One of the most popular franchises for Marvel Comics over the past few decades has been the X-Men, an ever-changing group of “mutants” born with an extra gene granting them super powers when they reach puberty.
However, the launch on Wednesday, Aprili 5, of the latest series for the characters -- entitled X-Men Gold -- quickly spawned an outcry when the artwork portrayed numbers and letters that refer to a verse from the Quran cited in support of intolerance toward other religions, as well as political unrest taking place in Indonesia. Marvel was forced to apologize. (See below.)
The images provided by Indonesian artist Ardian Syaf depicted in a double-page spread on pages 11 and 12 showed the X-Men trying to find out if bystanders “were okay” after the mutants had rescued those people from being killed by a collapsing building.
On the left page, the image of team leader Kitty Pryde’s head comes close to a store sign that reads “Jewelry.” While the mutant’s hair comes close to the right part of the word, some readers have complained that the image came too close to just being “Jew.”
To the right of that section is a store sign with the numbers “212,” which refers to the December 2, 2016, date when protesters in Indonesia expressed their disapproval of Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian who’s been accused of using blasphemy against the Quran.
After that, the number “51” appears in several places, including the tan hat of a man in the hostile crowd who’s next to an angry-looking guy with the same numbers on his white T-shirt.
The numbers appear on the following page when Colossus (a Russian X-Man who can transform himself into living metal) is playing baseball with his teammates and is wearing a T-shirt that reads “QS 51.”
That refers to Quran Surah 5:51, a passage commonly translated by Indonesians as “Muslims should not appoint the Jews and Christians as their leader.”
According to an article by Yenni Kwok for TIME Magazine:
The vote has been one of Indonesia’s most polarizing elections and is about much more than about choosing the city’s leader.
Bitterly contested between the Chinese Christian incumbent, Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, and his Muslim rivals who won support of hard-line Islamists, it represents a choice between pluralism and increasingly fundamentalist Islam taking root in the world's most populous Muslim nation, where many religious conservatives say a non-Muslim should not hold high office.
“Ardian says he included the messages in the X-Men Gold artwork after he took part in the demonstration in December,” Kwok stated.
“Choosing a non-[Muslim] as a leader is forbidden," he asserted, as reported by the Jakarta Post. "That’s what the [Quaranic verse] says.”
He also reportedly talked about what he had done on his Facebook page: “Ardian has been heavily criticized on Indonesian social media, with many pointing out that his stance is contrary to the inclusive and tolerant message of the X-Men series.”
“Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the creators of the X-Men, were both Jewish,” Kwok stated.
“What he has done in the recent X-Men book is very disrespectful and unprofessional,” tweeted fellow Indonesian comics artist Ario Anindito, who also works for Marvel.
The situation became so dire that the company quickly issued an apology:
The mentioned artwork in X-Men Gold #1 was inserted without knowledge behind its reported meanings. These implied references do not reflect the views of the writer, editors or anyone else at Marvel and are in direct opposition of the inclusiveness of Marvel Comics and what the X-Men have stood for since their creation.
This artwork will be removed from subsequent printings, digital versions, and trade paperbacks and disciplinary action is being taken.
Meanwhile, Tom Bacon at moviepilot.com had a similar view of the incident: “Marvel Comics has had a difficult weekend. Last week saw the release of X-Men Gold #1, a blockbuster issue that's rich in character work and launches the franchise in a whole new direction.”
“Unfortunately," he stated, "fans quickly began to pick up on some troubling details that artist Ardian Syaf had slipped into the book -- artistic touches that promoted his own religious and political beliefs.”
“Incredibly,” Bacon stated, “Syaf is clearly proud of this particular image, even using it as the banner for his Facebook page! Fans immediately connected the dots between the numbers and their meaning, and many called him out for making a poor attempt at this kind of political statement.”
“I've got to be blunt; speaking as an X-Men fan,” he continued. “I'm furious that X-Men Gold's launch has been sabotaged in such a way -- and I'm pretty sure Marvel is just as angry. … Syaf just committed career suicide and given Marvel Comics one more diversity headache.”
