ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the persistence, in the twentieth century, of “coloniality” and “abyssal thinking” regarding European space. I analyze in particular how the border established in the Mediterranean, a dividing line which is both symbolic and physical, has come to represent a mass grave in recent history, which should be seen as part of the genocidal violence perpetrated by Europe. The examination of the terms for the constitution of the single European area reveals that the Mediterranean periphery has been constructed as a southern border in the face of migration, flows and traffic crossing the global South. In this interpretation, focussing on the problem of migration and European politics, I present the solidity of “colonial abyssal lines” and the enduring links between racialized ways of constructing borders and the terms of internal colonialism in Europe. Deploying the imagery of the comic strip, I reveal the similarities between a certain “People’s Europe” and the contingents of Inhumans involved in interplanetary traffic in the dystopian world of Marvel Comics.
