In an age of globalization, India, a growing economic superpower, has picked up a lot from American pop culture. In his article Marvel Comics and Manifest Destiny, David Adesnik justifies Spider-Man's re-invention into an Indian character by giving reasons India is ready for their own Spider-Man, and showing places where it would be necessary to change the character by contrasting the new Spider-Man with the traditional American one due to cultural differences. While I do agree with Adesnik that there are reasons why even popular American comics might not fully resonate with other cultures, there is not adequate evidence that foreign countries reject American superheroes due to dissimilar morals. .
Superhero comics sell well in other countries, but according to Adesnik's article, "the two Spider-Man films each grosses more than $400 million overseas, just slightly more than they did domestically." Adesnik implies that although the idea behind superheroes is clearly interesting and engaging internationally, they are still not nearly as widely accepted as they are in the US. India, in particular, is a large consumer of superhero products; the Spider-Man 2 film grossed almost $7 million there in the opening weekend alone, according to The Hollywood Reporter. This may explain why Spider-Man was chosen for the superhero revamp. Spider-Man is not wealthy, handsome, popular, or born with his superpowershe is a nerd who screws up a lot but tries to make things right, cracks jokes, and has relatively weak superpowers. This makes him a more relatable character than other heroes, and he is well received in the world market because of it. .
At least, that is what it would seem. It is difficult to see the extent of the universality of a character when that character is of one's own country. Adesnik questions whether the seemingly universal morals that American superheroes have are quite as universal as they seem.
