World Wide spider-Web | Sepia Mutiny

The New York Magazine delves deeper into a story that hit the news over a month ago, about a new Indian Spiderman comic. Author Sukhdev Sandhu writes:

Farewell, Peter Parker; namaste, Pavitr Prabhakar. His fiefdom is the mean streets of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) instead of Manhattan. When crisis calls, he still dons his Spidey bodysuit, but he also sports a billowing dhoti and a pair of snazzy curl-toed slippers on his feet. The Green Goblin, his chief enemy, now takes the form of a rakshasa, a demon drawn from Indian mythology.

According to the article this brand of outsourcing has stirred up controversy among comic book purists (i.e. geeks) worldwide. India may be finally ready for a western superhero though, as it becomes an ever more industrialized nation. Continuing:

If the creative talent needed to bring an Indian version of Spider-Man to life is almost in place, so is the social context. Metropolis, Gotham City, Opal City–comics were both a product of and a commentary on the twentieth-century American city in all its exhilaration, capitalist energy, and sprawling loneliness. Until recently, India didn’t have enough urban breeding grounds for would-be superheroes.

Will this little experiment work? Will Indians be open to an imported hero when they have had a long tradition of their own comic book heroes in the form of the Amar Chitra Katha series? I remember when people thought that Coke couldn’t compete with Thumbs Up. I was one of them.

4 thoughts on “World Wide spider-Web”

Great story… I’m going to quote it further:

Hindi cinema has a long history of borrowing and adapting from Western sources, be they Busby Berkeley dance routines in the thirties, Chaplin-like heroes in the common-man social epics of the fifties, or Dirty Harry, a major influence on the wildly popular revenger tragedies of superstar Amitabh Bachchan… India has its own comic-book traditions, too. Most bus shelters and train stations stock Amar Chitra Katha, a series of historical and mythological strips based on the stories of Rama. One of the most popular superheroes of the seventies was a shaggy-haired, bell-bottom-wearing dude called Bahadur. In April, Penguin Books India published the countryÂ’s first graphic novel, Sarnath BanerjeeÂ’s Corridor, which is already into a second printing. Hollywood animation companies have begun to outsource creative work to the subcontinent, where they can rely on a steady pool of exÂ–street painters whose former livelihoods waned because of crackdowns in illegal advertising and the rise of photography in film posters.

Note about Coke vs Thums Up <- Thums Up was created from the “ruins” of old Coca-Cola factories left behind after the completely-fucked-in-the-head Indian governments of the 70s kicked out Coke, IBM, and any other company with world-class expertise in anything. So as for not being able to compete, they are at best second cousins, not real competitors. (Thums Up, is of course owned by Coke now…which is actually just Coke reclaiming its old properties) And as for India being “ready” for Western superheros, the Superman, Batman and Spiderman movies have all made millions of dollars already. They painted a local train in Bombay with Spidey’s costume colours and artwork to promote the first Spiderman movie. Growing up, we all used to read the “western” comics, alongisde the Amar Chitra Kathas. In fact, Indianising Spiderman is happening very late in the day. When G.I.Joe was sold in India in late 80s, they had to change the main tagline from G.I.Joe the American Hero to G.I.Joe the International Hero.

Bugger. Most of my previous comment got lost somehow!@! The first part should read: Note about Coke vs Thums Up – Thums Up was built on the “ruins” of vacated Coca-cola factories, after Coke was kicked out of India in the 70s by Neanderthal governments (which are responsible for bringing India to it’s pre-1991 state). So if anything, Coke and Thums Up are second cousins – BTW, you DO know that Coke has bought Thums Up right? – Which is actually just Coke reclaiming its old properties…

i read the comic its total nonsense! as an indian living in india,i found it to be totally revolting. 🙁 but what else can you expect. mary jane is maya something and i forget what pseudo name they gave peter parker. and guesswhat, he gets his powers from some old sage/rishi-muni fellow. and osborne becomes a green rakshasa that looks like some character they ripped off from a hentai film. can’t believe people actually create rubbish like that.

Manish Vij on August 11, 2004 at 4:23 pm said:

Great story… I’m going to quote it further:

Hindi cinema has a long history of borrowing and adapting from Western sources, be they Busby Berkeley dance routines in the thirties, Chaplin-like heroes in the common-man social epics of the fifties, or Dirty Harry, a major influence on the wildly popular revenger tragedies of superstar Amitabh Bachchan… India has its own comic-book traditions, too. Most bus shelters and train stations stock Amar Chitra Katha, a series of historical and mythological strips based on the stories of Rama. One of the most popular superheroes of the seventies was a shaggy-haired, bell-bottom-wearing dude called Bahadur. In April, Penguin Books India published the countryÂ’s first graphic novel, Sarnath BanerjeeÂ’s Corridor, which is already into a second printing. Hollywood animation companies have begun to outsource creative work to the subcontinent, where they can rely on a steady pool of exÂ–street painters whose former livelihoods waned because of crackdowns in illegal advertising and the rise of photography in film posters.
TTG on June 11, 2005 at 1:22 am said:

Note about Coke vs Thums Up <- Thums Up was created from the “ruins” of old Coca-Cola factories left behind after the completely-fucked-in-the-head Indian governments of the 70s kicked out Coke, IBM, and any other company with world-class expertise in anything. So as for not being able to compete, they are at best second cousins, not real competitors. (Thums Up, is of course owned by Coke now…which is actually just Coke reclaiming its old properties) And as for India being “ready” for Western superheros, the Superman, Batman and Spiderman movies have all made millions of dollars already. They painted a local train in Bombay with Spidey’s costume colours and artwork to promote the first Spiderman movie. Growing up, we all used to read the “western” comics, alongisde the Amar Chitra Kathas. In fact, Indianising Spiderman is happening very late in the day. When G.I.Joe was sold in India in late 80s, they had to change the main tagline from G.I.Joe the American Hero to G.I.Joe the International Hero.
TTG on June 11, 2005 at 1:25 am said:

Bugger. Most of my previous comment got lost somehow!@! The first part should read: Note about Coke vs Thums Up – Thums Up was built on the “ruins” of vacated Coca-cola factories, after Coke was kicked out of India in the 70s by Neanderthal governments (which are responsible for bringing India to it’s pre-1991 state). So if anything, Coke and Thums Up are second cousins – BTW, you DO know that Coke has bought Thums Up right? – Which is actually just Coke reclaiming its old properties…
chaitanya on January 23, 2006 at 4:13 am said:

i read the comic its total nonsense! as an indian living in india,i found it to be totally revolting. 🙁 but what else can you expect. mary jane is maya something and i forget what pseudo name they gave peter parker. and guesswhat, he gets his powers from some old sage/rishi-muni fellow. and osborne becomes a green rakshasa that looks like some character they ripped off from a hentai film. can’t believe people actually create rubbish like that.