Stuntboy, in the Meantime

Portico Reeves, whose superhero name is Stuntboy, introduces himself with fanfare, urging the audience to clap and stomp their feet. Stuntboy wears a cape and a superhero outfit. His black cat helps by turning on the theme music. Stuntboy considers everyone in his life to be a hero, and his job as a superhero is to make sure that the other heroes in his life stay heroic. He keeps his superhero life a secret but is willing to share his story with the audience. Stuntboy lives in an apartment tower that he considers a castle and loves being around so many people. He lives with his parents and Gran Gran, and he explains that he has “a terrible case of the frets” caused by anxiety (9). Stuntboy relies on his best friend, Zola Brawner, who has glasses and star barrettes in her hair. Stuntboy met Zola on the first day of school when she jumped off the school bus and was confronted by a local bully named Herbert Singletary the Worst. Stuntboy stepped in just as Herbert was about to insult Zola’s glasses, but Herbert followed Zola and Portico home, insulting them all the way. When Herbert followed them inside and onto the elevator, Portico started to feel the frets. A double-splash page (two pages drawn as a single comic panel) shows Stuntboy holding his chest and sweating as he feels mixed up and sick. When Portico and Zola get up to their apartments, which are right next to each other, Portico knocks on his door. Nobody answers, and he guesses that Gran Gran is sleeping. Zola’s mom opens her door and invites them inside, and Portico notes that Herbert lives in a “half door” between his and Zola’s apartments.

Portico and Zola go into her apartment, which is filled with lawn chairs because her father sells them for a living. Zola’s mother is a yoga instructor, and Zola uses those skills to teach Portico how to calm his body and mind when he feels anxious. She tells him to close his eyes and breathe deeply. While meditating, Zola asks Portico if he likes TV and superheroes, and Portico enthusiastically says that he does. Portico and Zola swirl around the pages as they talk and decide their superhero identities together. Zola decides to be a Super Space Warrior after her favorite show starring Mater and Pater, and she helps Portico discover his own superhero identity as Stuntboy. Portico likes the name because he likes doing dangerous things and wants to be the protector of all the other superheroes. Portico learned how to make creative names for things from his grandmother, who used to be a nurse and had funny names for all the parts of the body. Portico invents the “zamarama zig zag” and various other stunts (35), and he spends his first afternoon with Zola practicing them.

Stuntboy looks back on some of his early work as a superhero 157 days later, including smelling a classmate’s fart so that Zola didn’t have to and falling down the stairs so that his neighbor wouldn’t fall instead. At dinner one night, Portico’s parents tell him that they’re each moving into different apartments. Portico doesn’t understand that his parents are separating and thinks they’re all going to live together in two homes. His excitement confuses his parents, but they say nothing.

Days later, Portico walks into his apartment to see his parents fighting over a chair that they have had since they met. It was a chair they won when they tied a game of musical chairs in school, and neither wants to give it up. Portico has never seen his parents fight and doesn’t know how to react; they tell him to go see what Zola is up to “in the meantime” and assure him that nothing is wrong. Hearing “in the meantime” makes Portico think that his parents are in the midst of a “mean time,” in which they are mean to one another. He finds Zola in the courtyard, and she reminds him of an episode of Super Space Warriors in which Mater and Pater fight over a steering wheel and end up breaking it. The result is an explosion that almost kills them. Suddenly, Portico feels that his parents are in danger and dashes home to save them. He performs stunts and breaks up the fight, which makes his parents laugh. They make a decision about the chair, and Portico feels like he did his job.