The covert government agent condenamed Obscura possesses an extraordinary skill set, is BFFs with one of Batman’s wards … and is a Malay-Malaysian woman, possibly the only such character in mainstream comics.
Obscura, aka Munira “Muni” Khairuddin, has been popping up in DC Comics, home to Superman and the aforementioned alter ego of billionaire Bruce Wayne, since August 2014, when she appeared in Batgirl #32, as one of the college buddies of Barbara Gordon, aka Commissioner Gordon’s daughter, aka Batgirl.
Here’s a tiny image of Obscura (hey, we get it!) on the cover of Batgirl #33, the following issue:
Photo: dc.wikia.com
She’s the one on the right, holding a gun.
The obscure presence of Muni Khairuddin, Malay-Malaysian grad student at Gotham University, was first picked up by The Star Online‘s Dina Murad, who we believe must have a solid Comixology account.
Muni was conceived by critically-acclaimed writer Gail Simone and artist Fernando Pasarin as a covert government agent working for the Spy Smashers, who had recruited her after they faked her death and took her into hiding.
Freelance writer Jaymee Goh wrote in a personal blogpost in December 2014 of Munira’s decidedly unusual background: “She’s loosely based on an actual friend of mine, Munira Mustaffa, a Malay woman doing security studies in the UK right now with an eye to researching terrorism in SEAsia. Looking forward to how this develops.”
Simone herself wrote a short description of Obscura as part of a reply to a question on her Tumblr page in September 2014:
OBSCURA, a Malaysian Muslim woman in Batgirl, working as a top espionage fighter in the Spy Smasher division.
According to Dina Murad, the real-life Munira Mustaffa is “a counter-terrorism scholar, strategic intelligence analyst and due diligence consultant for several international corporate intelligence and security firms.” She also speaks French and Russian.
Why do we look up to Black Widow, again?
