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DARNA, the Superwoman from The Philipines, is still on Top of the World. DARNA who has been around for more than 50 years is still being adored by Millions of Filipinos. DARNA is Flying High not only in The Philippines But around the Globe through GMA Pinoy TV. On June 28, 2009, DARNA was spotted making waves in the street of the City of Toronto. That was the First Time I saw Darna live in Toronto. WHO IS DARNA? Darna is a fictional character and superheroine created by Filipino komiks (Philippine colloquial term for comics) legend Mars Ravelo. In her more popular incarnations, she is a warrior from outer space manifesting herself through a girl from Earth, named Narda. Darna was originally known as Varga and first appeared in Bulaklak Magazine, Volume 4, #17, on July 23, 1947. Ravelo had differences with the editors of Bulaklak Magazine and Varga's name was changed to "Darna". The character was re-launched on May 13, 1950. Nestor Redondo drew the first Darna. Since then, Darna has become a Philippine cultural icon and the most recognizable character among Ravelo's creations. Darna's powers include flight, super strength, super speed and near-invulnerability. In the 2003 retcon, the latest releases of the comic, this is due to her psionic background. Thus a form of telekinesis enhances her speed and strength and allows her flight. Her skin has a high level of invulnerability because of her race. Her psionic abilities also allow her to exercise limited psionic influence or telepathy. For weapons, the ruby encrusted in the winged medallion on her helmet also augments her psionic abilities, allowing her to emit a powerful concussion blast and the medallions that make up her belt can be used like throwing stars (shuriken). In the 2005 TV series, she also has heat vision, lent by the ruby. In the TV series, she uses her bracelets, similar to Wonder Woman's to deflect bullet impacts since impact also hurts. Narda transforms into Darna, and vice versa, by shouting out their respective names. First, however, Narda has to swallow the white stone, which conveniently comes out of her mouth every time Darna changes back into herself. However, it was not so in her comic incarnations. Contrary to what some Filipinos may believe, Darna was not named after the magical Ibong Adarna (Adarna bird), which appears in a Philippine epic of the same name. In Bulaklak Magazine, Narda was already established as Varga's mortal identity. "Darna" was simply an anagram of "Narda". BREAKING NEWS ABOUT DARNA: GMA Networks new series Darna, which stars Primetime Queen Marian Rivera, has quickly conquered the hearts of Filipinos when it ranked number one in TV ratings nationwide. Based on the National Urban Television Audience Measurement (NUTAM) data from AGB Nielsen Philippines from Aug. 9 to 15, Darna beat all programs nationwide and took the number one spot with an average TV rating of 35.6%. Darnas audience share reached 47.3%, which translates to more than 2.7 million projected number of TV households. The series, originally created for comics by Mars Ravelo, premiered last Aug. 10 on GMA Telebabad. Darna pilot episode posted a TV rating of 44% in Mega Manila. Since then, Darna has been posting more than 40% TV ratings in most days, almost double the TV ratings being generated by its competing program. The show posted its highest TV rating in Mega Manila of 47.5% last Aug. 18, when Narda became Darna for the first time.