Metrotopia, Tweet-Man

Had to document this before I forgot all about it.


Metrotopia last year, 2009 - the superhero contest.


All credit for the art to Nali. And most of script to MadHatter. Well, only most. And that's only 'coz he is too finicky to acknowledge when someone else has written better than he has (the comfort of knowing he'll never visit this place to refute this :D).


Well, happy reading. It is a tad sarcastic. And a lot more than just wee caustic. But it is fun! Yenjai fellas!

By:

Team ‘Bodhi Dharma and the Third Patriarch’

Super Hero ‘Tweet-Man’ - Fights his enemies by posting passive aggressive messages on Twitter.

USP:  In comics, the "major" strips are tiny black and white gag strips crammed together in your daily paper that dish up the same cat or doodled office, day after week after year. By contrast, web comics are like the Sunday weekend strips year round, with full colour, original ideas, and expansive illustrations that sprawl beyond the frame of your monitor.

Web 2.0 has captured a new zeitgeist: it has an enraptured demographic with its own role models, opinion makers and heroes. 

We are capturing on this very essence by caricaturing one of their biggest heroes – Shashi Tharoor or Tweet-Man, a man synonymous with the reach and influence of Web 2.0.

In Tweet-Man we have created a subversive, tongue in cheek comic strip that can stay relevant for as long as the Web stays relevant.

Super Powers:
· Mastery over the fine art of passive-aggression.
· Perfectly coiffed hair maintained by using a centuries old potion of the oldest herbs, coconut oil, and radioactive tuna. Uses his luxuriant hair growth to awe his enemies into submission.

Weaponry – BlackBerry, broadband internet connection

Sidekick: Special Officer Kutty

Location: New York/Delhi

Attire: Tweet-Man’s attire is marked by its simplicity: he stalks the streets of Delhi in his deceptively conformist garb of a mundu and kurta - conforming to the strict guidelines of his organization, ‘The Aam Ungli’. But alone in his room, with his Blackberry strapped on, and his Twitter account signed into, he picks from his many Liberace costumes and types away; fighting injustice, confronting allegations, and masking his intentions with denial, dissonance, and passive resistance.

Background Story: Born with a silver spoon and perfect hair, Tweet-man spent his formative years with the Jesuits, imbibing their colonial hangover. His stint with the Jesuits helps him perfect his skills with the pen and the alien tongue - skills requisite in his quest for passive-aggressive supremacy. He used his new found powers to pen down allegorical accounts of his resentment toward The Queen Witch which earned him her ire. The Queen Witch puts an immediate curb on Tweet's shenanigans, banishing him to the land of Happy Meals and Cherry Flavoured Colas. However, she did not anticipate that our superhero's path in exile would lead him straight to the nurturing ground of diplomacy; the ultimate school of passive aggression- United Inertia.  Here, Tweet-Man learns the tricks of the trade from the very best and quickly moves up the ranks to be the second in command to the head of United Inertia – Token Black. Unable to replace Token Black23w as the head of United Inertia Tweet-Man indulges in the last of his passive aggressive behaviour in New York by moving to India. Permanently.

Received with the usual brouhaha reserved for uncles with Toblerones and Marks and Spencer sweaters, Tweet-Man uses his perfect diction and a deceptively casual "foreign returned uncle" charm to win over the land of the Gods.

Tweet-Man is soon dispatched by God's own people to manage their affairs in Delhi where his troubles were to soon begin.

Tweet-Man’s face off with THE Holy Cow

 In the hallowed portals of power Tweet-Man comes across the Holy Cow, soon to be his arch nemesis. The Holy Cow with his austere hair growth finds Tweet-Man’s luxuriant hair despicable and decides to shear him to size.

 The holy cow gets ready to attack our hero. He unleashes his most potent weapon, the SPIN. The world is soon inundated with anti Tweet-Man propaganda, some even questioning the authenticity of what has to be Tweet-Man’s most prized possession – his hair. At the seat of power; in the hallowed portals of legislation; with nary a friend; our hero finds his cadence – Twitter.

 Tweet-Man decides to fight back the only way he knows how: 140 characters at a time. Tweet-Man inundates The Holy Cow with the most prolific of passive aggressive behaviour, and Twitter’s reach punctures The Holy Cow’s spin, and the bovine overlord’s put to pasture.

**Coming Attraction: How Tweet-Man’s perfectly coiffed hair accidentally saves the world!