A daily conversation about comics has become a meaningful connection showing how a shared interest can create an opportunity for learning, engagement, and relationship‑building.
More than two years ago, shortly after Kyle Hettinger moved into his new office in Easterseals Northeast Indiana’s Projects Drive Group building in Fort Wayne, he and Anthony started meeting every workday to talk about comics and superheroes.
Hettinger is the agency’s quality coordinator, examining ways to improve how things work and investigating problems. Anthony participates in day services offered at PDG. He’s been fascinated by the universe of Marvel characters for years.
“One day, Anthony told me that he liked Marvel comics because he saw the ‘Marvel Encyclopedia’ I would just leave this out for everybody to look at,” Hettinger said.
Anthony was fascinated. He studied the encyclopedia closely every day at PDG.
“He started reading it, and then what we decided to do was just kind of find characters in here that he resonated with and we put them on a list on my computer, and over time, we just print out a couple a day,” Hettinger said.
Their superhero talks are never long-winded; they meet for just 10 to 15 minutes a day. Each of them picks one Marvel character to explore.
Anthony’s interests are quite specific.
“He cares most about their eye color, their hair color, who created them, and the first time that they showed up in a comic,” Hettinger said. After they look up the background on each character, Hettinger creates what he calls a “face card” on the superhero, with a picture of the hero and key facts.
On a recent day when they met, Hettinger picked Kate Bishop as his superhero to profile.
“Kate Bishop is the new Hawkeye, basically … the female archer,” he said.
Anthony picked out Butterfly.
“She is a mutant,” Hettinger said. “She was part of the House of M, when they were trying to label all the mutants.”
“What was the House of M?” Anthony asked.
“That’s when they made all the mutants put a big tattoo, like an ‘M,’ on their face, so they knew who was a mutant and who wasn’t,” Hettinger said.
There have been times when Anthony’s strong feelings have interfered with his socializing. There was a period when he couldn’t attend day services at PDG. Even then, Hettinger and Anthony kept at it.
“I like Anthony,” Hettinger said. His daily one-on-one time with Anthony is a kind of flashback to his earliest days in working with people who have disabilities.
“I really enjoyed being a DSP, still to this day,” he said. “It was my favorite job.”
That helps explain why Hettinger made time to deliver information on superheroes to Anthony when he couldn’t attend day services.
For Anthony, touching base on Marvel characters is often his favorite part of the day.
“Yeah, it’s good,” Anthony said.
“That and lunch, right?” Hettinger teased.