Let Darna rest in peace

It has been 65 years since Rosa del Rosario burst onto the silver screen as Darna, the komiks heroine created by Mars Ravelo and showbiz is still debating who should jump into the costume worn twice by the marvelous Rosa in 1951-52 after Angel Locsin has grown maybe too old to reprise the role, her “back too broken” for her to take off and save the oppressed.

A dozen other actresses have played the role but showbiz pundits claim that none of them has neither equaled nor surpassed the sterling performance of Rosa who is deemed the perfect Darna because she more than lived up to the criteria required of a Darna aspirant: sweet, charming, lethal in a subtle way, fragile like a China Doll but actually tough inside, and who can fight bare-handed like a man.

After Rosa came the following: Liza Moreno in 1963-64, Eva Montes (1965), Gina Pareño (1969), Vilma Santos (thrice, in 1973, ‘74 and ‘75), Lorna Tolentino (1977, on TV), Rio Locsin (1979), Sharon Cuneta (1986), Nanette Medved (1991), Anjanette Abayari (1994), Regine Velasquez (guest appearance in the Herbert Bautista starrer Captain Barbell), Angel Locsin (2005, on TV) and Marian Rivera (2009, on TV).

It baffles why producers are so enamored with the Flying Woman who has been resurrected so many times — with a vengeance — that moviegoers don’t seem to mind the tedious rehash…or do they? Like Mother Lily’s Magic Camison (actually a wedding gift to her by husband Remy Monteverde) believed to catapult any actress who wears it to overnight stardom (Gina Alajar, Cherie Gil and Rio Locsin among them), Darna is considered a surefire ticket to fame and fortune.

After Angel discarded the costume and flew the Kapuso coop to the rival Kapamilya, Marian took the chance. We all know how the then “struggling” starlet metamorphosed into a big star. Angel’s loss was Marian’s big gain; that’s how the showbiz cookie usually crumbles. Give a wannabe a space and she rules the world. The “beneficiary” outshining the “benefactor.”

Anyway, Star Cinema is said to be looking for a new Darna: will it be Jessy Mendiola, Liza Soberano, Nadine Lustre and even Pia Wurtzbach who should beg off from the “competition” after she conquered the universe, just like Sarah Geronimo who laughed off suggestions by saying that she didn’t have the “body” for it (unless you want Darna to soar in a jumpsuit, hehehe!!!)?

Come to think of it, isn’t it high time that  producers let Darna rest in peace? Otherwise, reinvent the character and reintroduce her to the millennials the way Hollywood has come up with a modern-day Wonder Woman? You know, the old is new again, repackaged with radically fresh ideas. If Hollywood can make the oft-told fairytale Beauty and The Beast a runaway 3D smash hit, so dazzling and hypnotizing from opening scene to final credits (gape at the talking and dancing piano, chandeliers, lamps, kettle and teacup), why can’t local producers?

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