6727 Hmm…

NEW YORK: Get used to this name: Pavitr Prabhakar. A frail-looking Indian boy, he will soon be the new avatar of Peter Parker aka Spider-man.

Marvel Comics, in association with Gotham Entertainment Group, have decided to give a new face and spin to the adventures of Spider-man.

Come July, when the superhero with the webbed hands unmasks in Mumbai, it will be Pavitr who will emerge, ready to take on an evil Rakshas, who in the original comic strip was the nefarious Green Goblin. In the Indian version, Pavitr gets his magical powers from a yogi.

The locales of the new Spider-man adventures will be all in India, including some exciting chases on two-wheelers and autorickshaws through the streets of Agra, culminating in a battle at the Taj Mahal, and a struggle to save the world at the Gateway of India.

India-based Jeevan Kang has done the artwork for the comic strips.

Sharad Devarajan, CEO, Gotham Entertainment, said in an e-mail interview to this website’s newspaper that the reinvention of Spider-man is not just a gimmick to boost sales of the comic strip, especially with the Spider-Man 2 movie soon to be screened, but “epitomises the globalisation taking place between India and the US’’. He says that the comic strip, with Pavitr as the hero, will not only be released in India, but also in the US, at a later date.

‘‘Marvel is working with our studio to completely reinvent the whole Spider-man mythology, to remake it set in India with all the characters and villains being Indians. This will allow us to interweave his origins, powers and costume with local customs and mythologies,’’ says Devarajan. ‘‘Unlike traditional translations, this is what we call a true transcreation, making an American hero also a local hero.’’

In India, Gotham Entertainment brings out comics in English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and Malayalam.

But it will be the first time though that a superhero will be seen in an ethnic identity anywhere in the world.

Obvously, the re-invention of Spider-man is a strong indication of the qualitative growth of the animation industry in India, and acceptance by the West of a powerful market.

Incidentally, a soothsayer to the Spider-man phenomenon was director Shekhar Kapur, who at the recent Bollywood awards in Singapore, said that as countries like India and China rival the Western economic superpowers, there will be a reverse cultural colonisation.

‘‘We will still have Spider-man, but when Spider-man takes off his mask, he will probably be Chinese or Indian,’’ Kapur predicted. Now we know he was right.
-via boingboing

I think he looks pretty neat that way, actually. I don’t see this as any worse than Spidey 2099 or that cartoon where he was on another planet. I wonder if they’ll keep any of his origin, like doing what he does because he was irresponsible once, and it cost him a loved one.

I fell asleep yesterday after tending to a mild chore. I fully intended to just check the mail and take out the trash, but after I went back inside, I played with the Newtster for a few minutes on my side in bed. He curled up, and knocked me out with a sonic purr-wave. I woke up about an hour later to the phone… brother asking me to download metallica guitar tablitures for him.

Part of what threw me for a snooze-loop was the insane rain. The white noise of heavy water-drops and distant thunder, not to mention smell of ozone surely can drag me at my most wakeful into a deep slumber. Pair that with with a snuggle-cat, there’s no hope for wakefulness.

Something is killing my appetite this week. I actually have to make a point of eating into my allocated food range.

Can Arizona tea go bad? I drank a sip, and it had a very real tang to it. I nearly did a spit-take, it was so off-tasting. I didn’t like it, nosiree. Down the sink it went. Hopefully, my cast-iron gullet will handle it with a minimum of gastric distress. Bleh.

Rocko’s a Wallaby.