For Naif al-Mutawa (LA '94), the fantasy worlds in comic books contain a surprising number of real-world implications.
Al-Mutawa, the creator of the comic book series "The 99," offered insights on the interplay between fiction and Middle East politics yesterday as part of a panel discussion on how the media affects children. Associate Child Development Professor Calvin Gidney and Neil Cohn, a graduate student in psychology, joined al-Mutawa for the discussion, entitled "Superheroes in a Globally-Connected World."
"The 99," which, since debuting in Kuwait in 2006, has quickly become the most popular comic book series in the Middle East, derives its name from the 99 fictional Noor Stones scattered throughout the world.
This concept meshes with the Islamic principle of the 99 attributes of Allah. Each person who holds a Noor stone takes on one of these characteristics -- one becomes "the Powerful," another "the Watcher" and a third "the Light," for example.
Although "The 99" has its roots in Islamic principles, it does not promote the faiths of its characters. The series instead fosters universal values such as generosity and mercy. "It doesn't matter what religion you have, or even if you have a religion -- these are core human values that we all share," al-Mutawa said during the discussion, which was held in the Tisch Library. "When you focus on behavior, we're all different; but when it comes to values, we're the same."
But this relative neutrality does not mean that al-Mutawa does not wish to place blame on anybody. He condemned Islamic extremism and expressed his concern for Muslim leaders' "lack of personal responsibility and accountability.
"The people who define Islam are not the people who I want to define how I live my own life," al-Mutawa said, arguing that individual Muslims should work to reaffirm the religion's core principles.
Gidney explained how different forms of media, including comic books, expose children from a young age to concepts of race and ethnicity. Though children come to realize that the images they see are not necessarily real, they "take a lot of messages about the world from [the media], particularly about parts of the world they have never seen or people they're unfamiliar with," he said.
The results, he continued, can be either healthy or disruptive, depending on the media the children consume.
"Comics like 'The 99' ... have the potential to have a lot of positive effects on children, not only on Muslim children themselves, but, almost more importantly, on non-Muslims' impressions of Islam," Gidney said.
Cohn, who is researching the "visual language" of comics and its affect on cognition, added that although "The 99" is based on Islamic principles and distributed across the Muslim world, it is drawn in an American visual language that belies a type of cultural association with domestic comics.
"The 99," by virtue of the way it is drawn, amounts to a subtle promotion of a pro-American theme, he said.
Al-Mutawa commented that many see his series as one of the best routes to combating "bin Ladenism," an assessment he hopes will prove correct.
"It's not about attacking what he says. It's about creating an alternative -- positive stuff. When you go after someone, that's a negative response -- when you create your own world, that's more positive," al-Mutawa said.
Al-Mutawa hopes to distribute "The 99" to more countries, including in the United States. He drew a number of parallels between the subtle religious themes in his series and the characters of Spiderman, Batman and particularly Superman, noting that there is no reason that he cannot find a domestic audience.
He added he consciously keeps the themes of "The 99" away from politics and overt religious expression, hoping to keep the appeal of the series as broad as possible. The main villain seeks to harness the power of the 99 stones for his own purposes an allusion, al-Mutawa said, to "the idea that religion can be used for good or for bad."
An animated television show based on "The 99" is currently in development, and a theme park dedicated to the series is scheduled to open next year in Kuwait.
