Every such post of yet another death of someone who made my little corner of the world a better and richer place is written from a place of sadness, but this one is particularly so...
Comic book writer, editor... and transformative figure Dennis (Denny) O' Neil passed away on June 11, 2020, at the age of 81.
To call Denny O' Neil my favorite DC Comics writer Post-Silver-Age is easy... just look over his body of work.
To call Denny O' Neil one of my most favorite comic book writers of all is equally easy... just look over his body of work.
But, to call Denny O' Neil THE most significant comic book writer Post-Silver-Age - and ONE OF THE most significant comic book writers of ALL TIME (in a grouping that would include such names as Jerry Siegel, Bill Finger and Bob Kane, Stan Lee, and Carl Barks) - would also not be amiss... just look over his body of work.
Consider that THIS was the character (and popular image of) Batman before Denny O'Neil...
...And through O'Neil's guidance, aided and abetted by the magnificent visuals of Neal Adams, came things like THIS!
Of course, there are MANY who prefer a lighter comics Batman and, certainly in view of the extremes of the comics of the 21st Century, I count myself decidedly as one of them - preferring, via the greater perspective of hindsight and at least two decades of gratuitous comics excess, a Batman more like these...
C'mon... Admit it! Every one of those was GREAT!
But, "great" as they all were (and ARE), somewhere around this time...
...Batman needed a "bigger change" than Batgirl needed for her tights!
And Denny O' Neil was just the writer to deliver that change!
And did he EVER deliver!
Creating my favorite DC villain (...yes, even more than The Joker) Ra's Al Ghul in the process!
Not stopping there, he revitalized Superman...
...Paving the way for editor Julius Schwartz and his pack of young writing talents, Cary Bates, Elliot S! Maggin, and the recently-lost-to-us Martin Pasko, to carry the Man of Steel through the 1970s, and well into the 1980s!
And there was the historic (though, alas, unappreciated in its time) GREEN LANTERN / GREEN ARROW!
These images simply speak for themselves!
One of the most iconic and oft-referenced series of panels in comic book history...
Caricatures can sometimes be tricky... Former Vice-President Spiro Agnew - or horror film star Vincent Price?
Cover by the great Neal Adams!
Honestly, back when I first read this issue, I thought it was supposed to be Vincent Price! But, some say differently. You decide!
Alas, we can no longer ask the author.
Nor, can we ask him about his early days... writing for (can you believe) Charlton...
...Under his pen name of "Sergius O' Shaugnessy"...
Or his days at Marvel...
...Or his time in the later 1980s thru 1990s as the editor of the Batman family of titles!
A period that began with elegance...
...Retaining that elegance amid a direction of market-driven image-distortion...
...And was the last period during which I truly enjoyed a contemporary Batman comic that didn't harken back to a previous time.
Mark Evanier has a wonderfully detailed Blog post on Denny O'Neil that you can read HERE!
Denny O'Neil was the writer most responsible for transitioning DC Comics out of the fanciful Silver Age and into the more grounded Bronze Age, laying the groundwork for the "Modern Age" to come! Anyone who disputes this can (...all together now)... just look over his body of work!
Rest In Peace, Mr. Dennis O'Neil... An entire industry has YOU to thank for so very much!
10 comments:
I have yet to read anything by Denny O'Neil. (It's possible I read something by him when I was in a comic book club during my ill-fated time in graduate school, but I honestly don't recall coming across his name during that period of my life, so I doubt it. I first recall hearing his name after I had left grad school). Still I've consumed enough Batman comics to know that given the choice between the lighter Batman and the darker Batman, I prefer the lighter one. That said, the darker version certainly has its merits, too. Life is not always a bed of roses, so art cannot always be one either. Why should comics be the exception? In any event, O'Neil is doubtless indirectly responsible for the dark and gritty Batman comics I've enjoyed, as well as, I imagine, for "Batman: The Animated Series," which I loved as a kid and surely wouldn't have been possible without O'Neil's shift to a darker Batman. So, for giving me (albeit indirectly) things I enjoyed, I thank him. RIP.
That’s a very interesting take, Sergio!
I’d say the “Animated Series Batman” is very definitely the result of Denny O’Neil’s version, and that which was added to it by others in his wake. Certainly, anything having to do with Ra’s Al Ghul. He even wrote the two-part episode that introduced Ra’s, which was adapted from his own comic book stories.
As far as “Dark Batman” goes, here’s something I wrote to a friend on an off-the-Blog exchange about this very post. He put forth that Frank Miller, in “The Dark Knight Returns” (1986), was more the direct link than O’Neil’s version. My reaction follows:
GREAT POINT on "Psycho Batman" starting with Frank Miller! Yes! I loved Denny's take on Batman as the character emerged from the camp-era, but I never saw that as quite a direct a line to "Psycho Batman". It was more a melding of "Detective Batman" and "Physical/Action Batman", with a little "Spooky Batman" for added atmosphere - beautifully realized by Adams, and well done by most everyone else of the period as well.
I think you’d enjoy Denny O’Neil’s take on Batman! It’s widely considered one of the very best interpretations of the character. Especially, when done in conjunction with Neal Adams.
Compared to how much darker other writers have portrayed Batman, O'Neil's can come off pretty jolly in retrospect!
Yes indeed, ‘Rehab!
I feel he achieved the right balance, at the right time, to guide Batman (and DC as a whole) from the Silver Age into the Bronze Age. And his stories were “interesting”, not just “angry”!
Also, when I say “at the right time”, I mean that a few years earlier it wouldn’t have worked, and a few years later he would have been “behind the curve” and “just another member of the pack”! It all worked out perfectly, until others would eventually take things too far and we wind up with “that which we have today”.
Of course, a nuance to take into account, I think, is the difference between “camp Batman” as in “camp Batman stories”, and “camp Batman” as in “Batman himself is camp”. On balance, I should think the most palapable effect of the “dark renaissance” pioneered by O'Neil might have been to reestablish that whatever else, the character himself was not a quipping jokester, but rather a deadly-serious figure whose job description it was to go bump in the night.
Looking at more recent “light Batman” media, they appear to have stuck to this idea — even when he is plunged into a silly world with very campy villains (which I'm always here for), Batman is now universally depicted as the ‘Comically Serious’ archetype. Which I think works wonderfully and was the missing ‘hook’ that meant I never managed to get into the Adam West series, even if it has a lot of great stuff in it. It's just a lot more dynamic to have the hero be sincerely dark and brooding even though the story doesn't give overmuch solemnity to the fact that his archenemies are a penguin-man with an umbrella, the Mad Hatter, and a literal clown. This is, to start with, the key insight of the 1989 film — it is perfectly aware of exactly how ridiculous its hero and villain are, but while the Joker is the one who delights in how absurd he is, Bruce Wayne is a sort of lovable madman who thinks that secret stairways, security cameras in suits of armour, and dressing himself up as a giant vampire-thing to scare burglars are all perfectly natural ideas, nay, a grim mission he must undertake for Deep Ponderous Reasons.
This is not to say that this is what O'Neil did, himself, of course. As villains go, the admittedly-great Ra's-al-Ghul is very much an attempt at a serious foe. What I'm saying is only that not content to pioneer a new, darker direction in his own stories (…I hesitate to call it Fresh And New, as the phrase, I fear, has been permanently spoiled), O'Neil's reform was so influential as to also lastingly change the way people did funny Batman, too.
Achille:
First, “Fresh And New” is still a perfectly okay phrase to use anywhere, anytime, and anyplace!
It’s “Fresh And Modern” is that has been “permanently spoiled”! We gotta keep these things straight, ya know!
Now, to you (and to everyone), it is precisely because of extremely insightful comments like these, and those by so many of you, that I keep doing this Blog with renewed energy – after going on fourteen years! …You make it all worthwhile, ALL of you!
Yes, indeed… the secret of the “lighter Batman” of more modern times is to make “that which surrounds him” light, funny, perhaps even absurd, but never have *him* wade hip-deep into it! He’s our rock and our constant in an otherwise topsy-turvy world!
This approach has been employed to great effect by contemporary writers from Paul Dini to Sholly Fisch… and IT WORKS!
Earlier writers like Bob Haney occasionally employed some version of it in the Silver and Bronze Age issues of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD, and even Chuck Dixon (who, in the ‘90s, did the grim and dark stuff in just the right measure to avoid the more “Psycho Batman” of most recent times) surprised and delighted me with his “Knight Out” (DETECTIVE COMICS # 711, 1997) where Bruce Wayne tries in vain to simply take a night off! It’s a “done-in-one” story that anyone can read and enjoy in total isolation from the greater continuity… and recommended!
And that remains the great thing about a character like Batman… You can present him in so many different ways, and there’s a constituency for each and every one of those ways! From grimmest-darkest to partnering with Scooby-Doo!
…And, while these days I’ll take Scooby, no one represented this overall concept better than Denny O’Neil and the great and historic journey on which he guided Batman!
This is a very well-written and heartfelt tribute, Joe, but I expect no less from you. Great job as always.
Like Sergio, I don't have enough direct experience with Denny O'Neil's work as I should. However, the whole question of light vs. dark Batman reminds me of Goldilocks -- you want to get the Caped Crusader "just right", neither too silly nor too psycho. Among his other accomplishments, Denny O'Neil was an important part of that process, and for that the entire comics world owes him a huge debt of gratitude.
Thank you very much for those kind words, Mark!
…And you put it in such a great way, too… "just right"!
To me, he was not only “an important part of that process”, but the KEY PIECE to that process! I can’t imagine what ‘70s-‘90s DC Comics would have been like without him! His imprint, or the imprint of those he influenced, was EVERYWHERE!
Denny O’Neill was a fantastic writer and editor. He was responsible for the Batman I grew up with as I didn’t like Dark Knight Returns when I was younger. His work in the Neal Adams Omnibus is gold. Ra’s is such an interesting character as is Talia. Great tribute to a person who’s comic work truly deserves it.
Jim:
Denny O’Neil deserves a MUCH GREATER tribute than I could ever give, as he was one of the very few who actually changed the course of comic-book history – and he did it with his powerful and truly innovative writing (a huge plus where I’m concerned)… but thank you for the kind words!
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