Dan O'Rourke & Pravin A. Rodrigues,The "Transcreation" of a Mediated Myth: Spider-Man in India

(In The Amazing Transforming Superhero)

This was a good one. Discussing the 2004 "transcreation" of Spider-Man as an Indian teen in Mumbai from a communications perspective, the authors raise some very useful questions. The concept of "transcreation" is apparently industry rhetoric, but can be effectively used critically to describe a common feature of almost all franchises (and especially superhero franchises), the simultaneous existence of many different versions, adapting over time.

The authors suggest that modern audiences who cross media (from comics to films to video games, etc.) are more accepting of multiple instances of a franchise, but I'm not sure that's true - fans can be extremely rabid if new versions are unsuccesful in reintroducing the conventions and characters of the franchise.

One thing I found fascinating (not so much about the article, but about Spider-Man India), was the degree to which traditional Indian mythology is integrated into the comic in place of the technological elements in the classical Spider-Man mythology. My initial thought was that this was strange - the authors note that India is in a technology-driven economic renaissance, and it seemed to me that a high-tech Indian Spider-Man would tap into that Zeitgeist in the same manner that the original Spider-Man captured cold war ambivalence towards technology.

The authors also indicated, however, that Spider-Man India is intended not only to reintroduce the Spider-Man character to Indian audiences (after a record response to the Spider-Man films), but also to introduce Indian culture to American audiences - in a bid to emulate the popularity of Japanese cultural products such as mang and anime among American youth. Therefore, by presenting a version of traditional Indian mythology mediated through the familiar archetype of Spider-Man, Marvel's Indian counterpart hopes to create new audiences for marketing indigenous Indian cultural products which are not so mediated in the future. (A youth-culture/fantasy version of the American market for all things Bollywood, I suppose.) It's brilliant, really.

Another compelling point made in the article, as little more than a side note, is that comic book audiences are somewhat transient - for many people, faithful comics fandom lasts only for a short amount of time (say, from the age of 8 or so to the age of 17 or so) before it transitions into a more casual sort of fandom. This, the authors argue, greatly enables the revision of comic book characters over time, as each generation presents a relatively new audience. I'm not sure if I agree with that argument, as for many fans comic books are a lifetime obsession (or a childhood obsession which returns to stay later in life), but it's an interesting point nonetheless.