(More
excerpts from the 1985 unpublished interviews with Mars Ravelo)
Darna
is the most popular character in Philippine komiks. Its iconic popularity is so
well-established that just like the Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s Superman,
the character that inspired her creation, it transcends racial and cultural
borders. Darna is not only loved by millions of Filipinos, but her charm has
attracted fans from all nationality, all over the world. Even in the manga and
Marvel universes, you’ll find Darna fanatics. There’s even a fan club of Darna
in, of all places, Russia.
WHY
DARNA IS SO POPULAR?
I would rank Darna as one if not the greatest among Mars Ravelo's works. What
makes Darna unique from any other superhero characters has been
the object of several write-ups. If you read her stories, saw her films and
television series, you would probably say she’s a superhero like most others,
can fly, endowed with superstrength, champions the cause of good and justice,
etc. So, what makes her different?
If
I remembered correctly, Mars Ravelo once said: “Si Darna, nakuha niya ang
damdamin at panlasa ng mga sumusubaybay sa pakikipagsapalaran niya.” (Darna,
she captured the emotion and taste of those who followed her adventures.) Who
wouldn’t?
A young barrio lass, living a plain and
simple life together with her grandmother and younger brother, is bestowed a
power to fight injustice and all forms of evil. People saw themselves in her
and in the hope, no matter how mystical, she brings. The simplicity and
fluidity of Ravelo’s story combined with the uniqueness of his story-telling
style are also factors inherent in Darna’s iconic popularity. Ravelo is no
longer around to write or supervise the writing of Darna’s continuing stories,
but the legacy of the superheroine he created lives on. For seven decades
spanning four generations of fans, her name – Darna – still soars sky-high.
DARNA’S
EVOLUTION: THE GOOD AND THE BAD
Darna’s
character and image had gone through several changes and twists from the
original simple story. While some fans like this evolution, majority don’t. Indeed,
if you based it on the critical reaction of fans in every walk of life, every time there
is a sudden alteration of her character, image or even her powers, you'll know they are against it. Majority would prefer the original Darna, unblemished, beautiful, sexy, alluring, but can kick the wits of any villain she encounters.
Recent
writers had used the Marvel style of incorporating the so-called multiverse
(either “multiple universe” or “multiple version”) in continuing her saga and
adventures. In one film (Darna: Ang
Pagbabalik, 1994), she was given powers like that of Superman. In another
post-Ravelo story in Super Action Komiks,
a scenario of three Darna was narrated. Still another story forcibly connected
her with the Adarna bird, which is contrary to Ravelo’s concept. Some
illustrators even showcased a change of image, giving her a different costume
and outlook. Still others gave her an Amazonian physique, which many fans, both
male and female, considered abhoring. For today’s writer and illustrators, for
all intent and purposes, she should remain sexy and alluring.
WHO’S
THE ORIGINAL AND WHO’S THE COPYCAT?
In
all of Darna’s history, one controversy refused to give up: Was she a copycat
of Wonder Woman? Or if I may boldly asked, could it be possible that it’s the
other way around – Mars Ravelo’s concept was stolen from him? This is
especially so when you look at and scrutinize the circumstances and
coincidences behind the creation and publication of these two characters.
In my unpublished 1985 interviews with
Ravelo, he admitted that when he was in his early youth, he was quite
gregarious and talkative. He loves telling his stories to both his Filipino and
American friends and acquaintances. When he first saw Superman from a newspaper
comics strip brought by American soldiers, he so loved it that he boasted he
would create a female counterpart in Philippine komiks. According to him, it
took three weeks to one month of conceptualizing before he was able to form his
story. “Ang dami kasing pumapasok sa isip kong ideya. Pinili ko ang
pinaka-simple.” (There are a lot of ideas going inside my mind. I chose the simplest.)
“Alam mo naisip kong gawin yung Varga
para itapat kay Superman. Lalake yung sa mga Amerikano, babae yung sa atin. Di
ba ayos?” (You know I thought of creating Varga as a counterpart of Superman.
Male on the part of the Americans, female on our part. Isn’t that okay?). Then
he revealed something else: “Pero alam mo, hindi naman Varga ang unang pangalan
ni Darna. Atin-atin lang ito ha.... Ang una kong itinawag sa kaniya ay
Suprema.” (But you know, Varga was not the first name of Darna. This is just
between the two us.... The first name I gave her is Suprema.)
SUPREMA, THE NAME
BEFORE VARGA
Many in the komiks world know that
before Darna, there was Varga. But did you know that Varga was actually the
second name. When Ravelo was telling his “Superman female counterpart” story,
the name he was calling her was “Suprema,” which is the female equivalent of a
“Supremo” (highest rank leader), a nom de
guerre of Andres Bonifacio. Ravelo intended Suprema to be an all-powerful
and indestructible woman just like Superman. She would be a Filipina given
supernatural power by a diwata (fairy). When asked, “why not just call her
Superwoman?” Ravelo answered, “Ayaw ko kasi siyang parang ginaya lang. Naisip
ko, para maging naiiba siya.” (I don’t want her to appear like a copycat. I thought,
to make her different.) Ravelo didn’t want to bootleg the character he so
admired. “Naisip ko ring gumamit ng pang-uring tatatak sa isip ng tao. Naisip
ko ang salitang ‘kamangha-mangha.’ Kaya ang itinawag ko sa kaniya ay Suprema –
ang kamangha-manghang dilag.” (I also thought of using an adjective that will
be retained in the minds of people. I thought of the word ‘wonder.’ So I called
her Suprema – the Wonder Woman.) This was in the middle of 1939. This should be
the year of the birth origin of Darna.
Ravelo had a change of mind, however,
and opted not to use the name Suprema. “May nagsabi kasi sa akin na baka may
magalit at sabihin pang iniinsulto ko si Bonifacio. Taga-Cavite ako. Alam mo
naman noon.” (Somebody told me that I could get the ire of some people who may
think I’m insulting Bonifacio. I’m from Cavite. You know the situation during
those times.). The controversy between Emilio Aguinaldo, who hailed from
Cavite, and what happened to Andres Bonifacio and his brother were still an unresolved
problem at the time. So, Ravelo had to change her name.
“Nag-isip ako ng panibagong tawag na
naiiba. Tapos nakakita ako ng dibuho ng mga seksing babae, ang tawag ng mga
Kano ay Varga Girls. Ang gaganda ng mga dibuho. Doon ko kinuha ang pangalang
Varga.” (I try thinking for another name that is unique. Then I saw some
illustration of sexy girls, which the Americans called Varga Girls. The illustrations
were so beautiful. That is where I got the name Varga.)
When Ravelo changed the name to Varga,
he also changed some of the premises of the story. The superheroine will no
longer be a Filipina given superpower by a diwata,
but an alien entity will used a young barrio girl as vessel to appear and fight
evil. The idea of a “vessel,” a child turning into a
superhero after shouting a word is something he borrowed from another character
he admired, Captain Marvel. From his nickname “Mars” (also the name of the Greek god of war and the fourth
planet from the sun) and its Tagalog equivalent “Marte,” he purportedly used as
the name of Varga’s homeworld. So, the Philippines’ first superheroine was born
– “Varga, ang Kamangha-manghang Dilag mula sa Planetang Marte” (Varga, the
Wonder Woman from the Planet Mars).
It came to pass that Ravelo borrowed the
name Varga from the Varga Girls, which were painted pin-ups that Peruvian
artist Joaquin Alberto Vargas (1896-1982) created for Esquire
magazine (1940). There was another reason why he chose Varga, but as of this
writing I couldn’t recall the complete details as much of the notes of my 1985
interviews with him are gone. Though I remember that it also has something to
do with anagrams.
For Varga’s alter-ego, Ravelo has a
galaxy of names mostly beginning with the letter “D” (I wasn’t able to ask
why): Diana, Digna, Dina, Donata, Donna, Nova, Olivia, etc. He
saw one Varga Girl name Diana illustrated in the cover of a Lucky Strike cigarette pack given to him by an American soldier. “Mahilig ako sa mitolohiya. Kaya napansin ko
agad ang pangalang Diana. Siya ang diyosa ng pangangaso at ng buwan. Gusto ko
yun. Pero gusto ko rin na katutubo ang dating.” (I like mythology. So the name
Diana immediately caught my attention. She is the goddess of hunt and of the
moon. I like it. But I also like a native impression.) Ravelo like playing with
words and anagrams. He likes leaving hidden signatures in his works. One anagram of
Diana is Nadia. Then he noticed that if he replaced the “I” with an “R,” the
first letter of his surname, the name “Narda” could be formed. “Bingo!” He
said. “Naalala ko ang pangalan ng isang kakilala ko noong bata pa ako – si
Narda.” (I remember the name of one of my acquaintances when I was a kid –
Narda). Incidentally, it is also noteworthy that Dyana, a character in another of Ravelo's early works, “Ric Benson,” is also believed to be an offshoot of the Varga Girl, Diana.
Ravelo drew the illustrations of Varga
himself, the first issue being just a one-page, six-frame, layout, with a
first-frame showcase of Varga. He admitted that his drawing was bordering on
the unrealistic, “Malayo sa hugis” (far-off shape). “Naisip ko baka isa yun sa
mga dahilan kaya inayawan ng mga publishers.” (I thought maybe that is one of
the reasons why the publishers rejected it)
FEMALE SUPERHERO
WILL NOT SELL?
“Natatandaan ko inalok ko yung istorya
sa Liwayway, Salinlahi, Mabuhay, pero
tinanggihan nila. Pakiusap ko pa sa isang publisher na para sana sa kaarawan*
ko iyon. Pero hindi raw bebenta ang isang babaeng superhero.” (I remembered
offering the story to Liwayway, Salinlahi, Mabuhay, but they turned it down. I even pleaded to one publisher
that it would be for my birthday*. But they say female superhero will not sell).
“Sabi pa nila, manatili na lang daw ako sa mga kuwento ng pagpapatawa.” (They
even said, I should just stay in stories that make people laugh**). *RAVELO WAS BORN
ON OCTOBER 9, 1916, AND HE STARTED HIS CAREER IN KOMIKS AS A **WRITER-CARTOONIST OF HUMOROUS EVERYDAY
SITUATIONS OF ORDINARY PEOPLE.
That was not the case with Ravelo, who
is a versatile and prolific writer. He likes writing in all genres, excel and
be number one in it. “Gusto kong subukan lahat. Gusto kong maging mahusay sa
lahat.” (I like to try everything. I like to excel in everything).
BOOTLEGGED
WONDER AND SPOOFED MARVEL
Ravelo was quite disappointed when a
“Wonder Woman” character came out in All
Star Comic #8 in December 1941. He sincerely believed that much of the
concepts of his Suprema (Varga), his kamangha-manghang
dilag (Wonder Woman) was bootlegged and allegedly reconstituted in that
character.
Unable to do anything, he kept his
angst to himself, and later vent out a sort of retaliation on the Captain
Marvel character that he was starting to like. This time, he admitted doing the
spoofing himself, and out came Captain Barbell. He tailor-made the character
Tenteng (Captain Barbell’s alter-ego) to Dolphy, who was then a comical skinny
actor, as a pun or insult, as opposed to the matinee-idol type Billy Batson
(Captain Marvel’s alter-ego). He specifically told illustrator Jim Fernandez
about that, and you can see the obvious similarity between Dolphy and Tenteng
in Fernandez’ drawings (“Captain Barbell,” Pinoy
Komiks, 1963). He even intended the character to have a funny
transformation – that Captain Barbell would turn into a skinny bungling
superhero. (Un)Fortunately, Captain Barbell became a great hit and Dolphy made
his character Tenteng quite a sensation. So, Ravelo changed his mind and
continued the legacy of Captain Barbell.
In
a sense, Captain Barbell owes its existence to the bootlegging of Darna’s
predecessor character.
ANOTHER SUPREMA?
It is an admitted fact that Wonder
Woman (All Star Comics #8, December
1941) was published first before Varga (Bulaklak, Hiyas ng Tahanan Vol. 4 Number 17, on July 23, 1947) or Darna (Pilipino
Komiks #77, May 13, 1950), but this is only because the publishers that
Ravelo approached in 1939-1941 turned him down. Then came the Japanese invasion
and occupation of the Philippines, the onset of the Pacific phase of World War
II. Ravelo’s female superhero was shelved for more than five years. It was only
after the war that he was able to again offer his works, this time to Bulaklak (Hiyas ng Tahanan) magazine. Now, as to who is the
copycat among the two, I only recently confirmed.
In the book Secret History of Wonder Woman (2014) by Jill Lepore, it was
mentioned that William Moulton Marston (1893-1947) a.k.a. Charles Moulton named
his superhero “Suprema, the Wonder Woman.” Coincidence?! The probability is
mathematically staggering! It was also revealed in Lepore’s book that Marston’s
character was only called “Wonder Woman” when comics editor and script writer Sheldon
Mayer (1917-1991) dropped the name Suprema from the initial name given by Marston to
publisher Maxwell Charles Gaines (1895-1947), which coincidentally also
published Superman. Another coincidence is the name of Wonder Woman’s clandestine
identity – Diana Prince. Well, maybe, we can accept the fact that Marston also
love the Varga Girl name Diana.
Backtracking, it is noteworthy that Marston
only got his “opportunity” when Gaines saw his interview in Family Circle and afterward hired him as
a consulting psychologist for the National Periodicals and All-American Publications, two of the companies that would merged to form DC Comics. Marston immediately proposed to Gaines the possibility of
publishing a female superhero. Like Ravelo, he also encountered difficulty in
convincing the publisher with regards to a female superhero’s ability to sell.
But unlike Ravelo’s experience of rejections with Filipino publishers, Marston
was given a chance by Gaines.
The revelation in Lepore’s book
brought up one question after another in my mind. Why would Marston gave such a
name – Suprema? Where did he get it? Or the better question, perhaps, is where did
he hear the name? Don’t tell me it’s the female equivalent of the word
“supreme.” That will bring up a million laughs. Mayer even said that Marston’s concept of the
female superhero was “so vague that so many revisions were necessary to make it
unambiguous.” Marston was in the Philippines
in the late 1930s up to the third quarter of 1940. Did he overhear Ravelo’s
storytelling? Did he bootleg Ravelo’s idea and turn it into his own? Evidences are being uncovered one after another that indeed Darna is the original.
WHERE IS
PARADISE ISLAND?
Another
casing point is the place where Wonder Woman supposedly came from. In Moulton’s
story, “Wonder Woman” came from what was supposedly called “Paradise Island.” It
is here where the plane of American intelligence operative, Captain Steve
Trevor, crash-landed. The island is inhabited by Amazons ruled by Queen Hippolyta,
mother of Diana (Wonder Woman’s alter ego). This is also another vague part in
Moulton’s story. According to the early scriptwriters of Wonder Woman, it was
implied that the location of Paradise Island was somewhere in the Pacific.
Where? This add more confusion to the storyline since the antagonists in
Moulton’s Wonder Woman story were Nazis.
In the
Philippines, there are two islands that are called “Isla de Paraiso” (Paradise
Island) since the Spanish time: Mindoro and Samal islands (in the Davao Gulf). Nowhere
else in the world was there another island called by this name during the
1940s. There are also American military bases in the Philippines, which can be
construed as the origin or failed destination of Captain Trevor’s plane. Many
aspects of the initial Wonder Woman’s storyline were unclear (or perhaps
deliberately obscured). This is admitted by its scriptwriters. They had to
“patch” the story as they go along. In fact, in his interviews, Moulton was so
inconsistent in his answers with regards to Wonder Woman that both writers and
fans were so confused.
Incidentally,
the “present” name of Paradise Island – Themyscira – was only given on February
1987, in the relaunch of Wonder Woman
Vol. 2 No.1. It was taken from Themyscyra (with a “y” instead of “i”), the
capital city of the Amazons in Greek mythology. From 1941 to 1987, no mention
of Themyscira can be found in all of the comics that Wonder Woman appeared. It
was not in Moulton’s story. Indeed, even Themyscira is not “original” to Moulton.
The location of the island had also been changed several times depending on the
whims of later scriptwriters.
OF FATE AND
CIRCUMSTANCE
The year Marston and Gaines died,
1947, was in a twist of fate the year Mars Ravelo got his opening for the
publication of Varga (Karma working here or what?). Inside the pages of Bulaklak (Hiyas ng Tahanan) #17, on
July 23, 1947, Varga began her story: “In Barrio Masambong, not far from
Manila, there lies a small hut. Here live Narda and Ding, in the company of
their Lola Asay. They are orphaned and indigent. They ask people for alms while
Narda sings accompanied by Ding’s harmonica. This is how they were able to make
ends meet with their grandmother. One night, the two were with other kids
playing hide and seek.....”
Contrary to what the editors of the
other publications said about a female superhero, Varga became very popular
with the readers. But by some twist of circumstance, the name Varga became the
ownership of Bulaklak magazine (during those times, intellectual
property right is not yet in effect) and when Ravelo left the publication in
1949 after a falling out with its editor, Varga stayed behind. Ravelo took
Varga’s personality, revised her costume, and brought her to Pilipino Komiks,
and renamed the character Darna, from the anagram of Varga’s alter-ego Narda.
On
May 13, 1950, inside the pages of Pilipino Komiks #77, Darna, the original
Filipino superhero, donned a blue bikini with crimson red stars, red sash, golden wings on her
forehead, and knee-high stiletto (probably diluted from the aftereffects of
seeing Varga Girls pin-ups), and drawn and illustrated by Nestor Redondo, started her adventures
battling the snake-haired woman Valentina. Rosa del Rosario (1917-2006), Manila’s “Golden
Age” movie queen, portrayed Darna on the silver screen on May 31, 1951, this time with the crimson red bikini and white sash.
It was the blockbuster of the era!
And
the rest is history!
THE GALAXY OF DARNAS
DRAWN BY VARIOUS ARTIST
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| By markovah |
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| By chlei-pinoyexchange |
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| By gammaknight-monsanto |
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| By maehao |
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| By comicartcommunity |
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| By waversphil |
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| By ryanorosco |
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| By hasmot-jennyjasminlacay |
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| By g_spot1 |
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| By mazingerpip |
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| By jagr10-josegutierrez |
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| By redgvicente |
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| By ianar |
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| By demidemi |
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| By glee-chan |
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| By jdan |
Here’s
to put the stone in the right place:
Darna
telling it upfront to Wonder Woman with a couple of whacks in the eyes while
Captain Barbell and Shazam (formerly Captain Marvel) looked on. My concept and
illustrated by Rocel Siena.
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| Concept by Ernee
Lawagan and illustrated by Rocel Siena. |
And
for the finale, something for the record.
Darna goes international with this illustration
from Faye Villanueva-Chelabian. Who needs the Avengers when Darna is here. Come
to think of it, Darna’s mystical stone predates Marvel’s Infinity Gems by a
quarter of a century in comics.
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| Illustration by Faye
Villanueva-Chelabian |
