Psychoanalytic Readings of the Double Life of Teaching and Not-Teaching: Spider-Man, Black Lightning, and Johnny Thunder

This chapter investigates how the narrative conventions of comics are used to externalize and metaphorize the inner movements structuring the double lives of teaching and not-teaching. Beginning with Spider-Man (whose secret identity is frequently reprised in the role of teacher), the visual metaphors describing his everyday compromises are positioned as powerful rifts between identity positions, subsequently linked to the teacher’s enactment of multiple rescue fantasies. Looking next to the character of Black Lightning, and summoning the psychoanalytic concept of the caesura (after Wilfred Bion), this chapter explores how the narrative box in comics can be used to hyperfocus on thought, while simultaneously backgrounding the narrative’s more obviously plot-driven, representational elements. Finally, turning to the character of 1950s Western hero Johnny Thunder, this chapter focuses on how the defense reaction known as splitting, typically aimed at forestalling ambivalence, is made visible, deliberate, and legible in this comic, allowing the reader insight into the pressures faced by teachers in the presence of incompatible ideas and identities.