Morality has always been an important theme in literature, and this trend has continued itself into comics and graphic novels significantly. Starting from the clear distinctions between good and evil, many comics have also dealt with extremely delicate and nuanced issues like Power, Immortality, Desire etc. My favorite so far has been Alan Moore's works. "Watchmen" explores the ideas about how much power is a man justified in possessing (Dr. Manhattan is practically a God), how culling of human race is justified if it protects it from pushing its own self to extinction and so on and so forth. His graphic novel, "V for Vendetta", deals with Liberty, Freedom and Dictatorship along with ideas of terrorism and free will. As you can see, comics have clearly transcended their early roles as kid-friendly, trite fiction and have taken on the mantle of a genre with literary merit.
Indian Comics however, have been slow to jump on the bandwagon. Morality is one of the most under-utilized themes in India. In most comics, ranging across all the time-periods (the Golden, Silver and Contemporary ages) and publication houses, morality has remained practically black and white with the Villains clearly evil and the Heroes irreproachably good. This is in stark contrast with the American comics where even Superman, the poster boy for hope and virtue, isn't beyond reproach. Many story-lines have questioned how much power is justified in the hands of one person. The "Injustice : Gods Among Us" straight up paints him as a villain as he uses his near limit-less power to turn the Earth into more or less a police state by incarcerating or killing every villain. In the Marvel cross-over series, "Civil War" something similar happens as both warring factions, led by Iron Man and Captain America respectively, have justified motivations and arguments and there is no objective good or bad side and the reader is free to choose a faction that appeals to him to support without feeling any guilt for supporting the bad guys. No such comics have ever been published in India though. Comic Firms have sometimes pit its heroes against one another but there has never been any real conflict between them and more often than not, it has been a weak excuse to increase sales of cross-over issues. For example, Dhruv has an extremely strict no-killing policy while Doga executes crminals by the dozen in every issue and yet the two of them have never really clashed upon their ideological and operational differences beyond a cursory verbal acknowledgement of the fact.
Another important thing that we should address here is the flexibility of morality in Indian Comics. Morality isn't absolute across any comic Universe in India, with different characters having different morals that is held absolute in the universe of that particular character. This might seem like a good thing at the first glance as it reinstates our faith in the fact that the characters have their own personalities but it is not so much when you consider that the moralities are absolute in their respective universe. This does away with any possible ambiguity that can be utilized to write compelling story-lines. For example, in titles like Doga, Aatank Harta Nagraj, Dynamite (Diamond Comics) etc., killing villains isn't much of a big deal and the readers support the actions of these heroes simply because it is loud and clear by the tone of these comics that this is the only way to go about it. However, in titles like Dhruv and many others (across publication houses), killing is seen as morally wrong and the readers again support incarceration and legal punishment as the way to deal with criminals without a doubt. As a result what we get is a character universe which may have some brilliant questions to raise about morality but the questions are stifled as the morality in that particular universe is assumed as an objective truth, beyond any challenge.
Indian Comics however, have been slow to jump on the bandwagon. Morality is one of the most under-utilized themes in India. In most comics, ranging across all the time-periods (the Golden, Silver and Contemporary ages) and publication houses, morality has remained practically black and white with the Villains clearly evil and the Heroes irreproachably good. This is in stark contrast with the American comics where even Superman, the poster boy for hope and virtue, isn't beyond reproach. Many story-lines have questioned how much power is justified in the hands of one person. The "Injustice : Gods Among Us" straight up paints him as a villain as he uses his near limit-less power to turn the Earth into more or less a police state by incarcerating or killing every villain. In the Marvel cross-over series, "Civil War" something similar happens as both warring factions, led by Iron Man and Captain America respectively, have justified motivations and arguments and there is no objective good or bad side and the reader is free to choose a faction that appeals to him to support without feeling any guilt for supporting the bad guys. No such comics have ever been published in India though. Comic Firms have sometimes pit its heroes against one another but there has never been any real conflict between them and more often than not, it has been a weak excuse to increase sales of cross-over issues. For example, Dhruv has an extremely strict no-killing policy while Doga executes crminals by the dozen in every issue and yet the two of them have never really clashed upon their ideological and operational differences beyond a cursory verbal acknowledgement of the fact.
Another important thing that we should address here is the flexibility of morality in Indian Comics. Morality isn't absolute across any comic Universe in India, with different characters having different morals that is held absolute in the universe of that particular character. This might seem like a good thing at the first glance as it reinstates our faith in the fact that the characters have their own personalities but it is not so much when you consider that the moralities are absolute in their respective universe. This does away with any possible ambiguity that can be utilized to write compelling story-lines. For example, in titles like Doga, Aatank Harta Nagraj, Dynamite (Diamond Comics) etc., killing villains isn't much of a big deal and the readers support the actions of these heroes simply because it is loud and clear by the tone of these comics that this is the only way to go about it. However, in titles like Dhruv and many others (across publication houses), killing is seen as morally wrong and the readers again support incarceration and legal punishment as the way to deal with criminals without a doubt. As a result what we get is a character universe which may have some brilliant questions to raise about morality but the questions are stifled as the morality in that particular universe is assumed as an objective truth, beyond any challenge.
This trend needs to stop if comics have to gain acceptance as a form of literature with literary merit. Not questioning the morality of the actions of both the heroes as well as the villains (something I talked about in a previous post "Crime in Indian Comics") leads to flat story-lines and non-compelling characters. There has been an upward swing in the recent years but the progress has been far too slow. Writers like Abhishek Sagar ("Axe", "Alter Ego", "Genius" - Raj Comics) and Shamik Dasgupta ("Daksha" - Level 10) have incorporated characters into their stories which are grey and have justifiable and almost virtuous motivations but questionable actions which engages the reader without being pedantic or patronizing. The new generation of writers have shown promise in creating engaging story-lines with grey areas of morality but it is time that the trend takes an upwards swing or quick considering the Internet has introduced fans to work from all over the world and their tastes are swiftly becoming more demanding. With the meteoric rise of Marvel Studios, comics are experiencing a resurgence in popularity in the mainstream and this the perfect time for comics to make a mark for themselves in the mainstream. This can, however, happen only the quality of the comics in India can give competition to the more established titles, something I believe can happen. The Indian comic community has a lot of talent and potential, what it lacks is a tendency to take risks and monetary returns. I will deal with these problems in some later post. But for now, it is my highest recommendation that writers step out of the crib and create stories that not only entertain the reader but also force him to contemplate and maybe, even confuse him about what he/she knew to be true for a fact.
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