From L-R: Icon, The Astonishing X-Men, Batman, Spiderman, Superman
This is an opinion piece and does not reflect on anybody else affiliated with Spaceboy Nigeria other than myself, Yegwa Ukpo. Always wanted to write that.
Anyone who knows me knows that I have a love-hate relationship with superhero comic books. As much as I both dislike and dismiss most of the output of the major publishers – DC, Image Comics and Marvel – I do like titles like Alan Moore’s Tom Strong (ABC Comics via DC/Wildstorm), Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman (DC Comics) and Brian Michael Bendis’ initial run on Daredevil (Marvel). The superhero comic has the advantage of history and nostalgia. Writers can bring back villains and heroes thought long dead into a story and utilise them in a fresh way (see Jason Todd’s revival as Red Hood in the pages of Batman) or answer questions long asked by fans (why is Iron Man Thor’s equal? Spoiler: He isn’t), but at the same time, so much of what defines a superhero I believe is tied up in the culture in which they arose to prominence. My belief is that Nigeria does not possess the right environment to support the bog-standard superhero.
America as a nation is one with lots of layers and a rich history. What it lacks though is ‘ancient’ history. I am no historian or sociologist, but it does seem to me that as a result of being the ‘new world’ the only option open to America as a nation was to create its myths and legends. We all know by now the exploits of cowboys, heavily romanticised by authors writing fictionalised accounts of heroes and villains. There are also characters like John Henry and John Bunyan? All these one could argue seemed like the predecessors of the modern superhero. Larger than life characters bound to action by a code all of their own.
It also ties in with the notion of the America that most people want to believe exists. That despite the rampant violence, and corruption, there exist people that do believe in the values that America as a nation was founded upon. Of course, we could now go in deeper into how this particular idealistic notion of a superhero has evolved and changed over the decades, but that’s not the purpose of this article of mine.
My issue is with the presence of Nigerian superheroes. There have been a few superheroes here and there. From Powerman and Captain Africa to our more recent Kinetic, Siege and the upcoming Omoboy. I also remember developing a whole slew of homegrown superheroes when I was still in secondary school, but now that I look back, I do not even know where to begin. How are these characters relevant to our society? In America, there are all sorts of reference points from which superheroes can sprout from. They have nuclear and genetic research, conspiracy theories related to aliens, experimentation on humans and secret world rulers. They have advanced technology, secret government funded organisations and Einstein’s brain. How couldn’t a superhero arise from such a cultural soup? In Nigeria, we have oil, rampant corruption throughout all strata of our society, a high level of illiteracy, pollution, secret societies, juju/jazz, spirits, animism and inconsistent folklore and legend with which to work with.
Now, even if all our heroes are magical, we would still need to jump the hurdle of explaining why they wear spandex under our hot sun and what was in it for them fighting crime.
I believe that if we were to follow the American model wholeheartedly, I doubt that we as creators would be able to truly reach a new audience of comic book readers and lovers, nor would we be able to truly explore what it is that makes us unique as a country with our myriad cultures and histories. All we would be doing is telling stories that while interesting and even great, would not necessarily reflect us as a people. Nigeria is a complex society, and we should not be ashamed of exploring the society that we are currently living in. A superhero emerging from a society like Nigeria I believe would be either a child, insane, part of a comedy series, or has another agenda that we are not aware of. That’s my opinion anyway. I guess I could just be a bit jaded or too cynical.