'Spider-Man: India' Review

So this exists.

I bought these four issues a really long time ago but didn't get around to reading it for a long time. Now I finally know that...I wasn't missing much. Much like the Mangaverse Spider-Man, this one has all the basic Spidey elements that are given cultural twist. But I feel that it's done in much more clumsy way than the mangaverse version.

Peter Parker is now Pativr Prabhakar. Uncle Ben is Uncle Bhim. Aunt May is Aunt Maya. We're in Mumbai. So on and so forth. I did really like that they use a lot of Indian terms in this comic and they have a glossary in the back explaining these slang terms. It's always fun to learn new words while enjoying a comic. I guess the first thing that I noticed about this comic is that the art is really not up to par with Marvel's standards. After doing some reading online, I found out that this was developed by Gotham Entertainment in India and then just published by Marvel over here. The art is just...not quite there yet.

I probably don't need to even explain the plot. It's just basic Spidey plot in India. Really no surprises at all. The Mangaverse Spider-Man at least had the random Hulk cameo, as strange as that was. This one is formulaic every step of the way. I thought it was pretty awesome that instead of playing Football or Basketball, Flash Thompson is a Cricket star. One moment that cracked me up is during a dramatic cricket match, Pativr has just joined the team and he's up to bat. He hits the ball far with his super strength but it goes towards a no run zone so his team loses the game. As soon as they lose, the coach goes "WHAT ARE YOU DOING, PRABHAKAR?! YOU JUST LOST US THE GAME!" Wow, what an asshole. You'd think a school coach might be a little more supportive, especially to a kid that just joined the team.

There was one scene where the writers tried to tie in some Indian mythology about men vs. demons but it really just had no purpose being in the story and made me forget that I was reading a Spidey comic. There's a random Venom reference towards the end that isn't explained on any level and then leaves it wide open for a new story arc. But that never happened so...there ya have it.

I do really like how Spider-Man himself looks in his Indian costume. But that's about as cool as it gets. This comic suffers from the issue covers being much more cool than anything that happens inside. I personally think that only way a person could really love this comic is if you've got personal ties to India and happen to love Spider-Man. If you're really hardcore into Spidey, maybe give this one a try but that's about it.

I wish I could say more about this but there's not much to tell. It's Spider-Man in India. That's it.


Spider-Man: India - 5.6/10