A Kuwaiti man, educated in the United States, has given the Middle East its first comic books:
Pretty lame, no? Well, comic-book readers in the Arab speaking world seem to think so. Even after downloads are included, circulation has topped out at 30,000 a month. The thing is Mutawa is on to something, and Middle Eastern superheroes can help pacify the region so long as they aren’t depicted attacking U.S. forces and swooping in to rescue terrorists at Gitmo. The problem is that Mutawa isn’t taking his idea far enough. There are undoubtedly Christian-themed comic books, and no one wants to read them either. If he really wants to divine the next Spider Man, he should create superheroes that take on terrorists and fundamentalism of all stripes. He’s never going to win over the clerics, and that seems to be where his own heart lies.
