Want to appeal to your readers - make your characters more familiar, more easily recognizable in local environments and cultures. Makes perfect sense.
Is this the first time they’ve taken a major “western”-originating character and culturally transformed it? i can’t remember it being done with any other major character.
Spider-Man gets Indian make-over, BBC, 24 June 2004
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Superhero Spider-Man has had a make-over for a new series of comic books launching in India.
The character will no longer be known as Peter Parker - but will become the young Pavitr Prabhakar.
He will also have a more modest costume, wearing a dhoti, the loincloth worn by men in India.
There will initially be four comic books produced, released to coincide with the Spider-Man 2 movie. The first film was a huge success in India. The re-invented Spider-Man is a joint project between Marvel Comics and Gotham Entertainment Group, which holds the license in India.
“We feel this is one of the most exciting and unique projects in comic history,” said Gotham Entertainment Group chief executive Sharad Devarajan. “Unlike traditional translations of American comics, Spider-Man India will become the first-ever ‘transcreation’, where we reinvent the origin of a Western property.”
Spider-Man would become an Indian boy in Mumbai and dealing with local problems and challenges, he added.
Spider-Man India will interweave local customs, culture and mystery to make it more relevant to the readers, set against the backdrop of monuments including the Taj Mahal and the Gateway of India. The Green Goblin villain will be replaced by Rakshasa, an Indian mythological demon that has shape-shifting abilities.
Mr Devarajan hopes to publish the comics in as many local languages as possible, with the first one appearing in August.
Marvel president of publishing, Gui Karyo said: “Marvel has continuously done its best to push the boundaries of traditional comic books and to look for new venues for our characters.”
When the first Spider-Man movie opened in India, it took 67m rupees (£940,000) in its first four days of release - and made more in its first weekend than any Hollywood movie yet released in India.
I hope hes wearing something underneath that, Im too scared to look!
