Diamond Comics’ ‘official’ web presence must get even fewer visitors than this blog. How else would a site live with all these bloopers?

Check out their Batman, Spider-Man pages. They are all apparently modelled on the Shaktimaan page.

Just leave me alone for a while. I will go have a milkshake and probably get over this by evening.

Just thought I should clear some things up. I saw the posters to Hrithik Roshan starrer Krrish and noticed he was being called India’s first superhero. Before him it was Shaktimaan who was labelled thus. Even Spider-Man India got to be called India’s first.

Superhero myth or even comic books in general have never been any part of India’s public consciousness. But I must bite my lips, cut through the hoopla and say that a fact is a fact.

I wouldn’t say kids actually aspire to ‘be’ them. There are no kids as stupid as that. At five, one may be taken by the muscles and the gadgets and the colours that define superheroism, but man is born sane and faith in the super only comes after the ‘real world’ beats you to squishy pulp.

There is something in a super that kids really appreciate. I think I speak for all kids when I say that Superman wouldn’t be half as super if there was no Clark Kent. Superman is a lot of things (truth, justice, freedom, blah blah blah…) but what is Clark Kent? Just a clever disguise?

The past week saw me getting into murkier depths of Mumbaiite life. It’s house hunting time again. Also, kind of homesick. Plus, out of comic books to read. Add to that the fact that going to movies alone sucks. So we never reach a consensus as to what to watch twice. So far, I’ve seen Capote, Pride and Prejudice, Crash, Walk the Line, and Brokeback Mountain (twice).

Things that I have been wanting to get my hands on, are Earth X, Civil War, Infinite Crisis Files and good comics of a generally groovy nature. Of course I understand some of that will have to wait till I get things in the actual life to settle down a bit.

So in Freenagar, young Chakram Shastri decided to be a superhero. He gathered together resources, built a secret hideout, figured out custom catch phrases, worked on those facial expressions, trained hard to be able to fire quick witty comebacks to supervillains’ dangerous threats, and a lot of other superheroic stuff.

Then he got to the identity part. He had a name in mind. He was sure it would work. The name was Batman.

He groaned. Apparently, a self righteous do-gooder had already taken it. Chakram wasn’t one to persevere. But he had a way to make the name his. And it wasn’t entirely impossible. His uncle, a scientist of no repute, had once made a time machine that worked.

Technically, there can’t be a mad mad scientist. But I am sure you realise that. Now that we are past that tiny issue, let’s come to think of his appeal as a motif in modern myth of the corny variety. Having appeared extensively in comic books and movies over decades, his characteristic nuances are unmistakable.

He operates on a grand scale. He is driven by overpowering ambition. He has a thing for monologues (this also goes for super villains and evil overlords) that frequently end with, ‘…once and for all’ or ‘…mine, all mine.’ More often than not, he breaks into manic laughter that echoes in his innermost sanctums or his courthouse (if he is the court-holding type).