Thursday, January 13, 2011

New Comic Hero Makes Headlines


Who is fighting crime in Paris? Nightrunner, a Muslim.

From an article in the National...

Holy bust-up Batman! The Caped Crusader has found himself on the receiving end of a dastardly attack. The assailant? Not the evil Penguin nor even the maniacal Joker. This time, the hero of Gotham City has ignited the fury of a far more villainous foe ... the US conservative blogging network.

His perceived wrong-doing? Recruiting a Muslim to run his crime-fighting operation in Paris.

The controversy surrounds the new superhero, Nightrunner, who appeared in DC Comics' Batman Annual 2011 last month. "Real" name Bilal Asselah, he is an Algerian immigrant, adept at the gymnastic sport parkour and a resident of Clichy-sous-Bois, the crime-ridden area east of Paris, which was the epicentre of the country's 2005 riots.

A recent storyline has seen the Dark Knight scouring the world for similarly minded vigilantes, including members in Argentina, the UK and Japan - all united under the Batman Incorporated banner.

But the furious blustering of a few US conservatives was quickly drowned out by more moderate online commenters supporting DC's decision to give Batman a Muslim counterpart and condemning the blog posts as "racist".

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