Comic book jihad in Egypt. “Fantastic Four: A new quartet of superheroes steps up to fight evil. Their turf? The Middle East,” from the California Bay Area MetroActive, with thanks to Nuh Gabriel and RB:
Jalila acquired her superpowers at the age of 16, after she was exposed to a nuclear blast at the end of the 55-Year War. She spends her days fighting against the United Liberation Force and the Zios Army, wearing a black leather halter top and tight-fitting pants. Jalila kicks ass to protect her home–the City of All Faiths–from those who wish to control it.
The 55-year war: 1948-2003. This will need revising soon. The City of All Faiths would be, of course, Jerusalem. And I’ll bet you know who the United Liberation Force and the Zios Army are. The California paper, however, seems either not to have noticed or not to have cared.
But is that halter top halal? What about the tight-fitting pants?
Meanwhile, Zein is heir to an ancient Egyptian king, and though he’s a respected university professor by day, he is a crime-fighting machine with superhuman powers at night.
These are two of four superheroes who populate the world of AK Comics, based in Cairo and distributed in the Middle East and the United States. Creator Ayman Kandeel, who, like his creation Zein, is a university professor of economics in Cairo, began the series in 2002. Published in both English and Arabic, the series touts its characters as “the only Middle Eastern superheroes.”
Oh yeah, gotta train ’em young. It will be interesting to see if the distribution of these comics depicting U.S. forces as the enemy has any effect in the United States.