Comic hero

Holy Terror, a graphic novel set to release on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 has upset a lot of people.

As the disturbing story of the crazed Norwegian gunman played out over the last few days, a little light story that will, according to its author, “piss a lot of people off”, was readying itself for publication.

I’m talking about Holy Terror, the graphic novel set to release on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, in which a superhero called the ‘Fixer’ fights al Qaeda under the blindfolded eye of Justice (aka Liberty, with a better waistline and a weighing scale rather than a torch). The Fixer is “unbelievable, unbreakable and unstoppable”. And he could have been Batman.

Batman was originally charged with the defence of Empire City, a place without hope, where the streets are filled with fear and skyscrapers offer an amazing canvas for stunts. But Batman’s dark side wasn’t dark enough. Or, to clarify, he did not, behind his opaque jocks, possess the gonads required to fight this new enemy.

This new superhero required, according to his creator Frank Miller, a psyche (which is image, actually) of someone “much more well-adjusted to committing terrible acts of violence”. Hence the ‘Fixer’.

I absolutely love this guy.

But who asked him to attack unarmed teenagers in Norway? That too before the actual publication of his exploits. The answer is, people well-adjusted to committing acts of violence have to attack somebody.

Empire City isn’t exactly reeling from the effects of the foiled attempt to blow up its business district (now there is a thought) or the reverberations from the debate on whether or not to build a mosque. Superheroes are not used to waiting around a decade for their next gig.

Comic book writers, on the other hand, can take their time. They can discuss what works and what doesn’t with their publishers. In the process, they can drop Batman (his gonads being a work of fiction within a work of fiction). They can splatter the colour red on otherwise black and white stuff to keep up with the times. And, of course, they can piss people off.

Should you be pissed off? I don’t think so.

First of all, this particular superhero, a former Navy Seal with a Star of David tattooed on his face, has lost his arch-enemy to unfortunate developments in the real world. Osama bin Laden, the man who masterminded the attack on Empire City, is dead. The writers are left with slightly contrived ‘prequel’ options if they want to take the Devil Himself on. Otherwise, they will have to invent, or at least help invent, a new incarnation. I believe the hope is that angry readers will help in this process.

Some time ago, I watched a debate on the BBC on the issue of whether Salman Rushdie’s knighthood offended the Muslim world. Christopher Hitchens, the best debater I have heard, made a wonderful point: If liberals took the line that stuff should not be said/written/drawn for fear of offending the sensibilities of Muslims, then they were insulting perhaps a section of that community, such as those who may not necessarily believe in fatwas and think it unlikely that they would reach Paradise if they died a violent death.

I recently happened to watch Four Lions, a hilarious film roughly related to the subject of this piece. I found it full of gems. Bumbling bombers argued whether a fellow jihadi qualified as a martyr because he had only blown up sheep (he should, said one, he had attacked “their food supplies”). There were cunning plans to blow up the internet: the advice, from their frustrated leader, was “shove grenades up each other’s backsides and jump on laptops” to get the job done — delivered in Punjabi, it was priceless. Punjabi makes freedom of expression worth fighting for.

I couldn’t judge how good Holy Terror will be or how much Fixer merchandise is going to sell. But if this was serious, they wouldn’t just give the most important job of our times to some newborn superhero with a second-rate name. If this was serious, Batman would have undergone genitoplasty. And if it was really serious, well then it would have been a job for Superman. So bhaion aur behenon, chill.



Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th, 2011.