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Arab Superhero Creator, Like His Characters, Fights Prejudice
The creator of “The 99” comic book, which spotlights superheroes from the Arab world, did something no one else could do — unite the American conservative right with Muslim fundamentalists.
Both sides hate Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa and accuse him of poisoning young minds with his adventures of 99 characters who embody the 99 attributes of Allah.
Al-Mutawa, the Kuwaiti-born, American-educated psychologist, spoke at the City Club this afternoon. He will speak again at 6 p.m. today at Baldwin-Wallace College.
“Both sides say that the series is all about religion, yet I have taken great pains to see that religion is never mentioned in the books,” he said. “I wanted to show that the Koran is being used by people who do terrible things in the name of religion like blowing things up, but the Koran can also be used to do good things.”
Al-Mutawa has had a difficult time getting his comic books and animated television show into the United States, despite good reviews and an unprecedented six-issue series teaming up the 99 with the Justice League of America from DC Comics.
You would think kind words from the President of the United States would help, but it didn’t. When President Barack Obama praised the comic for promoting tolerance during a speech at the entrepreneurial summit in 2010, he was criticized by the American right for pushing the Muslim agenda. Al-Mutawa meanwhile said he and his comic were criticized by the Muslim extremists for appealing to westerners.
“There’s an old saying, when you make new friends you inherit their enemies,” he said.
There were nine “99” comics released in the United States in 2008 and another six-issue series released in 2010 from DC Comics featuring the collaboration with the Justice League and written by former X-Men scribe Fabian Nicieza. There have been 25 more comics released in other parts of the world, but not in the United States.
The heroes derive their powers from mystic gems that were smuggled out of Baghdad after the Mongol attacks in 1258. Each gem gives the power of one of the attributes of Allah to a worthy wearer — strength, love, wisdom, generosity, foresight and others. Only 33 of the characters who find the gems are from the Middle East. The others are from different parts of the world. Most of them are children or teenagers.
They come together to fight global threats, and sometimes local ones.
“Things don’t always go as planned,” Al-Mutawa said. “They tend to battle in threes. In one adventure a strong character wanted to beat a villain into submission, but instead another character used her power of love to end the battle.”
Al-Mutawa said fighting prejudice is as serious in the real world as it is in his comics.
He and his writing collaborators produced 24 episodes of a children’s animated series that were pulled from the American schedules after criticism, even before the first one aired.
“It has shown elsewhere around the world and been very well received,” he said. “But not here in the U.S.”
Al-Mutawa said he is keeping up the fight to get his characters and stories before the American public through comics and television.
“I wish people would read the books before criticizing them,” he said. “The stories are about secular heroes doing the right thing. It’s not just for Arabs, not just for Christians, it’s for everyone.”
Tonight’s speech, which is free and open to the public, is 6 p.m. at the Kleist Center for Art and Drama, 95 E. Bagley Road in Berea.
Cleveland.com