Denny O’Neil played an essential role in shaping Oliver Queen’s voice, and Green Arrow’s 80th Anniversary issue ends with a tribute to the writer.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for “Tap Tap Tap” from Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular by Tom Taylor, Nicola Scott, Annette Kwok & Clayton Cowles, on sale now
Denny O’Neil was one of the most revolutionary voices in mainstream superhero comics, writing definitive stories for characters like Green Arrow, Batman and the Question. When he passed away last year, he was widely celebrated and recognized as a true visionary who brought a rich philosophy and a deep sense of humanity to superheroes.
Over the course of his decades-long career, O’Neil worked on some of comics’ greatest icons, but he had the biggest impact on shaping the conscientious voice of Oliver Queen in the 1970s. And after celebrating Green Arrow in his many forms across the decades, the Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular ends with a touching silent tribute to Denny, written by his son Larry O’Neil with art by Jorge Fortes and Dave Stewart.
RELATED: DC’s Green Arrow Tribute to Denny O’Neil Is Now Free To Read
While O’Neil began his career at Marvel and even served as editor on Frank Miller’s early Daredevil stories, O’Neil is best known for his work at DC Comics. In 1970, he partnered with artist Neal Adams on their now-famous Green Lantern/Green Arrow run. The two heroes teamed up and traveled across the United States to confront real problems facing the country. It began with the story “No Evil Shall Escape My Sight,” in which Green Arrow revealed to his fellow hero the hardships that slum lords subjected their tenants to, and how this especially impacted Black people.
From there, the heroes went on to confront issues of social justice including corporate polluting, violence against Native Americans, corruption in the prison system and drugs, with Green Arrow’s sidekick Speedy famously dealing with addiction issues. In contrast to the more establishment-oriented Hal Jordan, these stories established Green Arrow’s left-leaning political consciousness, relationship with Black Canary and frenetically impassioned personality. The critical success of these stories played a tremendous role in establishing Green Arrow as his own kind of hero, and one that could never be mistaken for an obscure Batman knockoff.
While O’Neil’s DC work included significant contributions to the Batman mythology and a character-redefining run on The Question with Denys Cowan that was rooted in Zen philosophy, his formative work on Green Arrow makes the character’s special a perfect place to pay tribute to him.
At the end of the Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular, writer/editor Dave Wielgosz acknowledges that Green Arrow would never have received an 80th Anniversary issue if not for Denny O’Neil, and how both the writer and the hero always worked to make the world better. This leads directly into the silent comic by Denny’s son, Larry O’Neil, depicting his father’s life.
It begins with Denny as a young boy, listening to cowboy stories on the radio. It shows the continual influence of stories on his life, reading a Superman comic as a boy, thinking about detective stories while in the Navy, and taking the Comic Writer Test that got him his job with Marvel. From discussing peace to typing up a Green Arrow script, Denny has a baby, wins awards, raises his son, grows old with his wife, and lives long enough to watch the heroes he helped create become mainstream parts of popular culture. After his wife passes, a heartbreaking sequence shows his legacy grow wider as the superhero media landscape explodes.
The last page shows him in his hospital bed, thinking about the cowboy stories on the radio of his childhood until his thoughts go quiet too. A green-gloved hand holds Denny’s: Green Arrow. The scene pulls back to reveal the hospital room filled with the many DC heroes he helped define over the years.
This comic shows how stories shaped Denny up to his final days in moments that speak volumes when taken into context with the way he imbued those characters with values that gave them depths that few comic characters had before.
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