'Justice League' Travels To The 'Middle East'!

Posted by Babs (17348 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

I can recall Marvel introducing ' Dust' to the X-Men. Clearly a Middle Eastern woman who if I had to guess based on her attire, is probably a Muslim woman and one of my absolute favorite X-Men characters. What I really liked about her was the fact that culturally, she was different from the other X-Men characters, and it was also a way for Marvel to introduce their reader-base to different cultures, and I have always wanted to see more of that. So you can only imagine how excited I was when I heard that DC comics would be releasing a brand new

mini series where the Justice League teams up with ' The 99.'

'THE 99,' are an "award-winning original superhero group based on Islamic culture and history...The team of Superhero's...must collect 99 gems encrypted with the wisdom and power of the ancient Dar Al-Hikma library of Baghdad, which are spread across the globe."

I guess DC plans to expound the amount of cultural identity that they introduce to their characters! I feel like this is really a bold move, and it is seriously a fantastic approach to introducing American comic book readers not only to new comic characters from different countries, but different culture. Justice League fans will be able to explore Middle Eastern culture through the adventures of their favorite heroes, which I find just awesome. 'The 99,' is a Muslim super hero league with characters that originate through all different parts of Africa (North and South). 'The 99' books are written by Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa,and are about a and the team up that DC has prepared for the Justice League will be written by Fabian Nicieza. Nicieza is perfect for the book considering he's written for 'The 99' previously. DC has yet to inform us of a release date or who the artist for the mini series will be. However, I have to say I am pretty excited to check this out! Having studied Middle Eastern politics, and being as how I just love The JLA, I feel like they had me in mind when they conjured up this team up! How do you guys feel about introducing the Justice League characters to new characters from different cultures? Are you as excited as I am about how they (DC) will treat culture in comic books?

Staff

#1 Posted by dondasch (921 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

Always willing to keep an open mind and read new ideas/concepts. Looks interesting. Is there a release date?

#2 Posted by The Human Stain (68 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

My question is (and sorry that I'm off topic) why are Green Arrow, Zatanna and Atom all staring at Superman's crotch?

#3 Posted by Babs (17348 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

@dondasch: Not yet! No release date or artist has been announced. We will probably get the release date when they release some preview panels. I am looking forward to this, though. It's something really different. I like to see DC branch out and do new things.

Staff

#4 Posted by Pheeke (198 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

sounds cool, i've never heard of "the 99" before. there should be more cultures in comics, not just the western american culture.

#5 Posted by ohms@sith (13 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

Wow. This is pretty amazing. I'd heard of 'The 99', but not realised how big it was.

Well done DC!

#6 Posted by TheBug (1111 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

This is exciting. Hopefully DC will continue to diversify.

#7 Posted by vaage-aina (63 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

is this history in the making perhaps? i hope so...

#8 Posted by Babs (17348 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

@ohms@sith said:

" Wow. This is pretty amazing. I'd heard of 'The 99', but not realised how big it was.Well done DC! "

@TheBug said:

" This is exciting. Hopefully DC will continue to diversify. "

@vaage-aina said:

" is this history in the making perhaps? i hope so... "

I'm so happy to see a positive reaction regarding something so different from so many of our users. :)

Staff

#9 Posted by Udderman (79 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

@vaage-aina said:

" is this history in the making perhaps? i hope so... "

It definitely is.

#10 Posted by jefprice (877 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

I would be much more surprised if they added a Jewish Hero to the mix.

#11 Posted by ohms@sith (13 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

Coincidentally, this was on BBC News today:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8127699.stm

"..only when Jewish kids think that THE 99 characters are Jewish, and Christian kids think they're Christian, and Muslim kids think they're Muslim, and Hindu kids think they're Hindu, that I will consider my vision as having been fully executed."
~ Dr Naif al Mutawa (creator of 'The 99')

#12 Posted by MrDirector786 (41439 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

Sounds cool to me.

#13 Edited by vaage-aina (63 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

@Babs said:

" @ohms@sith said:
" Wow. This is pretty amazing. I'd heard of 'The 99', but not realised how big it was.Well done DC! "
@TheBug said:
" This is exciting. Hopefully DC will continue to diversify. "
@vaage-aina said:
" is this history in the making perhaps? i hope so... "
I'm so happy to see a positive reaction regarding something so different from so many of our users. :) "

i thought of something similar to this before and finally im glad im seeing something similar to it imerging. before, i was thinking how it would be cool if Marvel had comics in other countries; like in japan, europe, china, india, i mean everywhere; where each country had their own national icon (like Captain Britain) that represented itself in the marvel u, but,they have their own adventures; written by the locals, and somehow, it all tied together as a realistic earth marvel universe. My idea to this was developed after thinking and seeing the japanese anime of batman, and that cheesy spiderman live action series. '' won't it be cool if marvel universe extended to the rest of the world, where their titles are written by their locals. how cool it would be to see how different cultures create their OWN adventures, characters, storyline, how they would face certain problems, etc, etc." not only marvel would be the first one to diversifying itself, but the marvel company would expand exponentially, to include the rest of the world, who we know are already interested in our heroes ( like spider man, x men, wolverine (there was also mangaverse) batman superman from DC, etc). i thought that this would probably be the next step in the evolution in our comic industry, since not only will they start getting profit elsewhere, but also, be part of connecting the world communities together. i mean what better way to bring people together if their favorites heroes work together to solve problems that might reflect in our world today or work together to save the planet from a common villain or certain types of threat that is too big for just one country alone, or one hero alone. not only this will influence the minds but also set a great example to everyone in the world. we would be sharing a culture through comic books and everyone will learn how different and the same we all are.....anyways, that was one of my thoughts that i had back then after watching the japanese Batman movie... i am a big fan of marvel universe over dc: not to say i dont like dc

#14 Posted by Carbine23 (71 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

Pretty cool stufff

#15 Posted by Media_Master (2189 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

NIce idea!!

#16 Posted by crazywolf (652 posts) - 3 years, 10 months ago - Show Bio

@The Human Stain said:

"My question is (and sorry that I'm off topic) why are Green Arrow, Zatanna and Atom all staring at Superman's crotch? "

LOL!

On-topic: This is cool. I like seeing portrayals of other culture and society in comics.

Justice League of America

The Justice League is said to be comprised of "The Worlds Greatest Superheroes". The current incarnation of the League bares resemblance to the original pre-Crisis Justice League of America but features updated versions of its cast of characters for the DC Universe's New 52 continuity.

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