Every child has a hero they idolise growing up. Mine happened to wear colourful rubber suits, shooting laser beams from their hands. Some had sword-wielding giant robots, and some, they kick. Hard.

More often than not I would get disapproving stares and head shakes from family and friends, some of whom were even in the same age group, whenever I spoke about my favourite superheroes. It seemed like one of those uncool things that you should never talk about.

Occasionally, I would come across a few whom, like me, do not hide their passion for the genre.

I admit that when I was younger, I loved superheroes for the action and fancy special effects; Growing up has allowed me to realise the storytelling depth that I never saw as a kid. This has allowed me to appreciate the genre even more than before.

I love the superhero genre not because I think there are really people who are actually benevolent aliens in disguise that can transform into a giant hero during times of danger. I love it for what it stands for and tries to preach: Doing what is right, never stop trying, trusting your teammates, working hard for your own dreams, and a lot more of the morals, ethics and values that I would never have learnt from the school textbooks. Lessons that I will always try to apply in life I learnt from the memorable quotes and stories that lifted me up when I was down.

The fact that the superhero genre has inspired countless people is why we at tokuAsia still hold on to the dream of one day creating our own superhero.

All of our lives, we have been inspired. Now, we want to do the same. To inspire.

This is why I love superheroes. This is my tokuAsia story.