Dubai: Seven years ago, Naif Al Mutawa wasn't really looking for a new business opportunity. He simply wanted to make a difference.
A writer, a clinical psychologist, an entrepreneur and a family man, Al Mutawa is the creator of THE 99, the comic book superheroes born of an Islamic archetype. The name comes from the 99 attributes of Allah in Islam.
Today, THE 99 has received international attention. American President Barack Obama described THE 99 as "the most innovative response" for capturing the imaginations of so many young people through the message of tolerance, during his speech at the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship this year. Forbes magazine has also described THE 99 as "one of the top 20 trends sweeping the globe."
In October, 2010, the Justice League of America, the fictional team of superheroes published by DC Comics, will be teaming up with THE 99.
Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman will be joining forces with the characters from THE 99 like Jabbar, Jami, Batina and their colleagues.
"The aha moment happened in a cab ride in London exactly seven years ago," Al Mutawa told Gulf News during a phone interview. His sister was pushing him to go back to writing. Al Mutawa had written books for children in the mid 90s, but the thought of going back to writing for children wasn't on his mind at the time.
The idea was triggered by a fatwa that came out at the time against Pokemon (a kids TV show) where some Arab countries said it was allegedly unislamic, he said.
"My next thought was ‘My God, what has happened to Islam and who are these people making random decisions for my children?'"
As a father of five sons, Al Mutawa was worried about who his kids were going to use as role models.
"I wasn't happy with how Islam was being seen by others and I didn't like how Islam was seeing itself."
That's when the idea hit and within a few months Al Mutawa raised $7 million (Dh25.7 million) from investors from around the world, including his home country Kuwait, to create THE 99.
He decided this project has to be a world-class project or it wasn't worth his time or his investors' money.
Since Al Mutawa's circles look like triangles as he described it, the team of illustrators behind THE 99 is made up of former and current Marvel and DC Comics writers and artists. It's a team that has also worked on comic books such as Spiderman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman.
"I knew conceptually what I wanted. I knew the characters had to be from 99 different countries, very diverse and not religious."
Jami the Assembler, Noora the Light, Widad the Loving are three of the superheroes of THE 99. They work together to fight stereotypes, extremism and intolerance.
When asked why he decided to follow through with this, Al Mutawa said that there's a lot of messaging involved in what he has done and is doing today.
"Anyone can do this," he said. "Here's a guy who came up with an idea, raised money and created almost a thousand jobs and was able to create global impact right out of the neck of the desert."
Al Mutawa also did this because he, as a moderate Muslim, wanted to take on the extremist. THE 99 is his way of fighting back.
If you link enough positive messaging to the same thing that the bad guys are linking negative messaging then they become bad people with bad agendas, he said.
But it didn't all come easy to Naif Al Mutawa. While the funding came from people who knew him and believed in his ability to pull it off, the time investment put into this project has been tremendous. It has also taken away a lot of time with family.
Lifestyle balance
"It's tough," he said. "But I try to balance it out. One in 10 business plans get funded and one in 20 make it, but that doesn't mean people shouldn't try."
Al Mutawa said that entrepreneurship is very much needed in the Arab world even if one idea creates only three jobs or ten jobs.
Published in eight different languages, THE 99 has bigger plans for the future.
Teshkeel Media, which Al Mutawa is the founder and CEO of, will be partnering up with Endemol Group to produce an animated television series for THE 99. Endemol is the company that produced Big Brother, Deal or No Deal, Star Academy and other popular television shows.
"Animation was always in the cards, but I didn't want to invest money in creating animation that only my children were going to watch," he said. "I wanted distribution as well."
Three seasons will be turned into an animated series for global audiences. "We finished the first one and we're in the middle of season two."
Although details about when the series will air haven't been announced yet, the series will be in different countries including the United States and Turkey.
Hollywood talks
Teshkeel Media is also amid talks for a major Hollywood film production of THE 99.
"Ultimately what we believe we have is the next Spiderman and Batman."
If so many kids from various religions and backgrounds can self-identify with the series, then Al Mutawa would have achieved his objective.
"What we share in common as human beings is a lot more than what we don't," he said. "That's the same as the lesson from Spiderman, Superman and Batman."
Do you read comics? Do you follow The 99? Are you in favour of comics becoming movies or TV series?
