Stan Lee, Denny O'Neil, Batman and Dorothy Day

Stan Lee, the genius and leader behind Marvel Comics died on Nov. 12, 2018 at 95. When I heard about his passing in the news it brought back some memories from the 60's in my head. I began to remember a visit to the Marvel Comics office in Manhattan. Colorful posters of comic book characters hanging on walls popped into my head. Why was I there? To visit a friend at the time by the name of Denny O'Neil.

But Stan Lee's passing forced me to do some searching and some memory poking. I needed to fill in the gaps. Lots of information between comic book posters and Denny O'Neil. I have thought of Denny in the ensuing years and had already done some research on him in the past few years but now I needed to know and remember more. You see there was a connection between Denny and the Catholic Worker in NYC where I spent some time in my youth. I remembered going to parties at Denny's apartment where he and his wife lived, somewhere in the East Village. A group of young Catholic Workers would gather, perhaps after a Friday Night Meeting (a tradition at many Catholic Worker Houses of Hospitality, an opportunity for clarification of thought) or after a day of demonstrating against the draft or the war in Vietnam. Denny was supportive of our activities and his wife, Ann, had been involved at the Catholic Worker.

My research found video interviews and articles about and by Denny. In many, he talked about his growing up in Missouri, his Catholic upbringing, his military service, his marriage to Ann and his connection to the Worker. He started at Marvel Comics after taking the 4 page writers test in his early to mid 20's. He eventually moved to DC comics and took on the authorship of Batman and many other characters including Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Wonder Woman. Denny has had a brilliant writing and editing career at both DC and Marvel.

But I still wasn't sure about all of those memories swishing around in my head so I reached out to some of my old friends from that time period to see if we were remembering any of the same things or if my memory could be jogged a bit. Nicole remembered Denny's wedding to Ann. It turns out she was a witness at the wedding which did take place at the neighborhood church frequented by folks from the Worker. She can recall Denny's makeshift ring at the wedding and the parties we attended at the O'Neil's apartment. Paul sent me information on a book Denny authored with some fictional characters telling the story of Denny's comic book life. So he also had some memories too.

The most amazing thing I found though was some writing from Denny himself where he talks about a character he created in the Batman series, Dr. Leslie Thompkins. Denny explains that his character of Leslie was based on Dorothy Day who co-founded the Catholic Worker movement. Here are Denny's own words in an excerpt from an article in 2015:

"I had a real person in mind when I was writing Detective #457, someone I’d once met named Dorothy Day. Dorothy began her professional life as a journalist, wrote a novel, lived the Greenwich Village life. In 1939, she cofounded The Catholic Worker, an organization located in a section of lower Manhattan not much frequented by the white shoe crowd. The Worker had three missions: to serve the poor by providing food, shelter and clothing; to help drunks get sober; and to protest war – all war, any war, and any violence.

We incorporated Dorothy’s pacifism into Leslie. There wasn’t much; I can’t recall any particular story in which it was a major element. But look for it and you could find it."

So yes, Dr. Leslie Thompkins is a pacifist doctor who works in the toughest part of Gotham's criminal slums. She was an old friend of Batman's mother and father. The character appears in 200+ Batman comics.

Yup, that's the same Dorothy Day arrested over the years in protests over war and social justice. The same Dorothy Day proposed for sainthood in the Catholic Church. Funny and appropriate. Now that it's been brought to light can you imagine all of the prelates in Rome, cardinals and priests, perhaps even Pope Francis, pouring over copies of Batman comics and trying to find references to Dorothy and determining if she should be named a saint. Good luck folks and thank you Denny for helping to confuse the confused. Ah, memories!