Naif Al-Mutawa: Superheroes inspired by Islam

TED is a conference of the best and brightest thinkers in the world who come together to share short talks on all manner of ideas, concepts, and thoughts. All these talks are put online at TED.com with the tagline “Ideas Worth Sharing.” Naif Al-Mutawa, creator of The-99, recently spoke at TED Global in Oxford, England. He described how, in his opinion, all superheroes are spun from Biblical archetypes (Superman as Moses, etc) and how he has sought to create a group of heroes based on the 99 attributes of Allah (and you thought the Legion of Superheroes had a large roster). He opens his talk by saying,

In October, 2010, the Justice League of America will be teaming up with The 99. Icons like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and their colleagues will be teaming up icons Jabbar, Noora, Jami and their colleagues. It’s a story of intercultural intersections. And what better group to have this conversation than those that grew out of fighting fascism in their respective histories and geographies. As fascism took over Europe in the 1930s, an unlikely reaction came out of North America. As Christian iconography got changed, and swastikas were created out of crucifixes, Batman and Superman were created by Jewish young men in the United States and Canada also going back to the Bible.

It’s an interesting talk and especially relevant as The-99 will be crossing over with the Justice League in October. He introduces the concept of The 99 and outlines their origin which is fantastic primer for the upcoming crossover.