By the year 2000, Raj Comics had published tons of multistarrer comics, the trend starting years ago with the legendary comic “Nagraj aur Super Commando Dhruva”. The company kept churning out 2 in 1 comics like Nagraj aur Bugaku and used to publish a comic featuring several characters on rare occasions. All of this changed in the year 2000, when Raj Comics came up with a comic. I still consider as the best comic I have ever read- Kohraam
I still remember the reluctance of my parents while buying Kohraam comic for me. It costs Rs. 40, and you can buy 4 different comic books for that amount. But the cover had got me hooked. It featured the villain taking on all, I repeat. ALL the superheroes of Raj Comics at once! I had to buy this gem, no matter what.
We returned home and I began reading Kohraam, and to no one’s surprise, it took me no less than three sittings to read the comic. The page count was a whopping 128, a first for an Indian comic book. The story begins when a professional photographer gets struck by a comet in a desert, engulfing him completely and turning him into an alien being called ‘Haru’. He lets his intentions known without much delay, and starts attacking Superheroes one after the other. He manages to convert Doga into a live human bomb, and even the mighty Goddess Shakti fails to best him in combat.
The protagonists featured in Kohraam were Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruva, Shakti, Kobi, Tiranga, Doga, Anthony, Inspector Steel and Parmanu.
Eventually, it dawns upon the superheroes that this entity can’t be stopped unless all of them combine their superpowers and unite to face him in combat. This leads to an awesome fight sequence where the superheroes are forced to fight their evil alter egos. They are defeated after Super Commando Dhruva suggests that they should not fight their alter egos, and instead should focus on defeating their fellow superheroes’ evil twins. Now the superheroes go after the Haru creature and in what I consider as one of the best full page panels ever created in Indian comics history, all heroes attack the villain with their respective powers, at once. The visual is a sight to behold and needs to be seen to be believed.