Rest In Peace Dennis O'Neil - The Man That Kept Batman Relevant & The Person Responsible for My Love for Comic Books

Sad news in the comic book world. Dennis “Denny” O’Neil, best known for writing and editing Batman comic books, died on June 11 of natural causes.

He was responsible of shifting the tone on the popular character after the campier, more lighthearted take on the character during the 1960s TV series. He brought Batman back to his dark and gritty origins, keeping Batman relevant and responsible of some of his most brutal stories.

Dennis also had a hand in other characters from both Marvel and DC, and was handpicked by Stan Lee to work alongside him. His credits go from working in Doctor Strange, reviving Professor X, redefined Green Arrow, taking away Wonder Woman's powers, up to the creation of new characters now essential to the Batman mythos like Ra's al Ghul and Leslie Thompkins.

The list goes on regarding his accomplishments and accolades but I want to focus this article on the huge influence he had on Batman. He is the reason I stopped treating comic books as "children's books."

When I was introduced to the world of comic books, I didn't have a real interest in them. I was only drawn to them mainly due to the art. Jim Lee's gorgeous designs during the 1990s, Todd Mcfarlane's over the top and aggressive style on his Spawn books, Phil Jimenez' attention to detail, and Joe Quesada's in-your-face larger than life art style to name a few.

The stories never interested me because I felt they were too predictable, and there was not a lot of substance. Until I read Dennis O'Neil 'Batman: Venom' story arc.

My goodness! What a story! This book is so depressing, so dark, so mature and I just couldn't stop reading. This story introduced the Venom substance that would later appear as the enhancing drug used by Batman's nemesis Bane years later. The story touched upon topics like addiction, grief, depression, things that you are not used to see in the pages of a comic book.

The most important aspect of this story is that it makes you feel that your favorite heroes can actually lose and are not safe. No matter the outcome, the character will be forever changed and there's no sense of winning. This is the first time when being just Batman wasn't enough.

This transformed my outlook on the comic book world. Heroes can lose. Heroes are not perfect. Heroes will face consequences. Heroes can become villains. This is all thanks to the pioneering work of Mr. O'Neil.

DC Comics publisher Jim Lee took to Twitter to say that “Denny was one of the earliest writers whose work and focus on social issues pushed comics to wider respectability & acceptance as an artform. Through his work & mentorship, he influenced generations of writers & artists.”

The reason this quote from Jim Les is important is because Dennis introduced an enemy that super heroes couldn't punch his way through. He caused the comic book characters to become socially relevant, and faced them with social issues. No longer you would see heroes fighting mustache-twirling villains as the main opponent. Addiction, corporate greed, inequality, environmental racism to name a few. Dennis made superheroes and super villains relevant and respected again.

Not everyone was on board of course, since the purity of the characters were stained and some read comic books to escape reality. It's hard already living in a harsh world, let alone read it and remind you of it while trying to forget about it, but I'm in the group that saw this as a necessary step in the evolution of the medium, and one that influenced works like Christopher Nolan's 'Dark Knight Trilogy' and the controversial death of the second Robin in "A Death in the Family." This was key in what Dennis wanted comic books to be moving forward, forcing the readers to become part of the process. No more "flavor of the month" stories but stories that had ramifications months, even years later, in the lives of these comic book characters.

Thanks to comic book writers like Dennis O'Neil, comic books have kept their relevancy as an entertainment outlet and like everything in entertainment, it needs to evolve and adapt to its times. Dennis made possible for comic books to be both entertaining and a reflection of society's issues.

Rest in peace, Mr. O'Neil. The comic book world is better today thanks to you.