Umair Najeeb Khan is a visual artist in Pakistan that has created a set of comics that are focused on a band of superheroes that represent a regional culture
Umair Najeeb Khan is a visual artist that has caught the ire of social media through a wide collection of Pakistani Superheroes. Through a focus on diversity and highlighting all the communities of Pakistan in a thoroughly entertaining way, he created a stable of Pakistani superheroes.
At only 25 years old, the visual artist spoke to ProPakistani about his intentions of creating this stable: “I have always been fascinated by superheroes and I always wanted to see them in Pakistan. Some content along those lines was produced but never really caught the eye. So recently before this unnamed series, I did another personal project based around six ethnicities and their cultures”. His first character was a Sindhi character named Marvi who was a teacher and a vigilante who received great praise. Umair noted: “I loved how well it was received by people and it made me want to do more along those lines and the idea just popped from there. That’s how I started working on Marvi my first character”.
The team has now grown to include 7 members, each having a specific trait. Umair has not revealed the backstories of these characters as he says that the viewers are in for a surprise and that they will be revealed in the comics. He did note to say that they all got their powers in different ways and the comics will explore their stories in detail. The seven character that we know of includes:
- Sofiyan, a Seraiki time traveler, sandman and humanitarian.
- Bazira, a Pakhtun hacker and psychic.
- Afsoon, a shapeshifter from Gilgit-Baltistan focused on environmental preservation.
- The twins Shahvez and Shahnawaz from the twin cities Rawalpindi and Islamabad, who have electrokinetic powers and are polar opposites.
- A Baloch swordsman Omran, who is an ‘Earth-bender‘.
All of these characters target a social problem and represent a regional culture. He said that: “The series is basically for representation and inclusiveness. Pakistan has a very unique culture, and cultural diversity that usually does not get highlighted or if it does it isn’t enough. I want to bring that to the forefront with these and produce new content, of course”.With characters like Marvi, who every woman can look up to or having characters looking very different from each other, these comics highlight their mission of working for the betterment of the country. Umair has hinted his eventual goal of adapting this to an animated series in the near future.
