© 2023-2024 Oriental Institute, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Kevin L. Schwartz, and Ameem Lutfi
Even
though
Muslim
superheroes
have
appeared
in
American
comic
books
since
the
1940s,
their
number
grew
steadily
in
the
post-9/11
climate.
Their
occurrence
seems
coincidental
until
we
recognize
the
connection
between
superheroes
and
politics,
particularly
during
times
of
war.
This
is
best
seen
in
Captain
America’s
timely
debut
in
comics
during
World
War
II,
just
as
the
U.S.
prepared
to
enter
the
war
and
sought
support
among
the
American
public.
The
first
cover
of
his
comic
book
showed
him
punching
Hitler
in
his
face
.
However,
he
wasn’t
the
only
superhero
to
punch
a
Nazi
during
this
time.
The
first
American
Muslim
superhero,
Kismet,
also
did
the
same.
Several
other
Muslim
superheroes
followed
Kismet
in
the
decades
to
come,
often
tokenized
and
without
their
own
comic
book
series,
until
2014
when
the
Pakistani-American
superhero,
Kamala
Khan
(alias:
Ms.
Marvel)
debuted.
In
the
post-9/11
era,
Muslim
superheroes
often
promoted
the
Global
War
on
Terror
(GWOT)
as
a
form
of
soft power directed at American audiences, who were eager for content that promoted American exceptionalism.
Within
a
year
of
the
GWOT’s
launch,
the
first
post-9/11
Muslim
superhero,
Sooraya
Qadir,
debuted
in
the
popular
X-Men
comic
series.
A
veiled
superheroine
in
a
tight-fitting
abaya,
Sooraya
was
at
the
periphery
of
the
storyline
that
saw
her
launch.
However,
that
didn’t
stop
her
from
gracing
the
cover
of
her
first
comic
issue
which
was
all
black
except
for
her
green
eyes
peeking
out
of
her
face
veil,
drawing
allusions
to
the
Afghan
refugee,
Sharbat
Gula,
who
was
made
famous
for
her
green
eyes
when
she
appeared
on
the
cover
of
National
Geographic.
Sooraya
was
also
Afghan,
and
the
first
pages
of
the
comic
showed
the
ex-American
soldier
and
famous
superhero,
Wolverine,
fight
off
members
of
the
Taliban
to
rescue
her.
A
powerful
superhero
in
her
own
right, Sooraya was unconscious when he found her, reinforcing negative stereotypes of helpless Muslim women in need of saving.
Many
Muslims
welcomed
Sooraya’s
representation
because
she
was
a
“good”
Muslim
amongst
a
pile
of
“bad”
Muslim
characters,
who
seemed
to
be
growing
daily
in
number
as
Hollywood
embraced
terrorism
as
their
go-
to
enemy.
Eager
for
positive
representation,
they
chose
to
overlook
Sooraya’s
problematic
representation
which
went
beyond
the
veil
and
body-hugging
abaya.
This
extended
to
superpowers
where
she
transformed
nude
into
sand
particles
that
flayed
her
opponent
alive.
Additionally,
her
alias
was
“Dust,”
which
deliberately
conjured
images
of
the
desert.
In
the
years
since
Sooraya’s
debut,
more
Muslim
superheroes
were
added
to
the
superhero
legion
such
as
the
Green
Lantern’s
Simon
Baz,
who
was
arrested
and
shipped
to
an
offshore
penal
colony
before
he
was magically freed.
However,
the
most
notable
of
them
did
not
appear
until
2014
when
the
Ms.
Marvel
series
was
launched.
Originally
written
by
the
Muslim
convert,
G.
Willow
Wilson,
Ms.
Marvel’s
Kamala
Khan
painted
a
nuanced
portrait
of
Islam.
She
was
also
an
instant
hit
among
readers
with
her
first
comic
book
soaring
to
the
#1
spot
in
comic
book
sales
and
she
remains
a
popular
superhero
today.
However,
this
popularity
proved
to
be
a
double-edged
sword
because
it
illustrated
the
darker implications of Muslim superhero representation.
In
2016,
a
new
series
named
Champions
launched
with
Kamala
at
the
center
of
it,
being
compared
to
Captain
America
at
one
point
in
the
series
by
a
fellow
superhero.
The
only
problem
was
that
this
volume
also
romanticized
the
Afghanistan
invasion,
which
was
a
war
that
exacerbated
factors
such
as
poverty,
malnutrition,
and
lack
of
proper
health
care
access
among
civilians.
In
this
volume,
Kamala
convinced
her
newly
formed
superhero
team
to
attack
a
fictional
Muslim
country
to
save
Muslim
girls
from
terrorists
who
looked
like
the
Taliban.
After
attacking
the
country
and
“freeing”
the
Muslim
girls
there,
it
became
obvious
that
Kamala
was
a
proxy
for
white
male
saviourism
much
like
Wolverine
during
his
rescue
of
Sooraya.
This
narrative
of
saving
Afghan
women
in
comics
is
perplexing
when
we
consider
that
Afghanistan’s
largest
feminist
group,
the
Revolutionary
Association
for
the
Women
of
Afghanistan
(RAWA)
vocally
opposed
U.S.
intervention, as seen in a statement on their website on the eve of war with the
headline
: “Taliban should be overthrown by the uprising of Afghan nation.”
Kamala
wasn’t
the
only
one
found
to
be
fighting
the
Taliban
during
the
GWOT
in
American
comic
books.
Sooraya
did
the
same
as
well
in
the
Young
X-Men
series.
There
is
no
question
that
the
Taliban
are
a
reprehensible
group
of
fundamentalists
who
terrorize
anyone
other
than
themselves.
However,
it
is
not
a
stretch
to
consider
them
as
an
effective
method
for
selling
the
GWOT
to
comic
book
readers
throughout
this
period
as
the
financial
cost
of
the
war
became
higher
and
the
death
count
of
troops
climbed.
Additionally,
storylines
that
showed
Muslim
superheroes
fighting
for
American
interests
promoted
exceptional
ideas
of
American
culture
as
inclusive
and
tolerant
of
Muslims
at
a
time
in
American
history
when
they
simply
were
not.
As
a
result,
these
storylines
proved
useful
for
promoting
the
Global
War
on
Terror,
even
if
that
was
not
the
intent
of
writers
like
Wilson,
who
crafted
more
sensitive
representations,
making
the
promotion
of
Muslim superheroes one of the most intriguing legacies of 9/11.
The first post-9/11 Muslim superhero,
Sooraya Qadir (alias: Dust). Source: Marvel
If you are interested in contributing an article for
the project, please send a short summary of the
proposed topic (no more than 200 words) and brief
bio to submissions@911legacies.com. For all
other matters, please contact
inquiry@911legacies.com.
CONTACT