ABSTRACT
Vernacular superhero comics forged readers' interpretive communities who read with the grain of narrative unfolding in a comic book as much as they read against the grain as they interpret its manifold content in multiple ways with their peers. While they do so, they also reflect, analyse and interlink the comics with their own lifeworlds. Recycling circuits served as a useful purpose in that the comics need not be taken home and risk being picked up by any orthodox relative who disapproved of their consumption. Many schools had unofficially, if not officially, banned superhero comics. When foreign travel was limited, if not impossible, comic books enabled a canvas for what Homi Bhabha terms 'vernacular cosmopolitanism'. It became a form of simulated tourism well before virtual reality became a vernacular reality. The conveying of scientific information was equally appreciated by young enthusiasts, even if textbook science might be blown out of proportion in the comic books.
