Anansi The Spider
1463 - Anansi, a Spider in Ghana, earns an audience with Nyame, the Ashanti God of the Sky, and asks to become the lord of all stories. He is given the impossible task, but is able to trick all the other animals into fufilling them, and has his wish granted.
1530 - Anansi, seeing the people of Africa stolen from their homeland, begins following them across the world, using his tricks to protect them wherever he can.
1577 - Nzinga is born, part of the Mbundu tribe in modern-day Angola
1605 - 28-year-old Nzinga is captured in battle against a rival tribe, and sold to Portuguese slavers who bring him to the Captaincy of Pernambuco in modern-day Alagoas, Brazil. He escapes from his captors with the help of Anansi the Spider, helping to gather other runaways to found Palmares, a Quilombo (a Buntu word for a war-camp), or a community of escaped slaves.
1611 - 34-year-old Nzinga, after the death of his wife, asks Anansi the Spider to take him as a vessel so he can devote himself to the protection of Palmares. Anansi agrees, claiming control of Nzinga's body, allowing him to interact with the world in human form.
1671 - Anansi is taken by Portuguese soldiers, who torture him until Nzinga can no longer survive. He continues to protect Palmares, but without a dedicated vessel.
1728 - Anansi helps spur the First Maroon War, a guerrilla war between the communities of self-liberated African slaves from the mountains of Jamaica and the British Colonial Government.
1839 - Anansi enables the abducted Africans on the Amistad to overtake their captors. When they are recaptured by a US schooner, instigating a court case over salvage rights, he assembles funds from abolitionists to mount their legal defense.
1926 - Anansi is present at the League of Nations during the Slavery Convention, thwarting attempts to defeat the treaty.
61 years ago - Emmanuel Ibrahim is born in Sierra Leone.
42 years ago - 19-year-old Emmanuel's younger sister, who always dreamed of going to Europe, disappears. Believing that she is been the victim of human trafficking, and begins trying to find her.
39 years ago - 22-year-old Emmanuel reaches out to Anansi the Spider, asking to become his new avatar & vessel, so that he can find his sister. When they return her home, he elects to remain as Anansi's vessel so that he can help the countless other victims in the world.
26 years ago - Anansi, tracking exploited workers in Algeria, works with Dan Garrett to stop a smuggling cartel.
10 years ago - Anansi first meets David Zavimbe, saving people from floods in Nigeria.
6 years ago - Anansi the Spider joins David Zavimbe's Kingdom, defending the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo and their revolution.
2 years ago - Anansi the Spider meets Virgil Hawkins as he tracks Edwin Alva to his chemical refining plants in Algeria, helping him stop the release of his new gene bombs.
We got to learn quite a bit about just who the original Anansi is while we read up for this character. He's a figure of West African mythology, most notably the Akan religion. The lines between folk heroes and gods are blurry in some of the West African religions, and Anansi is most commonly a trickster spirit and the lord of stories. His stories were distributed throught the Caribbean because of the slave trade, and he's now one of the best known representations of the influence of West African religions.
While he's sometimes depicted as a conman, he's most commonly shown only tricking evildoers, making him an easy character to translate into the role of hero. There are actually heroic versions of Anansi in several other comic companies, but DC's came into being through a very specific route.
While he's sometimes depicted as a conman, he's most commonly shown only tricking evildoers, making him an easy character to translate into the role of hero. There are actually heroic versions of Anansi in several other comic companies, but DC's came into being through a very specific route.
Anansi the Spider's Animation HistoryAnansi the Spider was a character introduced in the Static Shock animated series. When our hero Static vacations in Africa and finds himself embroiled in a robbery, they meet Anansi, "The most famous crimefighter in West Africa". Anansi is clearly an adult, although how much older he is than Static is unclear. He wields what is clearly a magical staff, using his storytelling powers to craft illusions, making him a trickster hero. He can also adhere to surfaces, allowing him to ride on the underside of Static's Saucer. Anansi appeared in one more episode, when he travels to Dakota City on a case to once again interact with Static.
Anansi is part of the lore of the classic animated series, although a relatively small one. Over the years, as Static has slowly been adapted into the mainstream DC universe his extensive cast of supporting characters has made the journey with him, although Anansi had actually only JUST been adapted into the comics as recently as 2023, in the single issue Static Team-Up: Anansi. The comic version of the character seemed to be much more magically inclined, not just creating illusions but other magical effects, even teleporting characters around the world. The implication here is that, while the original animated character was a person with specific powers, the comic version might actually be a manifestation of the original trickster god. |
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Our Anansi the Spider StoryWhen we sat down with the intention to assemble a team of African DC heroes, Anansi was one of the earliest suggestions, as he's a well beloved part of a DC-adjacent TV property, even though he'd never actually appeared in the actual canon comics. Believe it or not, his first comic appearance was actually announced while we were contemplating adding him, and the comic has since come out, making him a canon DC character.
Adapting him is interesting, because neither versions of the character that have been presented really give him an origin, or even an identity. In both cases there seems to be a heavy implication that he is, somehow, actually the original character of Ashanti folklore. As we considered what seemed the most fun and interesting way to adapt him, we hit on the idea that he IS Anansi, giving us a chance to fill up his timeline with all sorts of great interactions with history, but that the spider-trickster can take on a person as a vessel, becoming effectively human for a time, . While we think the best powers for this character are just the wall crawling and illusion casting from the animated series, he would still have a stronger degree of influence over the world, and make him better equipped to help people. We were all really excited with how he turned out. |
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