Looking through the broad, evolving history of comics, you may sometimes run into what I often call “Africa Syndrome”—where we witness vignettes of some global crisis or invasion playing out in specific nations or even cities…and then, usually right in the middle, “Africa.” Fifty-four independent countries and cultures, blended into a single continent. As such, finding heroes representative of an independent location or identity among African nations can be difficult, but not impossible. And even when it has been initially, some creators have admirably strived to bring those heroes down to a map we can more readily recognize. So, no need to sweep the whole continent. Here’s where you can find the hometowns of some of DC’s most prominent African heroes.
 

Doctor Mist

One of many original characters created for the 1970s Super Friends comic series to fill out a more multicultural world of heroism, Doctor Mist remains one of the most respected experts in the field of magic and mysticism today. He was originally said to hail from the fictional, supernatural realm of Kor, a lost kingdom featured in jungle-set pulp adventure novels of the 19th century like H. Rider Haggard’s She: A History of Adventure. Following 2011’s Flashpoint, Doctor Mist would be reintroduced in Jeff Lemire’s Justice League Dark as an immortal wizard based in South Africa.
 

Impala

Introduced earlier in Super Friends than Doctor Mist, but lesser known today, the Zulu speedster Impala officially represented South Africa in the Global Guardians. Impala was one of the heroes killed off-panel in Roulette’s Meta Brawl competitions in the early 2000s JSA series, and was for a time succeeded by a younger Kid Impala in Grant Morrison’s Ultramarine Corps. But as of the 2021 Truth & Justice series, the full-grown Impala is back in business, a stalwart ally of Doctor Mist and our next hero.
 

Vixen

There’s probably no African hero more famous in the DC Universe than Vixen, both in fiction and out. Justice League member, fashion icon, bearer of the Tantu totem, Mari Jiwe McCabe has done it all. But the one thing about her that few can figure out is exactly where she’s from. Everything we know about Vixen’s fictional homeland, originally called D’Mulla, then M’Changa, and then, most consistently since the ’80s, Zambesi, is a contradiction. In the “Detroit” era of Justice League of America, it was described as being in Central Africa. And yet, we’ve seen it both in the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and on the coast of West Africa. People of Zambesi use Swahili names, and the Tantu totem draws from Ashanti culture. And the actual Zambesi, which refers to a real river, runs through East Africa. Sometimes, it feels like to place Zambesi is like trying to figure out which Springfield is the home of the Simpsons. Personally, I prefer the reinterpretation of Mari for the WEBTOON series Vixen NYC, which explicitly recasts her family as Ghanian.
 

Batwing

We’ve written before about the plight of David Zavimbe, the beleaguered Batman Incorporated member Batman put in charge of an entire continent. Fortunately, the New 52 refocused his mission a little more reasonably to his city of Tinasha, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. After all, the real Batman mainly has to concern himself with one city. Gotham’s population is usually cited as between eight and ten million people. The entire continent of Africa? Over 1.5 billion. I mean, you want to say Batwing is 150 times more effective than Batman, I’m not stopping you. Just remember his name when you get to talking about the greatest heroes of all time.
 

Deadly Six

Not everyone would call Deadly Six a “hero,” but he is one of the more colorful members of the “Revolutionaries”—a politically proactive guerilla force that makes tactical strikes against fascist regimes around the world, as featured in Tom Taylor’s Suicide Squad. Deadly Six in particular comes from Somalia and has the power to make anyone feel six out of any of the Seven Deadly Sins at any time, whether it’s Sloth, Wrath, Gluttony, Greed, Envy or Pride. Just don’t ask him to do Lust. In his own words, that “would be icky.”
 

The Unknown Soldier

One may make the argument that it’s antithetical to the entire purpose of the Unknown Soldier to give him a specific identity. But of all who have tried, the most valiant effort may be the Unknown Soldier of the 2008 Vertigo series, Moses Lwanga—a principled, educated sophisticated doctor drafted into a war in his homeland of Uganda, descending further in each issue into a harsh reality so often ignored or seen as too unpleasant to contemplate by the western media. Lwanga’s Unknown Soldier is not so much Unknown due to his identity, but as a fighter in a merciless war that is itself unknown to most in all but the vaguest terms.
 

Freedom Beast

Even more pernicious than the ungrounded African hero is an even older phenomenon, where the African hero doesn’t even get to be African at all. Doctor Fate, Metamorpho, Hawkman were all originally stories of white explorers who stumble into African artifacts, claiming their power for themselves in a completely self-unaware propagation of colonial culture. Another such example was that of “B’wana Beast,” the American Mike Maxwell envisioned as a sort of Tarzan for the superhero set. In 1989, during the midst of apartheid, Maxwell bequeathed his power-granting helm and elixir to Dominic Mndawe, a South African activist standing up against literal colonizers. As “Freedom Beast,” Mndawe holds the mantle for a new generation, an example of returning symbols to the cultures that colonizers take them from for themselves.
 

Anansi the Spider

Like Harley Quinn or Jimmy Olsen, Anansi is a hero whose origins come from outside the comics, but only recently appeared on the page. Introduced in one of the most memorable episodes of Static Shock, “Static in Africa,” Anansi the Spider is a Ghanian superhero who Static encounters and teams up with on a family vacation. Anansi would make the leap to the comics in 2023’s Static Team-Up: Anansi. And with The New History of the DC Universe: The Dakota Project finally bringing Milestone back into the fold of the DC Universe this February, there’s no telling where we might see him next.
 

Alex Jaffe is the author of our monthly "Ask the Question" column and writes about TV, movies, comics and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Bluesky at @AlexJaffe and find him in the DC Official Discord server as HubCityQuestion.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Alex Jaffe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.