ABSTRACT
As Neumann has recognized, ‘the hero myth is never concerned with the private history of an individual, but always with some prototypal and transpersonal event of collective significance’ (1995, p. 197). In other words, and in Jungian terms, the hero is a ‘transpersonal’ and ‘transhistorical’ archetype (Doty 2000, p. 200). The ‘private history’ of any mythological hero, therefore, displays certain patterns in heroic development that are linked to patterns of development in individuation: our own private formation of identity. This heroic process of rebirth or self-transformation often features the development of multiple identities followed by a necessary reunification of these multiples through the heroic act. Achieving this unity is a creative and empowering act bringing together two worlds: that of the collective unconscious, also known as the psyche, and that of the ego, representing the conscious mind. This link between hero status and psychological unity has profound bearing on the investigation of super-heroes in mainstream graphic narratives. Examining mythic and modern texts for patterns in origination, transformation, and its aftermath illustrates the development of social concern for the process of establishing psychological unity.
