In the latest issue of Invincible Iron Man (#2, to be exact), a super-team from the Philippines is introduced called the Triumph Division...
A bunch of cool-looking heroes, right? What's got me confused is this...
What the heck are Buddhist monks doing in Manila??!?! The Philippines is a predominantly Catholic country, and we also have a sizeable amount of Muslims, too. Where did these Buddhists come from? Did they confuse Thailand for the Philippines?
Would it kill Marvel to actually do some research? Couldn't they have just asked Leinil Yu about the Philippines?
Seriously, WTF?!?!
One thing they got right... pot-bellied policemen guarding the whole shebang. :P
19 comments:
You're right.
Very confusing indeed.
Maybe the monks came all the way to the Philippines to pay tribute to the super heroes?
hehehe
Do I get a No-Prize? :)
Maybe they're with the Hare Krishna Movement which, if I recall correctly, the Philippines had some "practitioners" of in the early '80s. And yes, considering that Marvel employs a sizable number of Filipino artists, they could've just asked them about the culture. May presyo na ba ang email ngayon? What's Wikipedia for? And the names of the heroes... St. George?! Mighty Mother?! The Great Mongoose?! Does the Philippines even have a mongoose?! Too bad you didn't include a scan of the pot-bellied policman with your post. Hahaha...
to patrick,
Yes there are mongoose here though they are quite scarce in numbers nowadays.
They die a few panels later. So much for that. lol
Labo no?
Not trying to be a Marvel apologist but there are Buddhist monks in Manila. Yes the Philippines is a predominantly Catholic country but we do have a diverse set of religions in the archipelago. And the monk is giving a wreath to a character named St. George.
Speaking of which...
What you should concentrate your outrage on is the fact that the heroes don't even LOOK or SOUND Pinoy. Red Feather?
Send a letter to Marvel. Write the writer. Hell, tell Pinoys who are working FOR Marvel and have them pass along these reactions. They should be more sensitive if they're doing supposed local heroes. Do their research or don't do local heroes at all.
There are Buddhist monks in Manila, but when was the last time you saw them at a major gathering?
I'm not really that concerned with the heroes since, as aids pointed out, they die a few panels later. Most US superheroes don't really get identified with the USA, so it's not much of a stretch to see Pinoy heroes who don't necessarily reflect their nation's identity. But since we're on that subject anyway, here are my opinions...
Red Feather looks like he's based on a sarimanok. Cool helmet, though, IMO. I'm baffled with St. George, since he really isn't a major patron saint in the Philippines. But then again St. George is known as a dragonslayer, so maybe that's their basis for making a superhero saint. But still, not really consistent with the locale.
At least they got Anitun right. Anitun Tabu is a Tagalog goddess of wind and rain. Mongoose... okay, there is a local mongoose so that passes. Fighter One, generic martial-arts type guy. Mighty Mother, Wishing Man... I'm all out.
Oh, and you can see the potbellied policeman at the background of the first panel on the second pic.
Makes you wish that they could've at least asked a Pinoy about the characters and the setting and the details.
Who is the artist on this book?
Well, just be thankful that we won't care much about those who died or else, maybe more outrage might come out from it. on one panel Mighty mother looked like madam auring :) Fighter one is like JUAN na common name here. The mongoose reflects our love of kungfu, he looked like a bruce lee wannabe. wishing man might be a hermitanyo.
feature and kill us (philippines) does not sound good to me. Next time, don't bother na lang.
i think they took the st.george character( his look anyway) from an ad of a religion based superteam( i forgot the name) in the pages of the relaunched darna comics a few years back. am i correct? can anyone confirm this? sir gilbert?
Maybe Fraction confused Philippines with Thailand. Since both countries have cheap shemales.
heh.
Humawinghangin, are you talking about THE TWELVE that was supposed to come out from Mango Comics some years back? (Coincidentally, it's the same title from a present miniseries from Marvel). Here's a link...
http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/t/the12.htm
Hello guys,
You mean to say, they created this Pinoy team and later on killed them on the book?
Ok lang kasi sa akin na mali mali ang data nila from the start because I am thinking that they could correct them and develop them in the future and add more TRUE Pinoy, or at lease a more relevant Pinoy characters.
Pero since pinatay na kaagad nila wala nang pag asa pa.
Kaasar naman.
Baka kaya nila pinatay lahat, kasi nasabi ni Lenil na "oist! mga ugok! mali-ang mga itsura at pangalan ng ginawa nyo pinoy heroes"...
Or someone had told them since they already paid the writers and artist, naghabol nalang sila, and the best way is to kill them and re-launch them na tama ang itsura, pangalan at impormasyon.
Good thing here is that mayroon na pinoy chracters sa Marvel..bukod kay lolo Bishop...hahaha.
Reno, yeah that's it. although, seeing it again from the link you gave, di pala ganun kamukha, my memory mustve mixed the image of that big priest guy at the back tsaka yung female in knight armor sa middle. oh well. :P
Matt Fraction replies...
http://www.606studios.com/bendisboard/showpost.php?p=4772643&postcount=951
Well, matt's got a good point.
"I talked to a couple Pinoy friends, both here and in the Philippines (at one point even toyed with doing the whole scene in Tagalog)"
And seeing that he got Pinoy and Tagalog right, I don't think he doesn't have enough knowledge of our country.
I still love you, Mr. Fraction.
"Most US superheroes don't really get identified with the USA, so it's not much of a stretch to see Pinoy heroes who don't necessarily reflect their nation's identity."
You have nice points Reno, I just wish they made them well, relatable or familiar enough to Filipinos even if they are mostly generic and get killed off later. =(
Looks like Anitun survived . . .
http://www.marvel.com/catalog/?id=12338
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