Stuntboy, in the Meantime

“So my mother says life is just a TV show, and we’re all characters in it. So, what if we imagine this is a superhero show and both of us get to pick one superhero to be?”

Zola shares wisdom that she learns from her mother. The premise that life is like a television show is carried throughout the narrative, as each chapter is presented as an “episode” complete with theme music and a full introduction. Zola encourages Portico to find the superhero within himself, which slowly gives him confidence and strength. This is the beginning of the novel’s exploration of The Foundational Supports Provided by Friendship.

“I never seen them in the mean time before.”

Portico misinterprets the phrase “in the meantime,” believing it means that his parents are in the midst of a “mean time” in their lives. All of this is new to Portico at first, but The Effects of Family Conflict on Children soon become clear.

“But Portico had already stopped listening. Because his taste tunnel had switched places with his gas tank, his stomach now coughing. The inside-mixup. The frets! The frets!”

When Portico experiences anxiety, he is prone to physical symptoms like nausea and shakes, which are emphasized through the narrative’s use of imagery and metaphor. These feelings give Portico even more anxiety, becoming a vicious cycle. Zola helps Portico learn how to handle his anxiety and calm his mind and body through yoga techniques.

“His parents, arguing inside.

Then he was inside the arguing.”

Portico is constantly caught in the middle of his parents’ fights. As the only child in the family, he is left feeling alone and without the support of the people he needs most. The wordplay here stresses just how much Portico becomes part of the conflict, even though he should not be involved at all.

“But instead of talking about it or making a plan, they just fought over the portal necklace because they both wanted credit, when really they were both already heroes.”

Zola draws on metaphors from Super Space Warriors to help explain and understand what is going on between Portico’s parents and the potential consequences of their conflict. The characters Mater and Pater are siblings but have the same bullheaded attitude that Portico’s parents have. Neither wants to relent, and the result is always a disaster.

“Gah! What in the world, Portico! It stings! Is that salt and vinegar?!”

Although Portico’s family situation is stressful and difficult, there are moments of humor that creep into his daily life. One such example of this is when Portico blows salt and vinegar chip crumbs into his father’s eyes to get him to stop yelling. Portico’s early strategies in dealing with his parents’ conflict prove to do more harm than good.

“Point is, I take care of these laces because even though they cause me a little pain, they still mine, and I still need ’em.”

Mr. Mister is a neighbor in the building that Portico often encounters on his daily adventures. Mr. Mister always wears the same shoelaces, and Portico notices him washing them one day. Mr. Mister tries to turn his shoelaces into a metaphor to encourage Portico to take care of himself, but Portico doesn’t understand.

“Portico slammed into his apartment. His parents were still arguing, so he dove between them—dove between the two growing tornadoes of family furniture and forget-me-nots, including chairs, ironing boards, an iron, picture frames, and mirrors—and curled up under the table. The Potato Bug.”

Portico metaphorically compares the growing piles of separated belongings and the parents who are creating them to a natural disaster. He then compares himself to a potato bug because amid the storm that his parents create, Portico feels like all he can do is hide from it.

“Roll credits.

Cue theme music.

Actually…don’t. This is an important story, and we should just get to it.”

Portico’s cat introduces each new episode with theme music and fanfare but decides against it for this particular chapter. The shift in framing here emphasizes the importance of the Cut Day episode to Portico’s narrative.

“If his mom was a professional haircutter, then that would make him a professional haircuttee.”

Portico considers himself an important member of the apartment community and his own family. He looks up to his parents and sees them as heroes, and he does whatever he can to help them. Portico’s narrative draws on wordplay as a source of humor and levity in a story that deals with darker subjects, like parental separation and anxiety.

“Being a super is just about taking care of things. Looking out for people. That’s all.”

Soup gives Portico some important advice about what it means to be a “super.” This is another example of the novel’s use of wordplay: Soup is the building’s superintendent, or “super,” meaning that he manages the building’s maintenance and repair, but Portico believes that Soup is a superhero. Portico looks up to Soup because he is slick and confident, and he takes Soup’s advice to heart. Portico goes out of his way regularly to help others and resolve conflicts around him.

“His dad’s hair looked like it got some bad news. Which matched Portico’s face, because you guessed it…YOU GUESSED IT. His parents were arguing.”

Humor mixes with sadness as Portico arrives home to check on his father’s hair but finds a much larger problem occurring. He breaks the fourth wall frequently throughout the narrative, speaking directly to his audience and admitting to the occasional predictability of his life.

“I wonder if he has some kind of special powers to get my parents to stop fighting over the stuff in our house.”

Portico sees superheroes as people who solve conflicts and keep people safe. He hopes that by becoming a superhero himself, he can ease the conflict in his own life, both with his parents and with Herbert. Portico looks to people like Soup for guidance in becoming a hero.

“Portico torpedoed back into the apartment.”

Author Jason Reynolds, who has a background in poetry, plays with words and draws on unique verb usage to add style and interest to his writing. Here, the use of the verb “torpedo” emphasizes both Portico’s speed and the conflict that he is about to experience.

“The line dancing started.

The burnt hot dogs were passed out.

The soggy burgers too.

Ketchup and mustard.

Juice boxes from the trash can.

Juice boxes into the (other) trash can.”

Reynolds inserts the occasional short poem into the graphic novel, which adds variety to the reading experience and encourages alternative forms of expression. The block party, in all its simplicity, is one of Portico’s favorite experiences because it can always be relied on to be the same.

“Well, really the balloon met her face, like, Hello my name is…SPLASH!”

Portico personifies the water balloon that Herbert throws at Zola. Although Portico reacts with anger, there is also a hint of sarcasm and humor when he describes the incident to his reader, emphasizing the distance between Portico’s third-person narration and the emotions he experiences in the moment.

“When Portico and Zola went to see what all the hush was about, Portico’s parents were sitting on the couch, the two towers of stuff casting shadows on the room. Silent. But not angry silent. Sad silent.”

The piles of boxes that form in Portico’s living room take away the feeling of home and seem to erase the past that Portico holds dearly. They become dark towers that cast literal and metaphorical shadows over Portico’s home life and remove the feeling of safety that he once had there. Portico’s parents only occasionally stop arguing and divert to sadness, but they never seem to be in a positive state anymore.

“I love clocks! Love ’em! I love clocks so much that I’m constantly thinking about when our time is UP!”

Portico’s parents argue in front of him, which forces him to bear witness to the way that their love for one another devolved into hatred instead. Portico is deeply affected by the conflict he witnesses, as it leads to episodes of anxiety and causes him to feel lost in his own life.

“He got down, closed his eyes, took a deep breath. In and blew it out. In, and blew it out. And the apartment became so silent, they could hear that the clock wasn’t even ticking. Wasn’t working at all.”

Portico acts like a true hero when he stops trying to engage in his parents’ conflict and instead rises above it by demonstrating strength and poise. Portico usually defaults to stunts, acrobatics, and dramatic reactions, but here, he demonstrates maturity in attempting to defuse the tension with calmness instead of chaos.

“There’s a time in every hero’s life where they have to face the villain.”

Portico continues to use superhero terminology and his favorite television show to understand his life. His “villains” are both Herbert, who bullies him, and his parents, who argue all the time. Portico decides that he has to stop allowing anxiety to rule his life and begins the process of facing his fears.

“Divorce? Felt like it had an X in it. Like ‘divorxe,’ because of what it might mean. Portico’s throat also felt like it had an X in it.”

Portico is worried that when his parents become “exes,” the past will be destroyed, and he will be left having to navigate an entirely new reality. When the truth finally sinks in, Portico has no option but to be strong and face whatever comes next as the new and improved Stuntboy.

“He hadn’t turned into Stuntboy. Which means he was just plain ol’ Portico. Which means no superhero arms. But Zola and Herbert helped him pull himself up anyway.”

Portico relies on The Foundational Supports Provided by Friendship to keep him strong when he cannot be strong on his own. Dealing with the thought of his parents divorcing brings up a whirlwind of emotions in Portico, and now, he has not one but two friends to help him through it.

“I’m sure you can tell just by looking at him that he’s having some anxiety.”

Portico talks directly to the reader to encourage them to observe the emotion and symbolism behind the illustrations. In the illustration, he stands with his arms and legs twisted around each other, as though his entire existence has shifted into something unrecognizable.