Comic Book Resources

If only we were all rich enough to start our own series...

Seriously, though, isn't just an Islamic-themed version of the 4400/Rising Stars/Heroes?

I thought it read like an Islamic-themed version of the X-Men. The first series was not bad, treading very well-worn ground in establishing a team of superheroes to a world that hates and fears them. They don't really play up the way Muslims are often demonized in the Western world a whole lot and focus more on the fact that these are kids with superpowers and are inherently destablizing elements. It's also introduce the idea of international cooperation between Muslims and non-Muslims in its own context, since a number of the 99 introduced so far are not Muslims, but buy into the idea of the 99 for the sake of the greater good anyway. In a lot of ways, I see the philosophies and thoughts of Dr. Mutawa mirrored in the founder of the 99 in the book.

They also started zagging when you expect them to zig in the last few issues, opting to go public a whole lot sooner than Prof. X ever did. It's not a "where are we going?" book and more of a "how are we getting there?" book, and how we get there is perfectly fine traditional superheroics. Like many other comics, it's exactly what people claiming "comics aren't fun any more" have been asking for, which is why none of them seem to have bothered to look at it or read it. It also seems to go entirely unnoticed by those who scream and holler that there is no "Muslim middle" of reasonable people who disagree with the Western powers' view on things.

As far as the Time article goes, I question how much of a success it is in the Middle East because 500K copies over 8 or 9 issues, some of which were giveaways, doesn't really sound like much of a success to me. Still, if they've got a theme park going, they've clearly gotten someone's attention.

I'm a huge fan of the The 99 series that came out in America last year (and a bit into this year). The Fabian Nicieza stories were excellent. When it was out, I thought it was the best thing on the stands. I contacted Fabian to see if he was interested in doing a podcast interview, but he told me he's moved on from the property. From what I understand, the series is going to either resume or relaunch this fall, and I'm pretty sure that Stuart Moore is going to be the writer (but this may have completely changed in the past few months).

And though The 99 picks up on a bunch of different Islamic values, I wouldn't call it an Islamic book anymore than I would call Claremont's X-Men a Christian book (what with Nightcrawler being religious and CC dropping references to "praying" and "God"). I think Time is playing up that aspect of The 99 because that makes it more sensational to the magazine's audience. Honestly, the stories are damn good and - way I see it - that's all that matters.

Re: Nick
I disagree slightly. Claremont wasn't writing the X-Men to dispell stereotypes about Christians and give Christian role models, whereas that has been stated to be one of the purproses of this book. I applaud that, it is not the same approach.

Agreed Eric. Part of what he also did with Nightcrawler's beliefs were to play them against Wolverine's, who had none.

As far as the Time article goes, I question how much of a success it is in the Middle East because 500K copies over 8 or 9 issues, some of which were giveaways, doesn’t really sound like much of a success to me. Still, if they’ve got a theme park going, they’ve clearly gotten someone’s attention.

The first of six apparently.

Six!

Asterix only has one... Hell, Mickey has what? Four?

How can something be so successful it gets six theme parks?
Does each one of the 99 have their own ride?