DENNIS O’NEIL: Darkness in Four Colors

Dennis O'Neil

Dennis O'Neil was born in 1939, the same year that Batman first appeared in Detective Comics. It was thus perhaps fated that he would be so closely associated with the character, writing and editing the Dark Knight for more than 30 years. He's been an editor at Marvel and DC Comics. In addition to Batman, he's worked on Spider-Man, Daredevil, Iron Man, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern/Green Arrow, the Question, The Shadow and more. O'Neil has won every major award in the industry. His prose novels have been New York Times bestsellers. Denny lives in Rockland County with his wife, Marifran.

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3 Responses

  1. Rick Taylor says:

    I think the confusion started when the hero and the anti-hero started being considered the same thing. To me, they are two different things.

  2. Elayne Riggs says:

    The grim-and-gritty ship sailed long ago. I think it started happening more or less concurrent with Reagan's election, when the disparity between rich and poor started growing and the middle class begin shrinking. Perhaps without consciously realizing it, people started losing hope in heroes, both real and fictional, and those heroes started morphing into antiheroes.

  3. Rick Taylor says:

    I agree. To me there are the heroes and the anti-heroes. They are not both the same thing. Recently in comics and film, most writers have seen them as one. The hero has has 'bad things happen' and goes renegade (Hal Jordan, Anakin Skywalker) and buys into the 'dark side' and goes 'evil'. I never bought that. Which is why the last three Star Wars movies just fall down and shatter. I just don't buy the whole Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vadar thing. What happened to him just didn't seem enough to 'turn' him. It's too easy an excuse and just plain bad writing.