The motive of initiation as a structural element of the mythological in the comics

This article is concerned with the structural analysis of comics as a phenomenon of mass culture. The author refers to the understanding of a myth as a complex structure, compares the myth and the comics, reveals the basic functions of the myth and carries out an analysis of the comics according to these parameters. Considering a comics’ superhero the article discusses its identification with a hero of the myths in the context of psychoanalytic and structuralist approaches. The author also touches upon the issue of superhero’s motive as a comics structure in the context of comparison with the myth phenomenon.