William C. Wagoner
1. The Ordinary World
The world of the hero before his or her adventure begins is commonplace. Even if the setting is fantastical, such as the desert planet of Tatooine in Star Wars, the routine and daily life of the protagonist is ordinary, often tedious and boring, or even terrible, and the potential of the protagonist as a hero lies dormant and untapped at this point.
2. The Call to Adventure
"The call to adventure... signifies that destiny has summoned the hero and transferred his spiritual center of gravity to a zone unknown... the adventure may begin as a mere blunder... or one may be only casually strolling, when some passing phenomenon catches the wandering eye and lures one away from the frequented paths of man" (Campbell 58). Some act, either by the hero or another, explicitly invites the protagonist to leave his or her comfort zone, to leave all that is familiar behind and actively put oneself in all manner of danger for some purpose larger than him or herself.
3. Refusal of the Call
"Often in actual life, and not infrequently in the myths and popular tales, we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered; for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests" (Campbell 59). Because of inner doubts, the hero often refuses the call of adventure initially. In the case of Bilbo Baggins in
The Hobbit
, the halfling sternly refuses to go galloping off with the dwarves and a wizard, but eventually, he is dragged along despite the initial refusal.
4. Meeting the Mentor
"... the first encounter of the hero-journey is with a protective figure (often a little old crone or old man) who provides the adventurer with amulets against the dragon forces he is about to pass" (Campbell 69). One of the great lessons we learn when studying any Hero is that he or she could never survive or be successful on the quest without help, often a prodigious amount of aid, in the form of allies and most importantly, a mentor figure. The mentor provides all manner of aid and equipment, the most important being wisdom. One of the greatest mentors of the classical greek era was Chiron the centaur, trainer of Hercules. Of the modern pantheon of superheroes it is Professor Xavier, mentor to scores of mutant heroes.