Rest in Peace: Dennis O'Neil

A few days ago, comic book writer and editor Dennis O'Neil passed away at age 82. He was best known for his work at DC Comics, especially as the Batman group editor during the franchise's biggest years. As a Batman writer, he'll always be remembered for creating Ra's Al-Ghul and Talia with artist Neal Adams. I don't think it can be over emphasized just how significant it is that Ra's and Talia have become mainstays of the Batman franchise. Batman villains tend to be 'gimmick' villains in the fashion of Dick Tracy, so to grant Batman adversaries whose schemes were big, globe-spanning events, was a huge step-up from the hero's usual gutters. Although I've never been especially fond of Batman, I do think the late 90s status quo under O'Neil where Nightwing was in Bludhaven, Tim Drake was Robin, Cassandra Cain was Batgirl and Oracle led the Birds of Prey was a pretty great status quo for the cast of characters.

Aside from Batman, he's also renowned for his Green Lantern/Green Arrow stories with Neal Adams from the 1970s, the "hard travelling heroes" era where the duo faced contemporary social problems. It led to the scene above, which I do have some problems with -- namely that Green Lantern, as a hero whose stage of operations is intergalactic, has frequently been in a position to save the entire planet, so this armor-piercing question seems rather unfair; it would be better to fire this question at a hero such as Batman, a hero who, even now in 2020, pretty much exists to defend a white status quo. But this was pretty provocative stuff in 1970 and even today it's not a question publishers seem eager to have asked of their heroes.

I'm really a Marvel fan, but although worked there for several years there's little that I like; he wrote one of the most forgettable runs on Amazing Spider-Man, his only lasting creations being Madame Web and Hydro-Man. But his biggest writing assignment has to be Iron Man, where he picked up the alcoholism which previous creators David Michelinie & Bob Layton had given Tony Stark, and made it the defining struggle the hero would grapple with for his run. It was during O'Neil's run that James Rhodes became Iron Man and the master villain Obadiah Stane's story was told, and the tailend of the run features the debut of Iron Man's red & silver armor. Heck, O'Neil's Iron Man was the first I ever read of the series.

However, I've had a difficult time appreciating the series. Even now, it bothers me to see how O'Neil so dismissively cast out Michelinie & Layton's supporting cast (with the exception of Rhodey). Most of his new villains were losers like the Chessmen and the Termite. Although Stark was quickly demoted from the series' lead, he continued to appear in every issue and for a long time simply wallowed in his drunkeness, which got to be tiresome month in and month out. Heck, later on in the run there's a subplot about Bethany Cabe searching for her ex-husband which seems to go on forever and achieve nothing. I also feel that Luke McDonnell's art wasn't quite right for Iron Man -- too loose and curvy for a hero whose name implies rigidity and strength.

What tips the scales for me is Iron Man #182, one of the all-time finest Iron Man stories ever told; this is the issue in which Tony, now a homeless man, delivers a baby in a snowy alleyway; the mother dies and in trying to keep the baby alive, Tony finally reaches an epiphany and starts to regain his sobriety. I love so much of what follows from there -- Tony and Rhodey's frosty relationship, how Tony ultimately regains Rhodey's trust by being vulnerable, the final showdown with Obadiah Stane -- it's gold. The latter part of O'Neil's run is so good that I don't hesitate in calling him one of the greatest Iron Man writers of all-time.

Rest in peace, Mr. O'Neil.