Sunday, December 4, 2011

Secret Origins: My Superhero Obsession

What defines a Superhero?
  • Awesome Super-powers?
  • Nice and Super-Tight Spandex costumes? (Which includes the very inconspicuous underpants worn over the pants!!)
  • Cool Gadgets?
  • Stupid sense of righteousness? 
  • Bogus Origin story?  
(*Note: Readers are advised to suffix "Super-" before each of the list items: A reminder to the fact that this is a blog on "Super"-heroes and nothing below Super!!)

I don't seem to fulfill much of the above requirements, but the origin? (cut the bogus part) I do have one!!

These men (and not to forget, the women) in tights have always fascinated me. Although, I couldn't decipher the significance of the underpants!!

Added to the cartoons, an easy access to comics further fueled my interest which would eventually grow into fanaticism. All the rear pages of my notebooks, either displayed a strange bat-like drawing enclosed inside an ellipse (or an oval as I would say then) or a very carefully placed "S" inside a regular pentagon.

My fondness wasn't just limited to the doodles, I occasionally would jump from heights onto the floor climb up again and jump back and yes I tied a make-shift cape round my neck which would vary from a towel to a shawl to a bed-sheet!! Not to forget the "Batarangs"!! I would employ combs as my Batarangs .... throwing random projectiles at my imaginary Super-villain foes (sigh). My career as an Imaginary Super-hero extended to the time I ended landing on my rear side (oww) after a failed swinging attempt on a string I thought was my Bat-Line!!! Anyway, I can proudly say that I never tried underpants over my pants!! 

My parents? Oh, they are smart!! (Despite the fact that they used to repeatedly chant these lines: "yeh ladka toh gaya haath se..." and they still do so!) They devised an efficient way to rectify my self-destructive superhero antics. What they did was they bought me Action figures! I happened to have a vast collection of action figures from various toy-lines. After this apparent rehabilitation I shifted my focus from being a superhero to the one puppet-ting the Super heroes (action figures).

And, then came the internet. Although, Internet had been existing then for a decade and a quarter, but it was a relatively novel advancement in technology to the "Mishra Household". Graphic Novels: I got addicted, and ascended to that level of fanaticism which gradually transitioned into an obsession (although I even followed Pokemon, Beyblade etc., and as a matter of fact I still watch cartoons. What? Why grow up?) Now that, I am completely possessed by Superhero craze of mine I spend hours on the Internet reading Web-comics, Graphic Novels, Wikipedia and YouTube. (I even watched the Green Lantern Movie, all alone in a theater closely resembling the vast and empty parts of the Sector-2814 patrolled by the Green Lantern himself!!) 

To sum it all, this was my secret origin. (or lets say an origin to my obsession, for the sake of the blog title that is!) And......

I am sworn to create awareness regarding the superhero community. My superpowers? Umm.......

Leave it anyway! Hopefully, more adventures await!! Till then... *raises hands* "Up, up and away!" (Yeah, I prefer flying now, after the bat-line misadventure!)

PS: I just figured out my Super-power! The exceptional ability to end every sentence I write (read type) with multiple exclamation marks!!! (See?)

1 comment:

  1. I don't really blame you for the Batman stuff. That bat is indeed unique! Seriously, he has never "killed" a guy directly! and he is the master of stealth! As for the others (except Wolverine), not so impressive.

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