Slashdot Mirror
Spider-Man in India
Lord Omlette writes "I'm really surprised no one else has mentioned this, but Spider-Man is getting redone in India! As an Indian-American, I'm quite excited. (Let's get it out of the way: even our comic book heroes are being outsourced, wtf!) The manga version of Star Wars was pretty good, but off the top of my head I can't think of any other comic books that were redone for a completely different culture. Anyone?"
And what's with the bottoms? American spiderman doesn't ware suit pants. Is this to make him look more Indian or would there be a cultural backlash against tights?
In Japan, they released manga versions of Spider-man and the X-men. And when I say manga version, I mean manga version--the stories were all redone, with new characters, character names, and written and drawn by manga artists. Japanese Spidey had very little to do with American Spidey if memory serves.
Given the problems Stan Lee has had with getting paid for his creations in the US, I dont think he's too pleased about this.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
That's Truth, Justic, and the American way!
Yeah, I guess I'm funny like that.
"My movie went to India and all I got was this stinking t-shirt"
Explain to me why we're re-doing comics for other locales? Can't they make their own comics?
That said, its pretty much a non-issue. There have been several alternate spider-man styles over the years (most recently the on-going Ultimate line), so its not like this is anything special.
The only thing I find really that stupid is that they're going to have to completely reinvent all the relevant characters to fit this 'new' spider man, so what is the point? Why not just make a new super hero?*
*: obviously, the Ultimate line isn't vulnerable to the same criticism, because the entire point of it is to provide an alternate take on a hero that is already popular. Spider Man, however, isn't popular in India.
"Stumble before you crawl"
The cows will be grateful
But can he dance like Shahrukh Khan?
Now instead of saving new York city, Spiderman dances around buffet trays for 3 hours while the wedding guests clap in unison!
I object to the punjabification of our super heroes.
Yeah, I guess I'm funny like that.
For ages, due to censorship law in Turkey, the locals who want to watch American import have to make do with the next best thing, local remakes. If you can find it on sale online, it's well worth the effort to find the Turkish remake of Star Wars. Same story, no effect budgets...
During WWII, Canadian publishers revamped several US comic books, creating a Canadian spin.
-- SYS 64738 --
"All Kwik-E-Mart employees must be skilled in the deadly arts. ;)"
Well since we're being non-PC and stereotypical...
"So, did they lengthen the unmasking scene? Turbans do take a while to unwrap..."
"Derp de derp."
This looks like a job for Dharmaman! Faster than a swinging monkey! More powerful than an Elephant! Able to leap Mount Meru in a single bound! Truth, Justice, and the Bharati way! With lots of singing and dancing!
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
So if they were to outsource Captain America, would he be renamed to Captain India? (Would he sport orange, white and green? Would his shield have a huge Chakra design on it?)
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
One of the regular sketches involved a very patriotic Indian man and his young son. Whenever the son mentioned something, the father said it was Indian, had been done first in India, or was done by an Indian.
In one sketch, the small boy was reading in bed before going to sleep. His dad was watching over him. He was reading about Superman.
"Indian," his father kept saying.
"Superman can run faster than a train!" enthused the boy.
"Of course he is Indian," exclaimed the father, "Where else can you run faster than a train?"
I'll get my coat....
Stick Men
Im still waiting for Spider-Man in Canada eh! with his super hockey powers and lumber-Jack Strength!
now wheres my Beer ya hosers!
Apu: Today, I am no longer an Indian living in America. I am an Indian-American.
Lisa: You know, in a way, all Americans are immigrants. Except, of course Native Americans.
Homer: Yeah, Native Americans like us.
Lisa: No, I mean American Indians.
Apu: Like me.
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
I think it's better that this sort of thing adapts to regional tastes. Sesame St. is available in many different languages, for example. You should never underestimate the importance of local knowledge. The HSBC bank have a good series of ads going in the press that emphasise this point. There's one that shows three footballs, one Australian [labelled 'Football (Australia)'], one soccer ball [labelled 'Football (England)'], and an American football [labelled 'Football (America).]'
Drill baby drill - on Mars
"The manga version of Star Wars was pretty good, but off the top of my head I can't think of any other comic books that were redone for a completely different culture. Anyone?" Well, all sorts of japanese media has been redone for America. Remember Power Rangers? The whole plot was completley different for the US and Japan versions. In fact, they just used fight scenes and such from the Japanese version of the series, and created a series with a new, completley different plot. Actually, I recall the Japanese version being better (Being relativley young, I remember watching it). Also, anime can sometimes be redone. Following along the lines of young, child fads and franchises, the Pokemon movies had seperate plots. And the series was reformatted to be more US friendly I think. So, while I'm sure the US has done it's share of "outsourcing" of it's pop culture, we're readapting other culture's pop culture to be more US friendly. [ Reply to This ]
Just what I've been wishing for all these years.
What I never understood is why bother to dub a movie/cartoon, from say Japan, into English and then not bother to change/translate the character names? It's all well and good that now I can understand what they're saying up until someone's name is mentioned.
Yes, I like original language movies. I'm just pointing out that this Indian remake rather than a simple translation seems like a step in the right direction for people who aren't interested in seeing the original.
Joseph Elwell.
With great curry comes great responsibility!
There is an example vice versa, the Japanese manga Fist of the North Star was remade into the fscked up live-action movie version. I assume Hollywood has many other things it "smuggled" into the US from around the world (if you don't stick at comic books, there's the recent rush of the US remake of Japanese movies, such as "Ring" or "Shall We Dance?").
but most of these comments really toe the border into racism. Yeah, i understand that many people in the slashdot community have lost jobs to india, and i realize that there are many that are comic purists (for whatever that's supposedly worth). But honestly.
The reason they don't "come up with their own heroes" is because the US comic companies would sue the new artists out of business in an afternoon.
Why can't you guys be happy that someone else is going to enjoy a character you like? Or do you guys just really get off more by pissing in someone else's coffee?
Maybe in this culture Spider Man will actually have some extra limbs. Like Vishnu
As an Indian, this is my official take:
This is gay.. seriously gay.
I'm at a loss for words. Someone needs to find the focus group that came up with this, and remove them from the gene pool.
Spiderman with a dhoti? What the fuck? What is wrong with the world today?
-Laxitive
Seanbaby Review
Member of Orkut? Annoyed with spam?
I don't understand why so many people here find this odd. How exactly is this any more odd than say Hollywood making versions of Japanese manga (or even video games) eg. Akira, Dragonball Z, Evangelion, Streetfighter 2, etc. and redoing them for mass-media American culture (as opposed to mass-media Japanese culture)? Yet that doesn't raise any eyebrows (plenty of comments about the butchering it is likely to get though).
If his first enemy would be Monkey Man.
More here....
New Delhi residents fear 'Monkey Man'
New India's 'monkey man' branded imaginary
India's Monkey Man and the Politics of Mass Hysteria
Police suspect 'monkey man' is alien or remote-controlled robot
There was a manga Spidey not too long ago. It dealt with a student named Komori Yu who gets bitten by a spider and yada yada. Some things are similar to the American comic; others are not.
In the 70s there was a tokusatsu program starring Spidey. Again, he was Japanese. This version was given his costume and powers by aliens, I think, and drove a giant robot. Weird.
So... it's been done before.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
Spider-man Australia: 10 times more deadlier then before, 100 times more drunk then before.