At Asylum our heroes are superheroes. Basically, 99 percent of the points on our adult moral compass, by which we steer our way through life, are made up from lessons learned from superheroes.

We wanted to know if this was a cultural thing -- does everyone have the same supeheroes? The bootleg international superhero rip-offs we came across during this investigation blew our minds.

This may be wrong in terms of copyright, but in spirit? It's high time these bizarre, ridiculous bootleg mashups of our favorite superheroes were celebrated.

Keep reading for the best (and worst) international superhero knockoffs.


Japanese Spider-Man
Unlike most of the items on our list, 1978's "Supaidāman" isn't a bootleg; it's the product of Marvel licensing their characters out to Toei, a Japanese production company, to be used however they wanted. It is, however, completely insane.

Instead of Peter Parker, this series focused on Takuya Yamashiro, a motorcycle racer whose "space archaeologist" father equipped him with a transformation-inducing wristband that gave him control of a giant fighting robot that he used to fight the kaiju army of Professor Monster in episodes with titles like "Becoming Splendid: To the Murderous Machine of Transformation" and "To the Flaming Hell: See the Tears of the Snake Woman." We are pretty sure that these facts make it the most awesome thing ever sent out on the airwaves.


Mexican Batwoman
We didn't think there was any possible way to make Batman better than he already is. But it turns out there is: Make him a sexy, bikini-clad female luchador.

Released in 1968 at the height of the Adam West "Batman" TV show's popularity, La Mujer Murcielago is a shameless attempt to capitalize on Batmania by throwing in foxy chicks and repackaging it for the booming Mexican luchador film industry. In it, Batwoman throws down with Dr. Williams (apparently the Mexican Ra's al-Ghul) as he kidnaps wrestlers in order to build a race of super fish-monsters, while still managing to juggle two boyfriends and sparring matches with her foxy sidekick, Esmerelda


Indian Superman
Remember that part in "Superman" where Superman takes Lois flying, and she has that weird "Can you read my mind? Do you know what it is that you do to me?" internal monologue? Remember how weird that seemed when you were a kid?

OK, imagine that instead of Lois's internal monologue, you got Superman and Lois having a mid-air dance number, then landing in a park so that Superman could do what can only be described as a full-body hand-jive, then roughing up some thugs, then more flirty dancing, then even more dancing, this time with a full crowd and Superman "riding the pony."

And also Lois Lane is Spider-Man.



Italian Superman
On the one hand, Italy's version of Superman seems to differ from the original in some pretty important ways, most notably the fact that instead of being the last son of Krypton, he's three circus acrobats who all look like Dean Martin.

On the other hand, being three Deans Martin is nothing to sneeze at, nor is the fact that -- judging by this video -- these guys seem to be all about explosions, doing donuts in "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and hitting on hot '60s girls. Throw in Jimmy Olsen, and we'd be willing to trade, fact.



Filiipino Batman and Robin
The fact that 1993's "Alyas Batman en Robin" was produced as an intentional parody doesn't make it any less bizarre, especially once the sort-of Joker breaks into a song with lyrics like:

Let's be good of blood
Let us not be bad
Let's be good of heart
Let's be afraid of God!

... while a mullet-and-trucker-cap-sporting Batman provides the bassline.



Turkish Superman
Turkish Superman (or "Supermen Donuyor") plays it pretty straight, all things considered, although his stoicism and Frankenstein-style lumbering actually give him what we think is an unintended and terrifying sense of menace. He basically does three things in this video: Flies to the left, flies to the right and slowly and unsmilingly moves ever closer to his functionally helpless victims like a red and blue spandex tank. With a change of music, Turkish Superman would come off more like Jason Voorhees than Clark Kent



But the best thing about it? It gave us this:



Return to Supermans
Unlike its predecessor, "Return to Supermans" isn't really Turkish. Instead, it's a parody of "Superman Donuyor" and other international bootlegs produced for Channel 101, the short-film collective that also brought us the brilliance that was Yacht Rock.

The entire series is available online, and it's well worth watching to see Supermans, the Last Son of Kryptar (played by a guy in what appears to be wearing a child's Supergirl costume), using both his superpowers and a switchblade knife to battle it out with his arch-foes Spider-Man and Lex Lucifer and rescue Luis Lane.


Italian Spiderman
Similarly, Italian Spiderman is a 70s action film parody that is no way Italian, and only tangentially related to Spider-Man, unless somehow Peter Parker turned into a fat, mustachioed oddball in red tights with a spider on his chest when we weren't paying attention.