Now Bin Laden has new formidable enemy - Batman

NEW YORK - A powerful beam of light pierces the night sky over Gotham, a familiar silhouette within its circle.

It is a call, of course, for Batman, the secretive saviour of the city in times of turmoil.

But this time, his villain is no ordinary dastardly crook nor is it his old foe, the Riddler.

Today, it is none other than Osama bin Laden.

Plans to pit the Caped Crusader - alias suave millionaire Bruce Wayne - against the leader of the al Qaeda terror network were unveiled at a convention of comic book writers and fans in California earlier this week by Frank Miller, America's best-known graphic novel writer.

It was Mr Miller's 1987 comic book 'Batman: The Dark Knight Returns' that has been credited with rekindling the popularity of Batman, which in turn led to a series of Hollywood films culminating in last year's box office success, 'Batman Begins'.

This next book, which he is half-way through drawing and writing, has a theme few will have trouble grasping.

Batman's services are called upon after Bin Laden orchestrates a catastrophic terror attack on Gotham, leaving the city reeling.

The title: 'Holy Terror: Batman!' Mr Miller said that it was his own anger over the real-life terror attacks of 11 September 2001 and subsequent outrages around the world that moved him to begin the book.

"Emotionally, it's really raw," he told the audience at the annual WonderCon comics convention in San Francisco.

"Imagine the powerful rage when someone crosses the passion between a man and a woman or a man and his city."

Lest anyone suggest that casting bin Laden - whose strategy of stealth since 9/11 has confounded the efforts of the combined US intelligence and military to track him down - into a fantasy comic book crosses a line of good taste, Mr Miller insists that he is merely honouring the long-held tradition of fantasy superheroes: to take on real villains and, in the process, boost the nation's moral and sense of patriotism.

In the Second World War period, especially, comic books became precisely such a vehicle, conveying what was essentially war-time propaganda in the language of 'Zap!', 'Pow!' and 'Wam!' It was the evil face of the Nazis that gave birth both to Superman and Captain America.

"Superman punched out Hitler. So did Captain America," Mr Miller said.

"That's one of the things they're there for. These are our folk heroes. It just seems silly to chase around the Riddler when you've got al Qaeda out there."

We will have to wait a little longer to see how Batman and his sidekick Robin fare in snaring bin Laden, however.

Mr Miller says he has completed about 120 pages of the graphic novel that he expects to span 200 pages before it is finished.

Nor is there any definitive publication date yet, but DC Comics hope to see it on the shelves sometime next year.

- INDEPENDENT