It's strange to me that the Marvel Universe has no superheros of Indian origin.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

Can I state how impressed I am that so few people were complaining that I was asking for more diversity. Thank you.

I think people are fine with diversity as long as it isn't replacement characters.

[BlackClaw]

I think people are fine with diversity as long as it isn't replacement characters.

Pretty much this.

[Confuzzled]

Neal Shaara had (actually still has) potential to be really cool. The fact that editorial hasn't touched him after his creator Chris Claremont left while they've been trying for decades to make Quentin Quire happen (still with virtually zero success) tells you a lot about editorial.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

That Star Thief guy in New Warriors was Indian, I think. He wasn't that bad. Misguided at first, but...

Also sporting an awesome look!

New Warriors #5 Nov 1990
"The Man Who Stole Tomorrow!"
The misguided Star Thief destroys the launch equipment of the European Space Agency (ESA)

and decrees that man's wasteful exploration of space will no longer be tolerated!
Does the team have what it takes to square off against Star Thief?


Written by Fabian Nicieza. Art by Mark Bagley and Larry Mahlstedt.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Star-Thief is Indian.

Learned it in the second part of the story GREAT revelation given that I already liked his look from the first part of the story.

New Warriors #6 Dec 1990
"The Inhuman Condition!"
While Night Thrasher, Nova and Speedball try to help contain a raging fire at Stane Industries,
Namorita, Firestar and Marvel Boy find themselves trapped with the Star Thief

on a space shuttle full of radioactive waste rocketing toward the moon.
They are rescued by Lockjaw who brings the heroes to the Inhumans.

After a brief battle with the Star Thief, the villain changes his mind and ends up helping the Warriors
and the Inhumans destroy the spaceship before it crashes on the moon and destroys Attilan.

Written by Fabian Nicieza. Art by Mark Bagley https://www.howold.co/person/mark-bagley and Larry Mahlstedt.

Blade's ally Taj Nital was Indian, though admittedly not a superhero; however, since he became a vampire and is presumably alive again (all slain vampires got revived a while back), he could easily be turned into one - he'd hardly be the first person who used the curse of vampirism in a superheroic manner. Golden Age heroes Tigerman and the detective Mr. Wu were both Indian. Shoba Mirza was an Indian Ghost Rider, and a flashback to her life depicted a number of other Indian superbeings, though said flashback deliberately left it unstated as to whether they were heroes, villains or supernatural entities she had encountered.

And, from the same general part of the world, Spider-Man ally Enigma is from Bangladesh.

So while it is fair to say that Indian heroes are under-represented, it's definitely not accurate to say there are none.

Right.

[Spiderfan001]

I think people are fine with diversity as long as it isn't replacement characters.

Nailed it.

And please more Indian super-heroes in mainstream media.The culture is so diverse(I could make like 25+ heroes who have completely different cultures and backgrounds just from India) and so much to explore.I really want one good one to represent that for me.
That being said I don't want a spider-hero or another replacement like Miles or Iron something.I mean I want an original creation and a well-written one.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

A better template for new characters would be Blindspot. He's a new character for Charles Soule's Daredevil run. Essentially he's a legacy character but not a mantle.

So using him and Ms.Marvel as a template for new characters is the way to go. Unlike the other champions, Kamala is self-sufficient and doesn't really rely on Carol's mythos for stories. Her creator G.Williow Wilson did a good job building Kamala her own corner in the MU.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

there's plenty of countries who's got little or no supers. Germany has all of 6 heroes - Captain Germany, Blitzkrieger (dead), Maverick, Nightcrawler, Iron Cross and Bundesadler. the rest are villains - mostly Nazis. France has about a dozen heroes, several of which were JLA rip-offs who were in an F4 story. Ireland has 3, 2 of which are sharing the same name and they're all bad stereotypes. Australia has about 4, 3 of whom are Aborigines with 'dream-time' powers which as bad as Native Americans with steretypical Native American powers. Spain has one hero. Italy's got 1 hero from Euroforce in Avengers World. Poland likewise.

India has nearly a fifth of the world population, it's not unreasonable to expect greater representation even if it was just Americans of Indian origin. Marvel is still very US centric, even New York centric and I'm not sure this hasn't gotten worse in the last few years. We definitely have better representation of ethnicities than we used to have but their really isn't any team with the global perspective of the all new, all different X-Men

I don't know if population is relevant. I think MU only cares about what its target market wants, everything else be damned. If they thought they could create an Indian character that would draw the Indians to buy comics, they would do it. They don't do it because they don't think they can't.

Besides that, I think the concept of the superhero is a very american thing. It combines very american traits, like the admiration for "men of action", the desire to do stuff without control from the government, and the desire of fame. The concept of cinema's and sports' stardoms was born in America, same as the reality shows. I see heroes as people who want to do good, and villains as criminals who want profit, but the thing they have in common is that, even if not all of them admit it, they want to be seen, to be know and to be admired (or feared).

The desire of fame (of "being on TV") has propagated to other countries and cultures, but not all countries admire men and women of action so much as Americans do, and in many countries honest, law-abiding people wouldn't be comfortable as with the idea of donning a mask and making your own justice as in America.

It's possible that, in the MU, non-American heroes aren't so respected in their own countries as the Avengers or the FF are, that being the reason there are few heroes outside of America.

That's definitely not true. Half of Bollywoods movies feature a hero that accomplishes good by performing super heroic feats. And the idea of a super hero is not new to Indian culture by any stretch of the imagination. The oldest Superheros in the world that I'm aware of are the characters from Mahabharat (the illustrations and leaves on which they were written were carbon dated to 400 BC) and they continue to be among the most popular sources of movies and TV shows watched by South Asian teens. Its hilarious to claim that the world's first superhero is Superman when the literature and illustrations of Krishna predate superman by 2300 years.

That much!
Anyway, I will not be surprised if in the 2020s superheroes of Indian origin
will debut in the 616 Marvel Universe in the near future in the comics...

[Will Evans]

So is Kingo is the biggest known one now?

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

So is Kingo is the biggest known one now?

Pretty much. The movies hit more eyeballs than the comics.

[Starchilde]

Check out Inferno, Karima is going to have a big role in the Nimrod/Orchis plot. Omega Sentinel is my favorite character from India, either as a hero, anti-hero or as a villain.

[Ravin' Ray]

Anyone want Pavitr Prabhakar aka Spider-Man (Earth-50101) to appear in the Into the Spider-Verse sequel?

[Hypestyle]

Anyone want Pavitr Prabhakar aka Spider-Man (Earth-50101) to appear in the Into the Spider-Verse sequel?

I hope he can show up. Why not?

[marhawkman]

Check out Inferno, Karima is going to have a big role in the Nimrod/Orchis plot. Omega Sentinel is my favorite character from India, either as a hero, anti-hero or as a villain.

YES! Karima is awesome!

I hope he can show up. Why not?

Well... how many Spiders usually survive Spider-verse stories? :/

[Wikoogle]

Check out Inferno, Karima is going to have a big role in the Nimrod/Orchis plot. Omega Sentinel is my favorite character from India, either as a hero, anti-hero or as a villain.

Cool. I am not familiar with the character.

Do you think they are the best option to headline a series and maybe an MCU film?

I did like the Indian character in Eternals, though he was absent the entire end of the film and the bollywood song he was introduced with was aweful in comparison to even average bollywood songs…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oGneAab3e88

I mean compare that video to the one that he got and it shows how little effort went into his song.