Singapore’s coronavirus superheroes no match for upset Liverpool football fans after ‘Must Always Walk Alone Man’ ruffles feathers

A team of new mascots introduced by Singapore’s government to raise public awareness about coronavirus measures was abruptly pulled after the superheroes ended up offending football fans instead.

The government said it received “quite a lot of feedback” on the five characters dubbed the “Virus Vanguard” and is now reviewing the campaign.

“We are sorry if we offended anyone,” it said on its Facebook page.

“As this is the first time we are exploring this content format, we appreciate your patience.”

The characters had included “Fake News Buster”, a superhero who “wields the Mallet of Truth”, and “Dr Disinfector”, whose backstory was that she was shrunk to the size of a micro-organism in a failed experiment and “unwittingly flushed” down the toilet by her colleagues.

The controversy, though, seems to have erupted after “MAWA Man”, the superhero whose intense “hatred” of the Liverpool Football Club gave rise to his power to enforce social distancing, led to a petition set up on change.org.

“The Liverpool supporters in Singapore unanimously condemn the character MAWA Man and request for it to be withdrawn from this campaign,” reads the petition, which attracted over 500 signatures.

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MAWA stands for “Must Always Walk Alone”, and is a reference to You’ll Never Walk Alone, the Liverpool Football Club (LFC) anthem. MAWA Man has a Liver bird, featured on LFC’s crest, on his chest, with a line through it. His belt buckle features a pitchfork similar to the one held by the devil on the crest of Liverpool rivals Manchester United.

The number of daily coronavirus cases in the city state rose past 1,000 on Monday for the first time since the pandemic began amid a surge in infections among migrant workers.