A Tussle with the Muscle: Narayan Debnath’s Bantul the Great

This chapter situates the concept of the superhero in a turbulent geography where there are as many culturally adapted versions of the concept as possible. The ironic juxtaposition of ‘Bantul’ and ‘the great’ breaks the unwritten code of the hero/superhero cult and starts the journey of a new category whose name and appearance quite unconsciously parody his own self. The otherness of Bantul as a superhero is also revealed in the fact that he exceeds generic expectations; he does not have an origin story, costume, dual identity, or professed mission—four distinctive elements of the superhero genre—and yet we cannot deny his superhero status. This chapter delineates how the dilation of generic expectations by the inclusion of Bantul into the superhero league opens up a new possible world by reconfiguring the boundary of the superhero genre. This transcultural predicament of the superhero governs the central concern of this chapter and, in a way, anticipates the other areas that premise this book.