Pow! Zam! Nyet! Superputin battles terrorists, protesters in
online comic  Dictators are used to having their manliest poses
carved into stone statues, or their most avuncular portrait
printed on posters. But one Russian artist is bringing
authoritarian iconography into the 21st century by drawing
Russia's boss-for-life Vladimir Putin as an ass-kicking
character in an online comic book.  Radio Free Europe reports
that Russian writer, Sergei Kalenik has created a web comic that
casts the Russian prime minister as a judo-chopping
"Superputin." Often portrayed in the west as a comically over-
the-top villain, Putin is instead painted as a superhero
fighting the twin evils of terrorism and public protest.  It's
yet another addition to Russia's weird and wonderful collection
of personality-cult kitsch.  Fresh from destroying a terrorist
lair, Superputin is called into action to stop terrorists
(inspired by the success of the action thriller Speed in Afghan
cinemas) from detonating a bomb on a bus, designed to go of