Ullmann is a freelance writer and editor. In the following essay, Ullmann applies Joseph Campbell's model of an archetypical hero journey to Joe Kavalier's experience in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon, is a sweeping tale of grand proportions that uses some of the bold, over-the-top stylistic devices of comic books, such as archetypes. Critics have noted that Joe Kavalier, although quiet and hardworking, is also suave, competent, talented, and indestructible. Joe's uncanny abilities are not overstated to the point of magic realism, but he is as supernatural and heroic as the characters he illustrates for his comic books. The work of Joseph Campbell, an expert in the fields of comparative mythology and comparative religion, was heavily influenced by psychologist Carl Jung. Campbell's seminal text, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), provides the following outline for the...