The 80's Kind of Superhero Returns

They were born out of the komik books, got trapped in limbo during the Martial Law years of the 70’s but when democracy returned to the orient pearl in 1986 the pinoy superheroes broke out and flew to the silver screens and the 80’s kind of superheroes were born. So, you ask what is an 80’s kind of superhero?

“It’s a theory!” laughs writer Ays De Guzman. “When we got the list of properties ABS-CBN got from the Ravelos, Flash Bomba kind’a stuck out because his origins and story followed those of the superhero movies from 80’s I watched as a kid.” A lot of superheroes from the film outfits of the 80’s were born out of the cinemas. Super Wan Tu Tri, Super Islaw, Kumander Bawang, Bb.Tsuperman, Super Inday, Kabayo Kids, etc. “All the superheroes from that period had one thing in common, Pinoy Folklore, and folklore is what Flash Bomba has that make him stand out from the rest of the superheroes from the Ravelo pantheon.” adds Ays.

The country has a lot of myths and legends which is a part of our culture and during the 80’s they somehow seeped through the pop cult phenomenon and a sort of “Golden Age” era of superheroes began. “I don’t know how the heck the writers back then pulled that off. I mean men in tights and cape just don’t mix with folklore stuff. But apparently they blurred the lines and made each superhero part of pinoy pop culture. I mean Super Islaw got powers from a magic crutch that an old ermitanyo gave him, and he even had to say magic words to activate it. He and Super Inday were battling giant spiders, vampires and demonic villains for crying out loud. Back then that was their definition of a villain, a Pinoy Villain mind you. Not something copied out of western comic books, and for that I’m proud to be a fan of those films. Ang mga characters na ito ang nagbigay ng kaibahan ng mga pinoy superheroes sa mga superheroes sa amerika. ”

Flash Bomba is all pinoy folklore. He got his super powers from nothing less than one of the strongest folkloric entity, the Tikbalang, which gave him his enormous hands and feet, granting him super strength and enhanced leaping ability. “Writing Flash Bomba was probably as hard as writing Isang Lakas I have to admit. We began creative work on Flash Bomba while we were still doing Kapitan Boom back in May. Then it ended and we found ourselves on the last script of Tiny Tony and we’re still having problems with Flash Bomba, I mean we just couldn’t get it off the ground. The problem was Flash Bomba is a new entity to us it was folkloric in origin and we had to learn how to handle it first.” But looks like the creative staff prevailed as Flash Bomba is now ready to kick ass on-air. “You should see his arch enemy Dark Horse I mean he’s straight out of folklore din but this time we added a twist.”

Folklore is something Pinoy Superheroes has that distinguishes them from all the other tight wearing crime fighters all over the world. It is their core, it is who they are supposed to be. Flash Bomba will air on February 7, Saturday at 6:00 pm on ABS-CBN.