Babman

Babman (a spoof of Batman) is an adventure story arc of the Philippine comic strip series "Pugad Baboy", created by Pol Medina Jr. and originally published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. This particular story arc lasts 37 strips long. In 2002, the story arc was reprinted in "Katorse", the fourteenth book compilation of the comic strip series.

ynopsis

Babman, the "Pork Knight", is Bab's secret identity. He is otherwise known as Bruce Swine (a spoof of Bruce Wayne) to residents of Gothom City (a spoof of Gotham City and a twist on the Filipino word, "gutom", meaning "hunger" - as Gothom City is a squatters' area.) where as Babman, he patrols at night looking for situations with potential for violence and criminal activity.

It was in "Sapang Talahib" (Grass Creek), a different squatters' area, where Bab met Mr. Chan, owner of the "Shaolin Temple", a restaurateur who hired him as a waiter. Mr. Chan became Bab's friend and master in the Kung Fu style known as the "Stoned Dragon", a martial arts technique practiced with the aid of a healthy dose of marijuana. Mr. Chan declares Bab a "Stoned Master" and has him receive the Master's mark - a Dragon and Tiger tattoo made by placing cast iron hot plates on both forearms. Bab's mother, however, discovered his "Stoned Master" status and had him rehabilitated for four months. Upon his release, he returned to Sapang Talahib, and found a that the area had been converted into a parking lot for a nearby mall. He followed the residents to Cavite, where they had been resettled in a place they called Gothom City.

"Samting fishy"

It had not been a year since the squatters had been relocated to Gothom City when they began to be harassed by goons hired by the lot's owner. Babman decided to defend the residents from these goons, using the street fighting techniques he had learned from Mr. Chan. A few months after, however, Bab learns that the residents were being moved again, despite their earlier vehement opposition to being relocated. This arouses his suspicions that something fishy was going on.

His investigation revealed that a certain Doña Fe Bagamundo had bought the Gothom City lot. He also discovered that the same Doña Fe had bought all the lots formerly occupied by the Gothom City residents. Babman decides to stake out the residents at the new relocation site they called "Malunggay Uno" (Moringa One). Goons were again harassing the squatters, but instead of confronting them, Babman began tailing the bad guys. As he suspected, the goons made their way to Doña Fe's mansion. Eavesdropping on the group, Babman learns their modus operandi: Doña Fe's goons pretended to be the lot owner's bad guys; they would fan the flames of violence until public sympathy fell in favor of the squatters and the lot owner was forced to sell the land. Babman learns the awful truth - the people he had been defending were professional squatters. He decides to determine who the legitimate squatters were; he also interviews the former owners of the lots. After gathering more information, Babman decides to battle Doña Fe and her goons.

Unmasking the mastermind

Babman captures the goons and gathers the residents in a meeting. He explains the situation to them and Doña Fe's scheme. He prevails on the residents to cooperate when he brings the case to the Solicitor General, in order for the lots to be returned to their rightful owners. He, however, decides not to reveal the identities of the professional squatters just yet. He was about to take Rufo, Doña Fe's head goon and the other bad guys to the DILG when he saw something on Rufo's arms that gave him pause. He asks the residents to give him two hours - there was someone missing from his list of bad guys.

Babman goes to the "Shaolin Temple", Mr. Chan's restaurant. There, he encounters the crooked cops who were part of Doña Fe's racket. He takes away their guns and goes looking for Mr. Chan. Babman reveals his identity to Mr. Chan, who inquires of Babman how he was able to uncover his collusion with Doña Fe. Babman replies that he saw the tiger and dragon tattoo on Rufo's arms. He further explains that he went to the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation, where he determined that Mr. Chan was an illegal alien and was consequently barred from acquiring Philippine land - hence, Doña Fe was but a front for Mr. Chan, the real mastermind behind the squatter racket. Bab attempted to arrest Mr. Chan, but the Chinaman blew cannabis smoke at his face, distracting him enough for Mr. Chan to execute the "Stoned Dragon" technique. Fortunately, Bab had learned a countermeasure; the "Curly Joe Defense". As Mr. Chan and Bab square off, the crooked cops barged in with their back-up revolvers drawn. Using the fighting technique he had learned from watching Robert Jaworski, "Basketball Kung Fu", Bab subdued all three bad guys.

Chian Jia Yao, aka. Mr. Chan and Doña Fe were brought to the NBI after they were charged with conspiracy, grave threats and arson. While the case was being heard, the squatters moved out of the disputed lands.

Notes

* The "Fatmobile" (a spoof of the Batmobile), is Babman's personal automobile. It is a borrowed Volkswagen Beetle with bat-like tailfins and a peace symbol on the hood. Its horn makes an "Oink!Oink!" sound, similar to that of a pig. It mirrors in some way the Batmobile used in the Tim Burton-directed films "Batman" and its sequel "Batman Returns".
* Doña Fe gives her complete name as "Felicidad Bagamundo y Maldecaralubio viuda de Cancarrote".
* Bruce Swine is known as a "baryannaire philanthropist" among the squatters. "Baryannaire" is a portmanteau of "barya", a Filipino word meaning "small change", and "billionaire".
* The strip also has another portmanteau: when Bruce Swine is cooling his seared arms in an ice cream freezer, the freezer reads "Magnolecta Ice Cream"; "Magnolecta" is a portmanteau of rival ice cream companies Magnolia (now owned by the San Miguel Corporation) and Selecta.
* Making cameo appearances in this story arc are politicians Francisco Tatad and Juan Ponce Enrile, members of the 11th Congress of the Philippines during the Estrada impeachment and former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, Hilario Davide, Jr. In an oblique reference to the impeachment proceedings, Tatad tells a poor laborer that his second pay envelope is "immaterial and irrelevant"; Enrile adds, "I second the motion". In Davide's courtroom, a squatter also admonishes the lawyer to "object, ask for a writ of victor corpus or a subpeona duces rectum!". He meant a writ of habeas corpus and subpeona duces tecum. Davide's "sh" pronunciation of words that have "s" sounds is also present.
* Babman's primary weapon is, ironically, his utility belt with the peace symbol buckle. He also uses it as a bottle opener and as an ear-cleaning tool.
* The names of the two crooked cops in cahoots with Mr. Chan, Jing and Jude, are an oblique reference to the sons of former Philippine President Joseph Estrada - Jinggoy Estrada and Jude Estrada.
* The tiger tattoo on Rufo's arm that led Babman to Mr. Chan is actually that of Hobbes, the tiger character from "Calvin and Hobbes".
* "Babman" is the Pork Knight's first appearance as a featured main character; he made his first official appearance, however, in the 1993 story arc The Olongapo Caper.
*Since Babman is a spoof on Batman, the reader might think that Mr. Chan is a spoof of Ra's al Ghul, Bruce Wayne's former mentor in "Batman Begins". However, "Batman Begins" was made and released years after the Babman storyline. Rather, Mr. Chan spoofs David Carradine's Shaolin master in the TV series "Kung Fu". This is shown by his restaurant's name, "Shaolin Temple", and Bab is called "Grass-smoker", just as Carradine's character Kwai Chang Caine was nicknamed "Grasshopper". More broadly, Mr. Chan could be a parody of Batman's actual Asian trainers in DC Comics.
*The cover of "Katorse", in which "Babman" appears, is a spoof of a cover of Frank Miller's 1986 comic book miniseries "The Dark Knight Returns".