Read Online Age of Shiva (The Pantheon Series) by James Lovegrove - Free Book Online
Authors: James Lovegrove
Tags: Science-Fiction
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probably be biting painfully into her crotch by the end of a hard night’s burgling. Thor’s bulky cape would get in the way when swinging his hammer. The hood sometimes worn by Green Arrow, to remind readers of Robin Hood, would severely limit his peripheral vision and make it easy for enemies to sneak up on him from the side. But no one’s bothered by any of that when they see it on the page. In comics, image is all.
Our Dashavatara, however, needed not to have to worry that they were going to trip over dangling cloth or be unable to draw a weapon smoothly. There could be nothing in their costumes hampering them or inhibiting them in any way.
For example, the mane-like headdress I gave Narasimha was, as originally conceived, too long, too shaggy. We tested it out on a volunteer model, and the fibres kept flopping forwards, getting in his eyes, especially when there was a strong breeze. So they had to be shortened, and the headdress ended up more like a ruff than a mane.
Kurma’s turtle armour was another headache. It had to be lightweight but durable, able to withstand substantial punishment, so the Trinity drafted in a technician from one of Bhatnagar’s R and D labs who was developing an experimental carbon nanotube reinforced polymer for use in bulletproof vests. The polymer, it turned out, wasn’t easy to work into complicated shapes, and my grandiose plans for the armour, reflecting the Mughal Empire stylings of Parashurama’s, had to be streamlined and simplified. The design ended up much blockier than I had envisioned, more like a spacesuit than a shell, albeit with distinct turtle-esque traits. Compromise, compromise, compromise.
As for Vamana, how do you fashion a costume that fits someone when they’re three feet tall as tidily as it does when they’re twenty-five feet tall? The answer is: with difficulty. Lycra will stretch only so far before snapping. I just hadn’t considered this when coming up with my design. So it was literally back to the drawing board for me. Liaising with the costumiers, I figured out that segmented leather panels interspersed with sections of folded elastane would give Vamana just enough growing room. There was an element of caterpillar about the end product, and an element of concertina too, but it worked, which was the main thing.
Did I mind any of this extra tinkering and tailoring? Did I hell. Perfectionist, remember? Anything to get it right.
I hope all this behind-the-scenes nitty-gritty is interesting. I suspect it may not be for everyone, and for that reason I’m going to fast forward to the day the Dashavatara first stepped out in their finished costumes. It was also the day they saved New York.
10. REAL LIVE SUPERHEROES
T HE T RINITY CALLED an assembly of Mount Meru’s key workers, in whose number, flatteringly, I was included. We gathered on the esplanade at the island’s western tip, near the docks. Here was where ferries, cruise ships and seaplanes were supposed to moor and deposit their cargoes of tourists, except of course that would never happen because the whole “hotel” concept had been nothing more than a a cover story. This place was never ever going to be a leisure complex. This was Mount Meru, the mythical axis of the cosmos, that sacred peak shaped in rings with the material world at its outer edge and Brahma’s sublime, ineffable heavenly city at its summit. This was the Avatars’ base of operations, their Fortress of Solitude, their Avengers Mansion, their Tracy Island.
While we waited for the great unveiling, Dick Lombard delivered a speech. He thanked us for our hard work. He apologised that we had had to redouble our efforts in recent weeks and that many of us had had to pull all-nighters in order to meet the revised, accelerated schedule, which was due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control. The results, he assured us, would be worth the bloodshot eyes and the torn-out hair and the caffeine poisoning.
“This is a
Our Dashavatara, however, needed not to have to worry that they were going to trip over dangling cloth or be unable to draw a weapon smoothly. There could be nothing in their costumes hampering them or inhibiting them in any way.
For example, the mane-like headdress I gave Narasimha was, as originally conceived, too long, too shaggy. We tested it out on a volunteer model, and the fibres kept flopping forwards, getting in his eyes, especially when there was a strong breeze. So they had to be shortened, and the headdress ended up more like a ruff than a mane.
Kurma’s turtle armour was another headache. It had to be lightweight but durable, able to withstand substantial punishment, so the Trinity drafted in a technician from one of Bhatnagar’s R and D labs who was developing an experimental carbon nanotube reinforced polymer for use in bulletproof vests. The polymer, it turned out, wasn’t easy to work into complicated shapes, and my grandiose plans for the armour, reflecting the Mughal Empire stylings of Parashurama’s, had to be streamlined and simplified. The design ended up much blockier than I had envisioned, more like a spacesuit than a shell, albeit with distinct turtle-esque traits. Compromise, compromise, compromise.
As for Vamana, how do you fashion a costume that fits someone when they’re three feet tall as tidily as it does when they’re twenty-five feet tall? The answer is: with difficulty. Lycra will stretch only so far before snapping. I just hadn’t considered this when coming up with my design. So it was literally back to the drawing board for me. Liaising with the costumiers, I figured out that segmented leather panels interspersed with sections of folded elastane would give Vamana just enough growing room. There was an element of caterpillar about the end product, and an element of concertina too, but it worked, which was the main thing.
Did I mind any of this extra tinkering and tailoring? Did I hell. Perfectionist, remember? Anything to get it right.
I hope all this behind-the-scenes nitty-gritty is interesting. I suspect it may not be for everyone, and for that reason I’m going to fast forward to the day the Dashavatara first stepped out in their finished costumes. It was also the day they saved New York.
10. REAL LIVE SUPERHEROES
T HE T RINITY CALLED an assembly of Mount Meru’s key workers, in whose number, flatteringly, I was included. We gathered on the esplanade at the island’s western tip, near the docks. Here was where ferries, cruise ships and seaplanes were supposed to moor and deposit their cargoes of tourists, except of course that would never happen because the whole “hotel” concept had been nothing more than a a cover story. This place was never ever going to be a leisure complex. This was Mount Meru, the mythical axis of the cosmos, that sacred peak shaped in rings with the material world at its outer edge and Brahma’s sublime, ineffable heavenly city at its summit. This was the Avatars’ base of operations, their Fortress of Solitude, their Avengers Mansion, their Tracy Island.
While we waited for the great unveiling, Dick Lombard delivered a speech. He thanked us for our hard work. He apologised that we had had to redouble our efforts in recent weeks and that many of us had had to pull all-nighters in order to meet the revised, accelerated schedule, which was due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control. The results, he assured us, would be worth the bloodshot eyes and the torn-out hair and the caffeine poisoning.
“This is a
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