Tag Archives: green lantern

academic, articles and essays, contributors, reviews

Religious Revivals and the Great Awakening of Religion & Comics

[Part Two of “What Makes a Scholar’s Pull-List?”]

Panel from _Manifest Destiny_, art by Matthew Roberts
Panel from _Manifest Destiny_ by Chris Dingess with art by Matthew Roberts

American historians sometimes call the waves of religious fervor in the 18th and 19th century our country’s “Great Awakening.” It is a powerful image–convinced that God’s spirit was calling Christians to renew their commitments–Americans flocked to open-air revivals to hear fiery sermons by orators like George Whitefield. Among the innovations of this era was what would become evangelicalism, that variety of Christianity that emphasized the individual, emotional “born again” experience of admitting one’s sinful nature and accepting Jesus’ offer of redemption.

Why this historical introduction? I have tried to consider various explanations for how my assortment of monthly comics came to be.  Are my subscriptions simply the products of obscure personal quirks? Am I distracted by certain styles of art or attracted to certain writers? No matter how I tried to explain why I had certain comics on my list to be set aside monthly when they arrive, I found that the list defied me.

Continue reading Religious Revivals and the Great Awakening of Religion & Comics →

academic, articles and essays, cultural

Boston Professor Uses X-Men Character Costume to Illuminate Islamophobia after Marathon Bombing

Kecia AliIn the wake of the Boston Marathon Bombing and capture of suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Boston University Associate Professor Kecia Ali was invited as a guest blogger for NPR affiliate WBUR’s Cognoscenti where she recounted not only running a 5-kilometer fundraiser with a “Heroes and Villains” theme but also having to convince a fellow runner that her costume as Dust of the X-Men was actually heroic.

Dust, of course, brings the veil front and center. She may be a rare positive representation of a Muslim woman in comic books, but her character is affected by Orientalism and sexism. Does she break down stereotypes, or does she reinforce them?

Ali pointed to an earlier writing by blogger Broken Mystic on the character of Dust and the complexities her portrayals present:

So overall, can we appreciate a character like Dust? I think we can; however, there is a lot of room for improvement. […H]er character is incomplete and her character suffers from stereotypes that are due to misunderstandings about Islamic beliefs and practices.

What with the recent headlines generated by DC Comics’ introduction of Simon Baz as a new Green Lantern, are Marvel Comics readers likely to be reintroduced to Dust anytime soon?

cultural, events

Huffington Post Features Muslim Superheroes — VOTE NOW!

Thirty-two of the comics world’s Muslim superheroes — and who thought there were that many, really? — are profiled in the Huffington Post‘s Religion section, squaring off in March Madness brackets-style.

Huffington Post on Muslim Superheroes

Characters from Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Teshkeel Media, and a host of other, independent publishers are all featured as readers vote on who will advance to face each other. Which hero has what it takes to be the finest Muslim superhero out there? (And how many did you know already, eh?)

The Tournament will be running all through the NCAA finals into April. Voting is free and open to all!

controversy, cultural

Muslim Superheroism and the New Green Lantern

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The mainstream media (i.e. news sources outside the comics journalism sites) has taken a sharp interest in the naming of a new Green Lantern for DC Comics, the Arab-American Muslim car thief Simon Baz, granted a cosmic GL ring in Green Lantern #0. Some media sources missed the point of Baz being another member of the Green Lantern Corps rather than the sole Green Lantern, similar to the error made a few months ago when Alan Scott, who is gay, was anointed as a Green Lantern as well.

More tellingly, several media channels reported Baz as the first Muslim superhero; Baz is the first Muslim Green Lantern, but not the first Muslim superhero nor the first Arab-American superhero. An extensive (though by no means exhaustive) list of Muslim superheroes can be found at Adherents.com. This group of protagonists has also been the subject of talks held by comics scholar A. David Lewis, as found at the Harvard University Center for Middle East Studies’ Outreach Center website.

In fact, Baz has lead to peculiar discussions and inquiries being made all across the political spectrum. As an example of the two poles, Jihad Watch‘s Robert Spencer claims that he was misquoted and misapplied when Washington Post writer Omar Sacribey attributed Spencer as having said that DC Comics was playing the “victimhood game” in making young Baz the target of islamophobia. Separately, in odd support of DC Comics’s efforts, The Pasedena Sun asked a panel of clergy and experts, “Can a Muslim Be a Superhero?” to which many of the respondants replied in the affirmative. Levent Arkbarut of the Islamic Congregation of La Cañada Flintridge offered what might be the most insightful response: “The fact that we are asking this question means some fringe elements in our society have still not accepted the average American citizen of the Islamic faith.”

Limited discussion has taken place thus far on the frequent mentions of writer Geoff Johns’s Lebanese background and how/why/if that should play a part in a character’s authenticity. Can a Arab-American superhero only be properly portrayed by an Arab American? Moreover, should one only write of characters in his/her own demographic, faith, or sexual orientation?

controversy, cultural

Harvey: Keep Christian Kids Away from Comics’ Gay Agenda

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RightWingWatch.org reported that, in the wake of DC Comics revising one of its Green Lantern characters as a gay man, Mission America’s Linda Harvey spoke out on her radio show against “the gay agenda” in comics. Christians, she says, should speak out against comics as “one more area of depravity” in popular culture.

 

Among her other warnings, Harvey spoke out in 2011 against Christians taking their children to gay doctors because Christians’ “values should be respected.”