Lamis: Egypt's Newest Superheroine

Comic book geeks might be swooning over Egypt's ever-growing comic book scene, yet the biggest soft spot in our hearts still goes to Egyptian superwomen in particular. You may have come across Qahera, Shakmagia, and many more, who focus on Egyptian women's strength and supernatural powers – a topic that's making its way more so into the Egyptian comic book scene. These women are quite possibly the comic book versions of our reality – the mamas and sisters all around us. Now we're adding another Egyptian superwoman to the roster as we anticipate the upcoming Lamis.

The story is by Safya Baraka, an artist who once dreamed of writing a script for a film; "It was hard to execute due to financial and production limitations, the movie was supposed to be directed by Hamed Yehia," she tells CairoScene. Hamed Yehia, a self-proclaimed "comic book nerd" took direction in a different sense, as he is the illustrator of Lamis. "Safia had the brilliant idea of transforming the script into comic panels and Hamed started illustrating the panels and poof a comic was born!" he enthuses.Lamis is this girl who has seen it all since she was kid - crime upon crime – and started developing superpowers as she grew up. Standard story, right? But then you have the featured trailer for the comic, which reads: "Evil exists in its most powerful ways when we do not admit its existence." So you don't only have good vs. evil, you have really evil, evil vs. good in denial... Intense. That will definitely be more clear on July 16th when the comic launches.
Though she holds the title as the main character, there are featured characters to look out for as well, like Ezz, who is asks us "how would you feel if you knew the whole world hated you?" Umm, we'd probably crawl in a corner and come out when we had a plan to destroy the earth. Then there's Hussam, who's introduced as someone who "never was a good person, always had a touch of a low-life in him." That scares us a little, but definitely sounds like a bunch of people we've all come across quite a bit. And, of course, El Batsh, who says that he sees torture as a "science," or "school." This guy clearly takes evil as a way of living. In any case, these characters sound like the perfect combination of good and evil within themselves - but, that's what makes an awesome comic book, right?

We hope Lamis ends up being as cool as she appears, with her long flowing hair and beautifully stroked features, jumping off ledges and all that good stuff, as both heroes behind the creation of this comic book tell us. Their story is yet to begin, and don't you dare not look out for them; Baraka and Yehia "have a lot of other ideas that would expand the story of Lamis to a universe full of other characters and stories… [they] dream to make a Marvel or DC Comic empire in the Middle East, but [their] main goal is to integrate to the big screen and watch [their] works as blockbuster movies."

Follow up with the comic on their Facebook page.