 99. The team-up is co-written by Fabian  and Stuart Moore.

Personally, I can only think that this kind of inter-company team-up can be beneficial to both companies by introducing the characters of each to the readers of the others. To be sure, the DC characters are more widely known, but it certainly couldn't hurt to have them favorably introduced into the largely Islamic audience that reads The 99, nor would it be bad for the primarily U.S. audience to get a more favorable understanding of non-threatening Islamic characters.

What a Difference a Decade (or more) Makes

When I was in my 20s I wanted to write an article which I had then intended to call Earth One, Earth Two, Earth Red, Earth Blue. Not so much because I had anything truly informative or functionally relative to say about the idiosyncrasies of the multiple Earth syndrome over at DC, but simply because I wanted to use (what I thought was the) the wicked-cool (and incredibly clever) Dr. Suss alliteration in the title of the article.

Needless to say, I never wrote it. And I still think it is wicked-cool, and incredibly clever.

I bring this all up because just this past month I read not only the Marvel giveaway comic, The Wolverine Saga but the DC Free Comic Book Day handout, Blackest Night. in both cases I learned new stuff about both characters that I had simply not known prior to reading either comic.

It’s true. In the case of Wolverine I learned that he is like 150 years old (I knew that he had fought in WWII, but I had no idea that he was far older than that). In the case of Green Lantern, I discovered that there was an entire rainbow of lanterns (thus the Earth Red, Earth Blue reference from above). I knew about the Sinistro corps, and had heard something about Red Lanterns, but Blue, Black, Yellow, Saphire, Indigo, and well, like I said, there is a whole rainbow of Lanterns these days. Now, I’m sure that there is a really nifty-cool reason behind all of them, but I can’t help to think that it all seems just a tad silly.

Part of the reason that I didn’t know any of this is that I had stopped reading X-Men around 1995, and most DC comics a few years earlier. These days I mostly (only) read Spider-Man comics. The reason for this is that I really like Spidey, and as everything is so expensive (and I’m one of the Sr. Reviewers for SpiderFan, I determined to limit my reading to a character I truly enjoy.

Oh yeah, I also spend a considerable amount of time reading the Indie comics of friends and acquaintances, (new talent needs to be encouraged, and friends should support each other). Additionally, I do sample other comics (whenever any company offers a reduced or entry price to a title (or a giveaway — like FCBD), I’ll check out the book. (This is how I discovered the very Delightful Love and Capes), and the equally interesting The 99.

Anyway, it appears that a bunch of stuff has been happening in comics. So much for “the illusion of change.”

The Day after the Night Before!

So, yesterday was Free Comic Book Day, and I visited two comic shops (on opposite sides of the state, next year I think I'm going to add one in the middle as well), and in addition to scoring 31 FCBD comics (plus three more “regular” comics that one shop adds in as special extras), I scored a set of four special Marvel comics from Taco Bell, a set of six comics from Teshkeel Publishers who produced the wonderful Islamic-themed superhero comic The 99, A pair of comics (Celtic Knights) from my Facebook Buddy from Ireland (Stephen Paul Coffey, and a comp copy of Beyond the Kuieper Belt (Free Lunch Comics) as I had contributed a fake “letter of comment” to the premiere issue. Plus I picked up a pair of comics from one of the indie comic creators/publishers who was displaying at Sarge’s.

Plus, a bunch of us went to see Wolverine (my second time). While at this second viewing I learned that there are apparently multiple codas attached to the end of the film (stick around ‘til after all of the credits roll).

Forty-nine comics, not a bad haul for a single day. In fact that I somehow missed out on snagging a copy of Love & Capes is a tad irritating, but I’m sure that one will turn up.

Now I have to get back to writing my entries for the Official Index to Marvel Comics.

Once I get past this deadline, I'll start posting reviews of the comics I scored this weekend.

Islamic Superheroes

Don’t go off the deep end with this headline, folks, This isn’t some sort of jihad against the US or even US superheroes, but rather a truly internationally-driven legitimate enterprise. If you haven’t heard of it as of yet, perhaps you should. The Teshkeel Media Group, headed up by a Kuwaiti-born businessman named, Naif Al-Mutawa brings a Western sensibility to the house of Superheroes, (or perhaps, brings Islamic values to the nature of the superhero community.

According to Mutawa (and as far as I can see) there are no religious overtones to the comic, Think of it as a secular comic written with the values of a respectful religious authority. (Like I said, no militant, fundamental jihads here.) Mutawa told me that he is staying away from a strict religious interpretation of Islamic law as that is not his intent here. He wants to tell “standard” superhero stories, but infuse them with Muslim culture. From where I sit, he is doing quite well.

The book reads like a Mideast X-Men — which doesn’t come as a surprise as it is written by Marvel Alum and former X-Men Scribe Fabian Nicieza. Another Marvel staffer Sven Larsen is also on the Teshkeel staff.

The comics are quite good and, well, they are garnering some good press (and I don’t mean in the fan press, but in the real press, like Time, and Newsweek. So if you happen to come across The 99 in your comic Shop, I strongly suggest that you give it a read. You’ll be glad that you did.