Zap-pow *& @: Middle East has first comic-book heroes

There is no Batmobile prowling Palestine, nor will you ever spy Peter Parker donning his spider suit in the streets of Riyadh, but if you are in the Middle East watch out for Zein, Aya, Jalila and Rakan.

Is it a bird, is it a plane? No. It's one of these guys, battling crime and saving mankind. Generations of children have enjoyed parables of action icons thwarting evil but one part of the world has been underserved in the superhero stakes. Until now, that is.

Welcome to the zap-pow *& @ world of Middle East Heroes, a series of comic books published in Egypt. Available in English and Arabic, the books' superheroes are the first to be drawn from Arab culture.

"Why can't the Middle East have its own heroes?" asked Marwan Nashar, editor of AK Comics in Cairo. "I grew up reading Spider-Man and loved him. But I couldn't get into Peter Parker. I always wondered why there weren't any Arabs leaping off buildings."

Now there are four. Zein, the last of the Pharaohs, Rakan a medieval warrior from Mesopotamia, female characters Jalila, a Levantine scientist and Aya a "vixen on a supercharged motorbike confronting crime".

No religious faiths are attributed to the four, but there is no disguising where the stories are drawn from. These heroes try to bring stability to an area ravaged by 55 years of conflict between the "United Liberation Force" and the "Zios Army".

The books are being distributed in Egypt and the Gulf states, but Nashar hopes to expand into Lebanon, Syria and North Africa. The reaction has been positive, says Nashar. The most common response, he says, has been "it's about time".

- INDEPENDENT