Sharif

So I guess reboot fever is alive and well at DC. The condition has advanced to the point that an individual issue of Superman (#712) that featured a Muslim superhero named Sharif (a modernized version of the unfortunately named Sinbad) was actually rebooted to become a story about Krypto the Super-Dog. I have no idea as to why the issue was swapped out, some are claiming production issues, others Muslim panic, but I really hope the reason is not the latter.

I certainly can't think of any other DC hero that's a Muslim. Well, that's not true. There's Nightrunner now, but he's a recent addition. Davood Nassur, aka Sinbad/Sharif, might actually be it. Does Ibn from Son of the Bat count? Probably not.

Anyways, thanks to the link about Sinbad provided by Mefite Halloween Jack, we know that he's a telekinetic and that he's from Metropolis. Pretty bland stuff. Actually, the most interesting part of his background is that Metropolis apparently has a "Little Qurac" which is actually kind of cool.

So let's keep that Davood Nassur is a Muslim American, born in Metropolis, with telekinetic powers. How did he get them? In the mainstream, it looks like he was born with minor TK abilities, but then got them enhanced by fallout from an alien invasion and/or a belt. So again, pretty generic stuff. Telekinesis is sort of the vanilla ice cream of the superhero world. This would make it really, really easy to have his faith be his defining character trait, something that I'm not too wild about.

The fact that Davood has these extraordinary abilities and decides to use them to help others rather than himself should be defining, not that he goes to a mosque instead of a church.

So let's jazz him up some. First, we'll make him what very, very few comic superheroes are: A good dad. Davood has a wife and three kids. He is a teacher at PS 435 in Metropolis. He's always had minor telekinesis abilities, but they were so minor he never really noticed them until after the accident. But thinking back, yeah, there were plenty of times when he played college baseball that he made spectacular catches. And his toast has never landed jelly side down.

The accident changed all that. Maybe it was just reflexive, an instinctual response to danger, or maybe the blow to the head he suffered after he got the kids out unlocked something. Anyways, after Davood Nassur saved seven children from a collapsing building, he's been different. While recuperating, he found that he could move objects just by thinking about it. As his body healed, his abilities grew as well. Soon he could bring the entire refrigerator into the next room, not just a soda.

His kids, two sons and a daughter, aged 12, 10 and 10 (Jafar and Padideh are fraternal twins, they often team up to make their older brother, Davood Jr, crazy) know about their dad's abilities and are the driving force behind him becoming a hero. Mom doesn't know, but she suspects something's up. To their young minds it's absolutely logical that Davood go out and fight crime. I mean, what else are you going to do with your time? Since the accident, money had not been a worry - there was insurance, a law suit, and a host of charitable donations that came in following news reports of Davood's heroism. So while Mom is busy running her florist shop, Dad should get out there and make the world a better place.

And so he does. At first concerned about his safety, plus the safety of his kids (secret identities and all, nobody wants a repeat of what happened to Hour Man) Davood constructs a sort of armored suit to fight crime in. It's functional, but the kids are concerned that it doesn't look very cool and eventually demand a re-do (thus mirroring the Sinbad to Sharif revamp). Even Superman, who Davood has worked with on occasion, points out that it seems like a waste to have a suit with arms and legs if he's just telekineticing everything anyways. So, in an unapologetic rip-off of one of my favorite Wild Cards, The Great and Powerful Turtle, Davood's suit evolves into a floating shell and he takes on the name Mikhail.

Still, he's only a part time hero. His family comes first and keeping the secret from his wife is not the easiest thing in the world.

Of course, he's not the only one in the family with a secret. Because as soon as they realized their father had powers, the Nassur children immediately started experimenting to see if they had unknown abilities as well. So far, Davood jr has yet to discovery any.

But when the Jafar and Padideh touch... something wondrous happens.