Morrison argues that, unlike movies and TV shows with slow production schedules, comic books speak to the moment in a more immediate way. “A comic is on the streets within three months of it being created,” Morrison says. “There’s very little editorial influence, so you see an artist’s work directly on the page.”
And, he says, comic books provide valuable role models for a new generation of superheroes. “When new superheroes appear on the planet — real superheroes — they’ll have all this material to study and figure out, ‘What are we supposed to be and do?'”
The book jacket adds, “these heroes are powerful archetypes whose ongoing, decades-spanning story arcs reflect and predict the course of human existence: Through them we tell the story of ourselves, our troubled history, and our starry aspirations.”
Father and son team Deepak Chopra and Gotham Chopra discuss co-writing The Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheroes on “New Mexico in Focus” for KNME. Correspondent Gwyneth Doland interviews them about “helping people understand the spiritual side of their favorite comic book superheroes.”
What is clear is that Muslims on the comics pages confront the conundrum of their flesh-and-blood counterparts: their community views them with suspicion. Lewis says non-Muslim heroes wonder, “Can they truly represent the American way? Could they really be on our side? When Dust joins the X-Men, these persecuted American mutants don’t really know if they can trust her. The comic book creators can have it both ways. They can present an altruistic Muslim hero, but also reflect the Islamophobia.”
Wow! So in Lewis’s narrow vision, the Copts of Egypt aren’t victimized, nor are the French, the Israelis, the Sudanese Christians, or even the Armenians during WW1, when the Islamic-led Ottoman Empire of Turkey slaughtered at least a million Armenians. Nor, I suppose, was Lara Logan when she was gang raped in Egypt back in February. What a most utter ignoramus. I guess he hasn’t ever read the Koran either.
Green suggests The 99 as one example of Muslim superheroes Lewis may have been trying to sidestep: “Lewis chose to put his head in the sand.” Meanwhile, that series was being featured elsewhere online, as part of The National‘s coverage of DC Comics’ recent publishing shift. Shot in February, the video focuses on The 99‘s creator Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa discussing the multi-national and inter-religious basis for the series in addition to its Islamic roots.
New cover but old solicitation.
Coincidentally, DC’s position on Muslim characters was challenged in a different way this month with the resolicitation of Superman #712. ComicBookResources.com reports that the issue was originally supposed to feature Superman teaming up with the Muslim hero Sharif (formerly Sinbad), but it had been replaced with a story of Krypto the Super-dog. ComicBook.com notes that “the change was apparently so last minute by DC Comics that the DC Comics website still shows the old content description for Superman #712 with the new Krytpo the Superdog cover image for Superman #712.” ComicBookMovie.com has opened a poll to ask readers whether the decision was a wise move or not.
Lastly, in separate but not unrelated news, PR Newswire announced the new series Buraaq from Split Moon Arts. The title character is “a practicing Muslim, a regular guy who is turned into a superhero by traumatic events in his youth. According to SplitMoonArts, the mission is not to preach, but to provide wholesome family entertainment. The underlying message, they say, would help foster better relations between the West and the Islamic World.” Whether this is, as the PR Newswire headline reports, the first Muslim superhero is doubtful, but that claim does not seem to originate with SplitMoonArts itself.
“It’s maddening and sickening at the same time. Given these themes behind the movement, despite my conviction that male genital mutilation is a violation of human freedom, I’d vote against it now. The contempt for religious freedom and the use of this kind of anti-Semitic dreck – Monster Mohel anyone? – have pushed me over the edge. One day, a rational, calm and tolerant campaign to prevent the routine mutilation of male infants will emerge. But not this one. It’s despicable.”
It’s sad when you see a beloved medium used to spread a hateful message (even when it’s weirdly ineffective), but we would all be poorer without free speech. Because free speech also allows us to mock others.
The site’s coverage has led to over two dozen comments on the comic, the ADL, and free speech. The Mary Sue is part of the Abrams Media Network.
In June of last year, novelist and comic book writer G. Willow Wilson gave an interview to Bleeding Cool News upon the release of her memoir The Butterfly Mosque. In both the book and interview, she chronicles what led her to convert to Islam and the stigma sometimes attached to converting into another religion.
Last week, The Infidel Bloggers Alliance essentially proved her point. Whereas Wilson calls “[c]omics readers […] the most open-minded, try-anything-once, take-people-as-they-are,” Avi Green holds Wilson in disdain, largely for converting at all but particularly to Islam. Green says that Wilson’s assessment of comics readers is “naive” and that Wilson herself “fell to Islam.”
Bleeding Cool‘s Rich Johnston, incidentally, stands by Wilson on principle and calls The Infidel Bloggers Alliance “a rabidly pro-Israel, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim site.”
@ the intersection of religion and comics: Graphic Religion
All Things Considered on National Public Radio, spoke with comics writer Grant Morrison recently both to learn about his personal background with superheroes as well as the content of his new book Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human. 
In June of last year, novelist and comic book writer