Thursday morning at Comic-Con International in San Diego, acclaimed creator Grant Morrison spoke about his Graphic India webseries and comic "18 Days," which offers a new take on the foundational Indian epic Mahabharata, and "Avatarex," debuting today on Humble Bundle.

Sharad Devarajan of Graphic India led off the panel by announcing "Avatarex," Morrison's first digital native comic which launches today on Humble Bundle. New installments of Stan Lee's "Chakra the Invincible," as well as those published as Free Comic Book Day issues, will also debut in the bundle. The proceeds of the bundle will be directed toward fighting poverty in India.

"When I was a kid I was obsessed with stories about ghosts and magic and science fiction stuff," Morrison said, and when his uncle introduced him to mythology it fit squarely in his interest. "It came from this obsession with people who could fly and hurl thunderbolts and I wanted more of that stuff, and I found it in the deepest recesses of human culture."

Morrsion described the Mahabharata as "the greatest story ever told," because it "emphasizes frailty as what makes us human." Greed, shame, duty, and desire, Morrison said, appeals to him as "the human core of it."

Devarajan talked about the vinyanas describing flying ships, atom bombs and other advanced technology, with Morrison adding that "they describe communications devices that sound a lot like telephones ... somebody was on to something."

"There's an awful lot of time [in human history] where there could have been advanced civilizations that rose and fell," Morrison said.

"Each [of the characters] of the Mahabharata have to break their own rules to save us, to save the future," Morrison said, praising the theme of sacrifice and describing this best type of myth as "timeless." "We all go through these things in our head," he added, noting that we may take on the aspects of different characters day to day. "We all get to play the lover, we all get to play the villain, we all get to play the old dude - the old lady."

Morrison spoke of the path from non-duality to duality and the consequences of creativity and destruction, concluding that, once opposing forces come together, "they have three choices: they can fight, flee, or fuck - the three f's." This "mythic core" plays out in both the Mahabharata and Morrison's work on "All Star Superman," he said.

"Something like 'Game of Thrones' is more like Mahabharata than 'Lord of the Rings,' noble people do things that are not noble," Morrison said, suggesting that Eastern perspectives were beginning to seep into Western culture. "One's about fighting, one's about capitulating - the Western idea is about seizing the power of the gods, the Eastern is about capitulating to their power."

Devarajan also spoke about the different East/West perspectives on mind and matter; in Western thought, matter creates mind, while this paradigm is reversed in the East. Using the example of the evolution of the phone from its original form to a possible future in which communication is without screens, or telepathic, Morrison said "I think we're getting to the point where it's all the same thing.

"'Avatarex' is almost a sequel to Mahabharata, but I wanted to set it in modern India," Morrison said. "I got really tired of the super soldier, where the Avengers work for the military ... superheroes were different," he added. "The Flash did it because he was a good guy, Batman would actually help people instead of constantly try to save his own ass, which is what he does now." "Avatarex" is "a paeon to a progressive society," he said, an optimistic look at the future. "There's a sense of futurism [in the East], a sense of hope for a better tomorrow." The hero "is too strong for the world right now," Morrison said, a godlike being arriving on a holy mission too early and now struggling not to destroy the planet. In the process, he learns about contemporary society and the great struggles of modern life.

"We've got this character like a Superman, but he can't just be Superman - we need Peter Parker in there, as well," Morrison said. Avatarex "bonds with the wrong person," and two "have to genuinely learn from each other to change the world.

"And these comics can literally change the world, because of the Humble Bundle," Morisson added, mentioning the funding to help girls in poverty, build schools, and more. Devarajan said that there will also be a comic featuring characters created by young girls from across India.

Citing the panel's video presentation, Morrison said the girls' ideas for helping the world were "really interesting." "Even when I'm doing Wonder Woman, I wanted to get away from her with a big sword, snarling ... none of those girls said, 'ah, I want a big sword!'"

Devarajan talked about the "divine feminine" in mythology, with Morrison then bringing in Aleister Crowley's cosmology. "I think it's a mistake to look back at the past and think it was great, but there's things we can learn from it," Morrison said. In the last two thousand years - Crowley's Age of Osiris -- he noted, the gods were masculine gods, instructive. But now, entering the Aeion of Horus, there will be a greater creative balance with Horus' sister Mhat. "This isn't real historical stuff," he said, but it's "a way of thinking about things."

"It's time we gave girls a chance, it's time we let girls rule the world. Because guys have had it long enough and they kind of fucked it up."

"The Mahabharata is a story about the end of an age, and when [the female character] is humiliated and cries a single tear, Krishna, who has vowed not to fight -the most powerful figure in the world - he says 'I'm gonna tear it all down," Morrison said. "I love that idea, that a single tear can led to the end of the world."

Saying that "imagination is the fifth dimension," Morrison said that myth, including superheroes, serves to remind us that "we're much more a part of [the universe] than we think we are."

Talking about gods as cultural expressions, he said that "applying the mythic dimension makes everything sexier."

The mythic dimension also influences trends, Morrison said. "You'll notice people are starting to get away from the zombie, dead people thing, now people want 'The Flash," he said. He compared America's reaction to the aftermath of 9/11 in entertainment to post-World War II Japan's atomic monster films. Zombies "deal with an invasion of the body thing, and it's getting exhausting - we need a shot of penicillin," Morrison said.

He contrasted the culture of exploration and optimism of "Star Trek" with "The Walking Dead" a generation later. "Can we have a little more 'Star Trek,' please?"

Morrison joked that many saw James Cameron's "Avatar" in this light, but he criticized that film's imperialism. "It's a film about white dudes coming in and telling native people how to fix their culture," he said. "Maybe people liked that, 'hey, that's what we used to do!"

Asked about his first exposure to India, Morrison said his father lied about his age to fight in World War II "because he really just wanted to punch Hitler," but was sent to India. "On his first day, there were all these riots going on and the soldiers were told, if anybody causes any trouble just shoot the women and children. My father turned his gun on them and said, if anybody shoots any women or children, I'll shoot them. He spent most of the rest of the war in jail. Eventually he's sitting in jail, he rips off one of the steel legs of the cot and says, next person who walks into this room I'm gonna kill 'em. So they said, this guy's a nut but we can use him." He was released and served at Red Fort. Later, Morrison would travel to India where his dad served.