Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Meet Rakshasi, India’s Nuclear Woman

Forget Batman and Superman, Indian superheroine takes international comic book readers by storm

Here's something that has rarely happened before. An Indian superheroine on a DC Comics book cover. This time around, the character is called Rakshasi and she has been described on the cover as 'India's Nuclear Woman'. This particular issue (The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men #10) is being hotly discussed on social networks and comic book forums.

Some forums inform that the issue is due out in US stores sometime this week and more information will come our way soon. For now, precious little is known about this character and who she is, where she comes from, etc.

What we know
She's a superheroine and most likely possesses the powers that a Firestorm does (physical regeneration, can live without food air and water, can pass through solid objects harmlessly, can generate destructive and concussive blasts of fusion energy from hands, absorb radiation harmlessly, and superhuman levels of strength and has resistance to injury).

On the cover, the blue-bodied character is stamping on the chest of one of the other Firestorms (also known as Nuclear Men). From what we gather, they are fighting some of their own who have gone rogue. Forums indicate that the action soon shifts to the mountains of Pakistan.

While Aruna was the last Indian superheroine introduced on one of their covers, her appearance was a short-lived one. Will Rakshasi have a longer run? Watch this space.

Before Rakshasi, it was Aruna
Aruna was introduced as an orphaned East Indian girl with shapeshifting powers. Since she changed shape involuntarily and at great speeds during her youngest years, she is even unsure of her gender and got classified as 'untouchable', one of the lowest castes in India, who live in isolation. Aruna went on to become a high-level stunt person in Bollywood due to her meta-human skills. After a meeting with Batman and Batgirl, she was inspired to become a force for good, fighting injustice in her native India.

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