Comic book artists create spectacular Indonesian versions of Spider-Man for #Spidersona meme

Coming out late last year, CGI animated action movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse earned big business at the box office and critical acclaim for its unique exploration of the Spider-Man mythos, highlighting many of the heroes that have wielded the web-head’s powers over the years besides the series’ primary protagonist, Peter Parker.

The film captured the imagination of many who envisioned what their own personal version of Spider-Man might look like, inspiring the viral #spidersona meme, which has been used by artists all over the world to offer up their own unique takes on the iconic Marvel Comics superhero.

Indonesia’s many talented comic book artists have been among them, including Rhoald Marcellius, a local illustrator who has done the artwork for a number of Marvel Comic series such as Iron Man and Contest of Champions. Late last year he posted his own uniquely Indonesian take on Spider-Man, whose secret identity is Pitung Parker (the name and the character’s design no doubt being inspired in part by Indonesian folk hero Si Pitung).

 

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.Pitung Parker. – Hahahahaha! XD #spidersona

A post shared by Rhoald Marcellius (@thepumpkinbear) on Dec 29, 2018 at 8:31am PST

On the first day of 2019, he also shared this alternate, modern-take on Pitung Parker:

 

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Modern version of Pitung Parker. – Gambar pertama di 2019. Masih mencoba betawinisasi #spidersona. 😂

A post shared by Rhoald Marcellius (@thepumpkinbear) on Dec 31, 2018 at 10:04am PST

Rhoald didn’t stop there — in an Instagram story he shared his awesome versi lokal (local version) takes on Spider-Man’s rogues gallery, including the Green Goblin, Venom, Dr. Octopus and even newspaper boss J. Jonah Jameson

Another Indonesian artist who got in on the #Spidersona fun is Is Yuniarto, who shared this sweet take on a Spider-Man called Kalangga (real name Petir Parikesit). 

 

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Petir Parikesit / Kalangga. Petir adalah remaja yang berprofesi sebagai pembuat ukiran dinding dari desa di Selatan Trowulan. Suatu hari desanya diserang gerombolan penyamun, Petir lari ke hutan dan bersembunyi di sebuah gua, ternyata di sana bersarang seekor laba-laba beracun yang berusia ratusan tahun… #adiwirawilwatikta #spiderman #spiderverse

A post shared by Is Yuniarto (@is.yuniarto) on Dec 30, 2018 at 2:47am PST

Yuniarto is also well known for his wicked wayang kulit (shadow puppet) versions of superheroes, as can be seen in this poster.

 

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Spiderman Into the Wayangverse. The Spectacular Web-swinger in Javanese wayang kulit style. #spiderman #spiderverse

A post shared by Is Yuniarto (@is.yuniarto) on Dec 14, 2018 at 4:54am PST

Perhaps one day Marvel Comics could be convinced to produce a Spider-Man: Nusantara (they did do an Indian version of Spider-Man named Pavitr Prabhakar a few years back). Here’s hoping Pitung Parker or Kalangga can make it into the Spider-Verse sequel!