Brave black worlds

Black Superheroes as Science Fiction Ciphers

Bibliographic Data

ID6030754
AuthorsAdilifu Nama (California State University, Northridge, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume7
Issue2
Pages133-144
Publication date2009-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Identities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1472-5843 • E-ISSN: 1472-5851
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14725840902808736
OpenAlexW2051428942
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited12

Without a doubt, superheroes have played a significant role in presenting idealised projections of ourselves as physically powerful, amazing and fantastic versions of ourselves. Superhero comics also invite readers to imagine a world where advanced science, UFOs, aliens, space exploration, time travel and high-tech gadgets are common occurrences. Accordingly, the genre draws significantly from the science fiction (SF) idiom, making what is drawn and written across a multitude of superhero comics extremely significant as an expression of SF and American culture. Often overlooked, however, in the intersection between superheroes and SF is the place black racial representation occupies in the genre. This article examines how black superheroes, ensconced in a SF motif, function not only as counter-hegemonic symbolic expressions of black racial pride and racial progress but possibly even as transformational Afrofuturistic metaphors for imagining race and black racial identity in new and provocative ways

Aesthetics · Art · Comics · Epistemology · Literature · Multitude · Pride · Comics and Graphic Narratives · History · Leadership, Courage, and Heroism Studies · Philosophy

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