The Other Secret Identity of Superheroes

No wonder Congress was fighting so hard to pass the Mutant Registration Act. I found this on my friend's Facebook. An imam who looks ambiguously Asian leads a cast of superheroes in salaah, the Islamic prayer, at what seems to be a mosque. I asked my friend if he knew who made this, and he had no idea. This painting(?) is incredible. Whoever made it, get at me, now.

EDIT: I realized that not everyone knows Muslim's start their prayer in this stance. Edited the second sentence for clarification.

• [pikacard]

  Just a disclaimer: I’m not Indonesian and I’m not Muslim. So I can’t provide any cultural context when I translate.

  1. The group is performing a ritual in Muslim prayer.

  2. From the blog, the long haired hero is “Si Buta dari Gua Hantu” = The Blind Man from Ghost Cave. Following the link, it says that he’s an Indonesian comic book hero first appearing in 1967.

  3. Between the blind man and Captain America is Gatotkaca, a character out of the Sanskrit tale of Mahabharata.

  4. The blogger speculates that the Imam (prayer leader) is probably a religious icon but doesn’t know who.

  5. Also, Batman was next to Superman but stayed off camera.

  6. Those orange plastic things in the corner? That’s for disposable chopsticks and forks.

  7. Yes, I realized the splash my choice of words would cause.

• [Anonymous]

  Who’s the dude next to Captain America ( on his left)? Captain Timor?

• [Anonymous]

  Wait, is Vlad Tepes the guy behind Captain America?

• [siradambeck]

  Who knew Korea had a Captain America too?

• [Taro 3Yen]

  I find it heartening that the islamicboard.com were bemused too.

  http://www.islamicboard.com/general/134297389-islamic-superheroes-going-global.html

  (The right bottom of the islamicboard image reads, “Oil on canvas 158cm x …)

  • [Raj77]

    Although most of the commentary in that thread consisted of people saying BLASPHEMY! which was a little dispiriting. Having said that, one of them was from Coventry, which explains it. Soon, someone will bring fire to Coventry, having stolen it from Birmingham. He’ll be stoned as a witch.

• [Anonymous]

  I’m pretty sure Ben Grimm is a Yiddishe boychick.

• [rebdav]

  Is the way they are holding their hands specific to Mormons? Too bad I cant remember how to read Arabic.

• [desperately anon]

  looks like somewhat javanese (indonesian) backdrop.

• [protogenes]

  They need to pray? No so super after all it seems.

• [Rex Roof]

  The painting appears to be called ‘Superhero Sholat’.

  http://www.google.com/search?q=superhero+sholat

  • [cinemajay]

    Thanks for that link. At first glance I couldn’t figure out why it looked like some of them were leaning on a table!

    Anyone know if that’s supposed to be a famous person leading the prayer?

• [License Farm]

  Something about this smacks of Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Not content to claim divinity over all historical figures, he now can get testimonials from fictional heros, too.

• [Anonymous]

  siradambeck, rebdav: Look more like from a Muslim Turkic country from central Asia. This is the first stage of daily payer, standing up and holding hands like that. The man who leads the prayer is called “Imam”.

• [octopussoup]

  Who is the prominent guy in black with wings on his head? Some Indonesian hero? I don’t think its Black Vulcan though his buddy Chief Apache from the Superfriends is there. They guy behind Chief Apache looks like some Indian mythological guy.

  • [TheGibson]

    Looks like some version of U.S. Agent.

• [Anonymous]

  The work is giving off an Indonesian vibe to me. They are performing the Qiyam part of the muslim prayer ritual.

• [Boondocker]

  Only the greatest and most unifying of religions could bring Marvel and DC characters together in supplication.

  Also, gotta love the artist’s devotion to accuracy, best represented by Robocop not having shoes to take off.

  The Hulk looks like the prayer is perhaps taking a bit too long for him. “Hulk told God all he wanted to tell him FIVE MINUTES AGO! WRAP IT UP!”

• [pikacard]

  Acting on my unpublished (yet?) anonymous comment, I did some Google-fu and came up with this blog in Indonesian: http://gilingantebu.wordpress.com/2008/12/29/khayalan-tingkat-tinggi/

  It says on the third paragraph, the blogger found the painting at a noodle stall cum gallery at Prof Yohanes Road in Yogyakarta.

  • [mdh]

    so was it a noodle stall or a yoghurt cart?

    INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW

    (also, excellent -fu you’re sporting there)

• [hippoking]

  Superman’s tummy don’t so feel so good.

• [Rob Myers]

  I love the vernacular style and cultural normativity of the image.

  Superheroes can be of any religion or lack thereof -

  http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/comic_book_religion.html

• [BRUZZ]

  This is definitely Indonesian. The guy with the wings in black is Gundala, apparently a pretty iconic character. See here: http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/g/gundala.htm

• [Anonymous]

  Indonesian here. LOLed when I saw this pic :D

  I instantly recognised the guy with bare chest behind the imam. He’s Si Buta dari Gua Hantu, our version of Daredevil (blind martial arts master with heightened senses)and Gatotkaca behind him. Gatotkaca is a character out of the ancient Indian/Hindu epic of Mahabharata, which has also been adopted by other countries with Hindu background, including Indonesia. This explains the Javanese headdress (instead of Indian).

  The architecture is Javanese, and not only reserved to mosques. There are churches with similar interior all around Java.

  And yes, Pikacard is correct, the orange plastic thingies are chopstick containers you usually find in noodle joints.

• [Daedalus]

  the blogger found the painting at a noodle stall cum gallery at Prof Yohanes Road in Yogyakarta

  *blink*

  *doubletake*

  Oh.

  …damn, I gotta stop looking at so much pr0n.

• [Anonymous]

  I dunno from Gundala, but I see Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, in the left back.

• [Anonymous]

  Good find by Rex. At first this seemed like a Brandon Bird to me, cause if you like this you may also like these:

  http://www.brandonbird.com/lazysunday.html
  http://www.brandonbird.com/sir_ian.html

• [LogopolisMike]

  At first, I thought this was a Kim Jung-il special but then I realized if it had been him it would have had him beating up Superman and the Hulk while getting 18 holes in one at once.

• [Junglemonkey]

  Maybe the Asian guy out front is Wong Fei-hung, the Chinese folk hero?

• [HeatVision]

  This painting just got awesomer – it’s got Robocop! http://themeandactis3.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/superhero-tobat.jpg (thanks to pikacard’s Google-fu).

  • [allium]

    And Hellboy’s on the far right edge…I guess if you live in a crossover cosmology world it makes sense to go with the flow.

• [Felton]

  I suppose Thor isn’t there because he is a god. And his dad might not approve.

  • [Brainspore]

    Maybe Thor is the one they’re praying to. He was bound to get sick of treating those mortal guys as equals sooner or later.

    • [Felton]

      Good point. Must be weird praying to a god who’s right there in the room with you. I mean, his facial expressions could be a bit disheartening, rolling his eyes when you pray for peace or long life, or whatever.

• [CleverUserName]

  I just assumed they were all praying that Joel Schumacher won’t direct any of their film adaptations.