Batman's Muslim sidekick puts US right-wingers in a tizzy

[JCMach1]

It would be hard to find a more boilerplate superhero. Nightrunner, the latest hero to join the ranks of DC Comic's stable of characters, was brought up on the mean streets of Paris and is an outstanding practitioner of the daredevil urban gymnastics called parkour.

He managed to stay out of trouble because of a keen sense of justice instilled in him by his devout mother, and was recruited to join Batman Inc, a gobal crimefighting network established by the original Batman, Bruce Wayne,

So why is this fairly typical fictional superhero causing a furore in the real world? He is a Muslim, of Algerian descent to be precise, and that has some people in the US, notably right-wing bloggers, in a tizzy... "Nightrunner the Muslim sidekick," mocked The Angry White Dude blog, a site that also features advertisements for gun training courses, "will have strange new powers to bury women to their waists and bash their heads in with large rocks."

While the nature of the blogosphere often allows for supersized opinions written in the unaccountable environs of an anonymous bedroom, and an online comic book controversy may not seem a major issue, such comments have stirred outrage... http://www.thenational.ae/news/worldwide/americas/batmans-muslim-sidekick-puts-us-right-wingers-in-a-tizzy

[MichaelHarris]

1. don't they

understand that Superman is an illegal alien? He doesn't have any papers at all, that's why he never goes to Arizona.

[JCMach1]

7. LOL

[old mark]

8. That's why he never ran for President...nt

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. In one 'alt-universe' comic the SCOTUS decided his life-sustaining spaceship opening in Kansas

counted as "birth". (His secret identity had been blown recently.)

[flyingfysh]

10. Superman can't go to Arizona because of the mines

The ones that mine kryptonite.

[brewens]

2. I thought he was going to be called Rhabin. n/t

[Swamp Rat]

3. Angry White Dudes may not "bury women to their waists and bash their heads in with large rocks."

But they do: stalk, abduct, rape, punch, shove, kick, burn, choke, mutilate, torture, stab, shoot, murder women and girls right here in the good ol' USofA.

[JCMach1]

4. Exactly...

[Prophet 451]

5. Ug

I saw this coming when the French entry to the Batman stable was announced over on CBR. So far, I've seen objections that he's an illegal alien (they don't seem to understand that he's of Algerian descent, not from Algieria), "why should he be a Muslim?" (answer: "Why not?") and allegations of tokenism (there's an element of truth to that one). Oh, and I've seen a few people objecting to parkour on the grounds that it's a dangerous form of trespassing (I wish I were kidding).

[ProdigalJunkMail]

6. wow...until today I have never known the religious preferences

of a comic book superhero...and it occurs to me that I didn't want to.

sP

[Heywood J]

9. Because comics are supposed to portray only good, old-fashioned

family values.  Like this:

http://www.2ndhomeloans.co.uk/virals/funny_pic_superman.jpg
http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/2/27967/677680-anti_superman_super.jpg
 (warning: graphic!)


Those are the kinds of super powers the right wing prefers,
evidently.