Remembering Stan Lee Through Raj Kamal’s Indian Take On Famous American Superheroes

[Note: In remembrance of American comic book writer Stan Lee who passed away on 12th November 2018, Monday. As the co-founder of Marvel comics, he contributed immensely to the world of comic literature. From Spiderman to X-men to Avengers, he gave the world some of the best superheroes we look up to today. And for that, we shall always be grateful.]

Delhi-Based artist, Raj Kamal, is clearly on a very tangential path. His series ‘Superheroes in India’ recreates digital art works that re-imagine American comic book superheroes (and a few other famous, fictional characters) and injected them with new life force as spandex-wearing Indians, all representative of bold sub-communities in the country.
Kamal drew his inspiration from varied people including well-known personalities such as Bihari politician, Lalu Prasad Yadav, as well as some of his friends who other amusing characters are based on. His spiderman and Wolverine are based on a Punjabi friend who is ‘naughty’ and a Bihari who likes to eat but his Yoda from Star Wars is strikingly similar to Yadav’s naturally caricature-ish features. Perhaps most provocative at all is his Robin-Da which features Batman’s sidekick in an amorous embrace with a skinny Bengali Money. When asked about it by Scroll, he explained his context by saying, “We Indians are so afraid of talking about our sexuality. So I thought I would show Robin – a Bengali name – kissing a man.”

Still, his aim is not a supremely intellectual one that aims to instigate social chatter, he’d rather focus on just making art. At the moment, he has plans to produce 11 more sketches in a month and will continue to work on this project on his own whim.

Homegrown’s Favourite? Definitely that Tamil Hulk.

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