Two years ago, she was first introduced as a rape-survivor-turned superheroine by Ram Devineni in a comic book, where she fought her abusers with the help of a goddess. Priya's Shakti was a hard-hitting comic book which touched a topic plaguing India's crime scene – rape. The book showed its protagonist Priya as a young rural woman, who is gang-raped by village goons and shamed by her family and the village community, leading her to run away from home. With the help of goddess Parvati, Priya fights all the ill feelings that surround her and flies around India on a tiger and gets the strength to fight off sexual offenders to save other women.
The sequel to the comic book - Priya's Mirror - is out after two years
The sequel of the comic is titled Priya's Mirror, where she holds up a mirror to acid attack victims and tells them that they shouldn't hide their scars. Devineni, who is based in the US, told the media at the book's launch at the Comic Con in Mumbai, that he got inspiration for the sequel comic from Laxmi, an acid attack survivor who is now a fashion model and has been active in raising awareness and jobs for acid attack victims. Another acid attack victim and fashion blogger recently made headlines when she walked the ramp at the prestigious New York Fashion Week.
Devineni, along with filmmaker Paromita Vohra and artist Dan Goldman, have created Priya.
Priya's Mirror is the second comic book in a series of five, and the next comic book will be talking about the issue of sex trafficking. The trio aims to focus on crime against women which is on the rise in the world, and especially in India, which is why they decided to create an Indian superheroine who gets her powers from a goddess.
You can read the comic book, or download the e-book!
The book was launched in the US recently. The latest Dan Goldman comic book about an Indian superheroine, Priya's Mirror will also be available as a free e-book on Apple which will come with an interactive app to bring the characters alive, in order to get the message across to people.
