Re-fusion through mythmaking: Nicolás Maduro as SúperBigote

Superheroes (e.g., Superman or Batman) and their superhuman powers are a core feature of contemporary popular culture. The trope also influences political representation by populist leaders. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon in the era of digital communication, we explore a specific case: the use of animation to create the image of Venezuela’s populist leader, Nicolás Maduro. We analyse episodes of a short animation, SúperBigote, by identifying recurrent narrative patterns and mythic scripts across episodes. The empirical basis for the research is an interpretive qualitative analysis of 41 episodes sourced from YouTube. We find that the episodes recast Venezuela’s crises as attacks by enemies, positioning Maduro as the only saviour able to protect the people. This mythic script attempts re-fusion by combining power over ‘evil’ (substantively) with power with the ‘people’ (rhetorically), converting crisis into performative legitimacy in a recurring cycle in which threats must persist to justify the leader’s renewed intervention. Our study contributes to the literature on the role of mythmaking in political leadership by showing how the literalized superhero persona routinizes populist binaries and transforms episodic charisma into an enduring myth.