DEARBORN, Mich. (WXYZ) — Marvel has announced a new superhero that’s from Dearborn and created by Saladin Ahmed, a comic writer from that city.
The character is Arab-American and will join the ‘Ms. Marvel’ comic series. His name is Amulet.
“Representing the kind of character I wish I saw when I was younger,” said creator Saladin Ahmed.
The author and comic book writer sat down with Syma Chowdhry at Green Brain Comics in Dearborn.
“Had essays in the New York Times, been written up in PBS and stuff but all of that is different than the sort of geeky 10-year-old excitement that you get when Marvel Comics calls you and says, ‘hey do you want to do something for us?’ And so I was like yeah of course I do!’”
Marvel Comics reached out to Saladin in 2016.
“I’ve just been churning out work steadily since then.”
He’s written for the Miles Morales comics, created ‘Starling,’ a bird like hero from Detroit. Saladin’s work includes Black Bolt and Ms. Marvel.
“Some of the heroes that are defining the new age of Marvel and the new faces of Marvel which are younger, more diverse.”
‘Ms. Marvel’ is a Pakistani-American superhero who will have her own TV series on the streaming service, Disney+.
“She’s about to really blowup as a character in the main stream.”
On the comic book side, Amulet will be her newest friend.
“His name is Fadi Fadlalah. He’s a Lebanese-American.”
The name ‘Amulet’ is fitting since he gets his powers from a ‘bazar’ amulet that fights off the evil eye, something found in the Arab and South Asian culture.
We’re also learning the gentle giant is an ex-football player.
“He used to play defensive tackle and didn’t like hurting people,” Saladin explained. “We are in an age where we don’t see a lot of Arab-American and Muslim-American men depicted as ‘kind‘ in the culture so to me it was very important to show him as a friendly, lovable guy.”
Saladin is also working on an independent horror comic book called ‘Abbot.’ It is about a reporter in Detroit during the 1970s who is fighting monsters during a tumultuous time in the city.
“I think reporters are already superheroes, to be honest.”
Amulet debuts in a couple of months and that’s all Saladin can tell us about him for now.
“I think we have to wait for and read about it and find out.”
On March 4th, Saladin will sign copies of the comic, when the character debuts, at Green Brain Comics in Dearborn.
For more information, go to: https://www.greenbraincomics.com/
