>The 99 – An Islamic comic book!

>Sometime back I came across an Islamic superhero comic story and was really piqued by it. It is called ‘The 99’, there are or there will be as the story proceeds 99 heroes ‘to save the world’. 🙂
Save the world sounds cliche but come on what are superheroes supposed to do otherwise 😀

Actually I really like the idea of an Islamic comic strip because I think that is a great way to allow kids to not get all confused about their culture. I know cause when I was a kid, I grew up reading Enid Blyton’s, Nancy Drew’s and Hardy Boys. I got more excited with Christmas than Diwali.
This excitement was increased because I was in a convent school, we were told stories about Jesus, carol singing etc umpteen number of times. So I actually identified more with Christmas than Diwali. (Lets not even talk about any Jain important days)

It was only later a few years back when I really started looking at Indian culture and appreciating Hinduism, our history of yoga and other stuff. Only now I am looking at Jainism with some depth.

So bringing in comics with the appropriate culture would really go a long way in avoiding lot of confusion that kids can go through due to the obvious western infiltration of media, entertainment in developing countries with often conflicting cultural and traditional values.

This post became deeper than planned.

Check out The 99 website, they have a comic to download freely, the rest have to be bought.

It was a good read, I found the English a little fumbly, but that might be because it was not western. Sentences like “Their plan was borne of desperation, but also of perspiration … and ultimately of inspiration” 😀
I can’t imagine any western serial or comic having a line like this!

Spoiler:
Its a good read, the initial bit like the ‘where it all begins’ bit is too long, but then the story does become an interesting read. I wonder why they chose the first of the 99 to be a “hulk” called Jabbar? Isn’t that done before already.
The story is good, about the 99 gem stones, but the story of how the 99 are found and who they are can be much more creative.

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