Who is Kalki?

He is called many things. The saviour. The herald of change. The man who is going to bring about the end of an era. But who actually is he?

Long ago it has been foretold that Lord Kalki, the final re-incarnation of the Supreme of the Godheads, Lord Vishnu, shall appear when evil once again finds its highest sway. And that his arrival shall bring about the end of this generation, and start the Satyayug (the era of truth). Kalki is great, and powerful, and magnificent. He shall arrive riding on a glorious white steed, and he shall carry a sword forged by Vishnu himself. He shall vanquish the evils that beset man, and bring abou the greatest change conceivable.

But that's what the legends say. And the world has been waiting for a long time. But no one has come. It's the year 2013. And yet, no one has yet arrived. Several have claimed to be the one, but none is. What is the meaning of this? Is Lord Kalki's prophecy false? Or is he dead? Hunted down by the evil forces before he could rise?

Or maybe..

Maybe he is nothing like what we think he is.

Maybe he is not the mighty prophet, but the silent philosopher who knows that man is so corrupt, that mankind can never be brought back from the precipice.

Maybe he is not the great soldier who fights for everybody.. Maybe he is the lonely warrior, operating from the shadows, performing his duties without letting anyone know..

Maybe he is not just a re-incarnation of God.. Maybe he is a man who is seeking his own redemption in the face of all that is evil..

Silent guardian. An all-watching protector, who sees, and is not seen. Who fights, yet the world is unaware of his existence. Or is it?

Origin

Nothing is known of Kalki's origin. His roots shall not be revealed just yet. Only before the events leading to a Dharmayudh (holy war) that his allies get to know who he is. The precise thing about him that his allies, the Protectors, know says nothing about his real identity, or his family. A man with enough wealth to shame the billionnaires of India, and with enough technology in his arsenal to make even the brightest of tech-whizes look helpless, Kalki is like that mysterious shadow. Nothing is known about how he has access to these resources, or how he maintains them. He is a ghost. No identity. No name. No home, except for a headquarters whose location is not known to anybody.

According to Lionheart (see my blog titled My Universe), Kalki was immediately identified by his parents, who were ardent Vaishnavs, courtsey of a peculiar birthmark-a holy symbol that covered his small body. It was the mark of Vishnu. Realising that he is Kalki, his parents (identities unknown, referred to as Mom and Father only) trained him, raised him both physically and mentally for his role. However, they died in the hands of "certain enemies", who realised that the re-incarnation of the Vishnu has to be protected. In a desperate attempt to save their child, and the world's hope, they sacrificed their own lives, and faked their son's death, so as to give him a chance to escape.

Kalki went out in the world, looking for answers. He knows his goal, but lacks conviction. He trains under the greatest masters and teachers, and learns almost every form of martial arts known to man. He trains all over the world, under teachers who teach him via different methods, with the objective being the same- to make him feel no pain, to harden his very soul, and to turn him into a machine that's soul aim is to fight evil. By the time Kalki reaches his mid twenties, he is already capable enough to defeat the very people who trained him. He goes on honing his skills to perfection, but still suffers from lack of faith, until he is instructed by a simple beggar to pray to the Gods to get comfort. Kalki starts meditating, and he interacts with the Godheads via telepathy, including Lord Vishnu. He informs Kalki that everything his parents raised him for are real, he indeed is Vishnu in mortal form. He tells him that everything in the multiverse happens by the will of the Godheads, and that Kalki is the supreme protector of this world. They provide him with invaluable knowledge, and also offer him superhuman powers to a certain degree. But Kalki politely declines, stating that he can do what he was born to do as a man only. Vishnu reveals that he is more than a man-a demi-god. If he is wounded, he shall get hurt, but he shall heal faster than an ordinary human. When he fights, he shall fight much better than the best if the humans. Vishnu tells him that he shall always be with Kalki, in his soul, and Kalki will always be in his vision. Blessing him for success, the Godheads cut off the telepathic link.

After this, Kalki gets his conviction back. He knows his purpose again, and he decides to start his war on evil hiding in the earth in every form, but not as anything the legends foretold-as something entirely different. Returning to his masters, he aqcuires the "keys to his resources", and he returns to his country. The legacy has begun.

Indian men who are reading this blog will surely feel the nostalgia that I'm feeling. Indeed, I'm a kid of the modern age, and I've seen and read very little of Shaktimaan. Our first superhero. But whatever I've read and seen, I have been impressed. There are certain factors for that.

Firstly, the idea.

Secondly, the effort. Yeah, sure, kids of this age will bitch about how they have Man of Steel. Well, Hollywood also made Superman with Chris Reeve. And the VFX shown in those movies are nowhere near what we have now. But those films were appreciated because they were the best which could be provided at that time. Similarly, Shaktimaan was the best that the Indian industry could provide. And judging by what I have seen, I can say without any prejudice, that it was good.

But over time, the character has lost it's glory. Indian industry became obsessed with romantic movies and action movies-superheroes were shut down. And comics? Well, not so good artwork, poor storylines.. Plenty of reasons there also.

That made me think. Look at how the big shots are promoting their poster-characters and lead superheroes. Like Superman, Batman in DC, Spidey and Thor in Marvel, SPawn in Image, Majestic in Vertigo.

And these guys have done a fantastic job. This made me wonder-why not give Indian superheroes a resurgence? There are quite a few characters that I created which you can read about in one of my blogs. But Shaktimaan in particular appeals to me as the most marketable and enjoyable of them all.

a)The nostalgia factor that I've been talking about

b)A redone biograpy will attract international attention.

But kids ain't no longer the same they used to be. Shaktimaan used to tell the kids to brush their teeth at night, and they listened. And kids nowadays don't listen to anyone half the time, so listening to a superhero and what he has to say is out of the question. How then, to re-introduce the character making sure that the comicbook fans of this era will enjoy it.

One simple word.

Reboot :)

And many are probably pissed off at this. Who the heck am I, to reboot an Indian icon? Thing is, I'm trynna introduce him as a superhero. Not an advertiser. Rebooting him, and re-introducing the character in a wholly new fashion is the only way I can foresee, if I'm to ensure a resurrection of the character.

And here we go.

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Origin:Becoming the Elemental

Aditya Singhania was born in 1986 in the city of Bangalore to Devanshu and Savita Singhania. As you rightly guess, his origin is far from normal. He wasn't born through the natural process of human mating. It might be said that Adi was 'created'. Ever since he was born, he possessed innumerable superhuman powers. His abilities caused him a lot of trouble, and unfortunately kept him nigh-ostracized from the society. His childhood was lonely, with only a handful of friends for company. As he reaches the period of puberty, his powers start becoming increasingly modified. It increased to such an extent that at times, he was afraid to go to high school and college lest he hurt other people. It was a war-him trying to check his powers, keep them concealed. His parents, since he first leart about his powers, had told him that they were meant for a greater good, and that he had the responsibility of the protection of the cosmos on his shoulders. As a child, it used to fascinate him. But as he grew, he started questioning his parents' explanations. But they never told him anything about his origin.

It was on one fateful day, when Devanshu Singhania disappeared all of a sudden, that Adi mastered another one of his abilities-telepathy. While coming in physical contact with hismother, Adi found out about his origin. He was not a naturally born human. He was a being forged from the elements of the cosmos, and of earth. He was designed by a council of divine priests aka the Maharishis, who believed that it was the supreme God Vishnu's will to create a warrior who would grow to become the protector of not just earth, but of universes and multiverses, even. He was made to be a galactic superhero. And hence his superpowers.

Learning all of this in such a short time left Adi in a daze. But his primary concern at this point was to search for his father-who happened to be one of Maharishis, and the most noble. He then begins a journey in search for Devanshu. Before leaving, he promised Savita that he would return. And so he embarks on a voyage that takes him through the length and breadth of the country. He kept his father's advise of not revealing his powers until the time was right. He travelled throughout the country, as a common man, looking for Devanshu. He searches for him via his newly found ability of telepathy, but it doesn't work. Leaving home, leaving eloved friend's, the disappearance of Devanshu, and the crushing weight of not knowing the answers of his heart, and purpose, has a tiring effect on Adi. He is on the verge of giving up.

The fates, however, provide him with a chance of getting answers. After almost 3 years of search, Adi finds himself in the mountains of the Himalayas, living as a peasant. He has lost all hope of finding Devanshu again. It is on one eventful day, that someone connects to his mind via telepathy, and leads him to a temple situated near the summit of one of the highest peaks of the snow-clad range.

The temple is abandoned. But as Adi enters inside, all the lamps are lit, as if it is all by design. But it not just a temple. It is a site for the eyes of a man who loves technology. The temple was equipped with the most advanced of all technologi-vased equipments, machines and cyber-programmes Adi had ever seen. Also, it was provided with an artifical intelligence (not unlike JARVIS), that greeted Adi. The most shocking part of this all was this--the software had his father's voice.

The intelligence remarked that the shock of Devanshu's disappearance had opened up a psychic channel, courtesy of which Adi received telepathical abilities. Adi informed it that he knew everything. "At least, almost everything."

The artificial intelligence, codenamed V.I.S.H.N.U, made him more aware of the situation- how the Maharishis were in telepathic link with the three Godheads, Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu, how they perceived the need of a hero who would always watch over the evils that are coming to destroy the world,how the Gods endowed in the Maharishis the power of creating the ELEMENTAL/SHAKTIMAAN, a man of this world with abilities that would serve him to protect the safety of the cosmos, how Devanshu was chosen to be the one who would raise him, and how Adi was a guardian of the Universe.

The intelligence, however, could not inform Adi about the whereabouts of his father, much to his dismay. But since VISHNU was designed by Himanshu himself, it knew it's responsibilities. VISHNU told Adi that this temple was where he needed to learn the secrets that had been kept for him and that now he was ready to serve the world. But not as Aditya Singhania, but as a far greater power. In an age that has already seen battle (read my blog, there are other characters who have debuted before him), Adi must serve as a symbol of hope to the entire world, and fight all evils of the cosmos. VISHNU reveals that the Maharishis had designed a suit for him-a suit based on nanotechnology. The nanomites, specifically designed for Adi's genes only, would enter his physiology and tap in to his nervous system, and it would come out through the skin pores and lover his body when it was needed. It was the battle armour designed for him by the sages, which would stand for his symbol, and help him absorb cosmic energy if he needed more power, from different energy sources.

Adi dons the suit, and feels rejuvenated. He feels that he finally knows his destiny, of which VISHNU again makes him aware. Adi embraces his destiny as the Elemental/Shaktimaan (for Indian publications), and decides to embark his journey through the cosmos for more knowledge and for further discovering his powers, while vowing to return for his mother, and for contunuing his search for Devanshu. Thanking VISHNU fr everything (after the latter informed that this temple would be "his fortress of solitude", indeed, my tribute to Superman), Adi makes his first flight to the sky and beyond, ready to fulfill his destiny.

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Facing the Guardians

Following VISHNU's advise, the Elemental begins a joruney through the cosmos. He encounters several species of living organisms and alien life-forms. Some friendly, and some hostile. It is almost after six months that he returns to earth, where he goes straight home to meet his mother Savita. Savita is in utter delight when she hears that Adi has full knowledge of everything. However, she is devastated when she hears that Devanshu is still lost. It is after a long time that Adi returns home. For the first time in many years, he feels safe.

But trouble brews on the horizon, as one night, he receives a telepathic message from a peculiar entity who identifies himself as "The Helper". He tells Adi that the "dark ones" have reached him, and that he needs to be at his guard. He also informs him that they have their own headquarters near a desolate region near the Andes mountains. Adi immediately sets off to investigate.

Reaching the Andes, the Elemental finds an enormous space craft, shielded from view via some special technology. He locates it and breaks inside. He notices that the entire craft is un-manned. Not a single living thing can be found in the upper level. However, as he gets to a lower level, he notices that there are three large holdings. The Elemental accidentally pushes a button on one of the holdings. The lock opens, revealing a dead alien life form, that appears slimy in appearance, and purple in colour. He unlocks the next one as well and finds a dead alien in it as well. He unlocks the third one afterwards. As he enters the holding, it is revealed that the third alien is alive. The thing attacks the Elemental with Herculean strength, knocking him out of the craft with three blows. As the Elemental recoups, he realises that the alien is a semi-viscous organism (resembling symbiotes, but much more powerful), that can take any shape it can perceive. The alien engages the Elemental in a brutal fight that nerly levels an entire plateau block. During the fight, the Elemental realises that this thing cannot be beaten by brute strength. He realises that it is a molecular entity-the only way to destroy it is by destroying it on a molecular level. He fights the alien, leading it to an iron and steel plant. Then using his super-speed and energy blasts, he cuts open the alien, then barely manages to fling it off into a hot-metal-mixture, where it's molecules are incinerated. The fight exhausted the Elemental, and he set off for the Temple in the Mountain to heal himself.

As the Elemental reaches the temple, VISHNU reveals that the one who warned him about the ensuing battles is in fact a 'guardian'-cosmic entities, and favourites of the great Gods of the Heavens. They maintain peace and order in the Galaxies and the cosmos. However, they represent the positive power of the Universe. There is another group of the guardians, who represent the destructive forces of the Universe, called the Dark Guardians. The Guardians helped in creating the Elemental himself, and since then, the Dark Guardians have made it their mission to destroy it. The alien craft was not totally unmanned. It was piloted by a leader of the Dark Guardians' army-Zen. Zen is here to destroy the Elemental and finish the hope that he stands for. VISHNU tells Adi that Zen is powerful-strong enough to defeat even the "most powerful of the earth's demi-gods" (referring to Thunderbolt) easily, and that Adi will need all of his strength if he wants to defeat him.

Adi asks where Zen can be found, but VISHNU is not able to tell him. Adi himself cannot track Zen via telepathy. VISHNU advises him to clear his mind and try to communicate with the Guardian who informed him of Zen in the first place. Adi follows the instruction, and succeeds. The Guardian tells him that Zen is in hiding in his own city-Bangalore-waiting for him to show up, so that they might have a 'conversation'. VISHNU wishes him luck as he goes to meet Zen face to face.

In the meanwhile, the armies of USA, South America, India etc have identified the Elemental as a potential threat, while on the contrary, the people whom he saved during his fight with the alien adversary dub him as a 'hero'.

Adi scours the city of Bangalore, looking for Zen everywhere he can. However, the search is interrupted when three aliens, resembling muddy sculptures, attack him. Ther are very strong, and the battle causes casualties. Adi tries his best to keep the fight away from the people. In the meanwhile, Indian Army sends some jets to take down the combatants. The missiles fail to hurt any of them. But one of the monsters manage to take down three of the jets. Elemental saves the last one in the nick of time and resumes his battle with the monsters. He manages to fly one of the monsters (which are incapable of flight) to space and throws him away ito the deep space. The monsters attack Adi with everything they have. As one of them is about to kill a civilian, Adi catches it and brutally pummels its face, thereby killing it. The last alien then fired an energy blast of great magnitude at him, which Adi manages to reflect back, amped with a blast of his own, thereby destroying the last one as well. As he recovers, he notices someone in the air, whom he deduces to be Zen himself. Adi is about to go after him when he hears that a kid is trapped in a building that is about to collapse. Adi saves the kid, but Zen flies away, taking the advantage.

Back at home, Adi asks his mother to get out of Bangalore to Kalimpong, where her sister lived. Savita initially refuses adamantly to let his son face this alone, but Adi eventually manages to convince her to leave.

Adi then re-communicates with the Guardian, once again asking for his help to trace Zen. The Guardian tells him that this time, it will be his own sole task to find him. He also tells Adi to have faith in the Chakras (energy centres that gave Adi his powers), and that while Zen was powerful, he wasn't invincible, and that Adi could defeat him. Adi realises that Zen brought those alien monsters so that he didn't have to get involved himself. But now that his soldiers were dead, Zen would have no choice but to face him himself. Adi then rushes to the offices of Aaj Tak (a news channel), and telepathically explains to the crew his purpose. By then, the world was aware of his existence. Adi broadcasted a worldwide message via the channel, calling Zen out, and challenging him to come out of his hiding and fight him like a man. He asks Zen to meet him at the Thar desert region to end this. He also requests the Government and the National Guard not to get involved in this affair, as he didn't want more civilian and human casualties.

The Elemental reaches the Thar desert, and finds that Zen is waiting for him. He has the appearance of a seasoned warrior, with a dark-tanned skin, and the grace of an army leader. He tells Adi that he was a creation of the Gods, and the Guardians-the opposite of everything that his race stood for. He discussed how killing Adi now would ensure the victory of the dark guardians in "a war that is going to change the fate of the Universe in the future." (referring to the Dharmayudh, a saga that I'm planning to write later). He informs Adi that it is nothing personal. He goes on about how he and Adi are similar, with Adi remarking that "I'm nothing like you.", and him countering, "Oh yes, you are, more than you know." He tells Adi about his 'dark-side', which would, sooner or later, come out. He says that in time, Adi will end up in their side, because he has more power in him than intended by the Maharishis. He says that in the end, it will be the Guardians, his creators themselves, who will fight him and take him down. "I am just doing you a favor, great Shaktimaan. At least, you ill die in the hands of an enemy instead of those who gave birth to you." Adi replies ,"I am never going to become anything like that. I am never going to turn my my back to this world-it is all I have, and i is worth fighting for. My father taught me that." Zen smirks, and says, "Where is he now? Right.. He isn't there. He never was. And he never will be. 'Cause I will find him, wherever he might be hidden, and I will make him beg to me like the dog he really is. And when he does, I'm gonna kill him."

These words ignite the fire in Adi, who explodes and attacks Zen. The fight shakes the earth, as the behemoths deliver blows after blows and blasts after blasts on each other. It is seen that Zen out powers Adi, but not by a very wide margin. Adi, realising the only way is by not holding back, let's go of his calmness, and fights him with everything he has. The fight takes them from India to the Johannesburg in Africa, then to Chicago in the USA, through different parts in Europe and finally back to India, in Mumbai. The fight exhausts them both, and Zen tries to kill Adi with his Negative-Energy blast that stuns him and nearly kills him. Zen then goes on a rampage, destroying foundations and killing hundreds of people in the process. While unconscious, Adi once again received a telepathic message from the Guardian, who encouraged him to rise, and face his fears. The conversation gave Adi strength, which he utilised to get back into the fight. In a climactic battle that took a huge portion of the main city down, Adi ultimately fired a very powerful energy blast, and proceeded to beat Zen up with a series of energy-amped punches. Just when he is about to kill Zen with a final blow, he remembers what Devanshu told him about showing pity, even to those who might not deserve it. Adi let Zen live, claiming that his life wasn't worth it. He asked Zen to go back to "wherever it is you're from", and deliver a message to the Dark Guardians- that earth is not alone, and that the Elemental will always stand between them, and the people of the world.

Zen accepted defeat, but before leaving, he said that the Elemental will pay for this-that sooner or later, he will die, and that the Dark Guardians won't stop until he is dead, to which Adi replies, "I'll be waiting."

Zen flies off to his world. The citizens of India celebrate the arrival of a new hero, and Adi continues his quest of finding his father and fighting evil forces of the Universe.

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The Alliance is formed

The Elemental's emergence, his struggles with the foreign forces, and the destruction that came out of it, attracts the attention of other superheroes in the country. Kalki and Thunderbolt (you can read about them in my blog titled my Universe) decides to intercept him and get a few questions answered and issues resolved. A reluctant Axe-Man joins them. Thunderbolt uses his divine assistance to locate Adi, who, in the meantime, is livng in Kalimpong with his mother. He also receives a telepathic message from the Guardian who assisted him in his earlier adventures about the demi-gods who are after him. Adi, who cannot identify them as friendlies since they also created havoc and destruction in a fight in Vadodara, flies to them and cuts the trio off at Jamshedpur. Not being able to trust each other, a fight ensues between them. However, even the combined efforts of Kalki, Bhargava and Thunderbolt fails to knock down the Elemental. Thunderbolt hits him with a huge thunder-strike which sends Adi flying to the beach of Puri. When they reach there, they find Adi almost unphased. Adi replies back with a powerful energy blast of his own that knocks out the still inexperienced Thunderbolt. Axe-Man tries to attack him with the cosmic spear, but Adi pummels him into unconsciousness. Kalki immediately deduces that he can't be harmed by his usual weapons, so he decides to use his ultimate weapon-the Hardhanu, for shooting him with a Power Arrow. It is only after seeing the Hardhanu that Adi realises that they are not evil, since only the pure and the worthy can carry the Hardhanu. Adi surrenders to Kalki, and after the rest are revived, they decide to leave the locality and have a conversation.

In the ensuing talk, Adi explained to the team, his origin, his powers and his destiny. One by one, the trio also tell him about their identities, their own stories, and motivations, for fighting evil. An uneasy alliance is forged between them, and they dub themselves "The Protectors". Bhargav is, however, unpleased, with Adi joining them.

In the meantime, the Devas and the Godheads warn the team that a great evil is approaching earth. Adi contacts the Guardian and he says that it is indeed true-but the attack is not from the Dark guardians. "It is something else entirely."

The heroes investigate the issue further, and find out that a force of cosmic demons are about to attack earth. They had been captured, and imprisoned, by the non-skyfather Gods, but now they had escaped, and are heading for earth, which they chose to be an asset and to set up their own headquarters there. These enemies are powerful, and it took even the Gods a lot of pains to capture them. The heroes are alamred on knowing all this, and they decide to warn the world and it's leaders about it. In the meantime, they recruit a new member-Kineto, a speed-ster, after he proves himself worthy to join the team by beating Bhargava in a fight.

The Demons include a team of four super-powered demonic beings- Kyzal, Dracul and the Bloodhound- along with an army of comparatively weaker and mortal aliens. They attack the earth like a plague, and a war ensues for mankinds survival in the entire world.

However, the heroes refuse to give up even in the face of such overwhelming odds. They fight back valiantly, aided by the army and the National Guard and other millitary resources of all countries in the world, before they could spread and establish positions on the earth. The army is small, and it takes a fight to route them. It is the cosmic demons who put up a fight. In their first encounters, the Protectors are severely beaten within an inch of their lives. However, they are allowed to live, and the demons fly away to repair their mothership-cum-communications ship which they brought with them (it was taken down by Thunderbolt). Apparently, the small drones and the mothership were nothing-a bigger contingent was waiting for further instructions on when and where to arrive. It was this mothership that was badly damaged, and the demons started repairing it,giving both parties a chance to recoup.

The Gods assured the heroes that they were looking out for this hidden contingent, and that they would take it down if they found it-they instructed the team that their main concern should be how to stop the demons. They were stationed near the Savannas in Africa. The heroes decide that they had to take down this camp, along with the demons. After receiving blessings from the Godheads, the heroes make their way to the enemy headquarters, for round 2.

Reaching the demons' headquarters, Adi and the team notices that the entire mothership is shielded from the outside by an energy-barrier. The heroes attack it, but the barrier doesn't break. The demons then attack the heroes again, but this time, the fight is closer. While the two teams were engaged, Kalki hits the energy barrier with a Power Arrow from the Hardhanu, and Adi simultaneously hits it with an energy blast. Kineto and Thunderbolt distract the demons, and Axe-Man takes the advantage to go into his berserk mood and hit the barrier with the full-force of his axe. The barrier gives away to the combined attacks, and Adi wrecks the remains of the already damaged mothership. The demons are now left alone, with no apparent scope of calling in re-inforcements. Then however, the Bloodhound reveals that the heroes' efforts have gone in vain-that they had managed to save the contact beacon from their mothership, and that they had sent for re-inforcements almost half an hour ago. The demonic trio then proceed to beat up the heroes, who manage to take down all the aliens from the mothership. But the leaders escape.

Meanwhile, satellites show that an entire fleet of alien ships has approached earth, and are about to enter the atmosphere. The heroes realise that this battle might as well be their last (Kalki differs, since he believes that the Godheads won't put them through anything like this unless there was a reason). They chase the demons, and engage them in a final battle in New York city. Earth's meagre forces seem to be inefficient to take down the entire fleet, as they continue destroying towns and killing hundreds. Just when it seems that defeat is inevitable, a divine army appears, led by Lord Kartik, son of the great Skyfather God and one of the Godheads Lord Shiva. His army attack the alien fleet with all their might, and assist the millitia to route them.

The Protectors, rejuvenated by this unlikely help, then attack the demons in a final face-off. Kyzal, Dracul and the Bloodhound have already realised that victory is no longer possible, and that they underestimated earth and it's champions. Kyzal engages Bhargav in brutally physical fight, Dracul takes on Kineto, Kalki and Thunderbolt, and Adi takes on the Bloodhound. The fight causes enormous damages to the city, buildings fall, vehicles and foundations are taken down, and people get injured. After a long, tiring battle, the heroes ultimately emerge victorious. Adi knocks out the Bloodhound after a war. Thunderbolt and Bhargav manage to take down Kyzal, and Kineto, with the help of Kalki, manages to defeat Dracul. With the demons finally down, Bhargav, still in a crazed form, almost proceeds to behead them with his axe, but Lord Kartik intervenes. He says that his divine army was sent by the Godheads and the Skyfathers to aid the heroes in routing the evil force. He says, "They were confident, they told me that you would certainly win. But they sent me so that it could end with lesser bloodshed and casualties."

Lord Kartik and his army takes the demons captive to be judged for their crimes, and leaves earth via a portal conjured by Lord Brahma (supreme creator among the Godheads). Earth celebrates it's victory, at the same time realising that they needed to better defence if they were to face such an invasion again. Also, the Protectors are officially acknowledged as global heroes, although the world militia and Government organisations continue their search for them for further questioning.

The Protectors split up, since the alliance is apparently not needed anymore. Bhargav acknowledges Adi as an ally and shows his newfound respect towards him by calling him by his name for the first time. Kineto is given a uniform designed by Thunderbolt, and they leave for a "well desevred holiday" together. Kalki disappears without any prior message. Adi informs his mom that he is indeed safe. He then receives a telepathic message (not revealed to the readers), and after briefly meditating for a while, flies off towards space, exclaiming-"Yeah, we won a war. I realise now that while this is a start, it's just a start. Worse things are out there. And I got no days off. 'They're' not takig one. Neither will I..", as he leaves for a seemingly new mission.

Kilvish

Yama, the Lord of Hell, is not dead, as it seems, after his encounter with Lord Vishnu. He is alive, and well, healing, preparing, and planning. He knows about the Protectors, and how they defeated the cosmic demons, and he knows about the new hero-the Elemental. He realises that there is now a way to ensure his victory over the heavens- the Elemental, bounded to the "hell-spirit", would create a force that would destroy the Godheads with ease. But for that, he needed the Elemental beaten, and he himself was not yet strong enough to engage him. For that purpose, he desings a demonic creature from the hell-spirit, which he calls Tamraj Kilvish-the Lord of darkness. Kilvish is ordered by Yama to defeat the Elemental and bring him to hell alive.

In the meanwhile, Adi, as well as the world, has somewhat recovered from the recent battles they had faced. Adi is now in a relationship with a woman named Sati-a woman who claims to be a totally normal human being, although Adi, with his superhuman awareness, can sense that she "is more than meets the eye." Adi's peaceful retirement, is however, short-lived, when the Guardian (who had revealed his name to be Vishwamitra, one of the Prime Commanders of the Guardians) communicates with Adi, telling him to be aware of this new threat known as "Kilvish". When Adi asks for further information regarding the threat, the telepathic communication is cut-off. A bewildered Adi flies to the Temple of VISHNU, but even the artificial intelligence is unable to tell Adi what this "Kilvish" might be. Adi's senses start indicating an arriving evil force, which makes him wonder whether or not this new threat is more powerful than him.

Kilvish doesn't show himself at first. Being a spawn of hell, he can create things out of the hell-spirit, which he utilises to create demonic beings that attack Adi in his home. Adi fends them off, and destroys them with his energy blast after a hard fight. He is then subsequently assaulted by more of these demons, and he goes on to defeat all of them. He chases the last surviving demon through the city, and it is revealed that he ran straight into a trap-he is finally confronted by Kilvish himself. The Lord of Darkness challenges Adi, who engages him ferociously. However, his attacks are unable to hurt Kilvish at all. He uses almost every weapon in his arsenal-the energy blasts, matter manipulation, telepathy. But Kilvish is not bothered. Then Kilvish counters Adi's attacks. It is seen that he is a demon who thrives on a particular type of energy that is empowered by the hell-spirit. It is powerful enough to actually subdue Adi. Kilvish uses telekinesis (his primary weapon), his hell-fire blasts and his "hell-force" attacks on Adi, followed by a series of blows that makes Adi bleed. Kilvish then says-"You can endure, I will give you that. But what really is your limit? Worth finding out.." and attacks Adi with renewed vigour. The assault is eventually brought to public spectacle, when Kilvish brutally beats up Adi in public. Adi more than once tries to counter attack, but they seem to have almost no effect on Kilvish. Kilvish then proceeds to humiliate Adi in front of the world, claiming that he was a facade in the name of a hero, that he will never be good enough to actually become think he will become. Adi tries to fight back weakly, but Kilvish beats him to a pulp. He is just about to kill him when Yama teleports him back to hell, chiding him for almost killing the Elemental. Yama orders him to bring him to hell, alive. Kilvish obeys Yama's orders, and brings Adi to the Underworld, leaving the people of the earth in a frenzy of fear.

In hell, Adi is tortured by the entities that are commanded by the hell-spirit. It is revealed that killing Adi won't be the solution to Yama's problems. Yama needed Adi's soul to absorb the hell-spirit to turn him into a monster- a "God-slayer". And physical death was not the way. Yama revealed to Adi that they will "take his soul". And then began a severe test where Adi's soul had to resist the dark energy of hell. The effort makes him tremondously weak. Being in hell, is cannot communicate with Vishwamitra. Although Adi uses his inner strength to fight back, after some time, he grows tired and starts giving in. Yama is delighted, as he wathces Adi's psyche and soul struggling against all sorts of monsters and entities in the darkest pits of hell. Adi is about to lose, when he remembers his father's words about hell being a "hall that feeds on everything that is bad", and that the only way to counter it is to think of "everything good in this world."

Taking the inspiration, Adi fights off the psychic forces, and he awakens, ready to get back to the world. Kilvish, who had already seen this coming, had in the meantime, started absorbing more of the hell-spirit, that made him even more powerful than before. All this while, Adi was fighting off the guards of hell, and looking for a way out. He came face to face with the weak Yama, and after immobolising him with an energy blast, uses his "Passage to Earth" to get out of the Underworld. The effort almost drains him of all his energy. Kilvish attempts to follow him. Yama orders Kilvish to bring him back, but Kilvish reveals that he is now strong enough to harness the power of the hell-spirit by himself. He no longer relied on Yama, and he makes it clear that he no longer owes any allegiance to him. With these words, Kilvish goes to earth to finish off the Elemental.

Adi doesn't get much chance to recoup. Wasting precious moments he could've used to ask for help, he phoned Sati and asked her to go to an address (later revealed to be Kalki's). He doesn't get the chance to talk much, though, as he is assaulted by a re-energised Kilvish. Adi knows that he cannot survive this battle, but he tries to telepathically inform his teammates about it, and that "this might be my last ride. You need to do everything you can to destroy this thing. Everything."

Adi engages Kilvish in a brutal fight, he tries his best, and at a point, it seems that he might stand a chance. Then Kilvish decides to end this "for good", and he once again starts beating up Adi. Adi, in a final effort, uses all his energy to fire an energy blast, which manages to stun Kilvish and actually hurt him for the first time. He weakly smiles, and says, "See, at the end of the day, even you bleed."

An enraged Kilvish then proceeds to decimate Adi, and then fire a hell-blast. Adi takes the full blow, and he dies. His body then disappears into a mystic light, as a stunned Bangalore watches on. Kilvish thinks that he has finally killed the world's greatest defender, and he proclaims that soon, he is going to "take it all".

The Kilvish saga now continues for sometime with Adi out of the equation. Adi, apparently dead, is actually alive-when he finds back consciousness, he finds himself in an another dimension, which is loater revealed as the city of the Guardians themselves. Vishwamitra, one of the Prime Guardians, and his friend in a dual capacity, greets Adi to the city of 'Pariha'. Vishwamitra tells Adi that for the time being, he will train with the Guardians in Pariha, so that he can succesfully defeat Kilvish once he gets back. He learns that in Pariha, there are different strata of the Guardians-some are Brahmins, who are nigh-omniscient, some are warriors, nigh-invincible, and some are sages (like Vishwamitra), who are both warriors and pundits with great power. Adi informs Vishwamitra that Kilvish is more powerful than he is, and no matter how much training he undergoes, it is doubtful whether he can beat him. Vishwamitra replies optimistically, saying that Kilvish is potent, but not invincible. He may be almost as powerful as some of the Guardians, and more than Adi himself, but he is evil, and evil is destroyed sooner or later. Adi, fuelled by this idea, starts training with the warrior-Guardians, most notably by Lord Kartik himself in a session.

While Adi trains with the Guardians, the world is falling apart as Kilvish carries on his rampage throughout the world.For weeks now, the Protectors try to stop his advance and growing powers, but with no avail. The rest of the Protectors try to stop him, but they are beaten again and again. Kilvish, now more powerful than ever, starts a new game-he converts the heroes into his personal slaves. The first to fall prey to him is Axe-Man, who tried to gut Kilvish with his axe in a careless effort, ultimately resulting in him being turned into another hell-walker. The next victim is Thunderbolt, and then Kineto. Lord Kalki barely manages to escape by hitting him with a Power Arrow with enough energy that leveled the entire town where the fight was taking place (fortunately it was much evacuated). Realising that the fight is slowly slipping out of their hands, Kalki prays to Lord Vishnu, begging for guidance. The Lord informs him that everything is happening according to the 'divine-plan', and that Kalki must not lose hope and fight on. Kalki, Big Trunk, Eagle-Eye and Lionheart are the only resistance that is still keeping Kilvish at bay. All this while, the other three have been fighting Kilvish's henchmen in different parts of the country with the millitary. Kalki, realising that India is not all that he wants, immediately calls the rest for a re-grouping. They talk the matter over, and decide that since Kilvish is Yama's own creation, maybe it is only Yama himself who could help them beat Kilvish. While Lionheart thought it wouldn't be wise to forge alliance with an enemy, Big-Trunk assures them that this is the only plausible option they have left. With help from Lord Brahma, the team travels to the Underworld to consult with Yama.

In the Underworld, they find that Yama is now a mere prisoner, and that Kilvish has turned the entire Patal-Sena (Hell-army) against him (Yama). The heroes steal their way to the prison of hell, and manage to free Yama. For this, Yama agrees to help them by telling them the only thing he can tell about Kilvish-it is going to take nothing but a miracle to defeat him. When Big-Trunk threatens to gut "the old man in half with his fire breathing dragon" (minigun), Yama tells them that Kilvish is fuelled by the Hell-Spirit, and only if the Hell-Spirit is drained from him that he can be weak enough to be hurt. When asked what it's gonna take to drain the Hell-Spirit out of Kilvish, he replies that only a powerful demon from the Underworld can do it, which in this instance is himself. The heroes refuse blatantly to trust him. They claim that if Yama regains his powers, he is going to finish what he started before. Yama, however, gives his word that he owes them a favour, and that he will be true to his word, that is, if they manage to defeat him, Yama will go back to Hell to recapture control of his kingdome. They form an uneasy alliance, and they head out of Hell, after Yama retrieves a gadget that he developed to drain the Hell-Spirit from others and inject it in his own body.

Adi trains with the Guardians extensively, learning more about his powers and how to utilise them in a better way. In spite of his rigorous practice, he realises that it still isn't enough to defeat Kilvish. Finally, he asks Vishwamitra what they should do about it. Vish replies that "there is a plan to everything", and that Adi will get a "boost" before his fight with Kilvish.

By now, Kilvish has aptured almost the entire world with his powers, and the heroesattack him in a final stand, aided by Yama. Big-Trunk tries to hold off the hell-spirit-fuelled Kineto, Thunderbolt and Axe-Man with help from Lionheart, who unleashes his ''rage-mode'' to aid him. Kalki, Eagle-Eye and Yama fight Kilvish himself. Incapacitating Eagle-Eye easily, Kilvish focuses on Kalki and Yama, whom he calls a "back-stabber and a traitor" for siding with the enemyof the cause. Yama replies that only he is worthy of the power that Kilvish possesses, and tells him that he is going to destroy him today. Kalki gives Yama cover to set up his energy drainer on Kilvish with a bombardment of power arrows, which stun Kilvish, and then Yama activates the machine, starting the draining process.

During this time, Vishwamitra is informed by the Godhead that it is time to send Adi back to finish the war. VIsh tells Adi that it is time for him to end it. When Adi says that he is still not as powerful as Kilvish, Vishy reveals that Adi is going to get a power-up: a portion of Vishwamitra's own power, that is going to help him to level Kilvish. Adi thanks the Guardians for the enlightenment he received in this world, and promises to come back someday, to which VIshwamitra curtly replies, "Let's hope you won't have to, ever again." With this, Adi is sent through a portal, ten times stronger than before, back to earth, and he flies off for his rematch.

Back in the battle, Yama has drained some of Kilvish's energy, and the attack seems to work temporarily, but the hell-spirit-fuelled Axe-Man destroys the machine with his axe, rendering Yama and Kalki helpless. Big-Trunk is also cornerned by the joint attack of Kineto and Thunderbolt. Kilvish slays Yama and proceeds to kill Kalki, when Adi appears.

Essentially, Kilvish cannot believe that the Elemental is still alive. When asked how this was possible, Adi replies that Kilvish is evil, and at the end, evil always gets their "ass handed to them by the forces of good." Adi engages Kilvish in a climactic final battle, that shatters the foundations. After a long, bloody and extremely close fight,Adi pummels Kilvish down, just the way the latter had in their previous battle. Kilvish, realising that it's over, tries to kill off the rest of the team in a dying attempt, but Adi stops him, and breaks off his hands. Seeing that the villain isin immense pain, Adi says that he forgives him for everything that he has done to the world and that he is going to put an end to his suffering. Adi then uses the power granted to him by Vishwamitra to fire a tremondously powerful energy blast, tha destroys Kilvish, cleansing him off the face of the earth. With his death, his army of hell-spirit-conjured demons also die, and the Protectors are made free from the influence of the hell-spirit. With that, VIshwamitra's power leaves Adi, and he silently thanks the Guardians for their help.

The world once again attempts to recover from another deadly attack that nearly took down mankind once again, and recognise the efforts of the Protectors and warmly applauds their efforts. Adi re-establishes his relation with Sati, who is overjoyed at his resurrection. After a long time, it seems that finally, he has found peace.

Hello, my fellow zViners, brothers and sisters.

My name is Anurag. And it means "love", so before saying anything, I'd say I love you all.... :3

Now, business.

I am a 16 year old comic book fan with a lot of dreams and very little resources. I have innumerable ideas in my head. the recentmost idea that my brain has rendered, is creating a Universe of Indian Superheroes.

I have created some 8 characters, that are titular. I have posted a blog on the RPG forum, called "My Universe", where you can read about it in detail.

Those who have given it a read have asked me to carry on. There's just one slight problem. I cannot paint. I am a horrible drawer. So, I cannot sketch down my characters the way I see them.

Someone told me that there are several good artists whom I can find in this section who can help me on this. I have been doing progressive work, and I am in hopes that some of my contacts may be able to get me to Indian comicbookpublishers, like Raj or Virgin comics, so that I can present my ideas. But what good are ideas if they can't see them in colors? That is where I need your help.

I need you to sketch down the characters mentioned in the blog. I will be there to assist you (not in the drawing, I'm sorry but I'm incapable) in explaining how these characters are supposed to look like.. Apeearance, physical attributes, suit etc.

I am in dire need of aid. The artists who are out here-please help me.

I have always been fascinated by the superhero world. Spiderman and Supes made my childhood. Batman made my teenage. Like Bill would say, "I find the entire mythology surrounding superheroes fascinating."

Then I started researching more, and I found out about Thor. I loved it. I loved the way they turned a Godly, divine character into a comic book character. With his own limitations, vulnerabilities, and nature. It's admirable. Since then, there arose a new category of comic books. Divine entities. Multiversal creatures. Like the One-Above-All, the Beyonder, the Living Tribunal, the Spectre, the Presence, Morningstar etc and so on and so forth. It was interesting to see these characters shape up. Although I still prefer super-powered beings with limits bound in their own world, aliens, mutants etc, reading about these characters attracted my interests.

It made me wonder-why not create a Universe of my own?

Now, India may not be the best place for comic books to flourish. It's not, trust me. but I am an Indian. And I am a comic book fan. So, it's obvious that I'd like to introduce superhero comics to my country as well, in a way never seen before.

And since I have been reading about entities and God-like characters recently, I thought I'd start with characters based on them.

I have designed a few characters, totally based on Hindu mythology. I am gonna share them with you. I am sorry I don't have any sketches-I am a horrible artist. but still, I'd love it if I could hear it from you guys how I may imrpove my characters, potential stories.. It'd be divine if I could actually get a sketcher to help me.

Here's a list of my creations. :)

1 Lord Kalki

So, the concept is that like the all-powerful sentient beings like the presence, LT or Beyonder, we have three such characters in our universe. Lord Shiva, the God of Creation and Destruction of the cosmos. Lord Brahma, the Ultimate creator. And Lord Vishnu, the harbinger of balance between creation and destruction. They are all powerful, and untouchable. There are other Gods, who are still not upto their level. Now, these Gods have incarnations on earth. AVATARS. Kalki is the re-incarnation of Vishnu of the present time.

Imagine a guy wearing a black armour, with a peculiar emblem resembling the radiations of the Sun on his chest, with a divine sword, battle blades, and a bow that has arrows that can, if focussed, be Universal. He rides a bike-white, with the head of a Unicorn, provided with canons, guns, auto-pilots and Retro-reflective panel system. He has lots of weapons, explosives etc. and almost a lifetime of combat training. He is like the Batman of my universe. He has trained under the greatest fighters of all time. He rides in the darkness of the night, and hunts down evil demons, demi-gods and monsters and aliens. Yeah, he is technically a demigod. he is, say, a class 10. he can lift about 5 tons without exertion. However, his strength is variable. His durability is also superhuman. He can heal from serious injuries fast. He can run faster than humans, almost as fast as a speeding car, can scale great heights, and is a perfect athlete.

Being the avatar of Lord Vishnu, he can summon the God for powers, weapons, or advice. Vishnu communicates with him via telepathy. Kalki's origin is unknown. But it is known that he is one of the most feared demi-gods on earth.

Being a demi-god, Kalki can, in times of great need, bind with the entity-Lord Vishnu's powers. When he does, he becomes nigh-omnipotent, nigh omnipresent and nigh-omniscient. He can, however, increase or decrease his powers at will. For instance, while fighting a great galactic force, he may become migh-omnipotent to crush them, or he may reduce his powers to give them a fighting chance.

All these make Lord Kalki the ultimate weapon against evil. His headquarters is at Mumbai, a great metropolis of India, although he travels the world to fight threats.

I will make a seperate document on his weapons, and abilities.

This image is not exactly what I have in my mind for the character. He won't have long hair, or a moustache. I am uploading the pic just so that you may get the gist. Credits-Anirudh Sainath

2 Ax-Man (Bhargava Sharma)

Another re-incarnation of Lord Vishnu. However, this avatar was seen before. He was called Parshuraam. This guy is different. Bhargave Sharma was chosen worthy of Parshuram's great cosmic axe. He received super-powers, and hence became the Ax-Man.

He is not exactly a demi-god. Bhargava Sharma has always suffered from anger management issues, so receiving super-powers only make him dangerous. Long, black hair, ridiculously buffed up body, stylised battle armour, a cosmic axe and his alarmingly short temper-this makes him one of the most dangerous beings in my universe. he is kinda like thor or Hercules. He has a strength level near to the Ares of DC universe, except that he is much, much more dangerous. He is super-strong. He cannot fly, so he makes up for that by his leaping ability. He can scale REALLY large distances, kinda like Hulk. He has incredible combat experience, especially with the axe. His strength supplements it.

Now, about his axe. It's one of the most powerful objects on the earth, an equivalent to the Mjolnir. It can cut anything human, even monster, ordinary aliens, some powerful entities and demi-gods. If a cut cannot be made, with each ferocious swing of the axe, a wave is prodced that is really destructive. It cannot be explained that easily. Only through drawings. If Axe-man loses control, Bhargava can actually tear the earth's crust in two.

Like Kalki, he can bind with the entity in times of need to supplement his power. His durability is incredible. He is nigh-invulnerable to human or alien weapons, and to many demi-god attacks. He can survive exploding stars at his most powerful. BEAT THAT.

once again a seperate documents shall be made. :)

Image credit-Anirudh Sainath

Note that this image is a retro but stylised look of Parshuram. The guy won't have any beard. He will not be wearing that armour and that tiger skin dress. Nor is he gonna have a bow and arrows. The image is just so that you may get an idea of the character's appearance-framework.

3 Thunderbolt (Vasav)

The most powerful of the team. Planet mover. He is the MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Demi-God and re-incarnation of the God of Thunder and the GOd-King, Lord Indra. This guy is a real bad-ass. Born with great powers. Exiled by his family. Considered a freak by all. But that doesn't stop him though. Demon slayer, galactic guardian. The most humane, and the most dedicated hero of earth. Hails from Bangalore.

Thunderbolt is the classic example of a superhero with a heart. Imagine Superman with thor's powers. You will get what the concept. He is certainly a class 200. Can move planets with effort, but without assistance. He is fast. He has got multiple times FTL reaction speed and can fly at light speed, at a basic, if he needs to. He can fight almost as good as Bhargava, and is a great combatant.

His greatest weapon is his control of the weather. Being the inheritant of the thunder God, he can manipulate the weather and bring thunderbolts (hence the name) as an offensive weapon. These bolts are powerful, and if he chooses not to hold back, he can destroy world's with a continuous shower of great magnitude. Plus, he can materialise weapons like swords, tridents, spears, energy blasts, guns etc from thse bolts. And boy, they are really powerful.

And he can bind with the entity (Lord Indra) to become a God-like figure if he needs to. But he is usually good enough to get the job done just the way he is. He can be anything and do anything if he binds with the entity.

Thus, all this makes it obvious that he is the strongest of this world-or is he? ;)

He is not gonna have that big an armour- but something as stylised and modern looking as that. This pic is REALLY cool. Credits-Anirudh Sainath ( he is the man)

4 Kineto (Pavan)

Re-incarnation of the wind-god, Pavan. This man is the symbolisation of speed. Yes, inspiration is taken from the Flash. not including a speed-ster in a Universe sounds lame. Born in Punjab as a demi-god to Pavan Dev, the guy has super-speed as his only ability. he is faster than everything. He is faster than Thunderbolt. He is definitely faster than Bhargava. He is the fastest being on the planet. He can accelerate to lightspeed if he wants to effortlessly, and if he wants to, he can travel multiple times to lightspeed. There is no definite source of his power-it is bounded with him. In fact, if he wants to, he can lend this power to others, which grants the recepient similar abilities. He can travel through time courtesy of his speed. Hell, when he travels at light-speed, he can actually fly.

Now, increase of velocity means change in momentum. That is force. So, greater the change in momentum, greater the force. Hence, although the guy doesn't have super-strength, as he travels very fats, his blows have devastating effect. If you wanna call it that, he can also hit the Infinite Mass Punch. ;) That's how I plan he's gonna beat Thunderbolt in a fight they're supposed to have. He is untouchable. And he is a great guy. Another great thing about this guy is that he is also well-off in martial arts. This makes him an even more formidable opponent. With the deadly combination of his speed, Pavan is a force to be reckoned with.

When he binds with his entity, he becomes the source of all kinetic energy in the Universe. Imagine how scary that makes him.

Pavan is a total bad-ass. And one of the founders of the team with Kalki and Vasav. I don't have any relevant background sketch of him. Imagine this guy with a casual sweatshirt( not what he's wearing here, just check the face and the build, appearance etc) and an innerwear with a big "K" on it. Same face. Credits to Anirudh Sainath again. Please remember that this image is just to helo you understand the basic framework of the character. Don't assume this is how they are gonna look.

5 Elemental/Shaktimaan (rebooted) (Aditya Sen)

Yes, my fellow Indians! It's time someone resurrected this awesome characters from the depths of failure, bad marketing and childish storylines. He's back, totally new, and rebooted!

In my redoinf of the iconic Indian character, this man is a legend. He is basically an alien who has forgotten his past. Being humanoid, he has settled in earth, spending almost 10 years in our blue planet under the pseudonym of Aditya Sen. When the world started facing supernatural and galactic threats, he decided to join the fight. And he attratcs the attention of the "other" guys. ;)

Shaktimaan, or as I call him Elemental, has a huge array of powers. He has:

• Superhuman Speed: He also possesses Superhuman Speed which make him allot faster than a normal man. He can move, react, run, and fly extraordinarily fast. He can movie faster than light and can also catch bullets in mid air before they hit him, or anyone else. He can move more than hundred miles per hour.

• Superhuman Strength: Shaktimaan Enhanced strength much greater than that of a human and even most superhumans. He can move at superhuman strength no human or even most of the superhuman can catch up to his speed. Shaktimaan can easily hold a building or even a car without any problem, he also has ability to move a planet from one place to another and can also hold a planet. Shaktimaan has also moved a planets from its place in space to save the earth from the destructive comet planned by Dr. Jaikal, he was going to completely blast the earth with the destructive comet and keep the rest living people on another planet spotted by him space. But Shaktimaan changed the planet's position in the space and both of them blasted.

• molecular division: Shaktimaan has the ability to divide molecules from his body and divide his body in 5 as his body contains million times more molecules than an ordinary human. He uses this power very often, only when it is necessary like when Shakti Punja was stolen by Tamraj Kilvish's men he divided himself and fought against them and even when divya mani was stolen by Naurangee the thief he used this power.

• Flight: One of his main power is his Flight he flies faster than a speeding bullet and even faster than light. He can fly by make his body lighter than air he can also stand in air and fight also. There are two way in which he flies one as a normal superhuman flies and other by rotating himself like a top. When he rotates he puts his right hand up and turns around and he rotates like a top. When he rotates he becomes so fast that even a bullet can catch him.

• X-Ray Vision: Shaktimaan also has the ability of X-Ray Vision The ability to see through solid objects, usually with the exception of lead. Shaktimaan uses this power many times. He can also read people's mind and find whats going on in their mind. He can control ones thought erase his memory and even bring it back as seen many times he erased Dr. Jaikal memory when he found out about his real identity.

• Superhuman Breath: Shaktimaan has ability to release cold and hot air and gas from his mouth. He can release cold air/gas by completely reducing the temperature from his body and releases hot air/gas by completely increasing temperature from his body. This has been very useful as many times a fire is caught at a place Shaktimaan quickly appeared and put out the fire with this ability. Shaktimaan can also release out fire, water, wind etc. from his mouth and as much as he can. He can also release electric rays, fire rays, water rays and wind rays from his eyes and fingers. No matter how much the fire come cannot burn him and he can even stand in sun but it wont make any harm to him. No matter how much strong the wind and water comes it wont harm him. He can breathe and live everywhere and can also breathe in space, underwater, fire and etc. Even powerful weapons such as Nuclear Bomb cant harm him. He also has the ability known as Freeze Breath, and can cool objects to sub-zero temperatures and freeze air moisture solid.

• Superhuman Eyes: Other than the two eyes shaktimaan has more eyes in his mind through which he can see where a person is in danger and seen him and he mostly uses this. Many times when he is not able to see with his two eyes he uses these eyes to see.

• Healing Factor: Shaktimaan very often gets wound, so this ability is very often used by Shaktimaan, but when he gets a wound he can immediately heal it with his healing powers. He usually gets wound's because of Tamraj Kilvish and he can easily heal it by the seven chakras of Kundalini attained through meditation.

• Multilingualism – Shaktimaan can talk with any person with any language he comes in contact with and not only humans but alsoextraterrestrial beings.

• Eidetic Memory: Shaktimaan has a flawless memory and doesn't forget think if he once comes in coontact with and no one can make him forget also.

• The five elements: Shaktimaan is so powerful that has control over the five elements fire, wind, water, earth, sky. He is so powerful than he can bring a dead person to live as seen when he brought Geeta to life when she died in a space crash planned by Dr. Jaikal. As Shaktimaan loved her, he brought her back to life again using his power which resulted in losing his powers temporally due to his against the nature actions. He can inhale and exhale water, fire etc. at his will. He has sun attached to his chest at the front and the backside which include extremely dangerous rays which can kill his enemies in second. With the help of his "yogic shakti which was natural power" he can vary his size, he can shrink himself into a size of an ant and turn as large as a tower or even more taller. He also has magical eyes by which he is able to see the danger happening in the city. He can also remove his soul from his body and again bring it back. He also release powerful rays from his hands he is able to do this by giving out energy from his body.

• Superhuman Hearing: Shaktimaan can hear people's voice from far away even from space he can hear if someone calls him or anyone else. Shaktimaan is able to mentally screen out most of these sounds to be able to function normally, even in a noisy environment, and can focus in on specific things, like a person's voice or heartbeat, even if they are in another part of the city. He can even hear sounds on other planets, which makes it likely that his hearing is fundamentally different from that of a human, as sound cannot travel through the vacuum of space. Like humans and most animals, he is skilled at automatically noticing his own name out of the jumble of several overheard conversations, making him adept at quickly responding to calls of distress all over the city.

• Master Combatant: He is an expert, skilled and intelligent fighter and has fought with super-skilled enemies, he is expert in martial arts and Hand-to-hand combat. He has been trained in every martial arts and can easily use them. He knows all the fighting skills and is master in those.

• psychic powers like telepathy, teleportation, telekinesis: He also has psychic powers like telepathy which is often used by Geeta his love. She often calls him by telepathy when she is in trouble. He can also teleport himself from one place to another and also possesses slight telekinesis powers.

Shaktimaan’s powers are virtually limitless. He can do practically anything he imagines. The only limit to his powers is his own belief in himself and his knowledge of how to manifest his powers. His powers come from his chakras. (Note: Although we’ll call them chakras in the bible, in the series dialogue they will also be called energy centers.)

The seven chakras in his body which give him power's are:

• Energy Chakra (1): This chakra gives Shaktimaan super strength enabling him to fly, shoot fire from his hands, emit rays from his fingertips, blow a stream of freezing air, or send out protective force fields which nothing can penetrate (provided he can maintain his willpower and not give in). Shaktimaan’s strength allows him to physically penetrate anything and lift any object.

• Creative Chakra (2): This chakra gives Shaktimaan the power to manifest things out of thin air, but they can be unstable and comically fall apart or cause other problems if Shaktimaan is distracted and loses concentration.

• Astral Chakra (3): This chakra gives Shaktimaan the power to control his astral body (a semi-transparent, ethereal duplicate of himself) which can fly, walk through walls, spy on others, see inside objects, etc.

• Heart Chakra (4): This chakra gives Shaktimaan the power to control the will of others, but only for good. He can will people to do the right thing, see the error in their ways, or simply make someone buy him lunch. This power is most useful when Shaktimaan needs to stop someone who is under the control of Kilvish from doing evil.

• Vibration Chakra (5): This chakra gives Shaktimaan the power to control all types of vibrations, including sound waves, light waves, healing warmth, etc. He can also use it to hear ultrasonic sounds, and can speed up the vibrations of his own atoms allowing him to transport himself in space or time. This can be very useful for getting out of dangerous situations, or going back to yesterday to watch a TV show he forgot to TiVo.

• Psychic Chakra (6): This chakra gives Shaktimaan the power of the “third eye” which enables him to read minds and see anywhere in the world at any distance. He can sense impending danger and see things at any corner of the world. Being a young man, this power can be very tempting for Gangadhar who can get into trouble by reading Geeta's mind.

• Wisdom Chakra (7): This chakra gives Shaktimaan the ability to know what is right and make good choices. It also gives him one of his few super weapons: his white cord of energy. Shaktimaan can use this to grab things and pull them closer like a tractor beam, tie up enemies without harming them, or swing.

No Papamani. In this version, Shaktimaan is an energy battery. He thrives on all forms of energy for his powers. The source of his powers are unknown. He is very powerful to the extent of effortlessly beating Thunderbolt, Axe-Man, and Kinteoin a 3-on-1 assault. He is, like, our Captain Atom.

His rogues gallery will also be redone. I am really sorry to those who feel that the childhood nostalgia is gonna be destroyed by this rebooting of the character. but trust me, if I get this thing right, it will be as exciting and as sintilating as the great superhero characters of the foreign world. I will change it in such a way that finally, our Indian Superman will gain international recognition. :)

A basic famework pic is given below. As usual, this is the traditional pic. There will certainly be developments regarding the armour and the suit to make it look stylised and more modernised. :) Pic credit- Unknown

6 Krrish (Krishna Mehra)

It's obvious, isn't it? India's second official superhero character. If I do make a universe with Indian characters included in it, I am supposed to include Krrish in it. Yes, the movies were not really good. Yes, I was disgusted by the fat that a superhero dances. But after all, he is a superhero. And if I can, I will make sure it can get in the league of the superheroes.

Forget the "Raghupati Raghav Raja Raam" thing. It was an Indian movie. And for obvious reasons, songs had to be included. VFX wasn't really state of the art. But they did well provided that we haven't yet made Hollywood level progress. Fights could've been done better. But they tried. And its worthy of respect. I mean, the first Superman movie does look like a toy when compared to Man of Stee, don't it? Similarly, Krrish is one of our first attempts. So, let's be creative and respect that fact. Also, since this is my potential comic book universe, it is totally under my tutelage. I will change the character to a full-fledged superhero. And trust me, with the right push and the right storyline, it will be VERY interesting.

Origin will be the same. Rohit Mehra. Jadoo the alien. There will be certain changes, though. No song and dance. Krishna hasn't yet met his wife, Priya. Singapore didn't happen as in the movies. But he has already started his superhero career. He has already faced Kaal, and has his updated power set. He received his powers from his father, who himself received genetic enhancements from his alien friend. His powers include:

• Krrish possesses superhuman strength, speed, stamina, endurance, durability, and longevity.
• He was trained into peak physical and mental conditioning.
• He has immunity to diseases and viruses, and has a healing factor.
• Has the ability to run, swim, jump and leap to a great extent. Krrish is so fast that he even outran a horse (this indicates he can at least run up to 50 miles at the very least).
• His vast leaping ability has not been defined yet, but if estimated, then he can leap 1/8 of a mile (201 meters), hurdle a twenty-story building like the Golden Age Superman, or even more than that.^[1]
• Has the ability to communicate with animals.
• He has special abilities related to nature, such as climbing, fishing, running, and jumping.
• He has excellent observational skills that allow him to learn, adapt, and improvise whatever he sees, hears, or reads within a few seconds.
• He possesses a genius-level intellect and an eidetic memory.
• Master of the martial arts and hand-to-hand combat.
• He developed telekinesis in Krrish 3 whereas he uses it to be able to fly at supersonic speeds.

He is a minimum of a class 80. He can augment his strength if he loses his cool :D

He is a fellow to the superheroes mentioned above. He will have his own cool storylines. He will have his own rogues gallery. Elemental and Krrish are not my own creations like the ones above. All credits go to Rakesh Roshan and Mukesh Khanna for creating two such characters at a time when India was lacking of superhero characters. We can, courtesy of them, at least take pride in the fact that we do have superheroes (metahumans) with superpowers. Courtesy of them, we can re-create them (with their permission of course) to make them more modern, updated, like superheores are today. Yeah, they take inspiration from certain other characters. That's totally obvious. Majestros was inspired from Superman. Lobo and Wolverine share many similar traits. Their new powers, new careers, and their new lives, totally remade, will be my own humble attempt to get these characters recognition in the International Comic Book Society. And hence, I'm gonna try to do the best I can with them so that they can share the seats of the classic international superheroes who rule the comic-dome. :)

A sketch of how comic-book Krrish can look is given below. No change in costume. Only certain aspects of the character biography :) Credits go to unknown sketcher.

7 Eagleye

A re-incarnation of Lord vishnu's divine steed, Garuda. :)

The man hails from parts unknown. His origin is unknown. He has no home. He has no specific destination or goal. If you tell me he reminds you of Hawkman, I'll say, "You have good eyes, son." Yeah, he is kinda like Hawkman. But he is even more ferocious. He is even more ruthless.

This man is our signature antihero. He has nothing to lose. And he is no one's friend. His primary ability is flight. He can fly as far as the mesosphere. He also possesses superhuman speed and agility and combat-speed/reaction time, even though he is not as fast as Pavan or T-Bolt. His weapon is his cosmic spear, which is powerful enough to hurt even sentient beings, demi-gods and aliens. He also has immense combat knowledge, and is a close ally of Kalki.

The greatest arsenal that Eagleye possesses is his mood. While he is not as rough-headed as Bhargava, or as cold and calculated as Kalki, he is a little bit of both. Being born with his 'deformity' resulted in him facing a lot of hatred, fear and disgust, which has complicated him. Unlike Lord Garuda, he is not jst a server of justice-he sevres justice any way he pleases. He doesn't hesitate to kill people, unlike Kalki, who kills only if the situation asks for it.

Binding with the Garuda-entity makes him stronger than Thunderbolt or Elemental, greater speed than Kineto, and hsi spear becomes a star-system buster. But as usual, he binds with the entity only in times of great need.

My Eagleye will look kinda like this. But he will have a better armour, and much more stylised spear. He will wear a mask like that to hide his facial deformities. This pic will give you a basic idea of how the character will look like. Credit goes to unnown artist. Great job, whoever you are. :)

8 Big-Trunk

The image says it all. The character is based on the Hindu God, Ganesha, the Elephant-headed one. However, this man is not a God. He is-as he so eloquently puts it-"my target's worst nightmare." But he does take inspiration from Ganesh ji.

An alien whose space-ship crashlanded on earth while on a mission. And it chrashed HARD! There was no going back. So, he senses he has no choice but to stay.

Big-Trunk belongs to an alien race that resides in far-off planet from the same galaxy. It is, however, later found out that the creators of that particular race, it's ancestors that is, was Lord Brahma himself, who created the race as a tribute to Lord Ganesha's achievements. Also, it is rumored that Big-Trunk's eventful ladning on planet earth may not be an accident after all. Trunk is mainly a freelance hunter-a bounty hunter, although that's too strong a term. He hunts bad guys only, and doesn't take contracts that causes harm to good, honest people. He is thus a vigilante; the good kind. However, he is tough. And he is remorseless when fighiting.

Big-Trunk has superhuman strength. However, is is not upto the level of Bhargava. Under ordinary conditions, he is as strong as Kalki. He can lift cars, boulders, at times trucks-about 20-25 tons without much exertion. He is remarkably agile (don't go by the appearance) and is a master combatant. He can also run very fast. His signature feature is his bottomless satchel. He can literally pull out weapons out of nowhere-these weapons include a large array of guns, swords, spears, arrows, bombs, rocket launchers, canons, planet busting weapons etc. His favourite weapon is his signature minigun. It can take down lots of things. The bullets are not ordinary human bullets. They are powerful enough to affect the touchest, including Axe-Man and Elemental. Also, there's his twin sword, which makes him a tough opponent. But he is even more formidable in H2H. He uses his agility and his weight and size to devastating effect.

He has large number of enemies-aliens, creatures, certain human beings, even demi-gods, mutants, mutates etc. And he enjoys fighting them ;)

It is rumored that he can bind with Ganesha-entity to become even more powerful-nigh oni-sceince-potence-presence etc. He even gains his ride-a monstrous mouse.

He is a solo act. No team. :) And he's a badass. Although he is close friends with Eagleye and Kalki.

This pic will give you an idea how Big-Trunk looks like. Pic credit-Anirudh Sainath

9 Lionheart (Akshay Teja)

A re-incarnation of Lord Narasimha, the God with the head of a lion and the body of a man. Akhsay was born with the super-human ability to turn into a feral beast at will- a beast resembling Lord Narasimha.

Now, don't confuse him as a werewolf. Werewolves, or NARBHERIYAS as we are supposed to call them in Hindi, are seperate characters in our universe. This thing is kinda similar, yet different.

Fun thing about Lionheart is that although he turns into a semi-lion-semi-human, he retains the warmth, depth and enormity of his heart. He is always the same man-except at times when he is a moster. You can imagine him as X-Men's beast, except that he can hide his other side.

As a monster, he possesses superhuman strength, speed, agility etc. His strength level has never been clearly defined. But he is about as strong as Big-Trunk under ordinary conditions. However, at times of combat or emotional overflow/stress, Akshay loses control, and he goes into a "rage-mood", like Bhargava. When he does, he becomes an animal, thirsty for blood and death. His signature move is to tear open his hapless enemies' hearts. He is well off in unarmed combat. Plus, he is a scientific genius-a biologist, and an accomplished geneticist. Initially he wanted to find a cure for himself, but he later accepted his powers for the larger good.

Aside from his physical prowess, he has weapons given to him by Kalki. They include a divine sword, some battle blades, and a set of handguns which he uses effectively.

However, there's a catch. Inspite of being a demi-god, his physiology is undergoing a constant mutation process which is bound to turn him into an animal permanently. He tries to keep it in check using a serum he developed.

This pic will explain how Lionheart shall look like. Pic credits-Anirudh Sainath

Zod is thrown into an alternate timeline (that of Marvel Universe).

Yellow sun, so Zod is as powerful as he can be.

No Superman or JLA, so he decides to tear the city (NYC) down.

But someone stands in his way. And he is called the "Spiderman".

Who takes this fight?

PS- They don't have the slightest ideas regarding each other. Morals off for Zod. If Spidey survives first encounter, he gets time to prepare against Zod for round 2.

And here's the new catch. If you think Spidey can take round two, or live through it, he can call Thor for help.

What's the endgame, Viners?

MAN OF STEEL

I am going to be honest. I have become a fan of this character after seeing this movie. Of course, it received poor reviews, and many critics panned it. But I loved it.

1. Acting- Not the best part of this movie, but not the worst either. The version of Superman they wanted us to see in this movie is not the "good-guy-smiling-saving-the-world" one, but the more "scowling-responsible-hardcore" version, and I didn't think it was bad. Henry Cavill did his best, but his portrayal of "Superman" was better than his portrayal of"Clarke Kent". Of course, we didn't get much of Clarke Kent here. Hope to see a much more refined performance in the sequel.

And in any case, I loved this new version of Superman. The age has changed. And a badass version of America's finest superhero is nothing short of a treat..

Amy Adams did well as Lois Lane, although I kinda missed the "grumpy Pulitzer-winning journalist" in this movie.. Lois is more relaxed, daring(as usual), and.. Well, she is Lois Lane.

Shannon played one hell of a General Zod. Nothing else to say. Other roles were played to perfection. Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as Jonathan and Martha Kent-sufficiently good.

Laurence Fishburne as Perry White was fun. Russel Crowe as Jor-El was quite good. Antje Traue as Faora was good as well.

2. Direction- Vintage Zack Snyder. Full-on action. Entertainment for all ages. Action, emotions, romance.. This movie has it all, courtesy of his screenplay. Of course, character development could've improved, and in some parts, the narrative was slow. And confusing. But at other parts, it was perfect. Especially the fight scenes.

3. Music- Not bad. Missed the classic Superman theme, but better this than nothing.

4.Visual Effects- Awesome. Use of VFX doesn't get any better than this, man. Every building in Metropolis was brought down to ashes(kayfabe). The spaceships, UFO's, fight sequences were portrayed successfully. It was, as if, the COMIC BOOKS had come to life. The fight scenes were freakin awesome. I mean, this is SUPERMAN VS ZOD, and it can't get better than the way we were shown.

ALl that said, I rate MAN OF STEEL 7/10.

And ya'll know who the sequel to this movie features

Looking forward to Superman vs You-Know-Who at July...

And those who think that Marvel Cinematic Universe is owning the Superhero movie market..

Ya'll better hold your socks and lift your crocks..