'Is there a context?': Shashi Tharoor after spotting ‘sad superheroes of Kerala’

A Twitter user tweeted photos of sad-looking Marvel and DC characters including Superman, Batman, and Iron Man but the people wearing costumes were not the actors who played them which seemed to surprise Shashi Tharoor.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is quite active on Twitter, on Friday reacted to some images showing "sad superheroes in Kerala" and asked, "what are these amazing people doing dressed like this anyway?"

The creator of these images Arun Nura explained this photo saying, "Batman worried about his crops are being attacked by bats, Palakkad". (Instagram/arun.nura)

A Twitter user Anupr3 tweeted photos of sad-looking Marvel and DC characters including Superman, Batman, and Iron Man but the people wearing costumes were not the actors who played them. “What are these amazing people doing dressed like this anyway? Is there a context? An explanation?” Tharoor asked in the replies.

Turns out, the pictures belonged to a person named Arun Nura who describes himself as an animator and originally shared them on Instagram. “Sad superheroes in Kerala,” he captioned the images, a total of seven of them, which were artificially generated artwork. On Batman standing in the middle of a field under an umbrella, Arun wrote, “Batman worried about his crops being attacked by bats, Palakkad, Wonder woman struggling with washing clothes, Kozhikode, a boring day for Iron man, Thrissur…”.

Highlighting a few other places in Kerala, the artists further listed, “Spiderman was caught while stealing coconut and forced to do work in a construction site, Kollam, Superman being sad not seeing her lover Black Widow in the last bus, Trivandrum, Superman about to cry inside a tea shop in Ulloor, Trivandrum, Black Widow tired and sleeping in a paddy field after whole night's work, Alappuzha."

Since the post went viral, netizens were showering love on Arun’s work as compliments keep pouring in his comments. With over 50,000 likes, people are thrilled at his artwork and they asked for more.

“Where is Thor?” asked a user.

“I need Homelander too,” said another, referring to one of the antagonists of the comic book series ‘The Boys'. “That ain’t iron man, that's iron deficiency man,” a person joked, reacting to the post.

Recently, AI-generated art has really picked up as its enthusiasts call it the “next big thing”. The new art form has also managed interest among art collectors. However, it has also stirred debate as traditional artists remain fearful that it could take over their jobs and some continue to be of the view that AI diminishes artists' position in the whole picture.