Tara – A Bangladeshi Buddhist superhero
From davidlai.me
Comic book lovers from around the world would find this very interesting! The scriptwriters at Marvel Comics had adapted the popular Buddhist deity Tara into a superheroine character in an episode of the Spider-Man comics. It is interesting to see how Buddhism has infiltrated popular culture in America and the world over in this manner. After all, the comic has been a popular medium to entertain and also express different aspects of popular culture. Here’s the gist of this comic story:-
This superheroine’s name is Enigma (Tara Virango) and she is a native of Bangladesh. Enigma was never referred by this name in the two issues that she appeared in. ‘Enigma’ and her real name were revealed by Tony Stark in Civil War: Battle Damage Report. It was through her mutation from a nano-virus that she gained her superhuman powers that apparently gave her a mystical connection with the Buddhist goddess, Tara.
Enigma made her appearance in Peter Parker: Spider-Man (vol. 2) #48. In this episode, she sought to bring AGK Inc to justice for infecting the Bangladeshi village of Malpura and so she sought Spider-Man’s help in this matter. Apparently, AGK Corporation was commissioned by the CIA to develop an intelligent metal nano-virus that enhanced the latent mutant abilities of its victims. It was during the AGK’s experiments at Malpura that killed four thousand people. Tara was one of the survivors of the experiment, which gave her supernatural abilities.
Tara eventually moved to New York City and adopted the identity of Enigma and identified herself as Tara, the Buddhist goddess. She stole the fifty-million-dollar Star of Persia diamond from AGK’s vaults and bumped into Spider-Man. She contacted him via a series of psychic messages that showed him flashes of her memories of the Malpura disaster. That night, she traced Spider-Man to his apartment and led him across the city, which ended when she presented him with a red and yellow scarf (something akin to a khata). Then she bashed him in the head and when Spider-Man woke up, he finds himself in AGK’s headquarters.
Simultaneously at AGK, Enigma met up with AGK head, Kirkland and his security director, Corman. She demanded AGK pay an additional fifty million dollars in compensation to be paid to the Malpura survivors in return for the Star of Persia. Midway through negotiations, Corman refused and threatened her with a squirt gun filled with a virus that would kill her instantly. At this moment, Spider-Man arrived to the rescue and broke the standoff. Both of the superheroes pursued Corman into a research lab where they fought. Suddenly, Corman accidentally shattered some of the test tubes unto himself, which quickly transformed himself into the virus and disappeared through the floor. At this point, Enigma disappeared as well. She later had a brief encounter with Peter Parker on the streets of New York. She thanked him for his help and disappeared through the crowd.
Mister Singh, an Indian religious guru tells Spider-Man that a Buddhist goddess had visited him.
Spider-Man receives a series of psychic messages from Enigma
The superheroined Enigma or Tara Virango makes her appearance in the Spider-Man series.
Cover for the issue she was featured in
Source: http://www.davidlai.me/2013/02/17/tara-a-bangladeshi-buddhist-superhero/
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Buddhist culture pervades American culture too, one can tell by he names of some of the Americans. And Tara is a favourite amongst US citizens. I wonder is it because it is so easy to pronounce it 🙂
I have not laid hands on a Marvel comic for a long time now and would not know what is happening to the Super Heroes. Thank you for highlighting the presence of Tara the heroine.
I love this!!! She is indeed a superhero… a Divine Superhero! 😉 Imagine a comic illustrating all the Buddhas!
On a more spiritual level, the imprints that it would create in the minds of children subconsciously would be so beneficial!!! What a great idea. Wish there would be more of such blending of the spiritual within samsaric elements.
This is a very interesting thing. Thank you for sharing the existence of a hero based of Buddhist lore. It is so cool 😀 It is a shame that Tara never returned as a recurring character :'( I hope that there will be more Buddhist superheroes that appear in the west Hehe.