Marvelling at superheroes

Loyal fans

It’s a plane, it’s a bird... it’s Superman!’ — that is one phrase one has so often heard of while growing up and still rings in the ear. Randomly swatting and pointing fingers in the air hoping for a spider web to trap your victim is also a precious childhood memory.

Before the movies and television series’ took over our lives, there was the world of comic books that one looked forward to. It brought in two universes with completely different (yet sometimes similar) superheroes and kept one intrigued. Today, although the digital and visual world has taken over, fans continue to be loyal to comic books, especially the superheroes of DC and Marvel comics. 

Neil Terrence, a sales and system coordinator at Porche, grew up reading these comics with his sister. He says, “My older sister would read a lot of comics and Batman was one of the first ones that I read. Later on, the television world brought in the series of Batman and Robin. It was much later that Spiderman came on television  introducing me to the Marvel world.”

Though he agrees that the DC and Marvel productions are doing interesting takes with the movies, he wishes that they would stick to the storyline. “There are so many characters in the comic book series that haven’t even been introduced to the movie world yet. There are a lot more powerful characters than Iron Man and Thor but these new storylines have been made only to cater to the masses. Though it has its plus points, being a comic book reader, I’d like to stick to the original,” he says.

However, there’s Nicholas Nunes, a digital marketer, who thinks that it’s alright to divert from the real story. He says, “I understand that the creators of these movies will not be able to include everything as the comics are very diverse. From a comic book perspective, you are used to reading it at a different level. But on screen, everything has to sound a bit more supernatural. There hasn’t been much of a background story on how these superheroes got their powers but I guess that’s okay. It’s a risk that the creators are taking.”

While everyone has their favourite superhero to look up to the sky and save their day, for the content curator, Ruby Paulson, it’s the villain that’s interesting. She says, “They are much more complex than the ‘real heroes’. They have a reason to why they became that way and why they choose to do certain things. They all have their histories and logical disorders — that’s what makes it so much more interesting for me. And you really need to read the books to understand that. Even though the movie graphics make them look so good, it’s usually the fight scenes that attract the crowd.”

Staying true to the world of comics is also Vineeth MV, a programme manager. He explains that during each time periods that the comics came out, they had a purpose. But he says that one should read the comics and then watch the movie to have a better understanding of the storyline.

“Marvel Studios have been makings movies by giving each superhero their individual movies, giving the audience a peek into their lives. That helps to a certain extent but there’s still so much more unveiling of the characters’ background to be done. Now that digital copies of all the series are available, I would highly recommend that one reads the comics before watching the movie. That’s how you’ll understand why a certain character does certain things. Also, it will help build our imagination.”