Superhero Narratives - Captain America vs Captain South Africa: Insight through the cultural lens

Abstract

This research was an unconventional academic and cultural analysis of the comic book and film medium using photo essays and text. A visual and textual discourse analysis was conducted to examine the narrative and images used in the films and comic books Captain America (1941) and the comic book Captain South Africa (2018). During the process of this research, the idea of comic book adaptations into film as the art of reinventing and revitalizing cultural heroes was realized. Mythic history and epistemologies were turned into creative services and were not exclusive to the popular medium of video films (Fasan, 2016). African narratives have often been characterized in terms of their oral origins which has led many critics into the literary misadventure of always seeking oral 'continuities' in African narratives of European expression. However, the point bears repeating that there are instances in which African writers have in their mythopoesis reinvented or recharged local superheroes (Fasan, 2016). In the research, there was an exploration of the battle between genres of Westernization and genres of De-Westernization (African) and what each suggested about the current state of identity in South Africa and America. Adding race, culture, and gender to superhero narratives was redefined and (re)imagined as an ideology regarding who or how superhero characters should be portrayed.