starvenger 0 Report post Posted June 23, 2004 Check it out on Newsarama LOOKING INSIDE SPIDER-MAN INDIA by Benjamin Ong Pang Kean Peter Parker is no longer the amazing wall-crawler known as Spider-Man. Well, at least not in India, the land for all seasons. A quick geography review - India lies in Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Pakistan, China and Nepal. Comparatively, the subcontinent is slightly more than one-third the size of the United States. Its climate varies from tropical monsoon in the south to temperate in the north. India has a population of over 1 billion. In terms of language, English enjoys associate status but is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are 14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri, Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official language. And now it has its own wall-crawling superhero - a move by Marvel that many see as a very savvy licensing twist by a company looking to firmly entrench its characters worldwide. Not the first time its been done (Transformers, for example, have had comics created by UK creators, differing from the US versions), the creation of an entirely new Spider-Man, rooted in Indian culture is obviously fundamentally different than a typical marketing push for a property than usually seen. This isn't "Spider-Man's Mumbai Adventure," an Indian team writing and drawing the American version of the character, or a similar visitation of an American character to a new country - this is an all new version of Spider-Man, created by Indian creators to appeal to a completely different culture - a very large one at that. The project was announced earlier this week by Marvel Comics and Gotham Entertainment Group. According to the press release, Spider-Man India interweaves the local customs, culture and mystery of modern India, with an eye to making Spider-Man’s mythology more relevant to this particular audience. Readers of this series will not see the familiar Peter Parker of Queens under the classic Spider-Man mask, but rather a new hero – a young Indian boy from Mumbai [the former Bombay] named Pavitr Prabhakar. “Gotham Entertainment Group, is the South Asian publishing licensee for Marvel and DC Comics. Gotham currently publishes local editions of numerous American comics in India in English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Malayalam languages,” Sharad Devarajan, President and CEO of Gotham Entertainment Group explained to Newsarama. “Since we first started Gotham, we have always dreamed of fully integrating a western superhero character into the Indian market in this revolutionary way. It is one thing to translate existing US comics, but this project is truly what we call a ‘transcreation,’ where we actually reinvent the origin of a property like Spider-Man so that he is an Indian boy growing up in Mumbai and dealing with local problems and challenges. We have always believed that the superhero relates to a ‘universal psyche’ already firmly established in India through centuries of mythological stories depicting gods and heroes with supernatural abilities. This project is the true culmination of such a synthesis allowing us to interweave the ethnic & mythological themes of India into Spider-Man’s very origins and powers. “Though we will remain true to the underlining mythos of Spider-Man, which is epitomized in the phrase ‘With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility,’ the character will be reinvented so his powers, problems and costume are more integrated with Indian culture. Unlike the US origin which is deeply rooted in science, the Indian version is more rooted in magic and mythology. This version of Spider-Man will gain his powers from ancient mystic in order to combat the evil threat of the Green Goblin, who will also be reinvented as a modern day Indian demon from myth. “The project came about through a number of dialogues my colleague Suresh Seetharaman (Gotham's co-founder and COO) and I had with Marvel, discussing ways to enhance our existing publishing program of American Marvel comics. We discussed a number of ideas including having the US version of Spider-Man make a trip to India in a comic series. However, the one that really exciting us, was the concept of reinventing the property specifically for India. “Certainly, none of this would have ever been possible without the creative vision of Marvel who has nurtured this concept with us from the very beginning and embraced the potential of the cultural integration this project represents. Marvel has continuously pushed the boundaries of comic entertainment throughout the world, often transcending the genre and taking bold risks with the medium. As a Company, we greatly admire their entrepreneurial spirit and are honored to be working with them on this groundbreaking project for India. They have truly enabled one of my longtime dreams to finally become a reality.” Thus was born Mumbai’s (Bombay’s) first web-swinging superhero. Indian-based Jeevan J. Kang is taking on the entire creative process including the writing, penciling, inking and coloring for the first four-part series. “Jeevan is Gotham Studios’ Studio Chief and unquestionably one of the most creative individuals I have ever had the privilege of knowing,” Devarajan said. “An architect by training, Jeevan realized his true passion rested in creating comics and joined with us at Gotham to help build an artistic studio focused on creating indigenous original content for the Indian market. Spider-Man India will also be Jeevan's first published work. Jeevan epitomizes the very best of the artistic talents India has to offer and I have the utmost praise, respect and admiration for his amazing work ethic. I am confident he will leave a great mark on the comic world. In addition to this project our studio is also creating a number of original characters for the Indian market and we expect to release our own line of new comics in India later in the year.” Is Spider-Man India set in the regular Marvel Universe, in the sense that there could be a possibility of a crossover between the American Spidey and the Indian version? Are the two aware of each other's existence? “This is not at all a part of the core Marvel Universe, but rather a specific project for the Indian market that is intended to be a fun, exciting recreation of the classic hero,” Devarajan confirmed. As mentioned earlier, the Indian version of Spider-Man, in the form of young Mumbai resident, Pavitr Prabhakar, gains his powers from ancient mystic instead of Peter Parker who got his powers from a radioactive spider. Green Goblin is also reinvented as Rakshasa, an Indian mythological demon. “The Green Goblin, will still be the Green Goblin. However, his origin, powers and new look will be reminiscent of the classical Indian demons of myth.” The American version has/had love interests in the form of Mary Jane-Watson (now Parker), Gwen Stacy and an on-off relationship with the Black Cat. Who's the love of Pavitr's life in this incarnation? “Mary Jane, or rather the Indian equivalent, Meera Jain, will still be a core character for our young hero,” Devarajan revealed. The first four issues of the new comic series will be published and released by Gotham Entertainment Group in India, and are scheduled to coincide with the theatrical release of Spider-Man 2 in India. Marvel Comics will provide publishing details for the United States edition at a later date. More than just the eyes of Spider-Man fans will be on this new incarnation of the character. If Spider-Man India works, and works well, a new door in regards to licensing will be firmly open, allowing Marvel to offer a new license for its characters, and perhaps opening the door to a world populated by different versions of its best known heroes. I'd be interested to see this come back over to this continent just to compare. I wonder how this will connect with the masses over there though... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steviekick 0 Report post Posted June 23, 2004 It's a very interesting idea from a marketing stand point. I'm pretty sure this is the first time they've completely revamped any comic character for a foreign market. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
starvenger 0 Report post Posted June 23, 2004 It's a very interesting idea from a marketing stand point. I'm pretty sure this is the first time they've completely revamped any comic character for a foreign market. Probably. There is a Spider-Man manga over in Japan, but the character has the same origin. This one is pretty much a re-imagining in the vein of the Mangaverse... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest The Last Free Voice Report post Posted June 23, 2004 different. Things like this are why marvel allways seem to be ahead of DC in the innovation department. What has DC done since Vertigo? exactly. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest SP-1 Report post Posted June 24, 2004 What's really interesting is how this compares to the most recent story arc in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and the questions raised there by Ezekiel. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steviekick 0 Report post Posted June 25, 2004 I didn't think about that at first, but that is a good point about Ezekiel, Sp. I really enjoy/am intrigued by his character and presence in Spidey's life. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
caboose 0 Report post Posted June 25, 2004 That is hella cool. My mum was born in Mumbai (Bombay) and will get a kick out of this, especially as she enjoyed the first Spider-man film. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bobobrazil1984 0 Report post Posted June 29, 2004 The art on this book is really cool! The costume is kinda funky, but in a fun way (I realize that's just cultural difference, i'm sure its normal there, but i certainly dont mean it in a negative way). I like it. MORE ART: http://www.gothamcomics.com/spiderman_india/ This is a good idea by Marvel. Spider-Man has always had worldwide appeal, and this I think will sell like gangbusters in India. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Joe_G Report post Posted June 30, 2004 I took an online quiz about Spider Man on MSN and one of the questions was "Who is Pavitr Prabhakar?" The options were Dr. Strange, Red Raja, Spider Man, and someone else. I knew it wasn't Strange or the other option, and it surely couldn't be Spider Man, so I guessed Red Raja, but turns out it was Spider Man. I also messed up the question about Doc Occ marrying Aunt May for her nuclear reactor. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Black Lushus 0 Report post Posted June 30, 2004 i don't have a problem with this at all and think it's actually a unique and pretty cool sounding idea...after 40 years, it's nice to see something DIFFERENT happen with a character... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest The Son of Sting Report post Posted June 30, 2004 Will they release a English language version? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
