MAWA Man (Must Always Walk Alone Man)

MAWA Man was part of The Virus Vanguard, a team of five fictional superheroes introduced by Singapore’s Ministry of Communications and Information (now Ministry of Ministry of Digital Development and Information) on 20 April 2020 as part of the Gov.sg platform’s efforts to promote COVID-19 safety measures. Each character was designed to personify specific guidelines to combat the pandemic - MAWA Man promoted social distancing by encouraging individuals to walk alone.

Gov.sg published a now-deleted backstory of MAWA Man:

MAWA Man enforces safe-distancing (Must Always Walk Alone) as he repels people and objects far apart. To his friends, he is Manzoorakkaman (Man Man for short), a sports super agent in his late 30s.

Backstory: Man Man is a fanatical Manchester United fan who grew up in the 80s when Liverpool kept winning titles and he was constantly taunted by his two Liverpool fan brothers. This made him despise everything Liverpool including their motto You’ll Never Walk Alone (YNWA).

His hatred for Liverpool so far exceeds his love for Man Utd that it manifested as a telekinesis power in MAWA Man to push objects and people through his eyes.

Abilities: Repelling power to push objects and people back, aided by a digital distance meter through his eyes. Uses a special helmet he invented to control the magnitude of force and calculate other tech stuff.

Weakness: Cannot stop Man Utd fans from gathering as he will be compelled to join them.

Plans for the Virus Vanguard were shelved on the same day as its introduction due to severe backlash online. Some expressed concerns that the characters were confusing and potentially trivialized the severity of the pandemic. Three of the five superheroes courted controversy: MAWA Man (seen as disrespecting Liverpool Football Club), Circuit Breaker and Care-leh Dee (accusations of plagiarism).

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