(The following article by Madison Mahida Lynn originally appeared at Muslim Girl in May of 2016. It is republished here, slightly edited, with her permission.)
Welcome to the Golden Age of Muslim Women in Comics
This is a good time to be a nerd. Marvel’s superheroic epics have taken over the box office, and most importantly comics have become cool again. Or, maybe they have? It depends on who you ask. If you’re asking us, then yes, comics are DEFINITELY COOL.
Unlike the seemingly monochromatic nature of heroes in Marvel’s cinematic oeuvre (we love the MCU but let’s be real, the leads of their films tend to feature a strong diversity of white men named Chris), the comic universe is a multifaceted medium with diverse voices leading the way. At the center of this movement is a group of badass Muslim girls–scientists, doctors, high school students, superpowerful mutants, and more–leading the way.
We could go through a dozen articles talking about the different Muslim girl characters making waves in the medium, but for now I will detail the biggest movers & shakers in comicdom. This is the team that defines today’s era as The Golden Age of Muslim women in comics.
So, let’s meet the team!
THE NAVIGATOR:
Fatima
The Midas Flesh, Writer Ryan North, Artists Shelli Paroline & Branden Lamb
This current era of “Muslim girl Comic Heroism” didn’t begin with that geeky Pakistani teenager from Jersey City, as most would assume. A few months before Marvel released Ms. Marvel #1, indie publisher Boom! Studios released their first title on a new imprint. The Midas Flesh is a sci-fi adventure with a familiar story: A small rogue band of resistance fighters seek a powerful weapon to put an end to oppressive imperial powers. That is where the familiarity ends. The Midas Flesh stays true to the standards of its genre, but turn conventions on its head over and over. The eight-issue run features talking dinosaur scientists, Greek gods, and a deep mythology encapsulated in a richly creative universe.
Continue reading Muslim Heroines (and Their Comics Fans), Assemble! →
Over at Women Write About Comics, two of S&S’s founding members, Elizabeth Coody and Chiristine Hoff Kraemer, engaged in a marvelous discussion about Kraemer’s role in the 2010 Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels and her subsequent work. Their interview lauds not only Carla Speed McNeil, the groundbreaking comic creator behind Finder, but also Jill Lapore’s work on the originator of Wonder Woman, William Moulton Marston.His Wonder Woman stories from the 1940s demonstrate distinctively different values, including a commitment to nonviolence. After his death, later writers took the character apart, until by the early 1960s Wonder Woman had been demoted to Secretary of the Justice League and would stay behind while the male superheroes left on missions. Wonder Woman has had a few interesting rewrites since then, some more sophisticated than others, but I don’t think she’s ever been as revolutionary a character as she was in those early days.
