Dennis O'Neil

Dennis Joseph O'Neil (May 3, 1939 – June 11, 2020) was an American comic book writer and editor, principally for Marvel Comics and DC Comics from the 1960s through the 1990s, and Group Editor for the Batman family of titles until his retirement.

His best-known works include Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Batman with Neal Adams. It was during this run that O'Neil co-created the Batman villains Ra's al Ghul and Talia al Ghul. His other notable work includes runs on The Shadow with Michael Kaluta and The Question with Denys Cowan. As an editor, he is principally known for editing the various Batman titles. He also sat on the board of directors of the charity The Hero Initiative and served on its Disbursement Committee.

Early life

O'Neil was born into a Catholic household in St. Louis, Missouri on May 3, 1939. On Sunday afternoons he would accompany his father or his grandfather to the store for some light groceries and an occasional comic book. O'Neil graduated from Saint Louis University around the turn of the 1960s with a degree centered on English literature, creative writing, and philosophy. From there he joined the U.S. Navy just in time to participate in the blockade of Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

After leaving the Navy, O'Neil moved on to a job with a newspaper in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. O'Neil wrote bi-weekly columns for the youth page, and during the slow summer months he filled the space with a series on the revival of the comics industry. This attracted the attention of Roy Thomas, who would eventually himself become one of the great names in the history of the medium.

Writing

Marvel Comics

When Roy Thomas left DC Comics to work for Stan Lee at Marvel Comics, he suggested that O'Neil take the Marvel writer's test, which involved adding dialogue to a wordless four-page excerpt of a Fantastic Four comic. O'Neil's entry resulted in Lee offering O'Neil a job. O'Neil had never considered writing for comics, and later said he'd done the test "kind of as a joke. I had a couple of hours on a Tuesday afternoon, so instead of doing crossword puzzles, I did the writer's test."

When Marvel's expansion made it impossible for Lee to continue writing the company's entire line of books, Lee passed as much on to Roy Thomas as he could, but still needed writers, so O'Neil took the reins for a short-term run of Doctor Strange stories in Strange Tales, penning six issues. He also wrote dialog for such titles as Rawhide Kid and Millie the Model, as well as scripting the final 13 pages of Daredevil #18 over a plot by Lee, when Lee went on vacation.

O'Neil and artist Neal Adams revived the Professor X character in X-Men #65 in one of the creative team's earliest collaborations.

Charlton Comics

The available jobs writing for Marvel petered out fairly quickly, and O'Neil took a job with Charlton Comics under the pseudonym of Sergius O'Shaugnessy. There he received regular work for a year and a half from Charlton's editor Dick Giordano.

DC Comics

In 1968, Dick Giordano was offered an editorial position at DC Comics and took a number of Charlton freelancers with him, including O'Neil.

O'Neil's first assignments involved two strategies for bolstering DC's sales. One approach centered on the creation of new characters, and O'Neil scripted several issues of Beware the Creeper, a series starring a new hero, The Creeper, created by artist Steve Ditko. From there, DC moved O'Neil to Wonder Woman and Justice League of America. With artist Mike Sekowsky, he took away Wonder Woman's powers, exiled her from the Amazon community, and set her off, uncostumed, into international intrigues with her blind mentor, I Ching. These changes did not sit well with Wonder Woman's older fans, particularly feminists, and O'Neil later acknowledged that de-powering DC's most well-known superheroine had unintentionally alienated readers. In Justice League, he had more success, introducing into that title the first socially and politically themed stories, setting the stage for later work on Green Lantern/Green Arrow.He and artist Dick Dillin made several changes to the membership of the JLA by removing founding members the Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman.

Following the lead set by Bob Haney and Neal Adams in a Brave and the Bold story that visually redefined Green Arrow into the version that appeared in comics between 1969 and 1986, O'Neil stripped him of his wealth and playboy status, making him an urban hero. This redefinition would culminate in the character that appeared in Green Lantern/Green Arrow, with many stories also drawn by Adams, a socially conscious, left-wing creation that effectively took over Green Lantern's book to use him as a foil and straw man in sounding out the political concepts that would define that work. It was during this period that the most famous Green Arrow story appeared, in Green Lantern #85–86, when it was revealed that Green Arrow's ward Speedy was addicted to heroin. As a result of his work on Green Lantern and Green Arrow, O'Neil recounted, "I went from total obscurity to seeing my name featured in The New York Times and being invited to do talk shows. It's by no means an unmixed blessing. That messed up my head pretty thoroughly for a couple of years. ... Deteriorating marriage, bad habits, deteriorating relationships with human beings – with anything that wasn't a typewriter, in fact. It was a bad few years there."

O'Neil's 1970s run on the Batman titles, under the direction of editor Julius Schwartz, is perhaps his best-known endeavor, getting back to the character's darker roots after a period dominated by the campiness of the 1960s TV series. Comics historian Les Daniels observed that "O'Neil's interpretation of Batman as a vengeful obsessive-compulsive, which he modestly describes as a return to the roots, was actually an act of creative imagination that has influenced every subsequent version of the Dark Knight." O'Neil and Adams' creation Ra's al Ghul was introduced in the story "Daughter of the Demon" in Batman #232 (June 1971) O'Neil and artist Bob Brown also created Talia al Ghul. During this period, O'Neil frequently teamed up with his regular collaborator Adams (with Giordano often assisting on inks) on a number of memorable issues of both Batman and Detective Comics. The creative team would revive Two-Face in Batman #234 (Aug. 1971) and revitalize the Joker in "The Joker's Five-Way Revenge!" in Batman #251 (Sept. 1973), a landmark story bringing the character back to his roots as a homicidal maniac who murders people on a whim and delights in his mayhem. O'Neil and Giordano created the Batman supporting character Leslie Thompkins in the story "There Is No Hope in Crime Alley" appearing in Detective Comics #457 (March 1976). O'Neil and artist Don Newton killed the original version of Batwoman in Detective Comics #485 (Aug.–Sept. 1979). He wrote a short Christmas story, "Wanted: Santa Claus – Dead or Alive", for DC Special Series #21 (Spring 1980) which featured Frank Miller's first art on a Batman story.

When Julius Schwartz became the editor of Superman with issue #233 (Jan. 1971), he had O'Neil and artist Curt Swan streamline the Superman mythos, starting with the elimination of Kryptonite. In 1973, O'Neil wrote revivals of two characters for which DC had recently acquired the publishing rights.A new series featuring the original Captain Marvel was launched with a February cover date and featured art by the character's original artist C. C. Beck. Later that same year, O'Neil and artist Michael Kaluta produced an "atmospheric interpretation" of the 1930s pulp hero in The Shadow series. In 1975, O'Neil wrote a comic book adaptation of the 1930s hero The Avenger. A revival of the Green Lantern title in 1976 was launched by O'Neil and artist Mike Grell. Reuniting with Adams, O'Neil co-wrote the oversize Superman vs. Muhammad Ali (1978) which Adams has called a personal favorite of their collaborations.

Return to Marvel Comics

Upon O'Neil's return to Marvel Comics in 1980, he took on the scripting chores for The Amazing Spider-Man, which he did for a year. O'Neil wrote two issues of The Amazing Spider-Man Annual which were both drawn by Frank Miller.The 1980 Annual featured a team-up with Doctor Strange while the 1981 Annual showcased a meeting with the Punisher. He and artist John Romita Jr. introduced Madame Web in The Amazing Spider-Man #210 and Hydro-Man in #212. O'Neil was the regular scripter for Iron Man from 1982–1986, and Daredevil, from 1983–1985. During his run on Iron Man, O'Neil introduced Obadiah Stane, later the Iron Monger, plunged Tony Stark back into alcoholism, turned Jim Rhodes into Iron Man, and created the Silver Centurion armor. O'Neil's run on Daredevil bridged the gap between Frank Miller's two runs on the title, usually with David Mazzucchelli as artist. He introduced Yuriko Oyama during his stint, who would later become the popular X-Men villain Lady Deathstrike. While working for Marvel, he helped write the original character concept for the Transformers, and is credited as the person who named Optimus Prime.

Return to DC Comics

After returning to DC Comics in 1986, he became the editor of the various Batman titles and served in that capacity until 2000. In February 1987, O'Neil began writing The Question ongoing series which was primarily drawn by Denys Cowan. Between the years of 1988 and 1990, O'Neil would return to Green Arrow writing the annuals alongside the main title. Because he was also in charge of The Question, he would appear in all three annuals that he wrote. The Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight series began in 1989 with the five-part "Shaman" storyline by O'Neil and artist Ed Hannigan. Armageddon 2001 was a 1991 crossover event storyline. It ran through a self-titled, two issue limited series and most of the annuals DC published that year from May through October. Each participating annual explored potential possible futures for its main characters. The series was written by O'Neil and Archie Goodwin and drawn by Dan Jurgens. He and artist Joe Quesada created the character Azrael, who was introduced in the miniseries Batman: Sword of Azrael in 1992. That same year, O'Neil wrote the Batman: Birth of the Demon hardcover graphic novel. Another DC one-shot that O'Neil wrote in 1992 was Batman/Green Arrow: The Poison Tomorrow.

Other writing

O'Neil wrote several novels, comics, short stories, reviews and teleplays, including the novelizations of the films Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Under the pseudonym Jim Dennis with writer Jim Berry, O'Neil scripted a series of novels about a kung fu character named Richard Dragon, and later adapted those novels to comic book form for DC.

O'Neil wrote a four-part column series for Marvel's 1978 "The Hulk!" magazine, under the pseudonym Jeff Mundo. "Jeff Mundo's Dark Corners" ran from issue #21 through issue #24 and covered various pop culture topics.

O'Neil wrote a column for ComicMix.

Editing

Joining Marvel's editorial staff in 1980, O'Neil edited Daredevil during Frank Miller's run as writer/artist. He fired writer Roger McKenzie so that Miller could both write and pencil Daredevil, a decision which then-Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter says saved the series from cancellation. O'Neil encouraged Miller to develop a believable fighting style for Daredevil, and according to Miller, this directly led to his incorporating martial arts into Daredevil and later Ronin. In the early to mid-1980s, O'Neil edited such Marvel titles as Alpha Flight, Power Man and Iron Fist, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, and Moon Knight.

According to Bob Budiansky, O'Neil came up with the name for the Transformer Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots.

In 1986, O'Neil moved over to DC as an editor, becoming group editor for the company's Batman titles. Speaking about his role in the death of character Jason Todd, O'Neil remarked:

It changed my mind about what I do for a living. Superman and Batman have been in continuous publication for over half a century, and it's never been true of any fictional construct before. These characters have a lot more weight than the hero of a popular sitcom that lasts maybe four years. They have become postindustrial folklore, and part of this job is to be the custodian of folk figures. Everybody on Earth knows Batman and Robin.

O'Neil said that he saw editing as a support role which should be invisible to the reader, and that if it were his choice his name would not appear in the credits when working as an editor, only when working as a writer.

Teaching

O'Neil spent several years in the late 1990s teaching a Writing for the Comics course at Manhattan's School of Visual Arts, sometimes sharing duties with fellow comic book writer John Ostrander.

O'Neil was married to Marifran O'Neil, until her death. He was the father of writer/director/producer Lawrence O'Neil, best known for the 1997 film Breast Men starring David Schwimmer.

He died of cardiopulmonary arrest on June 11, 2020, at the age of 81.

O'Neil's work won him a great deal of recognition in the comics industry, including the Shazam Awards for Best Continuing Feature Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Best Individual Story for "No Evil Shall Escape My Sight" in Green Lantern #76 (with Neal Adams), for Best Writer (Dramatic Division) in 1970 for Green Lantern, Batman, Superman, and other titles, and Best Individual Story for "Snowbirds Don't Fly" in Green Lantern #85 (with Neal Adams) in 1971.

O'Neil was given a Goethe Award in 1971 for "Favorite Pro Writer" and was a nominee for the same award in 1973. He shared a 1971 Goethe Award with artist Neal Adams for "Favorite Comic-Book Story" for "“No Evil Shall Escape My Sight."

O'Neil received an Inkpot Award in 1981 and in 1985, DC Comics named O'Neil as one of the honorees in the company's 50th anniversary publication Fifty Who Made DC Great.

In The Batman Adventures—the first DC Comics spinoff of Batman: The Animated Series—a caricature of O'Neil appears as The Perfesser, one of a screwball trio of incompetent super-villains that also includes The Mastermind (a caricature of Mike Carlin) and Mr. Nice (a caricature of Archie Goodwin). The Perfesser is depicted as a tall, pipe-smoking genius who often gets lost in his own thoughts.