Is it a bird? Is it a plane....OR superhero ?

Mumbai, Aug 5 (UNI) From humble beginning meant for kids and geeks, they have worked their way to being icons of popular culture. Today, they are a major money spinning franchise. Hollywood has lined up 15 projects for 2008-09 releases. These include Iron Man, Thor, Spiderman-4, Volverine and Captain America.

Yes, we are talking about superheroes. Those muscled men and well toned women who fly around and wear skin tight outfits and underwears on the outside.

Comic superheroes are the US invention and date back to the comic books of 30s namely DC Comics(Detective comics) and Marvel Comics.

The first ever superhero to appear in comics was Superman in 1938, followed by Captain America, Superman, Batman and a host of others.

Their role usually came down to nobly protecting the innocent, fighting off bad guys or super villains, the system or a crocked government and defending the US or the world and its way of life.

Throughout the decades, from comic books to TV serials and then movies, superheroes have managed to carve a niche.

'Superman' of 1978, is considered to be the first modern day superhero movie and with the advent of special effect softwares and technical advancement in production techniques and equipment, superhero movies today are more real, glitzy and 'believable.' This has made superheroes very bankable at box office. Last few years have seen strong collections from the genre with X-Men, Hellboy and Spiderman series earning high revenues.

And 2007 seems to be no exception where superheroes (for that matter 'real life' heroes like Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone are making the cash registers ringing at the box office.

Though India does not have a culture of superheroes, not even in comics, we seem to enjoy it (maybe they remind us of our Bollywood hunks with their goonda bashing powers!) when they hit the screens.

'Spiderman-3' opened with 360-400 prints, with Bombay circuit alone accounting for 135 prints. 'Fantastic Four' also did decent business in the metros and one can expect 'The Transformers', another flick from Marvel, to rake in big money when it is released.

'The Transformers' has already broken 'Spiderman-3s' US box office takings at US 155.8 million dollars in its first six day and is expected to hit the Indian screens on the 17th of this month.

So if you want to escape from the city's heat, rains and drag of everyday life, just wait for the next superhero(es) when they come to town.

UNI