Spider-Man: India

Spider-Man: India #1-4

by Jeevan J. Kang

Everybody knows the story of Spider-Man... but what if things had happened differently? What if it wasn't a New Yorker named Peter Parker, but an Indian teenager named Pavitr Prabhakar who was gifted with the abilities of the spider? Collects Spider-Man: India #1-4!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Spider Man, Superheroes, Marvel, Graphic Novels Comics, Science Fiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published May 18, 2005

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember first seeing this character in the Spider-verse, and I'll admit I thought he was just okay. I tried really hard to like this book, but this was not enjoyable at all. I wonder if the Indians this was geared too thought that this Spiderman was good?

[Evie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ojalá me hubiesen apuñalado a mí tres yonquis con navajas en vez de al tío Bhim para no tener que leer esta bazofia.

Adoro a Pavitr Prabhakar, de verdad. De hecho, me leí el cómic solo por él. Pero es que NO.
Mejor me quedo con el Pavitr de la peli.

[Arun S R · Rating 2 out of 5]

SpiderMan - Across Spiderverse teaser was teasing some amount of Indian representation and the chatter is Pavitr Prabhakar (Peter Parker of India) is going to show up in the movie. So I had to check the origin story of Pavitr Prabhakar as seen in these 4 Indian issues of SpiderMan from 2004.

Peter Parker is Indianized to Pavitr Prabhakar, Mary Jane - Meera Jain, Aunt May - Aunt Maya, Uncle ben - Uncle Bhim, Norman Osborn - Nalin Oberoi, Harry - Hari and the best of all Flash Thompson is, um, Flash Thompson.

There is nothing remarkable about this book. Pavitr is shown as a guy from a village in a city school, and has trouble fitting in. But in reality no village student as smart as Pavitr is going to be so out of touch with reality and no city school that he goes to in India looks like that.

Nothing about India in this series is right. It is all a western-influenced fantasy of an Indian about how Indian schools, and India ought to be. Cricket is in the book, and they got that wrong. There is no 'No Run Zone' in real cricket. That was a colossal failure of an attempt to show Pavitr as a hero and a loser at the same time.

Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Venom are all there in this short book, with no proper origin story or meaningful presence. There is nothing new in anyone's story except some mythology thrown here and there. Art is underwhelming. The main SpiderMan costume is weird and uncomfortable. Someone oblivious of all the characters or SpiderMan, picking up this book will find it completely incomprehensible. The phrases and manner of speaking are all very inorganic.

A better transcreation than this attempt has great potential to be a household name in India, which I am hoping the spiderverse movie taps. The book seems to have eternals-esque mythology about good & evil and they got the Green Goblin’s internal voices right. For getting two things to click just right this series gets 2 stars from me.

[Shrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

very interesting idea - recreates spiderman in an alternate setting (mumbai, india). the writers clearly had a lot of fun with indianizing the spiderman universe ("meera jain", "aunt maya", references to rakshasa myths with the green goblin). that said, things the plot didn't hold together very well, with too many missing pieces, and the battle scenes seemed a little overwrought and confusing. lots of potential - too bad they only put out 4 comics - it is the kind of project that could have gotten pretty interesting once the writers and artists found their sea legs.

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

An unimaginative refresh of Spider-Man as an Eastern Indian lad with Spidey powers who has the usual background and problems amidst deities of said sphere.

OVERALL GRADE: C plus (lower if we take out the artwork)

[layam · Rating 2 out of 5]

y el té chai?

[Anonymous · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had seen this posten when i was younger and was intrigued. But Spider man in India is a no no as of now.

[BiblioBeruthiel · Rating 1 out of 5]

This might be the first time I feel genuinely badly about the complaints I will have with a book. You can tell from the author's notes that Jeevan Kang was REALLY excited about this. You can tell how much it was a labor of love. I was really excited about this as well. I LOVED this character in the 2014 Spiderverse event and even had to submit an Interlibrary Loan to get this book.

Sadly, it just wasn't good. The plot was too much for four issues - everything felt rushed. I understand that he wanted to create a full story arc with a major big bad but it just was too much to pack in. Because of this, the writing was really poor and just stated everything instead of showing anything. The art was, at times (important, full spreads), okay, but in the average panel was really quite bad - particularly human faces and dimensions. In some of the action scenes I actually had a hard time figuring out what was physically happening, which is something I don't normally experience when reading comics. Overall, Pavitr Prabhakar didn't seem like an individual reinvention of the character with his own personality, but simply a carbon copy of Peter Parker in different clothing. He had more personality in the Spiderverse event than in his own book.

I would be interested as to what kind of reception this got in India at the time.

[Ariyan Kapur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spider-Man India... A fantastic book / comic with an Indian/ Asian twist! about time! As for a little background; here we follow Pravitr Prabhakar, an Indian teen from a village who moved to a new school where he gets bullied. From everyone except the attractive Meera Jain. Instead of being bitten by a spider, Pravitr gets given his powers by a wise old man. Now to avoid spoilers; I will jump straight to the case. Spider-Man India is a brilliant novel with heart, emotions and lessons. The comics (spread across all four novels are very short, depicting one story). My only problem is how short the comics are. I wish they had stuffed all of the comics in one and made that the first issue. And I would've loved to see more developments with Meera Jain, who was last seen kissing Pravitr. And for GOD's sake stop with ads on literally EVERY page! other than that... BRILLIANT! Definitely for the Indians / Asians everywhere. Even people from any race will fall in love with young Pravitr. Deserves a read!

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Muito antes dessa mania louca de multiverso, lá no começo dos anos 2000, a Marvel resolveu chamar criadores da Índia para desenvolver um quadrinho contando como seria se o Homem-Aranha fosse indiano. Naquela época isso chamou muito a minha atenção e eu gostaria de ter lido naquela época. Hoje, com o sucesso do Aranhaverso, a Panini Comics Brasil finalmente trouxe para nosso país essa minissérie. Mas sinceramente, ela não me agradou da forma como achei que poderia. O enredo lembra um pouco a linha Ultimate e cola o Peter Parker indiano no meio de uma treta entre o Doutor Octopus e o Duende Verde indianos. Mas mais que a trama, o que me deixou mais desgostoso foram os desenhos e as cores, que parecem terem sido feitas por estudantes de uma escola de quadrinhos e não de um VP de uma corporação de quadrinhos indiana. Existem muitos problemas de ângulos, de anatomia, de perspectiva, enfim, bem complicado. Um quadrinho que ficou muito mais muito abaixo do que eu esperava e que certamente não precisava ter saído em capa dura...

[David Shaw · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really excited but disappointed

I’ve thought for a long time that Spider-Man would be interesting in India. Instead of making something unique, it’s essentially a reskin of the Spider-Man story without much depth.

There’s an MJ, green goblin, Dr. Octopus, Uncle Ben, etc. and a vague mythological underpinning that isn’t even Hindi. Indian locales aren’t really used and there’s no interesting villain or things that are specific to India.

Spider-Man 2099 was able to make something keep the heart of Spider-Man, but be different. Hope this series does as well.

[Andrei · Rating 2 out of 5]

A boring retelling of Spider-man's origin with Indianized names and locations. The novelty of Meera Jain and Uncle Bhim wears off quickly, and although it tries to introduce some new concepts into the Spidey mythos such as the Rakshasa/Green Goblin, it doesn't have time to properly develop them, and the action finishes quickly with an unsatisfying "poof" and no "bang".

[Louis Skye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having just watched Across the Universe, I had to go digging to find more of Pavitr Prabhakar. I didn’t even know he existed, let alone this series.

I quite enjoyed it! I thought the Indian-ised elements were quite clever. The series gets better at incorporating India and Hindi with each issue, and it made me enjoy the story, and Pavitr, even more.

I did have to take one star because Meera Jain, the MJ of this series, has absolutely no existence beyond being the love interest. We know little about her or what she likes. And Aunt Maya is completely helpless, which, having seen so many stronger Aunt Mays since this series came out, makes her look a bit like a namby.

The final action scene was hard to follow. But the rest of the art was fun. Slight bobble head look for the characters, but that was the style for some artists so I’m not complaining.

[Noelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to give this a go because I adore spideys, and it was from India and wanted to support it…. But the artwork is so bizarrely terrible.

I just wish they had done this justice cos I’m ALL in for Indian Spider-Man…

The bodies are contorted in a way that’s not human or spider-person possible… perspectives are high school quality, the faces the shadows make no sense (why is there the deepest shadow in the forehead - the part where it should have highlights?) and there’s literally an error on the cover where they forgot to delete the red line in the title….

The story was fiiiiine…. His unique outfit is the best thing about this I’m afraid 😭
Hopefully the other ones get better?

[عاشور الناجي · Rating 1 out of 5]

القصة دي وحشة قوي ، الرسم وحش وتسلسل الأحداث وحش والوحوش وحشة وكل حاجة سيئة ، يعني الخطوط الأساسية عادي إنها تتكرر اللي هي عمه أو عمته تموت وعنكبوت يلدغه ويواجه اللي هو واجههم وكل حاجة بس يعني مش عشان مانت في الهند تقوم تقلبها مبالغات ووحوش وشياطين واللي يديله القوة آلهة من بتوعهم عشان يواجه قوي شريرة من غير ماتعرفنا علي أي شخصية ، وتختصر في الأحداث وتطلعها بالشكل العبيط ده ، ده كده قلة اهتمام الصراحة حتي لو احنا في الهند ، انتوا مابتشوفوش أفلام هندي في أمريكا ولا ايه ياعم ؟؟ القصة كأنها درافت مبدأي لعالم جديد وقصة واترفض منهم وصعب عليهم الرسم فنشروه وخلاص

[Nerdmaling · Rating 2 out of 5]

På ett sätt är det både en fin och spännande tanke att sätta hjältar i helt andra kontexter. Det är också något Marvel och DC gjort under lång tid.

Den här serien återberättar Spider-mans origin historia fast i Indien. Det lilla extra bidraget är kanske att man byter ut teknologi mot mytologi vilket ger serien ett existensvärde. Annars känns det lite som fan fiction. Illustrationerna är, bortsett från överanvändandet av slowmotion effekter rätt så snygga och det är ett nöje att bläddra i den men det är mer en serie som man skummar igenom än något som verkligen berör.

En 2:a

[Vignesh Balaji · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's a cool concept, but the execution is terrible.

This could've been a bold, fresh take, but instead it feels rushed, uneven, and painfully shallow. The art feels sloppy, and the story never digs into anything beyond surface-level "Indian Spider-Man" gimmicks. Pavitr Prabhakar deserved more than just a hurried remix of Peter Parker's origin with random mystical bits thrown in.

[Avaris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting interpretations, this is still standard fare Spider-Man. For being written in a foreign country, it's kind of disappointing to see most of the names being essentially Eastern versions of their Western Counterparts, but still a fun run.

[Elisabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing super special, but it was fun to see Spider-Man played out in a totally different culture from mine. Plus, I love India.

[Vladimír · Rating 2 out of 5]

Žiaľ, bolo to veľmi slabé. Štandardná Spider-Man šablóna bola len trochu okorenená indickými reáliami a mytológiou. Príbeh ale škrípal, kresba bola zlá a celkový dojem bol silne podpriemerný.

[ria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of boring really.. only read this for indian representation or whatever

[Samar Bajpi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The bullying is relatable. Poor Pravitr gets bullied by everyone except the sexy Meera Jain. I mean Damn they really made her hot!

[Armand Bissesar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

[Ritvij Tiwari · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolute cringe.

[raqueltea]

the across the spiderverse adaptation is far superior

[awe_flaw_some · Rating 2 out of 5]

adaptation to India is awful, Spiderman origin reasoning is not explained, its just random. Movie does a better origin

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

they made him look so cool in atsv

[Aaxel ✧ˊˎ˗ · Rating 3 out of 5]

wow. it was... INTENSE. a little bit off the usual peter parker plot, but i like it

[Bharat Krishnan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty stereotypical, but we love the representation. Read this when it first came out and just picked it up again now. Looking forward to seeing him in ATSP.

[Matheus e Silva · Rating 1 out of 5]

Parece uma paródia